1
25
48
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2519/43774/LBraithwaiteW1293577v1.2.pdf
c570dde17e831e54b65a69c848a0f1db
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
Braithwaite, Walter
W Braithwaite
Description
An account of the resource
21 items. The collection concerns Walter Braithwaite (1293577 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, note book and photographs. He flew operations as a bomb aimer with 77 and 171 Squadrons. <br /><br />There is also a photograph <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2562">album</a> with 49 items. <br /><br />The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by M Braithwaite and catalogued by Benjamin Turner.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-10-22
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
Braithwaite, W
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
Walter Braithwaite’s Observer’s and Air Gunner’s flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Walter Braithwaite’s Observer’s and Air Gunner’s flying log book which includes a majority of his training, both stationed in Britain and Canada. Flights are recorded from the 2nd July 1942 to 13th July 1945. Walter began operations on 17th September 1943 after training. Braithwaite flew mainly as an air bomber. Braithwaite had numerous postings during training, but operationally, he served at RAF Elvington and RAF Full Sutton with 77 Squadron and at RAF North Creake with 171 Squadron. Aircraft included the Anson, Bolingbroke, Battle and Halifax. Braithwaite was involved in 43 operations (35 at night and 8 in the day). Operations took place over northern France, Normandy, Caen, Palaiseau, Saint-Lô ,Somme, Montreuil, Le Mans ,Amiens, Lille, Laon, Nieppe Forest. In Germany: Cologne, Essen, Bochum, Duisburg, Düren, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hannover, Jülich, Kassel,Krefeld, Neuruppin, Oberhausen,Ruhr, Schleswig-Holstein, Stuttgart, Wanne-Eickel. In Belgium: Brussels and Ottignies. His pilots on operations were Squadron Leader Procter, Flying Officer Hunter and Sergeant Mills. Furthermore, Walter Braithwaite did a number of ‘Gardening’ operations and later in 1945 took part in Special Duties and was “shot up by an intruder.” Braithwaite baled out and landed at USAAF Knettishall.
The last pages of the logbook contain four b/w photographs of Walter Braithwaite, airmen standing in front of an aircraft and a man playing basketball.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943-09-17
1943-09-18
1943-09-21
1943-10-02
1943-10-03
1943-10-04
1943-10-08
1943-10-09
1943-10-18
1943-10-22
1943-11-26
1943-12-20
1944-01-21
1944-01-27
1944-02-08
1944-02-11
1944-02-15
1944-02-19
1944-02-20
1944-02-21
1944-02-22
1944-02-24
1944-02-28
1944-03-01
1944-03-02
1944-03-06
1944-03-07
1944-03-08
1944-03-15
1944-03-15
1944-03-16
1944-03-23
1944-03-29
1944-03-30
1944-03-31
1944-04-09
1944-04-10
1944-04-20
1944-04-21
1944-05-12
1944-05-13
1944-05-24
1944-05-25
1944-06-05
1944-06-06
1944-06-11
1944-06-12
1944-06-16
1944-06-17
1944-06-18
1944-06-19
1944-06-24
1944-06-25
1944-06-27
1944-06-28
1944-07-01
1944-07-11
1944-07-12
1944-07-13
1944-07-17
1944-07-19
1944-07-23
1944-07-24
1944-07-25
1944-07-26
1944-07-28
1944-08-08
1944-08-09
1944-09-09
1944-09-12
1944-09-20
1944-09-21
1945-02-27
1945-02-28
1945-03-03
1945-04-08
1945-04-14
1945-04-15
1945-04-19
1945-04-20
1945-04-23
1945-04-24
1945-05-16
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Norfolk
England--Yorkshire
France
France--Normandy
France--Somme
France--Amiens
France--Caen
France--Palaiseau
France--Saint-Lô
France--Montreuil
France--Le Mans
France--Lille
France--Laon
France--Nieppe Forest
Belgium
Belgium--Brussels
Belgium--Ottignies
Germany
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Schleswig-Holstein
Germany--Neuruppin
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Düren (Cologne)
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Essen
Germany--Jülich
Germany--Kassel
Germany--Krefeld
Germany--Oberhausen (Düsseldorf)
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Canada
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Benjamin Turner
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LBraithwaiteW1293577v1
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.
10 OTU
1652 HCU
171 Squadron
21 OTU
24 OTU
77 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
bale out
Battle
Bolingbroke
bomb aimer
bombing
Bombing and Gunnery School
bombing of the Normandy coastal batteries (5/6 June 1944)
Cook’s tour
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 3
Halifax Mk 5
Heavy Conversion Unit
mine laying
navigator
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
RAF Elvington
RAF Full Sutton
RAF Honeybourne
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Moreton in the Marsh
RAF North Creake
RAF St Eval
tactical support for Normandy troops
training
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/185/3629/LSayerT591744v1.1.pdf
83e258c6faf6ed7815681549299d9b06
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
Sayer, Tom
Tom Sayer
T Sayer
Description
An account of the resource
13 items. An oral history interview with Flying Officer Thomas Sayer DFM (1922 - 2021, 591744 54901 Royal Air Force), two log books, service material, newspaper cuttings and photographs. After training as a pilot in the United States of America, Tom Sayer flew Halifaxes with 102 Squadron at RAF Pocklington. He was commissioned in 1944 and became an instructor.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Tom Sayer and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-17
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. 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
Sayer, T
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
Tom Sayer's Royal Canadian Air Force pilot's flying log book. Book one
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LSayerT591744v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1942
1943-02-22
1943-02-25
1943-02-28
1943-03-03
1943-03-06
1943-03-09
1943-03-12
1943-03-15
1943-04-30
1943-05-25
1943-05-26
1943-05-27
1943-05-28
1943-05-29
1943-05-30
1943-06-11
1943-06-12
1943-06-19
1943-06-20
1943-06-21
1943-06-22
1943-07-13
1943-07-14
1943-07-15
1943-07-16
1943-07-24
1943-07-25
1943-07-26
1943-07-30
1943-07-31
1943-08-09
1943-08-10
1943-08-11
1943-08-12
1943-08-13
1943-08-17
1943-08-18
1943-08-23
1943-08-24
1943-08-25
1943-08-27
1943-08-28
1943-08-30
1943-08-31
1943-09-01
1943-09-05
1943-09-06
1943-09-27
1943-09-28
1943-09-29
1943-09-30
1943-10-04
1943-10-05
1943-10-08
1943-10-09
1944-07-18
1944-07-19
1944-09-01
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
France
Germany
Great Britain
United States
Alabama
Florida
England--Gloucestershire
England--Yorkshire
Georgia--Atlanta
France--Le Creusot
France--Montbéliard
Germany--Aachen
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Essen
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Krefeld
Germany--Leverkusen
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Munich
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Peenemünde
Germany--Wuppertal
Italy--Milan
Germany--Düsseldorf
England--Cornwall (County)
Italy
Georgia
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Description
An account of the resource
Royal Canadian Air Force pilot's flying log book for Sergeant Tom Sayer from 28 July 1941 to 17 December 1944. Detailing training and operations flown with Coastal Command and Bomber Command. After training in the United States and Canada he served at RAF Linton on Ouse, RAF Marston Moor, RAF Pocklington. Aircraft flown were Stearman, Vultee, Harvard, Oxford, Blenheim, Whitley, Halifax, Anson, Horsa and Stirling. He carried out a total of 35 complete operations as a pilot, eight antisubmarine patrols with 10 OTU from RAF St Eval, one with 76 Squadron from RAF Marston Moor and 25 with 102 Squadron from RAF Pocklington on the following targets in France, Germany and Italy: Aachen, Berlin, Bochum, Dusseldorf, Essen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hannover, Krefeld, Le Creusot, Leverkusen, Mannheim, Milan, Montbeliard, Munich, Nuremberg, Peenemunde and Wuppertal. His first or second pilots on operations were Sergeant Carrie, Sergeant Hewlett, Sergeant Lewis, Pilot Officer Mann, Sergeant Green, Flying Officer Phillips, Sergeant Davis, Sergeant Henderson, Sergeant Thorpe, Sergeant Miller, Flight Sergeant Cummings and Flying Officer Kay. He then became an instructor and glider tug pilot. The log book is well annotated and contains printed training material. He completed one additional special operation 18 July 1944 with 620 Squadron from RAF Fairford ‘(SAS. 3 chutists, 24 containers 4 paniers [sic])’ and 1 September 1944 from RAF Ringway ‘parachute jump 600’ singly into lake.’
10 OTU
102 Squadron
1652 HCU
17 OTU
620 Squadron
76 Squadron
81 OTU
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
Blenheim
bombing
bombing of Hamburg (24-31 July 1943)
Bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943)
Flying Training School
Halifax
Halifax Mk 1
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 3
Halifax Mk 5
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Horsa
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Fairford
RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor
RAF Leconfield
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Ossington
RAF Pocklington
RAF Ringway
RAF Sleap
RAF St Eval
RAF Stanton Harcourt
RAF Tilstock
RAF Upwood
Stearman
Stirling
submarine
training
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22535/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-010.2.pdf
ceca0a67127007a05d837a67b8652f2f
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Kriegie March 2007
Description
An account of the resource
The news-sheet of the RAF ex-POW Association. This edition covers the award of an OBE to the Association's President, the Prisoners of War memorial at Hendon, Trooping the Colour, the annual parade of the Air Cadets, a visit to RAF Cranwell, Lunches, the Long March Re-enacted, the retirement of Robbie Stewart, an obituary for Frank Harper, requests for lost friends, Book reviews, and Recco report on ex-POWs
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The RAF ex-POW Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2007-03
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
16 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-010
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 Australian Air Force
United States Army Air Force
Royal Canadian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--London
England--Hampshire
England--High Wycombe
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Mannheim
Malta
Germany--Duisburg
Belgium--Antwerp
Belgium--Brussels
Germany--Luckenwalde
Poland--Żagań
North Africa
Libya--Banghāzī
Poland
Libya
Germany
Belgium
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Buckinghamshire
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.
102 Squadron
103 Squadron
138 Squadron
139 Squadron
150 Squadron
18 Squadron
207 Squadron
32 Squadron
50 Squadron
625 Squadron
7 Squadron
77 Squadron
78 Squadron
83 Squadron
9 Squadron
97 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Anson
Blenheim
bomb aimer
ditching
Dulag Luft
flight engineer
Halifax
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Hurricane
Ju 88
Lancaster
Me 109
memorial
mine laying
navigator
Pathfinders
pilot
prisoner of war
RAF Cosford
RAF Cranwell
RAF Halton
RAF Marham
RAF Northolt
RAF St Eval
RAF Wittering
Red Cross
Special Operations Executive
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 4
Stalag Luft 7
Stirling
the long march
Typhoon
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/501/22514/MCurnockRM1815605-171114-006.2.pdf
b093d3095f57641bbba0152dd44d736c
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Curnock, Richard
Richard Murdock Curnock
R M Curnock
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Curnock, RM
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-04-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Description
An account of the resource
92 items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Richard Curnock (1924, 1915605 Royal Air Force), his log book, letters, photographs and prisoner of war magazines. He flew operations with 425 Squadron before being shot down and becoming a prisoner of war.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Richard Curnock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Kriegie July 1999
Description
An account of the resource
The News-Sheet of the RAF ex-POW Association. This edition has news on the Annual General Meeting, visits to RAF Henlow and Stafford, Remembrance Sunday, Recco Report -stories about former POWs, a cartoon on Precision bombing, 1939, requests for donations to Albrighton's church bells, The Great Escape documentary, Obituaries, reunions of the East Anglian and North West and North Wales branches, the Caterpillar club, the Associations new web pages, RCAF Memorial at Trenton, Book reviews, the Ottawa reunion, new members and widow's lists and the Association's accounts.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
The RAF ex-POW Association
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1999-07
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
16 printed sheets
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MCurnockRM1815605-171114-006
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Stafford
England--Leeds
Australia
Victoria--Melbourne
New South Wales--Sydney
Belgium
Queensland--Gold Coast
England--Leicester
United States
Georgia--Andersonville
England--Northampton
England--Snettisham
England--Letchworth
Ontario--Trenton
Germany--Berlin
Ontario--Ottawa
North Africa
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
Québec--Montréal
Libya--Banghāzī
Victoria
France
Georgia
New South Wales
Queensland
Libya
Ontario
Québec
Canada
Germany
England--Norfolk
England--Northamptonshire
England--Yorkshire
England--Herefordshire
England--Leicestershire
England--Staffordshire
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.
149 Squadron
207 Squadron
460 Squadron
49 Squadron
58 Squadron
aircrew
bale out
bombing
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
Caterpillar Club
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
Dulag Luft
escaping
flight engineer
George Cross
Halifax
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Hurricane
Ju 88
Lancaster
Me 109
memorial
mine laying
navigator
prisoner of war
RAF Bridgnorth
RAF Cosford
RAF Halton
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF Pocklington
RAF Spilsby
RAF St Eval
RAF West Freugh
Spitfire
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stalin, Joseph (1878-1953)
Stirling
Whitley
wireless operator
wireless operator / air gunner
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1607/24375/PWatsonJB15010016.1.jpg
a4f0bf48fa987b1c3bd88d720afceee9
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
St Eval to Norfolk, Va
Description
An account of the resource
Six items on an album page.
Item 1 is a photo of a group of 12 airmen in front of a Shackleton, captioned 'C in C & Crew at Bermuda'.
Item 2 is a sketch map of the route from St Eval, Azores, Bermuda to Norfolk (Va).
Item 3 is a photo of a car park, captioned 'Car Park outside Barrack Block'.
Item 4 is a slip with 'Nav Sup 22352.28 J'.
Item 5 is a photo of an airman with one hand on a column, captioned 'Y.T. near Barrack Block'.
Item 6 is a postcard of Aeroporto das Lages in the Azores.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs, one b/w postcard, one sketch map and one printed slip on album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Map
Photograph
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWatsonJB15010016
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
United States Army Air Force
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Azores
Bermuda Islands
Great Britain
United States
Azores--Lajes
England--Cornwall (County)
Virginia--Norfolk
Virginia
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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.
aircrew
RAF St Eval
Shackleton
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1490/27529/BMitchellJEFMitchellJEFv2.2.pdf
79ab91df3c1f13c17172b651be8ac4d9
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Title
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Mitchell, Mitch
John Ernest Francis Mitchell
J E F Mitchell
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IBCC Digital Archive
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2016-02-27
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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Mitchell, JEF
Description
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59 items. Flight Lieutenant John Ernest Francis 'Mitch' Mitchell. Joined the RAF as a boy entrant in 1934 and trained as a wireless operator. Flew on Vickers Virginia, Handley Page Heyford and Whitley before the war. Completed an operational tour on Whitley 1939-41. After being rested he flew a second tour of operations as a wireless operator with 207 Squadron before retraining as a pilot post war. Collection contains his flying logbooks, memoires of his air force career and first operations, lists of his operations, correspondence and photographs.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by C A Wood and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
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Seeding the Storm
Squadron Leader John Ernest Francis Mitchell, DFC, wireless operator/air gunner, then pilot.
I had never known our headmaster at Eye Grammar to be taken aback. But when he asked at my leaving interview what I intended to do and I replied without hesitation, “I want to fly, sir”, it seemed to floor him. Possibly he had expected me to say something about Oxford or Cambridge , after all I’d been no slouch under his tutelage. And that might not have been so bad. What I had no intention of doing, though, was getting involved with the land.
The desire to fly, on the other hand was something that had become ever more compelling. What we tended to see in Norfolk were airships. But I knew all about the record breakers and their machines, but far more about the wartime aces of the RFC – the Royal Flying Corps – about McCudden, Mannock, Bishop, and to me, the greatest of them all, Albert Ball. And war fliers rather than civilian, for even in 1934 it was clear to those with eyes to see that another conflict was brewing.
I even knew the qualities needed in an aspirant war flier: ‘not exceptional, a good general education, a mechanical background advantageous, a fair working knowledge of maths and the application of simple formulae; more than keen to learn’. Apart from the ‘not exceptional’ – the very idea! – I more than fitted the bill.
The ensuing discussion went on for some time, but even then the Head was not happy.
“Think about it for a day or so, Mitchell”, he bade, “then come back and see me again”.
I dutifully did so. When, having satisfied himself that I was determined to pursue a flying career, he sent a recommendation to the local education committee
+”. As a consequence, just weeks later, a letter – railway warrant enclosed – invited me to present myself at Victor House, Kingsway, in London.
The interviewers surprised me! I had expected them to be knowledgeable about aeroplanes. Instead they seemed to inhabit some intellectual level, way above such things. Eventually, however, they descended from their Olympian heights to deliver their verdict.
At seventeen I was too young to become a pilot. Only here, as my face fell, they descended even further, to assure me that age was the only bar. Meanwhile, I could be taken on as either a wireless operator or an air gunner. Stifling my disappointment, I opted for the former and a short time later reported to the Electrical and Wireless School at RAF Cranwell, near Sleaford in Lincolnshire, where I was rigged out from cap to puttees, not forgetting boots that were initially reluctant to take the least shine, to begin my training.
It was clear that the government was among those with eyes to see, for some months before it had decided upon a vast expansion of the RAF. This meant the building of new airfields and the creation of new squadrons. It also meant a full-scale recruiting drive. And so it was that on 10 October 1934 I joined a Boy Entrant intake, doubled that year to nearly 600 for a nominal twelve months’ course.
We were not the only trainees accommodated in the double-storied blocks of Cranwell’s East Camp. There were also signals officers on short courses and air gunners who, after twelve weeks of instruction, were to take on an additional wireless-operating role. And there were Aircraft Apprentices, their entry too swelled to some 600.
The latter were boys like ourselves, from fifteen plus to eighteen who, also like us, wore the distinctive spoked-wheel arm badge. Only they had gained entry by competitive examination rather than education-committee recommendation, their three-year course qualifying them to maintain the RAF’s communication equipment – as opposed to operating it, as was our destiny.
And then, of course, just across the road, but infinitely remote from East Camp, was the gleaming new Royal Air force College where future leaders of the King’s Air Force studied in hallowed halls.
Our year-long course was packed full as we poured over wireless theory, disembowelled sets in workshops, achieved a mirror surface on those recalcitrant boots before strutting our stuff on the parade ground, and between times continued our studies in English, maths, general subjects and History of the Service –one Albert Ball’s machine guns was enshrined in a barrack- block hallway!
We tapped away at morse keys, strained into headsets, memorised the most frequently used of the Q and Z brevity codes – necessary with morse mssages being so protracted – and even got the feel of airborne operating in the Wireless School’s Wallaces, Wapitis and Valentias.
Off duty, sports were highly rated, and I was able to indulge myself to the full in those which interested me. With the compulsory boxing bout over I shunned anything further in that line, similarly soccer and rugby, but was to the fore in cricket and tennis. Where golf and croquet were concerned, however, I found myself pretty much a loner.
We finished the course on 12 July 1935, and, having found no difficulty in learning to send and receive morse at 20 words a minute and having been comfortable enough in my airborne sessions, I was able to replace the Boy-service wheel with the Signal’s arm badge, a hand clasping three , electrical flashes.
On passing out my posting was to No. 58 squadron at Worthy Down, near Winchester, a major bomber station which was to achieve singular distinction some years later when its Naval tenants, having re-christened it HMS Kestrel, the traitor William Joyce, Lord Haw Haw, announced that it had been bombed and sunk.
When I joined the squadron was operating Vickers Virginias, twin-engined biplane bombers which
even to my eager eyes appeared distinctly venerable. Nor was the wireless equipment any more youthful. This was the transmitter-receiver combination known as the T21083/R1082. Unfortunately it was not only unreliable but difficult to operate, even altering frequency requiring a coil change in both transmitter and receiver
One everyday problem was that to get any range at all we had to trail a wire aerial from beneath the aircraft, remembering to retract it before landing for fear of garrotting some groundling.
Except that the pilot would get engrossed in his own concerns and forget to advise when he was about to set down. Either that or, with the intercommunication system being so poor, his advisory wouldn’t get through, leaving me to bawl ‘ You’ve lost my bloody trailing aerial again’ even though my bloke was an officer.
Just the same, I counted myself luckier than a gunner colleague who felt a pattering on his helmet. On turning he got a face full of pee, his desperate pilot, far forward of him ,having stood on his seat to relieve himself into the air rush.
To a large extent then we were all learning, pilots and crew members alike. Although I doubt this showed when we flew our Virginias in tight formation over the packed stands of the Hendon Air Display. In reality, however, it became more the case a few months later when we began receiving the Handley Page Heyford, held to be very speedy, and the last word in design, with all-round protection that included a dustbin-like turret which could be lowered from the ventral –belly – position.
What the new aircraft brought with it, however, was a stepping-up of the flying task, with more and more long-range navigational exercises and bombing and air-firing by both day and night, the communications side of all these being my pigeon.
It quickly became evident too that , although trained as a dedicated wireless operator, I was still expected to fill in as a gunner: not the first evidence of the way the Service was being strained by the expansion.
For expansion necessarily meant a dilution of the experience embodied in both training school and squadron, with much of the training being left to the squadrons. And as these, in turn, lost their most capable men on posting –either to command or to bolster up new units – so their own experience level dropped. For example, new boy though I was, even I could tell that to have so many prangs – minor though most were – was not the way things should be. So many, indeed, that we never bothered logging them.
I was not in a position to know, of course, but not long after this the new chief of Bomber Command, the C-in-C, Air Chief Marshall Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt, would stir resentment in the very highest echelons by reporting upwards even more fundamental shortcomings.
Foremost among these was the lack of a definite policy regarding the crewing of aircraft, only pilots being considered full-time fliers. Observers and gunners, the other two categories of flier, were drawn from volunteer airmen, highly qualified tradesmen who, after a flying duty, would pocket their one or two shillings a day flying pay and return to their workshops. True, there were already moves afoot to employ full-time gunners, but like those we had trained alongside, these were then to double as wireless operators. Indeed, it was to be 1942 before gunnery and signals were to become completely divorced.
Blissfully ignorant then of the true state of things, what we all knew was that, just like the war, newer and longer-range aircraft were only just over the horizon. And with that in mind we did not complain when pushed yet harder.
What did not improve, and totally disrupted continuity, was the number of times they had us upping sticks: another thing the Commander was to comment upon! Our first uprooting came on 13 May 1936, when we relocated to Upper Heyford, near Bicester in Oxfordshire. At least, though, this heralded the arrival of the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, the monoplane bomber which, through Marks One to Five, was to see us well into the war. Even so, it has to be admitted that Whitley crews suffered a fair amount of ribbing because of the aircraft’s characteristic nose-down ‘sit’ which was especially pronounced at high speed. But by and large we were happy with it.
True to form, however, my current bloke, a flight lieutenant at that, cost me four teeth on our first landing as the undercarriage, only half-extended, folded beneath us. I suppose he was busy congratulating himself on having remembered that he now had retractable wheels – many pilots didn’t remember. But as the blood streamed from my mouth all he could offer was ‘I didn’t realise the selector had to go so far’.
From the wireless operator’s standpoint the major benefit brought by the Whitley was its state-of-the-art Marconi radio installation, the transmitter/receiver combination known as T1154/R1155, a vastly more flexible equipment than those we had struggled with before. It still incorporated a trailing aerial, but otherwise it was far more sophisticated than previous gear, although the gaily coloured knobs of its transmitter belied its complexity.
Certainly my dedicated training came into its own and ‘Send for Mitch’ became the cry of the day, so that, although still a newish-joiner, I found myself acting as what I would soon become, the squadron’s signals leader.
Upper Heyford, however, afforded us only a breathing space, for by the end of August 1936 we had moved again, this time to Driffield, near Bridlington, in Yorkshire. And in February 1937 we were off down south once more, to Boscombe Down in Wiltshire.
Here we did settle to some extent, although there was a bombing detachment at Aldergrove, in Northern Ireland, where we were permitted to drop live bombs into Loch Neagh, followed by a stint which took us to Pocklington to the east of York at West Freugh, near Stranraer, for gunnery. On that detachment, having done a gunnery course at Catfoss, near Hornsea, I was able to exercise my new found skills from all our gun positions, front, dorsal (top of fuselage) and the ventral dustbin of our Mark Threes, firing 300 rounds from each, largely at sea markers. Another gunnery detachment took us to Pocklington, to the east of York. But on 20 June 1939 we moved north again, this time to Linton-on-Ouse, in Yorkshire.
Such detachments gave us a flavour of what our war might be. But the results were not always that comforting. My gunnery scores were consistently deemed satisfactory. But we did hear that whereas the previous year’s averages for air firing had been an acceptable 20%, this year, with fewer experienced instructors in the schools and competent gunners spread more thinly on the squadrons, averages were running closer to 0%.
Equally concerning, we had noticed that even when we were permitted to drop live bombs – for there always seemed to be some rare wild bird or other which took precedence, or some influential landowner - a high proportion proved to be duds, or at best ineffectual. In lieu of the real thing, however, we dropped practice bombs, or trained on the camera obscura.
This was an optical training aid which had us fly towards a building – identified by a flare at night – with a large hole cut in its roof. A lens would then project the approaching aircraft’s image onto a table where instructors would assess the accuracy of the run-in. At his calculated release point the pilot would press the button, when either coloured smoke or a parachute flare by night would enable the wind effect to be calculated and the likely striking point ascertained.
Other noteworthy exercises we flew at this time involved dropping very powerful flares, the forerunner, as we were later to realise, of the Pathfinders’ target markers. Arguably even more significant was the detailing of a squadron aircraft to patrol near the BBC’s Daventry aerial, a perambulatory sortie that led directly to the development of radar.
We were great moaners, of course. But even where the unsettling moves were concerned we conceded that some were dictated by extra construction work, most of our roosts having come into being under the expansion programme. For essentially, while we noticed shortcomings, we saw it as our part to master the equipment we’d been given and leave others to worry about the rest.
Even so, though one might push shortcomings from the mind, the international situation could no longer be ignored. More particularly when, on 1 September 1939, Hitler’s forces attacked Poland which, to the surprise of many, turned out to be our ally. But nobody on the squadron was surprised when, next day, we were dispatched to Leconfield, near Yorkshire’s east coast and so that much nearer Hitler’s Reich.
At 1115 hours on 3 September 1939 we listened to Chamberlain’s fateful broadcast, and as darkness fell ours was among ten Whitleys laden with propaganda leaflets which got airborne for Germany, my log book recording that the ‘Anti Nazi War’ had begun.
On that first operational sortie I was flying with my regular pilot, Flying Officer ‘Peggy’ O’Neill, aboard a familiar Whitley, K8969. Even so it was the most surreal of experiences to be droning over a blacked-out Germany where millions of people were both ready, and willing, to kill us. Not only that, but to be doing so carrying nothing more lethal than propaganda leaflets. And leaflets intended to do what – destroy the resolve of a nation already cock-a-hoop over its Polish blitzkrieg?
We could not know that Churchill had only grudgingly conceded that leaflets just might raise Germany to a ‘higher morality’. Or that our future leader, ‘Bomber’ Harris, would declare that the only thing such ‘idiotic and childish pamphlets’ accomplished was to satisfy a requirement for toilet paper. Again, though, our job was to drop leaflets. So on we droned.
The route was to be wide-ranging across the Ruhr, specifically targeting both Essen and Dusseldorf before overflying the Maginot Line and turning for home. I suppose, at a certain level, we were on edge the whole seven and a half hours we were airborne, but training sustained us. Then, too, besides feeding our leaflets from the dustbin turret, we had set other tasks.
These included assessing the effectiveness of the German black-out. Was it broken by any well-lit areas, which would, therefore, be dummy towns? Additionally, were the airfields active? What road, rail or waterborne movements did we notice? Were searchlights evident? And was there any anti-aircraft fire? In fact, the latter question led to an animated on-board discussion. Until we concluded that what we had seen was some transient light flashing on low cloud. And just as well, for when we eventually got back to base this was a point they really grilled us on.
Once more, of course, we were not to know that Higher Authority had accepted that the RAF was not yet up to bombing by either day or night, any lingering doubt being dispelled by the losses early raiders sustained. That, as a consequence, our nocturnal paper delivery was now being pragmatically viewed as a means of building up an expertise in long-range navigation that might eventually allow Bomber Command to achieve most of its war aims through precision attacks by night.
Certainly, a little later, we all heard the broadcast Harris made, warning the Nazis of ‘a cloud on their horizon’… presently no bigger than a band’s width, which would break as a storm over Germany’. And hearing it we realised that we, of course, were that cloud, the seeders of that storm, the attendant fosterers of its fury.
Unfortunately, the Whitley soon proved unsuitable to the task. Early evidence of this being supplied on that first foray when, having crossed the Maginot Line, an engine faltered, committing us to a descent. Fortunately, although there was a pre-dawn mist, Peggy was able to put us down near Amiens. Nobody was hurt, but the aircraft was in a sad state. And so our first op finished in a French field, with a civil Dragon Rapide biplane being sent to pick us up and return us, initially to Harwell, near Oxford, from where we were recovered to Linton.
The Whitley’s engine trouble proved to be symptomatic, and although the squadron was tasked with leaflet drops for a few more days, there were so many problems, not least the dustbin turrets freezing in the lowered position – they could provide belly defence when needed but caused enormous drag whenever extended – that at the end of October 1939 we were reassigned to cover the English and Bristol Channels, and the Irish Sea, as convoy escorts.
This tasked diversion finished in early May 1940, when we moved back to Boscombe Down, by which time I had flown 12 patrols and a further 53 operational hours. More significantly, we had also received Mark Five Whitleys which, newly powered with the more dependable Rolls Royce Merlin Ten engines, finally enabled our crew to feature on the bombing battle order.
Ops then followed in quick succession. Initially we raided objectives in Norway, bombing Oslo aerodrome on 17 May 1940 and landing after a 9 hour 15 minute flight. Results, however, were said to be disappointing, the target having to be revisited the next night. After that we attacked Stavanger, a seven hour forty minute flight. And what fraught trips these were, often wave-hopping following a snaking fjord with cliffs disappearing into the darkness above. But again, training paid off, and we doggedly pressed on through to our objectives, although from the outset we had little faith in the outcome of the expeditionary venture itself.
Then too, the phoney war was over and events to the west were moving swiftly. So it was that we faced about, being tasked to bomb the Albert Canal bridges at Maastricht – a day after the debacle of the Fairey Battles, and the suicidal gaining of two VC’s – before passing on to raid a bridge at Eindhoven and then Schiphol aerodrome.
Following that we switched to the Ruhr, to Gelsenkirchen and Dusseldorf, returning after a night or two, this time pairing Gelsenkirchen with Duisberg, each sortie taking between six and seven hours. Only now, in an unsettling taste of things to come, I was obliged to record ‘Heavy ack-ack’.
At this juncture I should, perhaps, mention that the contemporary entries in my flying log book do not specify the actual targets, but only ‘Operations Norway’, ‘Operations France’ and ‘Operations Germany’. RAF crews, of course, are always restricted in this field, log books being official documents and scrutinised monthly by flight commanders. At that particular period, though, there was an extra dimension. For invasion was very much on the cards. ‘You don’t want some Gestapo thug reading that you bombed his Auntie Olga in Berlin’, we were told, ‘so just make it ‘Operations Germany’. Which we did.
Even so, an incorrigible rebel, I kept a separate record of those early ops, entering the actual targets later in the war.
As the Germans advanced, so we were reassigned to the interdiction bombing of roads and railways. On 21 May 1940, for example, we attacked the rail junction at Julich, dropping 4,000 pounds of bombs and coming away satisfied that we’d significantly disrupted communications, although achieving nothing like the destruction of a few years later.
We also returned the Ruhr, to Hamm, and again to Essen, dropping 10,000 and 14,000 pounds of bombs respectively.
After that, as the Battle of France intensified, we visited more and more French targets, bombing railways, roads and convoys at La Capelle, Amiens and finally Abbeville. The situation was often fluid and on at least one occasion I received a timely recall signal which stopped us bombing our own troops.
And on 11 June 1940 we did a special flight – purpose unspecified – to Guernsey, spending the night there before returning to Linton. To learn two days later that the decision had been made to give up the Channel Islands without a fight!
France itself fell on 26 June 1940, after which we switched to German targets once again. Notably a seven hour op to the Kiel Canal when I flew with a different crew, piloted by a Flight Lieutenant Thompson, on a sortie which moved me enough to declare in my log book, ‘Hell’ova Night’.
An outing that did not receive a similar accolade – though why I cannot recall – was the next one I flew with Peggy O’Neill. We successfully raided a factory in Turin, but on returning over the Alps flew into rougher weather than any of us could have imagined. There was so much snow, ice and turbulence that the engines started playing up, one temporarily cutting out altogether. Our co-pilot wanted to abandon, but Peggy gamely soldiered on, somehow retaining control of the machine and eventually winning clear. But what a trip that was! Possibly too traumatic for me to face entering anything but ‘Operations Italy’.
By now ops had become a way of life. With fear as its natural concomitant, for cringe down though we must as flak and bullets tore through the airframe, fear had to be lived with. Indeed, we received a master class on the subject from one particularly persistent fighter. Pass after pass he made, riddling us on each, with Peggy desperately sacrificing height for any speed we could muster. ‘He’s determined to get us’, he gritted, as the wavetops prevented further descent. Only abruptly the attacks stopped. For a while, communally holding our breath, we watched the fighter holding off. Then, finally, concluding that he had run out of ammunition, we scurried for home, well aware that it had been our narrowest squeak yet!
Such things were wearing. But they had to be borne. For back then there were no set tours of operations. The squadron bosses, though, knew the score. And on 1 July 1941 I was posted away, off ops, to No. 19 Operational Training Unit, at Kinloss, near Inverness.
Since January 1940 all gunners had become full-time aircrew and, in theory at least, sergeants, with the ‘AG’ beret being introduced in the December. So I had become a reluctant wireless operator/air gunner, first a sergeant and then a flight sergeant. The instant aircrew senior-NCO, understandably enough, was not that popular with the regulars. ‘You got promoted pretty swiftly, didn’t you?’ became a common jibe in the sergeant’s mess. But you couldn’t win, for when I received an overnight commission it was to be greeted in the officers’ mess with ‘And where did you spring from?’ As for the commissioning, naturally I’d always known that I was upper-crust material, even so I was disturbed at being summoned by my commanding Officer – not on this occasion, the Head, but the feeling could be similar when you put out as many little blacks as I habitually did. This time the interview was not protracted, just friendly. But still resulted in my travelling to London, only this time to Messrs Gieves and Hawkes of Savile Row, to be fitted for a new and shiny rig. ‘And your bank account, sir? ’ ‘Barclays , has been for years’ An NCO with a bank account! Upper crust, you see! Only there was still that pilot’s course…
At Kinloss the task was to train Whitley crews for No.6 Group using both the main airfield and its satellite at Forres – Balnageith. I was to spend just four months here, and not uneventful months at that, for training had its share of excitement, not least on 3 September 1941 when I was in another crash, this one significant enough to be logged!
In mid-November 1941, however, I was sent to Enniskillen, in Northern Ireland, to deputise for the established station commander. The area was a political hotbed – I had to tote a revolver! – so although the RAF had flying facilities at both Aldergrove and Killadeas and both a maintenance and a group headquarters at St Angelo, the predominant presence was army. As it was, my caretaker duties were not particularly onerous, the mess I frequented at Killadeas was sumptuous and I got myself happily involved with some sailing craft I found on Loch Erne.
This detachment gave me a break from the routine of training, but it was to set a pattern I was to find increasingly irksome as the years went by. I was assured, of course, that each stores check or unit inquiry befitted me just that little bit more for higher command. As it did. So why did I invariably feel ‘joe’d’?
Certainly I had periodically applied to return to ops, my hopes soaring whenever signals arrived requesting aircrew for ‘special duties’. In August 1942 these were for the proposed Pathfinder Force and in early 1943 for what we were eventually to discover was to be No.617 Squadron. However, all such applications were blocked by my immediate boss. ‘They want the best’, he would say. ‘But I do too, Mitch, so you stay’.
Eventually, however, an Air Ministry posting arrived for me and on 20 May 1943 – with every front page screaming ‘Dambusters!’ – I was posted to No. 207 Squadron.
I found the squadron at Langar, near Nottingham, still relieved to be rid of their Avro Manchesters – a disastrous machine – and happily settling with that queen of the skies, the Lancaster.
As signals leader I might have chosen my own captain, but having accepted the first to be programmed with me, Flight Lieutenant Brandon-Tye, I never had cause to regret it. And so, after just four hours of acclimatisation flights, I began my second tour of ops.
Initially we concentrated on the Ruhr, so that in short order I became re-acquainted with Dusseldorf and Bochum, although this time around in the Lancaster, taking about an hour less over such sorties, just over 5 hours. Yet how adversely so much else had changed!
Certainly the defences had really got the hang of things now, with droves of searchlights and seemingly impenetrable box barrages on every run up. Not to mention the radar-guided predicted flak! As for the night-fighters..!
Not that I was surprised – shocked, I’ll allow, but not surprised! – for two years back we’d prowled the night sky alone, whereas now we offered the defences score upon score of targets.
Shortly afterwards, on 20 June 1943, we bombed an industrial objective at Friedrichshafen, on Lake Constance, after which we overflew brilliantly lit Switzerland – a wonderful, fairytale sight! – to set down after nearly ten hours at Blida, on the northern coast of Algeria. And to show no favour to any Axis power, next day we bombed La Spezia, the Italian naval base, the homeward trip taking just nine hours and ten minutes.
After that, though, it was Happy Valley again – the Ruhr – and to Gelsenkitchen, a place I had last visited in May 1940, over two years before, and on successive nights. So perhaps they bore a grudge. For as we ran in we were well and truly caught by flak and then shot up by a whole procession of night-fighters.
Not nice! But the rear gunner, a commissioned lad from another crew, proved to be a good man to have along. As each fighter came in I was able to use the Monica rearward-looking radar to warn him, so that he was not only able to beat them off but, I fancy, to destroy at least one. Just the same, we were so badly shot up that we had to put down in Coltishall.
Though used to dealing with fighter aircraft, Coltishall’s groundcrew chaps pulled their fingers out – when didn’t they! – and patched us up, enabling us to return to Langar later that day. Our Lancaster, ED 627, had certainly done us proud. As for the rear gunner, he received a Distinguished Flying Cross for this spirited defence and would later, flying with his own crew, receive a bar to it for a similar exploit.
There was no such kudos for me, but I was well content with the way Monica had served us. Only I was already aware of whispers and a few months later, when it was actually proven that the Germans were indeed using its pulses to both locate and then home on us, it was hurriedly withdrawn from service.
Back at Langar, however, with ED627 spick and span once more, we were off a-raiding over Munchengladbach. And two nights later it was the Big B, my first trip to Berlin! 7 hours and 35 minutes simply packed with interest. And this would not be my last visit, some taking a whole hour longer than others and so packed with even more interest.
This initial Berlin outing, though, was our swan song from Langar, for in October 1943 we moved to newly-opened Spilsby, near Skegness, in Lincolnshire.
I was back over Berlin again, though, in the New Year, on 15 February 1944, and penetrating even further two nights later when we raided Leipzig, landing back at Spilsby eight hours later.
At this point, however, our tasking was changed and from April 1944 – shades of May 1940! – we were set to pounding communications networks. On 10 April this meant a wide-ranging series of strikes on Tours and Bourges in central France, and on Antwerp. Then, within the next few days, it was St-Valery-on-Caux, followed the next night by Paris.
It was clear to everyone that things were hotting up. Only at this point the boss handed me a signal. I knew what it was. But there was nothing to be said. For by now I had flown 830 hours by day and 439 by night, the majority of the latter being operational. I had also completed 66 ops – over two tours’ worth – and counting OUT callouts, 15 operational maritime patrols. Further, on 18 January 1944, I had been gazetted with the Distinguished Flying Cross. But alongside all this
I had also been part of a squadron which, by the war’s end, would have lost 154 of its crews; at the very least 1,232 men.
Even so I would love to have flown on D-Day, but it was not to be, and somewhat sadly shelving my flying log book for a while, I dutifully departed, on posting, to No. 1661 Heavy Conversion Unit at Winthorpe, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire.
Neither of my operational tours had been all work and unremitting dicing with death, of course. There had been periodic leaves. And in off-duty times there had been favourite pubs, the Flying Horse and the Black Boy in Nottingham coming to mind. Then, too, there had been sport. Lashings of it. Except that wheneve called upon to fill a soccer or rugger slot I’d unfailingly responded ‘Not likely, they’re too bloody dangerous’.
Only suddenly, it was all over. And between June and August 1945 I was able to fly on three ‘Cook’s Tours’, taking in, among other old haunts, Hamm, Duisberg, Wesel, Munster and Dusseldorf. It was not a case of gloating. On the other hand, both outbound and inbound we would overfly so many of our own towns blitzed unmercifully in those dark days when the Germans were riding high, when they had derided our leaflets and refused to adopt Churchill’s ‘higher morality’!
Though the Service was shedding personnel wholesale, my continuance seemed to be taken as read, and on 16 December 1946, after a spell with No.1363 Heavy Conversion Unit at North Luffenham, near Oakham in Rutland, I moved on to No 91 Group Headquarters as a staff signals officer.
The headquarters was situated at Morton Hall – nowadays a women’s prison - very close to RAF Swinderby, in Lincolnshire, my two-year stay giving me a deeper appreciation of the way the Service was run. But a headquarters was ideal too for getting things done, and as my tenure drew to a close, I resurrected the matter of my pilot’s course. I was certainly not too young any more, not after 14 years and a world war. So on 9 august 1948 I gleefully reported as a pupil pilot to No.6 Flying Training School at Ternhill, near Market Drayton, Shropshire.
I suppose maturity – in 1946 I’d met and married Joan – and a wealth of experience, allowed me to approach pilot training without fear of failure. And it clearly paid off. Starting on the delightful Tiger Moth biplane I completed my course on the American Harvard, an excellent advanced trainer, being very demanding and only too ready to take control.
And so, having begun my aircrew career with a wireless-operator’s arm flash, reluctantly enough supplementing this in late 1939 with an air gunner’s ‘AG’ brevet; readily swapped in its turn, in January 1944, for a dedicated signaller’s ‘S’ brevet; my chest finally bore the full wings so proudly worn in those old photographs by Bishop, Madden, McCudden and Ball!
The operational phase of my pilot training saw me back on Lancasters, this time at RAF St. Mawgan, Coastal Command’s training station near Newquay in Cornwall, where I was also checked out on the Avro Shackleton. This was a spectacular aeroplane – a great, grey-painted roaring machine outside, but with an interior hushed by jet-black drapes – which was eventually able to patrol for up to 21 hours. In every respect a far cry from the Virginia and Whitley! But aeroplanes are aeroplanes are aeroplanes. And for all that I held an above-average rating it was not that long before I was clambering out of a Shackleton whose tailwheel had collapsed after landing!
But aviation has a multitude of tricks. So that, on joining my first maritime unit, No. 2 Squadron at Aldergrove it was to find that, alongside the ~Shackleton, they were operating the Handley Page Hastings, essentially a transport and notoriously ungainly. As a new joiner I was to start off on these as a second pilot, which, at that time, meant raising and lowering the flaps – and watching. Once I had built up enough hours on type, only then would I be checked out on landing the beast. And I say advisedly, for I had watched pilots on their first landings skidding sideways, shredding tyres and even sliding off the runway.
As it was, my first Hastings sortie involved flying at 18,000 feet for some considerable time. Halfway through, however, my captain fell ill and passed out. And suddenly there were eyes on me from every corner. In the end, though, it worked out well, even to landing away to expedite medical aid, with my squadron commander recommending me for an Air Force Cross, although having to settle for a green endorsement.
Our bread-and-butter task at both St Mawgan and Aldergrove was to exhaustively patrol the Atlantic. But in July 1954, after a spell back at St Mawgan – by then the School of Maritime Reconnaissance – and six months on No. 220 squadron at nearby St Eval - I was posted overseas to No. 224 Squadron in Gibraltar. And what a tour it was! No longer just the Atlantic, but flights ranging through Ceylon, India, Iraq, Libya and both Madeira and the Azores. Except that in October 1957 it was back to freezing-cold Britain - with a decision to be made!
It was clear that the RAF had an interest in me and, indeed, even as I pursued my internal debate they sent me to Worksop, to No. 4 Flying Training School, for a jet familiarisation course. Twenty hours on the single-engined, twin-boomed Vampire. What a mind-blowing experience from the simplistic engine control to the swiftness – and unbelievable smoothness – of jet flight. Flight, moreover, with never, ever a mag drop!
A great interlude! But still my problem nagged. I was well aware that I had suffered a sea change. Possibly from seeing so much of it. For although further advancement in the RAF and even a new career in Civil Aviation offered, neither attracted.
In part, it was the ground jobs, the rationale for which remained the same; indeed, more so since I had become a squadron leader. For as I was a senior officer the RAF was primarily interested in my command and administrative abilities, not my flying skills. Yet being hived off to an admin job had always made me feel put upon.
Of far greater moment, though, Joan and I had never had the opportunity of setting up a real home together - and that really weighted. But – to give up flying…..?
Then again, since 1934 I had flown 1,400 hours as crew, a good proportion of it on wartime operations, and 1,600 hours as a pilot, almost all on operational patrols. Only….wasn’t I true that for some time now the zest had gone?
And that, when it finally found expression, I recognized as the crux. Accordingly, on 4 November 1957, I submitted my resignation.
Getting used to civilian life took some time. Eventually, however, unable to find a niche at any level I found acceptable, I sought advice from a golfing acquaintance who persuaded me to try my hand at vehicle sales. Initially this meant my matching commercial and agricultural vehicles to the needs of prospective customers. And it all went very well, so that within a matter of months I had developed a lucrative, countrywide chain of client contacts. Only to remain fundamentally unsettled. Until I confessed to my boss that I didn’t like my image as a flash-Harry car salesman. He was enormously amused. Yet puzzled also.
‘But ‘ he reasoned, ‘everything hinges on the company sales director.’
Company Sales Director! Ah! Suddenly all doubt vanished. Indeed, I rather think my golf improved too!
Above all, I finally had a real family home. - essentially for the first time since meeting Joan, back in Nottingham in 1946 (Joan Ball, as she had been then). Her father was Cyril Ball, a former RFC-cum-RAF pilot and brother of my boyhood hero, Albert Ball, VC.
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
Seeding the Storm
Description
An account of the resource
Account of John Mitchell's career in the Royal Air Force from Oct 1934 until November 1957. Writes of his early ambitions to fly, and joining the RAF as a wireless operator. Describes his training and early postings to Worthy Down on Vickers Virginia. Mentions difficulties of using early wireless sets and of lack of policy on aircraft crewing. Continues with describing his time on Whitley, having to qualify as an air gunner and comments on his first tour of operation in bomber command at the beginning of the war. Mentions flying from several bases and various targets up until the fall of France. Writes of career after completing his first tour in November 1941. He was posted as signals leader for his second tour on Lancaster and he goes on to describe operations from June 1943. Mentions doing three post war cook's tours and goes on to describe his career after the war when he retrained as a pilot.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
J E F Mitchel
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Sixteen page printed document with tree b/w photographs
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
BMitchellJEFMitchellJEFv2
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Hampshire
England--Oxfordshire
England--Yorkshire
Scotland--Dumfries and Galloway
England--Hampshire
England--Winchester
England--Wiltshire
Norway
Norway--Oslo
Germany
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Jülich
Germany--Essen
France
France--La Capelle-en-Thiérache
France--Amiens
France--Abbeville
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Guernsey
Italy
Scotland--Moray
Northern Ireland--Enniskillen
England--Nottingham
Germany--Friedrichshafen
Germany--Berlin
England--Rutland
Germany--Münster in Westfalen
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
England--Shropshire
Gibraltar
Italy--Turin
Germany--Hamm (North Rhine-Westphalia)
England--Cornwall (County)
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Channel Islands
Great Britain
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Nottinghamshire
Northern Ireland--Antrim (County)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1934-10-10
1935-07-12
1936-05-13
1939-09-03
1940-05-17
1940-05-21
1940-06-26
1940-06-11
1941-07-01
1943-05-20
1943-06-20
1944-01-18
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
19 OTU
207 Squadron
220 Squadron
58 Squadron
6 Group
air gunner
aircrew
animal
anti-aircraft fire
Cook’s tour
Distinguished Flying Cross
fear
Harvard
Lancaster
Morse-keyed wireless telegraphy
Operational Training Unit
pilot
promotion
RAF Boscombe Down
RAF Driffield
RAF Kinloss
RAF Langar
RAF Morton Hall
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Pocklington
RAF Spilsby
RAF St Eval
RAF St Mawgan
RAF Ternhill
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF West Freugh
RAF Winthorpe
RAF Worthy Down
Shackleton
sport
Tiger Moth
training
Whitley
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1117/20446/LSearleROJ615463v1.1.pdf
9b2aaed488dc44ce495e8353b020cdd8
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
Searle, Rex
Rex Ormond John Searle
R O J Searle
Description
An account of the resource
62 items. Two oral history interviewws with Rex Searle (b. 1919, 615463 Royal air Force) He served as ground crew before becoming a flight engineer and flying operations with 432 Squadron. after the war he served with Coastal and Transport Commands. The collection contains his log book, decorations, photographs and two albums.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Rex Searle 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
2017-07-25
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Searle, ROJ
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
Rex Searle's flying log book.
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.
Description
An account of the resource
Flying log book for R O J Searle, Flight Engineer, covering the period from 25 June 1944 to13 July 1945 and from 17 August 1951 to 14 September 1964. Detailing his training as a flight engineer and a full tour of operations flown with Bomber Command from 1944 to 1945 followed post-war by further air gunner training in 1951 and continuing service as an air engineer with Coastal Command and then Transport Command. Served with 16, 24(c), 28, 30, 34, 42, 47, 120, 203, 206, 210, 240 and 432 Squadrons. He served at RAF St Athan, RAF Wombleton, RAF East Moor, RAF St Eval, RAF Leconfield, RAF Kinloss, RAF St Mawgan, RAF Dishforth, RAF Abingdon, RAF Colerne, RAF Changi and RAF Seletar. Aircraft flown in were Halifax, Lancaster, Lincoln, Shackleton, Hastings, Anson, Constellation, Beverley and Hercules. He completed a tour of 33 operations (16 day, 17 night) on the following targets in France, Germany and the Netherlands: Bochum, Böhlen, Bonn, Castrop Rauxel, Chemnitz, Cologne, Dortmund, Duisberg, Dusseldorf, Emden, Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Grevenbroich, Homberg, Le Havre, Magdeburg, Mannheim, Meinz, Oberhausen, Osnabrück, Saarbrucken, Stuttgart, Trois Dorf, Volkel, Wanne-Eickel, and Wilhelmshaven. His pilot on operations was Flying Officer Potter. Three other operations ended early and were not counted in his tour. The tour completion certificate states a total of 121 points and 200.02 hours. Several of his air engineer proficiency assessments note him as being “above average”. Also includes numerous items which have been pasted in, including certificates, notes and photographs of family, crewmates and aircraft.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
David Leitch
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
LSearleROJ615463v1
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. Transport Command
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Germany
Great Britain
Netherlands
Singapore
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Oxfordshire
England--Wiltshire
England--Yorkshire
France--Le Havre
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Bonn
Germany--Castrop-Rauxel
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Essen
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Grevenbroich
Germany--Homberg (Kassel)
Germany--Leipzig Region
Germany--Magdeburg
Germany--Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Germany--Oberhausen (Düsseldorf)
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Saarbrücken
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Troisdorf
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Wilhelmshaven
Netherlands--North Brabant
Scotland--Kinloss
Wales--Glamorgan
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
1945
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1964
1944-09-03
1944-09-06
1944-09-09
1944-09-10
1944-09-11
1944-09-12
1944-09-13
1944-10-06
1944-10-09
1944-10-12
1944-10-14
1944-10-18
1944-10-21
1944-10-23
1944-10-26
1944-10-28
1944-11-01
1944-11-02
1944-11-04
1944-11-06
1944-11-21
1945-01-13
1945-01-14
1945-01-16
1945-01-17
1945-01-28
1945-01-29
1945-02-01
1945-02-02
1945-02-03
1945-02-04
1945-02-05
1945-02-13
1945-02-14
1945-02-15
1945-02-17
1945-02-27
120 Squadron
1666 HCU
206 Squadron
210 Squadron
42 Squadron
432 Squadron
47 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Anson
bombing
flight engineer
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 3
Halifax Mk 7
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 3
Lincoln
RAF Abingdon
RAF Colerne
RAF Dishforth
RAF East Moor
RAF Kinloss
RAF Leconfield
RAF St Athan
RAF St Eval
RAF St Mawgan
RAF Wombleton
Shackleton
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1526/39256/AMilesR20090123-0001.2.mp3
1d8c370e9b4cf517211f5c27f949c29f
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1526/39256/AMilesR20090123-0002.1.mp3
b063876f20ac9377b3a2f0c619cf62ed
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1526/39256/AMilesR20090123-0003.2.mp3
4f005c90484e2df6e0ae7c631e86fe80
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
Miles, Reg
Reginald J Miles
R J Miles
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
2016-07-26
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Miles, RJ
Description
An account of the resource
102 items. The collection concerns Reg Miles (1923 - 2022) and contains his audio memoir, log book, photographs and documents. He flew 36 operations with 432 and 420 Squadrons.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by R Miles and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Reg Miles Audio Memoir
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2009-01-23
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
06:46:46
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending OH transcription
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
AMilesR20090123
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Miles, R
Description
An account of the resource
Reg Miles's memoir in three parts. Part one Reg describes his childhood in St Peter’s on the Isle of Thanet, his family, school, lack of money, and holiday jobs. Reg joined the Royal Air Force as an apprentice, known as a ‘Brat’, in January 1939. He went to RAF Halton No 1 School of Technical Training, which had four wings with a thousand boys. After a medical examination, he was issued with a uniform and became a Fitter 2 (engines), looking after pieces of airframe. They were taught square bashing and he was promoted to leading apprentice. Reg recounts the antics of one Johnny Shaw who was expelled out of the Air Force. They did work in the extensive workshops, spending a few months learning how to use hand tools. Each one had a flight in a Tiger Moth. Reg then worked on engines (Merlins, Pegasus) then on aircraft. With the onset of war, his study was compressed and took his examinations after two rather than three years, becoming an Aircraftman 1st Class. Reg was posted as the sole apprentice to 34 Maintenance Unit in RAF Shawbury, which recovered crashed aircraft. His first job was removing instruments from a Spitfire. He talks of the importance of packing Masters onto sleepers and sandbags during transport, otherwise the centre section would hit the walls of humpback bridges. He was also tasked to remove burnt Ansons from a hangar. Part two Reg narrates how a Coles Crane sank in the mud when they tried to retrieve a Spitfire from a railway embankment. On another occasion, an aircraft was stuck in the roof of a village pub. They also had to recover an aircraft from a Welsh hilltop. He missed Christmas one year when their low loader was obstructed near the village pub. One plane they had to extricate had mistaken a chicken farm for a field and caused damage to the farm. They once had to close the tunnel in Liverpool to tow an aircraft. Reg recounts some incidents in which people lost their lives. Reg was transferred to 67 Maintenance Unit in Taunton. He details how they had to chop off part of a B-17 to get it back to the depot. Reg also performed the role of armourer for a time. He was sent to St. Eval in Cornwall where his first job was a Spitfire which had landed on a dry-stone wall. The Germans blew up the hangar where a recently restored Hurricane was located. Reg sought an overseas posting and sailed to South Africa on the SS Mooltan. He portrays life on board ship before he arrived in Bloemfontein at 27 Air School Bloemspruit. Reg carried out daily engine inspections of the Masters aircraft. They also had to make airworthy 104 Harvards, which were in a poor condition. Reg expresses his disquiet over the treatment of the African labourers. Part three Reg volunteered for aircrew, sailing back with the Mauretania and was posted to RAF Lympne. He was then posted to RAF St Athan for flight engineer training. He received instruction on Lancasters before going to a Heavy Conversion Unit. He joined a Canadian crew but with Halifax aircraft and Merlin engines. He was posted to a squadron with Les Lauzon (pilot) and carried out about six operations. He badly injured his hand removing an elevator lock so did not fly when his crew went missing. Reg subsequently found out that the aircraft was shot down, but they escaped and were taken as prisoners of war. Reg then joined 420 Squadron at RAF Tholthorpe and Jimmy Tease (pilot). His job was to stand next to the pilot and operate controls. He saw aircraft shot down, including a B-17 and witnessed V2s. Reg recounts some of the incidents they had with their aircraft and how they were dealt with. He gives a description of the FIDO aerodromes. Reg describes how the aircraft was struck by lightning in one operation. Reg received his commission and went to RAF Nutts Corner in Northern Ireland, a Transport Command station where he trained to fly Yorks. His final posting was to 242 Squadron at RAF Stoney Cross. Reg discusses his post-RAF life.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sally Coulter
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland--Antrim (County)
England--Broadstairs
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Kent
England--Liverpool
England--Merseyside
England--Shropshire
South Africa
South Africa--Bloemfontein
242 Squadron
420 Squadron
Anson
B-17
FIDO
Halifax
hangar
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hurricane
Lancaster
RAF Halton
RAF Lympne
RAF Nutts Corner
RAF St Eval
RAF Stoney Cross
RAF Tholthorpe
Spitfire
Tiger Moth
training
V-2
V-weapon
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/976/16154/LManningR52870v1.1.pdf
247348241574f6d9c13acee159d9d84f
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
Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Log Book
Description
An account of the resource
The Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Log Book covering the period 15 June 1941 to the 16 August 1963. Manning qualified first as an Air Gunner on the 4 July 1941 and second as a flight engineer on the 1 September 1941. He was commissioned on the 4 July 1943 as a Pilot Officer and promoted to acting Flight Lieutenant in April 1944, and again to acting Squadron Leader in March 1946. He reverted to Flight Lieutenant in April 1947 but was made substantive Squadron Leader in April 1956 in the Engineering Branch. He retired 16 August 1963. There are very few entries relating to his time as a Gunner. Most entries are as Engineer.
He was stationed at RAF Stormy Down; RAF Middleton St George; RAF Linton-on-Ouse; RAF Leeming, RAF Aqir, RAF Fayid, RAF Marston Moor, RAF Snaith, RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor, RAF Cottesmore, RAF Finingley, RAF Scampton, RAF Binbrook, RAF Henlow, RAF Seletar, RAF LLandow, RAF Swaton Morley, and RAF Medmenham. He flew in the following types manly as Engineer ; Arvo Tutor, Armstrong Whitworth Ensign, Handley Page Hannibal, Hawker Hart, Handley Page Heyford, Douglas DC 4 and 5, Handley Page Harrow, Handley Page Halifax, Miles Magister, Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, Avro Lancaster, Fairey Battle, Airspeed Oxford, de Havilland Mosquito, Avro Lincoln, Handley Page Hastings, Gloster Meteor, Avro Anson, Vickers Valletta, Vickers Wellington, Percival Prentice, Bristol Britannia and Handley Page Victor. He flew with 10 Sqaudron, 462 Squadron, 51 Squadron, and 614 Squadron. He was awarded the DFC. Pilots he flew with were Richards, Sobinski, Lewin, Turnbull, Hacking, Godfrey, Trip, Peterson, Lloyd, Bell, O’Driscoll, Allen, Declerk, Gribben, Gibsons, Wyatt, Clarke, Snow, Hardy, Haydon, McDonald, Murray, Jones, Dennis, Fisher, Connolly, Cheshire, Woolnough, Cat, McIntosh, Pope, Alcock, Smythe, Williams, Freeman, McKnight, Gillchrist, Moore, Faulkner, Carr, Espie, Brown, Price, Wiltshire, Spence, Symmons, Kirk, King, Burgess, Wilson, Pugh, Johnson, Reynolds, Roberts, Ringer, Minnis, Lowe, Everett, Renshaw-Dibb, Mathers, Sullings, Flower, Jarvis, Chopping, Widmer, Yates, Day, Spires, Huggins, Watts, Haycock, Owens, Liversidge, George , Banfield, Hunt, Porter, Goodman, Ayres, Shannon, Laytham, Lord, Rhys and Blundy,
War time operations were to Sharnhorst and Gneisenau, Cologne, St Nazaire, Kiel, Paris, Aysen Fjord, Terpitz, Trondheim, Hamburg, Mannheim, Essen, Osnabruck, Tobruk, Heraklion, Maleme, Lens, Colline Beaumont, Bourg-Leopold, Trappes, Mont-Fleury, Abbeville, Nucourt, Le Harve, Boulogne. Post war destinations were to RAF Netheravon, RAF Hemswell, RAF Scampton, RAF Lindholm, RAF Marnham, RAF St Eval, RAF Aldergrove, RAF Wyton, RAF Stradishall, RAF Binbrook, RAF Bagington, RAF Waddington, RAF Topcliffe, RAF Upwood, Kai Tak, Changi, RAF Pembrey, RAF Llandow, RAF Filton, and RAF Bruggen.
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
Manning, Reg
Reginald Manning
R Manning
Description
An account of the resource
Six items, concerning Pilot Officer Reg Manning DFC (567647 Royal air Force) including his flying log book and photographs. He served as an air gunner and flight engineer with 10 Squadron, 462 Squadron, 51 Squadron, and 614 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Reg Manning.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-06-28
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
Manning, R
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
Reg Manning's observer's and air gunner's flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
The Observer’s and Air Gunner’s Log Book covering the period 15 June 1941 to the 16 August 1963. Manning qualified first as an Air Gunner on the 4 July 1941 and second as a flight engineer on the 1 September 1941. He was commissioned on the 4 July 1943 as a Pilot Officer and promoted to acting Flight Lieutenant in April 1944, and again to acting Squadron Leader in March 1946. He reverted to Flight Lieutenant in April 1947 but was made substantive Squadron Leader in April 1956 in the Engineering Branch. He retired 16 August 1963. There are very few entries relating to his time as a Gunner. Most entries are as Engineer. He was stationed at RAF Stormy Down; RAF Middleton St George; RAF Linton-on-Ouse, RAF Leeming, RAF Aqir, RAF Fayid, RAF Marston Moor, RAF Snaith, RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor, RAF Cottesmore, RAF Finningley, RAF Scampton, RAF Binbrook, RAF Henlow, RAF Seletar, RAF LLandow, RAF Swanton Morley, and RAF Medmenham. He flew in the following types manly as Engineer; Avro Tutor, Armstrong Whitworth Ensign, Handley Page Hannibal, Hawker Hart, Handley Page Heyford, Douglas DC 4 and 5, Handley Page Harrow, Handley Page Halifax, Miles Magister, Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, Avro Lancaster, Fairey Battle, Airspeed Oxford, de Havilland Mosquito, Avro Lincoln, Handley Page Hastings, Gloster Meteor, Avro Anson, Vickers Valletta, Vickers Wellington, Percival Prentice, Bristol Britannia and Handley Page Victor. He flew with 10 Squadron, 462 Squadron, 51 Squadron, and 614 Squadron. He was awarded the DFC. His pilots on operations were Warrant Officer Peterson, Flight sergeant Whyte, Warrant Officer O'Driscoll, Sergeant Declerk, Flight Sergeant Clarke, Sergeant Gibbons, Sergeant Wyatt, Flight Lieutenant Freeman, Flight Sergeant McKnight, Pilot Officer Gillchrist, Flight Sergeant Moore, Warrant Officer Skinner, Warrant Officer Faulkner, Flying Officer Carr and Flight Sergeant Espie. War time operations were to Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, Cologne, St Nazaire, Kiel, Paris, Aasen Fjord, Tirpitz, Trondheim, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Essen, Osnabruck, Tobruk, Heraklion, Maleme, Lens, Colline Beaumont, Bourg-Leopold, Trappes, Mont Fleury, Abbeville, Nucourt, Le Havre, Boulogne, Gibraltar, Kasfereet. Post war destinations were to RAF Netheravon, RAF Hemswell, RAF Scampton, RAF Lindholme, RAF Marnham, RAF St Eval, RAF Aldergrove, RAF Wyton, RAF Stradishall, RAF Binbrook, RAF Baginton, RAF Waddington, RAF Topcliffe, RAF Upwood, Kai Tak, Changi, RAF Pembrey, RAF Llandow, RAF Filton, and RAF Bruggen.
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1961
1962
1963
1942-02-12
1942-02-14
1942-02-15
1942-02-16
1942-02-22
1942-02-23
1942-02-26
1942-02-27
1942-03-03
1942-03-04
1942-03-30
1942-03-31
1942-04-27
1942-04-28
1942-04-29
1942-05-03
1942-05-04
1942-05-06
1942-05-07
1942-05-19
1942-05-20
1942-05-30
1942-05-31
1942-06-01
1942-06-02
1942-06-03
1942-06-04
1942-06-05
1942-06-19
1942-06-20
1942-06-22
1942-07-11
1942-07-12
1942-07-18
1942-07-19
1942-07-20
1942-07-21
1942-07-24
1942-07-25
1942-09-03
1942-09-15
1942-09-16
1942-09-17
1942-09-18
1942-09-29
1942-09-30
1942-10-05
1942-10-06
1942-10-12
1942-10-13
1942-10-18
1942-10-19
1942-10-23
1942-10-24
1942-10-27
1942-10-29
1942-11-05
1942-11-07
1942-11-23
1943-07-24
1943-07-26
1943-07-27
1943-07-29
1943-08-01
1944-05-10
1944-05-11
1944-05-12
1944-05-27
1944-05-31
1944-06-01
1944-06-06
1944-06-11
1944-06-12
1944-06-23
1944-06-24
1944-07-15
1944-07-17
1944-09-11
1944-09-17
1945-06-19
1944-06-05
1944-07-18
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
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
Egypt
Middle East--Palestine
Singapore
China--Hong Kong
England--Yorkshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Rutland
England--Norfolk
England--Bedfordshire
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Wiltshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Gloucestershire
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Suffolk
England--Warwickshire
Wales--Carmarthenshire
Belgium
Belgium--Leopoldsburg
Greece--Crete
Greece--Ērakleion
Libya
Libya--Tobruk
Norway
Norway--Trondheim
France
France--Saint-Nazaire
France--Paris
France--Lens
France--Colline-Beaumont
France--Soligny-la-Trappe
France--Abbeville
France--Nucourt
France--Le Havre
France--Boulogne-sur-Mer
Germany--Kiel
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Essen
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Stuttgart
Gibraltar
Norway--Aasen Fjord
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Northern Ireland
North Africa
France--Ver-Sur-Mer
Scotland--Shetland
China
Greece
Great Britain
Great Britain
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Durham (County)
Greece
Greece--Maleme
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
LManningR52870v1
10 Squadron
1652 HCU
1668 HCU
462 Squadron
51 Squadron
614 Squadron
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
air sea rescue
aircrew
Anson
Battle
bombing of Cologne (30/31 May 1942)
bombing of the Normandy coastal batteries (5/6 June 1944)
Cook’s tour
Distinguished Flying Cross
flight engineer
Gneisenau
Halifax
Harrow
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lincoln
Magister
Me 110
Meteor
Mosquito
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Oxford
promotion
RAF Aqir
RAF Binbrook
RAF Cottesmore
RAF Filton
RAF Finningley
RAF Hemswell
RAF Henlow
RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor
RAF Honington
RAF Kasfereet
RAF Leeming
RAF Lindholme
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF Marham
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Medmenham
RAF Middleton St George
RAF Pembrey
RAF Scampton
RAF Snaith
RAF St Eval
RAF Stormy Down
RAF Stradishall
RAF Swanton Morley
RAF Topcliffe
RAF Upwood
RAF Waddington
RAF Wyton
Scharnhorst
tactical support for Normandy troops
Tirpitz
training
V-1
V-weapon
Wellington
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1607/24383/PWatsonJB15010024.2.jpg
8a455b1c77fcb027164557c41a5f1643
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
RAF Stations visited by K Watson
Description
An account of the resource
A list of the RAF Stations on an album page that K Watson visited with dates. Included is a photo of a flying Stirling LS-J captioned 'The "Gen" Kite'.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
K Watson
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One handwritten list and one b/w photograph on an album page.
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWatsonJB15010024
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.
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
RAF Brize Norton
RAF Castle Donington
RAF Chedburgh
RAF Dunsfold
RAF Earls Colne
RAF Lindholme
RAF Marham
RAF Netheravon
RAF Sleap
RAF South Cerney
RAF St Athan
RAF St Eval
RAF Stanton Harcourt
RAF Swinderby
RAF Tarrant Rushton
RAF Tilstock
RAF West Freugh
RAF Westcott
RAF Wing
RAF Wyton
Stirling
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1607/24379/PWatsonJB15010020.2.jpg
28f34680d1348e2b8757fca61aa31263
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
Quonset for Exercise 'Mariner'
Description
An account of the resource
A cutting with details about 220 Squadron's involvement in Exercise Mariner. Includes airmen's reactions to food and entertainment at base.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One newspaper cutting
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWatsonJB15010020
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
United States
Rhode Island--Quonset Point Naval Air Station
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
1953-07
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1953-07
220 Squadron
aircrew
RAF St Eval
Shackleton
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1400/27091/BWagnerHWWagnerHWv10001.1.jpg
85822213415fbbf7896f5339f05b9994
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Jones, Hugh Brenton
H B Jones
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
2016-01-11
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Jones, HB
Description
An account of the resource
17 items. The collection concerns Flight Sergeant Hugh Brenton Jones (1925 - 1944, 1866363 Royal Air Force) and contains documents and photographs. He flew operations as an air gunner with 51 Squadron and was killed 18 December 1944. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Rea Camus and catalogued by Barry Hunter. <br /><br />Additional information on Hugh Brenton Jones is available via the <a href="https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/214965/">IBCC Losses Database.</a>
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Pilot to Navigator - Where are we?
The Personal Account of a Wartime Navigator
Description
An account of the resource
Henry, volunteered for the RAF and learned to fly Tiger Moths at Brough. He then was transferred to South Africa on a troopship. His flying training came to an end after a poor solo flight. He was retrained as a navigator. On completion of his training he returned to the UK. After an inactive posting to Whitley Bay he was sent to West Freugh for further training. Next was an operational training unit at Abingdon, where he crewed up.
Training continued on Whitleys before a transfer to Acaster Malbis for yet more training, followed by the heavy conversion unit at Marston Moor, on Halifaxes.
His first operational posting was 51 Squadron at Snaith. He covers each operation in detail. Interspersed with the details are explanations of electronic systems and tactics used.
During one operation he was shot down and parachuted behind the German lines. Eventually he was taken prisoner, interrogated then transferred to Stalag Luft 7. As the Russians got nearer they were forced to walk west. Later they were transferred by train to Stalag IIIA.
The account then jumps to reunions in the 1980s, then returns to the last few days at the camp as the war ends.
He reached home on 15th May.
This item is available only at the International Bomber Command Centre / University of Lincoln.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Henry Wagner
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
73 page book
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
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
Wehrmacht. Luftwaffe
Royal Navy
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Henley-on-Thames
England--Reading
England--London
England--Brighton
England--Hull
England--Manchester
England--Blackpool
England--Liverpool
South Africa--Durban
South Africa--East London
Yemen (Republic)--Aden
Egypt--Suez Canal
Egypt--Port Said
Libya--Tobruk
Italy--Sicily
Algeria--Algiers
England--Harrogate
England--Whitley Bay
England--Newquay
England--Falmouth
England--York
Northern Ireland--Belfast
Great Britain Miscellaneous Island Dependencies--Isle of Man
Germany--Jülich
Germany--Essen
England--Beachy Head
Germany--Neuss
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Hamburg
England--Derby
Germany--Soest
England--Nottingham
Germany--Hildesheim
Belgium--Brussels
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Münster in Westfalen
Alps
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Hagen (Arnsberg)
Germany--Düren (Cologne)
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Giessen (Hesse)
Libya--Banghāzī
Yemen (Republic)
Italy
Algeria
Libya
Egypt
North Africa
Germany
Belgium
South Africa
Great Britain
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Berkshire
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Derbyshire
England--Northumberland
England--Oxfordshire
England--Sussex
England--Lancashire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Yorkshire
Germany--Schönebeck (Schönebeck)
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
BWagnerHWWagnerHWv1
100 Group
4 Group
425 Squadron
51 Squadron
77 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aerial photograph
air gunner
Air Observers School
aircrew
Anson
anti-aircraft fire
B-17
bale out
bomb aimer
C-47
Caterpillar Club
crewing up
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Service Order
entertainment
evading
flight engineer
Flying Training School
Gee
ground personnel
H2S
Halifax
Halifax Mk 3
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945)
Hurricane
Ju 88
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Me 109
Me 110
military service conditions
missing in action
Mosquito
navigator
Nissen hut
Oboe
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
Pathfinders
pilot
prisoner of war
RAF Abingdon
RAF Acaster Malbis
RAF Bottesford
RAF Cosford
RAF Full Sutton
RAF Manston
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Melbourne
RAF Snaith
RAF St Eval
RAF Stanton Harcourt
RAF Tholthorpe
RAF West Freugh
RAF Wing
Red Cross
Resistance
shot down
sport
Stalag 3A
Stalag Luft 7
Stirling
Sunderland
target indicator
the long march
Tiger Moth
training
V-1
V-weapon
Wellington
Whitley
Window
wireless operator / air gunner
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
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
Evans, Derek Carrington
D C Evans
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Evans, DC
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Derek Carrington Evans (1924 - 2017, 2207080 Royal Air Force) and his log book. He flew operations as a wireless operator / air gunner with 625 Squadron. Also contains photographs of model Lancaster and people.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Derek Carrington Evans and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-07-14
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.
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
Pilot - face to face
Description
An account of the resource
Introduces Michael G Hanson an RAF reservist and tells of time sailing before stating training. Covers elementary and advanced training before joining 233 Squadron at RAF Leuchars on Hudson. Relates life on the station, in local area and on maritime operations. Continues with accounts of convoy escort from Northern Ireland and life at RAF Aldergrove including meeting member of women's auxiliary air force. Relates attacks on Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and other Atlantic operations from RAF St Eval. After completing his tour he became a navigator instructor. He was posted to bomber command in June 1944 and trained on Wellington and Halifax and then on to Lancaster at RAF Hemswell. Describes first operation over France while still training. Eventually goes to 625 Squadron at RAF Kelstern. Gives detailed account of operations including Essen, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bochum (attached by fighter), Gelsenkirchen, Wanne-Eickel, Dortmund, Harburg, Duren, Bonn, St Vith, Rheydt, Sholven/Buer (oil refinery). Interspersed with accounts of life on camp. Continues with description of other operations, pathfinding, H2S, use of Mosquito. Gives account of operation to Dresden and other operations towards end of the war. Concludes with mention of Operation Manna and award of Distinguished Flying Cross and life after the end of the war. All the way through he writes of activities, events, friends, colleagues and girl friends.
In accordance with the conditions stipulated by the donor, this item is available only at the University of Lincoln.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Peter Russell
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
496 page printed book with cover
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
MEvansDC2207080-160825-02
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
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Warwickshire
England--Lincolnshire
Scotland--Fife
Scotland--St. Andrews
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland--Antrim (County)
France
France--Brest
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
England--Sussex
England--Eastbourne (East Sussex)
England--Shropshire
England--Bridgnorth
Northern Ireland--Down (County)
England--Wiltshire
England--Nottinghamshire
France--Angers
Germany
Germany--Essen
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Harburg (Landkreis)
Germany--Düren (Cologne)
Germany--Bonn
Belgium
Belgium--Saint-Vith
Germany--Rheydt
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Germany--Bottrop
Germany--Goch
Germany--Kleve (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Poland
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Hanau
Germany--Witten
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Berchtesgaden
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Yorkshire
Poland--Police (Województwo Zachodniopomorskie)
Great Britain
Great Britain
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Swindon (Wiltshire)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1944-06-06
1944-10-23
1944-10-28
1944-11-02
1944-11-04
1944-11-06
1944-11-09
1944-11-16
1944-11-11
1944-11-12
1944-11-18
1944-11-19
1944-11-21
1944-11-22
1944-12-25
1944-12-26
1944-12-27
1945-01-16
1945-02-01
1945-02-02
1945-02-03
1945-02-04
1945-02-07
1945-02-08
1945-02-13
1945-03-01
1945-03-12
1945-03-18
1945-04-18
1945-05-25
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
625 Squadron
aircrew
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
crewing up
Distinguished Flying Cross
Gneisenau
ground personnel
H2S
Halifax
Hudson
Lancaster
love and romance
Mosquito
navigator
Oboe
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Oxford
Pathfinders
pilot
RAF Ansty
RAF Blyton
RAF Cranwell
RAF Finningley
RAF Hemswell
RAF Kelstern
RAF Leuchars
RAF Sandtoft
RAF Scampton
RAF Silloth
RAF St Eval
RAF Watchfield
RAF Worksop
Scharnhorst
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1236/18172/PThompsonKG15010139.1.jpg
1fa85316cccc333fb2c0c58be58a906c
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
Thompson, Keith G
K G Thompson
Description
An account of the resource
95 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Keith Thompson DFC (1238603 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, photographs and training material as well as his navigation logs. He flew operations as a navigator with 101 and 199 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Mark S Thompson 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
2015-09-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Thompson, KG
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Photograph]
WIVES’ CLUB OUTING, ST. EVAL
[underlined] S.R.O’s Xmas Island. [/underlined]
The practise [sic] of swimming or sun-bathing in the nude is to cease forthwith
“Pride of ownership is an understandable & human trait, but it is a Service tradition that equipment not intended for immediate use should be stowed away out of sight [deleted][indecipherable word][/deleted].”
In other words, “Wear Shorts”
_
[Photograph]
ENGINEER – HEWITT
_
[Photograph]
“PLAY BOY”
_
[Crest]
HEADQUARTERS,
COASTAL COMMAND
MAY ’58 – OCT ’59
¬_
[Crest]
A hart’s head ‘caboshed’ with a beech tree in the background are featured on Bovingdon’s badge, suggesting the station’s location in the Chiltern Hills.
OCT ’59 – DEC ’61
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
Photographs and memorabilia from Keith Thompson's time at RAF St Eval, Headquarters Coastal Command and RAF Bovingdon
Description
An account of the resource
Photograph of 13 ladies standing in front of a coach, captioned 'Wives Club outing St Eval'.
Handwritten copy of extract from SROs Christmas Island.
Photograph head and shoulders, from the side, sergeant in flying overalls and flying helmet sitting in aircraft cockpit captioned 'Engineer -Hewitt'. Photograph of Keith Thompson naked but for a towel on a beach captioned 'Playboy'.
Small colour image of the Coastal Command badge captioned 'Headquarters Coastal Command', annotated 'May '58-Oct '59'.
Small b/w image of RAF station Bovingdon badge captioned 'A Hart's head caboshed with a beech tree in the background are featured on Bovingdon's badge, suggesting the stations location in the Chilton Hills, annotated Oct '59-Dec '61'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs, hand written text and badges on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Artwork
Photograph
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PThompsonKG15010139
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Hertfordshire
Christmas Island
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
Angela Gaffney
Requires
A related resource that is required by the described resource to support its function, delivery, or coherence.
Workflow A completed
aircrew
RAF St Eval
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/185/2423/PSayerT16010006.2.jpg
1501ce21b16728c017200d14a5746ac5
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/185/2423/PSayerT16010007.2.jpg
86c0f9c66bb95573650ea681da87cede
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/185/2423/PSayerT16010008.2.jpg
67bf27c9398833ba4dc6bf73d4b0b223
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/185/2423/PSayerT16010009.2.jpg
4bdc30ca3e49b4a07ff6d8cf2719864d
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
Sayer, Tom
Tom Sayer
T Sayer
Description
An account of the resource
13 items. An oral history interview with Flying Officer Thomas Sayer DFM (1922 - 2021, 591744 54901 Royal Air Force), two log books, service material, newspaper cuttings and photographs. After training as a pilot in the United States of America, Tom Sayer flew Halifaxes with 102 Squadron at RAF Pocklington. He was commissioned in 1944 and became an instructor.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Tom Sayer and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-17
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. 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
Sayer, T
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[Background Map]
[inserted] Peenemunde [/inserted] [symbol]
[highlighted] Hamburg [/highlighted]
[highlighted] Hannover [/highlighted]
[inserted] Berlin [/inserted]
[inserted] Bochum [/inserted]
[highlighted] Essen [/highlighted]
[inserted] Wuppertal [/inserted]
[inserted] Krefeld [/inserted]
[inserted] [indecipherable] [/inserted]
[inserted] Monchen Gladbach Rheydt [sic] [/inserted]
[inserted] Leverkusen [/inserted]
[inserted] [indecipherable] [/inserted]
[symbol][symbol]
[inserted] [underlined] Shot Down [/underlined] [/inserted]
[inserted] Frankfurt [/inserted]
[inserted] Bay of Biscay Anti-Sub Patrols [/inserted]
[symbol][symbol]
[inserted] [underlined] Damaged [/underlined] [/inserted]
[highlighted] Mannheim [/highlighted]
[highlighted] Nuremberg [/highlighted]
[inserted] Le Creusot [/inserted]
[inserted] Mont Bellard [/inserted]
[highlighted] Milan [/highlighted]
[paper cutting 1] On Active Service
Hawes Man Wins D.F.M.
Residents of Hawes and Upper Wensleydale have heard with pleasure [indecipherable words] D.F.M. has been awarded to Flight [missing word] Thomas Sayer, [missing word], of The Hawes.
The citation says; “The majority [missing words] sorties [indecipherable word] by this airman as [missing words] of aircraft have been directed against [missing words] defended objectives in Germany. In [missing words] while on a sortie against Wuppertal, [missing words] for handling of his aircraft enabled his [missing words] to shoot down an attacking enemy [missing word]
On another occasion his aircraft was damaged in combat with a fighter before reaching the target. Despite this, Flight-Sergt. Sayer continued his flight and bombed the objective. He is a very reliable and capable captain, who has invariably displayed great courage and determination.”
Flight-Sergt. Sayer, who is only 21 years of age, joined the R.A.F. in April, 1939. He went in as a clerk and volunteered for flying duties in 1940. Part of his training was in America, and his [sic] gained his wings and returned to England as Sergeant-Pilot. He had finished one tour of 30 operations over enemy territory. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Sayer, of The Firs, Hawes, and was born at Thoralby, near Aysgarth, and educated at Yorebridge Grammar School. He is now Flight-Sergt. Instructor. [/paper cutting 1]
[paper cutting 2] Best congratulations to Flight-Sergt. Thomas Sayer, of The Firs, Hawes, and to his parents, on the award of the the[sic] Distinguished Flying Medal for his successful flight to Germany and back under particularly difficult conditions. Tom is a member of our congregation, and was confirmed in our Church in 1936. We all rejoiced to read of his success. [/paper cutting 2]
[paper cutting 3] MONDAY, MAY 31 [missing number]
HUGE EXPLOSIONS IN CHEMICAL TOWN
Wuppertal Gets 1,500 Tons of Bombs
THE R.A.F. on Saturday night found a new and vital target in the great battle for the Ruhr when they made their seventh devastating attack this month on Germany’s greatest war production area.
The new target was Wuppertal, important German chemical works centre some 40 miles from Dusseldorf. It was the first time this town had been raided.
The attack was heavy and concentrated and made “in very great strength.” Well over 1,500 tons of bombs were rained on the town. Thirty-three of our planes are missing. Two enemy fighters were destroyed by our bombers.
By the time the attack on Wuppertal was over, smoke from the fires burning in the city had reached a height of 15,000ft. Scores of fiercely burning fires had merged, one pilot said, into one huge conflagration.
The Germans did everything they could to stop our bombers. As soon as they reached the Ruhr, scores of searchlights tried to pick them out, heavy and light anti-aircraft guns put up an intense barrage and night fighters were up in force.
But over Wuppertal itself, says the Air Ministry News Service, the defences gave out. One pilot said there were only about a dozen heavy guns and one or two searchlights, and later arrivals said that there was no opposition at all. [/paper cutting 3]
[photograph]
W/CDR. H.R. COVENTRY.
R.A.F.
Berlin, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Essen have been among the targets of this “outstanding captain.”
[photograph]
[photograph]
[page break]
OPERATIONS WITH No. 102 Sqdn., POCKLINGTON AND No. 10 O.T.U (DETACHMENT), ST. EVAL.
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
Operations with 102 Squadron Pocklington and 10 OTU detachment, St Eval
Description
An account of the resource
At the back a map showing targets for operations in the Ruhr and rest of Germany as well as France and north Italy. There are two indications for German night fighters damaged and shot down. At the top a newspaper cutting headlined 'Huge explosion in chemical town - Wuppertal get 1500 tons of bombs'. Over the top a further cutting headlined 'Hawes man wins DFM' and provides account of Flight Sergeant Sayer's actions in winning the Distinguished Flying Medal and a further congratulatory newspaper cutting. In the centre left a newspaper cutting concerning Wing Commander H R Coventry with some of his targets. To the right a photograph of seven aircrew, three sitting and four standing behind. At the bottom a photograph of a Halifax with many personnel standing in front and hangars in the background. On the reverse 'Operations with 102 Squadron, Pocklington and 10 OTU (detachment) St Eval'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page map, four newspaper cuttings and two b/w photographs
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Map
Text
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PSayerT16010006, PSayerT16010007, PSayerT16010008, PSayerT16010009
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
France
Italy
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Steve Baldwin
10 OTU
102 Squadron
bombing
Bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943)
Distinguished Flying Medal
Halifax
Operational Training Unit
RAF Pocklington
RAF St Eval
searchlight
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1607/24378/PWatsonJB15010019.2.jpg
dfe0bdbc882c2447795cebca569aca4f
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
Odiham Flypast and sketch of route to Florida
Description
An account of the resource
Four items on an album page.
Item 1 is a photo of nine Shackleons flying in formation.
Item 2 is a sketch map of a route from St Eval, Reykjavik, Goose Bay, Q Point, Jacksonville, Montreal, Greenwood then returning to St Eval. Titled 'Ex. "Mariner" Sept 1953'.
Item 3 and 4 are low level oblique photos of the RAF Coronation Review. The caption reads 'Odiham Fly Past'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1953-07
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three b/w photographs and one sketch map
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Map
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWatsonJB15010019
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Hampshire
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.
1953-07
1953-09
RAF Odiham
RAF St Eval
Shackleton
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1334/20653/PSearleROJ17060022.1.jpg
c8eecd774cc610c1813344d4fa8ea32e
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
Searle, Rex. Album 2
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-07-25
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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
Searle, ROJ
Description
An account of the resource
24 items. The album contains photographs and papers relating to Rex Searle's wartime and postwar service.
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
Nine Shackletons in formation
Description
An account of the resource
An air-to-air view of nine Shackletons approaching the coast, annotated 1953. On land two airfields, St Merryn and St Eval are annotated.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1953
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph from an album
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
PSearleROJ17060022
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Cornwall (County)
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.
1953
RAF St Eval
Shackleton
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1426/38035/LHadfieldL1066643v1.1.pdf
911ae61e668869a9468326770366dacb
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
Donnelly, Margaret
M Donnelly
Hadfield, Leonard
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
2015-07-01
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
Donnelly, M
Description
An account of the resource
24 items. The collection concerns Flying Officer Leonard Hadfield (184057 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book and documents. He flew operations as a wireless operator/air gunner with 59 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Margaret Donnelly and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
L Hadfield's observer's and air gunner's flying log book
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Observer’s and air gunner’s flying log book for L Hadfield, wireless operator/air gunner, covering the period from 14 March 1941 to 6 May 1945. Detailing his flying training, operations flown and instructor duties. He was stationed at RAF Yatesbury, RAF Prestwick, RAF Pembrey, RAF Thornaby, RAF North Coates, RAF Thorney Island, RAF St Eval, RAF Chivenor, RAF Aldergrove, RAF ReykJavik. RAF Ballykelly and RAF Nassau. Aircraft flown in were Dominie, Proctor, Botha, Blenheim, Anson, Hudson, Liberator, Fortress, Commando and Dakota. He flew 40 operations with 59 Squadron comprising of anti-submarine patrol and convoy escort duties. His pilot on operations was Flight Lieutenant Moran.</p>
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Iceland
Great Britain
Atlantic Ocean
Bahamas--Nassau
England--Devon
England--Lincolnshire
England--Wiltshire
England--Yorkshire
Iceland--Reykjavík
Northern Ireland--Londonderry (County)
Northern Ireland--Belfast
Scotland--Ayrshire
Wales--Carmarthenshire
England--Sussex
England--Cornwall (County)
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LHadfieldL1066643v1.1
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
Anson
B-17
B-24
Blenheim
Botha
C-47
Dominie
Hudson
Ju 88
Operational Training Unit
Proctor
RAF Chivenor
RAF North Coates
RAF Pembrey
RAF Prestwick
RAF St Eval
RAF Thornaby
RAF Thorney Island
RAF Yatesbury
training
wireless operator / air gunner
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1236/18905/LThompsonKG1238603v1.1.pdf
871bd909c7b25612385eece8ca7fbc06
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Thompson, Keith G
K G Thompson
Description
An account of the resource
95 items. The collection concerns Flight Lieutenant Keith Thompson DFC (1238603 Royal Air Force) and contains his log book, documents, photographs and training material as well as his navigation logs. He flew operations as a navigator with 101 and 199 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Mark S Thompson 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
2015-09-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Thompson, KG
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
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
Keith Thompson's flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Flying log book for Keith Thompson covering his two periods of service as a navigator from 23 August 1942 to 28 March 1946 and post war from 12 September 1950 to 27 April 1960. The entries cover his training in Canada, advanced training on his return to Britain, converting to the Lancaster and a first tour on 101 Squadron, his rest tour and then 12 operations on the Halifax with 199 Squadron undertaking Radio Counter Measure operations. His post war flying was initially as a bombing instructor and then with Coastal Command on the Shackleton. This period included three round trips to Christmas Island for operation 'Grapple'. Units served at include No 1 AOS at RCAF Malton, 15 AFTS at RAF Carlisle, No 4 AOS at RAF West Freugh, 28 OTU at RAF Wymswold, RAF Castle Donington and RAF Bircotes, 1662 HCU at RAF Blyton, 101 Squadron at RAF Ludford Magna, 30 OTU at RAF Hixon, 1659 HCU at RAF Topcliffe, 199 Squadron at RAF North Creake, 192 Squadron at RAF Foulsham, RWE at RAF Watton, RAF Shawbury, CGS at RAF Leconfield, 2 ANS at RAF Thorney Island, 6 ANS at RAF Lichfield, 236 OCU at RAF Kinloss, 206 Squadron at RAF St Eval and St Mawgan and Coastal Command Communication Flight at RAF Bovingdon. Aircraft in which flown, Anson in Canada Mk unknown, Mk 19 & 21, Tiger Moth, Wellington 1c, X and T10, Halifax II and III, Lancaster I and III, B17 Fortress, Valletta, Varsity, Shackleton I and II. His pilots on operations were Pilot Officer Corkill, Wing Commander Alexander and Pilot Officer Sharples. Operations carried out against Berlin, Frankfurt, Stettin, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Schweinfurt, Essen, Nurnburg, Aulnoye, Rouen, Koln, Bois de Maintenon, Lyon, Hasselt, Orleans, Duisburg, Brunswick, Aachen, Trappes on his first tour and was awarded the DFC. He did 12 RCM Operations on his second tour and two Cook's Tours. The log book has the usual comments about weather and unusual sightings and events.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
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
LThompsonKG1238603v1
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Germany
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Norfolk
England--Leicestershire
England--Nottinghamshire
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Stuttgart
Germany--Schweinfurt
Germany--Essen
France--Rouen
France--Lyon
Belgium--Hasselt
France--Orléans
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Aachen
Germany--Braunschweig
Germany--Cologne
Poland--Szczecin
Ontario--Malton
Poland
France
Ontario
Belgium
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
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
Trevor Hardcastle
Cara Walmsley
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
1960
1943-08-11
1943-08-12
1943-12-02
1943-12-03
1943-12-20
1943-12-21
1943-12-24
1943-12-29
1944-01-02
1944-01-03
1944-01-05
1944-01-06
1944-01-20
1944-01-21
1944-01-27
1944-01-28
1944-01-30
1944-01-31
1944-02-15
1944-02-16
1944-02-19
1944-02-20
1944-02-21
1944-02-24
1944-02-25
1944-03-15
1944-03-16
1944-03-18
1944-03-19
1944-03-22
1944-03-23
1944-03-24
1944-03-25
1944-03-26
1944-03-27
1944-03-30
1944-03-31
1944-04-10
1944-04-11
1944-04-18
1944-04-19
1944-04-20
1944-04-21
1944-04-30
1944-05-01
1944-05-02
1944-05-11
1944-05-12
1944-05-19
1944-05-20
1944-05-21
1944-05-22
1944-05-23
1944-05-24
1944-05-25
1944-05-28
1944-05-31
1944-06-01
1945-02-28
1945-03-01
1945-03-07
1945-03-08
1945-03-09
1945-03-14
1945-03-15
1945-03-16
1945-03-17
1945-03-20
1945-03-23
1945-03-24
1945-03-27
1945-04-04
1945-04-22
1945-04-23
1945-04-24
1945-05-15
1945-06-22
1945-09-03
1945-09-06
101 Squadron
1659 HCU
1662 HCU
192 Squadron
199 Squadron
28 OTU
30 OTU
Advanced Flying Unit
Air Observers School
aircrew
Anson
B-17
bombing
bombing of Nuremberg (30 / 31 March 1944)
Cook’s tour
Distinguished Flying Cross
Flying Training School
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 3
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 1
Lancaster Mk 3
navigator
Operational Training Unit
RAF Blyton
RAF Castle Donington
RAF Foulsham
RAF Hixon
RAF Kinloss
RAF Leconfield
RAF Lichfield
RAF Ludford Magna
RAF North Creake
RAF Shawbury
RAF St Eval
RAF St Mawgan
RAF Thorney Island
RAF Topcliffe
RAF Watton
RAF Wellesbourne Mountford
RAF West Freugh
RAF Wymeswold
Shackleton
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
-
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
-
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/837/34465/BMarshCGoldbyJLv10002.2.jpg
6d8cac2dc2c8a7dd95d26aaa8c02fba7
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/837/34465/BMarshCGoldbyJLv10003.2.jpg
cd7f176ae1972d3e966f2ffc1dab672a
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
Goldby, John Louis
J L Goldby
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with John Goldby (1922 - 2020, 1387511, 139407 Royal Air Force). He was shot down and became a prisoner of war in December 1944.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by John Goldby 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
2017-10-25
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Goldby, JL
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
JOHN LOUIS GOLDBY SERVICE NO. 1387511 and 139407 Version dated 21 July 2020
[inserted] Corrected August 2020 [/inserted]
John joined up on 31 May 1941 at Babbacombe in Devon. He completed ground training at the Initial Training Wing at RAF Kenley. He then went to Air Observer School at Jurby in the Isle of Man from October 1941 – May 1942. For some of his fellow volunteers it was the first time they had been in an aircraft. He completed navigation and gunnery training on Blenheim aircraft and bomb aimer training on Hampdens whilst at Jurby, using air-to-air towed targets. He gained 3 stripes as a Sergeant Observer. He then went to Stanton Harcourt (near Abingdon) to 10 Operational Training Unit in June 1942.
He became part of a crew under pilot Captain Watson RE, seconded onto Whitley aircraft in the role bomb aimer. Captain Watson was a 2nd pilot on the first 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne on 30 May 1942. The second 1,000 bomber raid targeted Essen and John flew on the third 1,000 bomber raid in a Whitley bomber to Bremen on 25 June 1942. This was a 5-hour round trip.
Bomber Command then extended the number of crew needed on 4 engined aircraft from 5 to 7 crew members, adding a bomb aimer and flight engineer.
No. 10 Operational Training Unit Detachment at St Eval was led by Wing Commander Pickard who was portrayed in the film 'F for Freddie' which detailed the raid on Amiens prison, in which Wg. Cmdr. Pickard was killed.
Twin-engined Whitley aircraft of Bomber Command were being used on anti-submarine duties because of the U-boat threat.
The unit was based at St Eval in Cornwall using black-painted Whitleys (Coastal Command aircraft were painted white). Flights involved a 10-hour flight dropping depth charges over the Bay of Biscay. It was a deafening experience as the crew had no hearing protection. The unit completed 6-8 operations.
John then moved in September 1942 to Marston Moor (Yorkshire) and completed a conversion course on to 4 engined aircraft – the Halifax 2. These were notoriously difficult to handle, with original tail fins and Rolls Royce engines.
John took part in a number of mine-laying operations off Heligoland, which counted as a 1/2 operation. These were called 'gardening' trips – planting mines at low level. On 11 December 1943 John was a crew member in a Halifax 2 aircraft of No. 78 Squadron which took off from Linton-on-Ouse with a heavy load of fuel on board, bound for Turin. An engine caught fire on take-off and the aircraft had to ditch in Filey Bay. The crew were rescued by local fishermen. By February 1943 he had completed 8 operations which was very stressful. He received news of his commission and went to London to get his uniform, but he developed a very bad throat infection and ended up in an Army hospital in York with an abscess on the carotid artery, and then had his tonsils removed. He spent his 21st. birthday in June 1943 in hospital at RAF Northallerton.
His commissioned service number was 139407. His mother came up from Sidcup for the commissioning ceremony – a very difficult journey in wartime.
John was posted as a Bombing Instructor to Moreton-in-March (Gloucester) from winter 1943 until late Spring 1944 (???) on Wellington aircraft. He then moved back to Bomber Command Operations and completed a Bombing Leader course at the Armaments School at RAF Manby in January 1944 at the beginning of July 1944 at RAF Riccal (York). He was posted to No. 640 Squadron at RAF Leconfield In Yorkshire on Halifax 3 aircraft as a bomb aimer with the rank of Flight Lieutenant.
In his position as a Bomb Aimer leader, John was supposed to complete only 2 operations per month, but if a crew lacked a bomb aimer then John would go on the operation to complete the crew. For his actions when his aircraft was damaged during a raid over Germany in September 1944 John was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (although he did not receive the actual decoration until June 1945 (see separate piece).
[page break]
On 6 December 1944 John's aircraft – a Halifax III with radial engines – was hit whilst returning from a bombing raid over Osnabruck in Germany. John thinks his aircraft collided with a German night fighter. He was fortunate to escape from the falling aircraft – he still does not know how he got out of the fuselage), and landed by parachute in a field full of water. He sustained various injuries, and recovered in a hospital run by nuns at Neemkirchen in northern Germany until 20th January 1945. He was then sent to the interrogation centre at Dulagluft at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder near Barth near Stettin in Pomerania. The camp had an airfield alongside it. The camp was divided into 2 parts – an American section for USAF personnel and a British RAF Group Captain commanded the British prisoners. You were placed into the appropriate section according to which air force you had flown with. The camp was liberated by Russian forces on May 1st. 1945. Shortly afterwards members of the American Army appeared and took over the camp.
2 Group Captains from the camp managed to get through to the Allied lines at Lubeck and arranged for the camp prisoners (all RAF men?) to be flown back to the UK on B17 Flying Fortresses, 25 men to each aircraft on 13 May 1945. John's aircraft landed at Ford, and he then caught a train to (RAF) Cosford.
He underwent a rehabilitation course in Air Traffic Control at RAF Henlow.
He was demobbed in late 1946.
POST-WAR CAREER
John re-joined the RAF in 1949, and completed a 9 month Navigator and Bombing refresher course at No. 1 Air Navigation School at Topcliffe and RAF Middleton-St-George respectively between 1 June and 15 August 1949 on Anson and Wellington aircraft. This was followed by training at No. 201 Advanced Flying School at RAF Swinderby, flying Wellingtons with pilot Wing Commander Oxley, between 29 September and 30 November.
Wing Commander Oxley (known as Beetle), was quite dangerous as he did not like to use his instruments. On one operation John's aircraft was diverted to Anglesey and Beetle overshot the runway.
John then posted to No 236 Operational Conversion Unit at RAF Kinloss in Scotland, flying Lancaster aircraft, until 5 April 1950. It was a very cold experience as they lived in unheated tin (Nissen) huts. John then was posted to 38 Squadron at RAF Luqa, Malta, flying Lancasters on Maritime Reconnaissance Operations, including exercises with various Navies and Air Sea Rescue duties), until 19 July 1952. During this period he was seconded to RAF Masirah located on the island of Masirah in the Indian Ocean as Commanding Officer of the staging post between Aden and India.
There were frequent visitors, to the RAF base, especially the top people from the Defence College. Back in Malta, on 12th May 1952 John flew with 6 Lancaster aircraft from No. 38 Squadron which set of [sic] on a goodwill visit to Ceylon (Sri Lanka.) They flew via Luqa (Malta), Habbaniya (Iraq), Mauripur (India) to Negombo. They returned leaving Negombo on 31st May via Mauripur, Aden and Khartoum (Sudan) reaching Luqa on 4 June 1952.
On leaving Malta in September 1952 John was posted to No. 1 Maritime Reconnaissance School at St Mawgan in Cornwall as a Navigational Instructor, flying Lancasters until the end of September 1954. During this period John had two breaks, one being in the procession at the Queen's Coronation in 1953, and the second at the Queen's Review at RAF Odiham. In October 1954 until September 1956 John was posted to HQ 64 Group Home Command, at Rufforth in Yorkshire, as PA to the Air Officer Commanding (this was a non-flying role, apart from accompanying the Air Commodore on internal visits).
[page break]
From September 1956 until 23 January 1957 John attended Bomber Command Bombing School at RAF Lindholme, Yorkshire, for navigation training for the V-Bomber Force. In summer of that year he was posted instead to the Air Ministry, London Intelligence Branch. During his term at the Air Ministry he had a spell of 2 weeks at St Mawgan, flying as Navigator on Shackleton aircraft with the Air Sea Warfare Development Unit. This was to qualify him to receive flying pay. From October 1960 until May 1962 he served as Assistant Air Attache at the British Embassy in Paris. John was promoted to the rank of Wing Commander and liaised with the French Air Force for participation in air shows.
John retired from the RAF in May 1962, as there was only a 1 in 4 chance that he would be posted to a flying role, and by then he had 2 small children at home.
In September 1962 he joined Shell-Mex and BP Ltd, soon to become separate companies. He stayed with Shell until his retirement in June 1982.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
John Louis Goldby Biography
Description
An account of the resource
A biography covering John's training and service in the RAF.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2020-07-21
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Devon
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Essen
Germany--Bremen
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
Germany--Helgoland
Italy--Turin
England--Filey
England--Northallerton
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Barth
Malta
Oman--Masirah Island
India
Yemen (Republic)--Aden
Sri Lanka
Iraq--Ḥabbānīyah
Pakistan--Karachi
Sri Lanka--Negombo
Sudan--Khartoum
Germany--Lübeck
Italy
Sudan
North Africa
Germany
Iraq
Pakistan
Yemen (Republic)
Oman
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Kent
England--Lancashire
England--Yorkshire
England--London
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
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Three printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BMarshCGoldbyJLv10001, BMarshCGoldbyJLv10002, BMarshCGoldbyJLv10003
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
10 OTU
38 Squadron
78 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
Anson
B-17
bale out
Blenheim
bomb aimer
bombing of Cologne (30/31 May 1942)
Distinguished Flying Cross
Dulag Luft
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 3
Hampden
Lancaster
mine laying
navigator
Nissen hut
Operational Training Unit
prisoner of war
RAF Cosford
RAF Ford
RAF Henlow
RAF Jurby
RAF Kenley
RAF Kinloss
RAF Leconfield
RAF Lindholme
RAF Linton on Ouse
RAF Manby
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Middleton St George
RAF Moreton in the Marsh
RAF Odiham
RAF Riccall
RAF Rufforth
RAF St Eval
RAF St Mawgan
RAF Stanton Harcourt
RAF Swinderby
RAF Topcliffe
Shackleton
Stalag Luft 1
training
Wellington
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1117/20448/MSearleROJ615463-170725-090003.1.jpg
3a6eb69c4a6964365074f99bf314f681
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
Searle, Rex
Rex Ormond John Searle
R O J Searle
Description
An account of the resource
62 items. Two oral history interviewws with Rex Searle (b. 1919, 615463 Royal air Force) He served as ground crew before becoming a flight engineer and flying operations with 432 Squadron. after the war he served with Coastal and Transport Commands. The collection contains his log book, decorations, photographs and two albums.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Rex Searle 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
2017-07-25
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. 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.
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Searle, ROJ
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From:- Wing Commander Administrative.
To:- All Married Families
Date:- 29 June, 1954.
[underlined] Presentation of Aird Whyte Trophy [/underlined]
1. The Aird Whyte Trophy, which has been won by No. 206 Squadron, R.A.F. St. Eval, will be presented to the Squadron Commander by the Air Member for Personnel, Air Chief Marshall Sir Francis Fogarty K.C.B., K.B.E., D.S.O., A.F.S., at 11.30 hours on Friday, 2nd July, 1954.
2. A.M.P. will be accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Aird Whyte, the A.O.C., 19 Group and the Senior Air Staff Officer, Headquarters, Coastal Command. After the presentation, the march past will take place and then the official party will inspect the Airmens Club No. 206 Squadron dispersal and aircraft, the Airmens Dining Hall followed by lunch in the Officers Mess.
3. All families living at St Eval are cordially invited to view the parade from the spectators stand which will be located on the grass to the north of Air Traffic Control and opposite No.2 Hangar. All spectators to be in their places by 10.45 hours. Spectators will remain in the enclosure until after completion of the march past at 11.30 hours.
[signature]
(W.H. CLIFF)
Wing Commander
Wing Commander Administrative.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Invitation to attend presentations and parade
Presentation of the Aird Whyte Trophy
Description
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An invitation issued to all married families to attend a presentation, march past and parade at St Eval.
Creator
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Wing Commander WH Cliff
Date
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1954-06-29
Format
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One typewritten sheet
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Correspondence
Identifier
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MSearleROJ615463-170725-090003
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
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.
Temporal Coverage
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1954-06-29
Contributor
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Alan Pinchbeck
206 Squadron
Distinguished Service Order
RAF St Eval
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/802/10782/ADickerV161015.1.mp3
79ea105bfcdbc67e9b8211ad11a3b1f1
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Title
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Dicker, Violet
V Dicker
Description
An account of the resource
Two items. An oral history interview with Violet Dicker (b. 1926). She served in the Land Army and is the widow of bomb aimer and navigator Flight Lieutenant Alan Henry George Dicker (1812199, 167748 Royal Air Force). The collection also contains his log book.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Violet Dicker and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-10-15
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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Dicker, AHG
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and we are now in Abbots Langley near Watford and the date is the 15th of October 2016, and we’re talking to Violet Dicker. She’s going to be talking as a proxy for her late husband Alan Dicker. So, Violet what do you remember about the earliest days of Alan and what he did? How he came to join the RAF.
VD: Oh, well Alan was one of four children. Children born to, well Alan, his Henry, his father was Henry George Dicker and Florence Dicker. Two. Two girls and two boys. Alan was the elder of the two boys. He went to Leyton County High School after passing scholarship which you had to take in those days. And then [pause] but he was always mad keen on, on aeroplanes and he made models and things like that. And so when the ATC was formed he joined the ATC and, but when he was seventeen I think it was he volunteered for the air force. So, I think he actually went into the air force just before he was eighteen. He did his basic training at the usual places. I can’t — Blackpool or somewhere. I can’t remember that. He wanted, always wanted to be a pilot but at that time there was a shortage of navigators so he had no choice. While, whilst he was still in the ATC he took some examination and it gave him a scholarship to [pause] Janet — what’s the name of the college?
Other: Teddy Hall. St Edmund’s Hall at Oxford.
VD: St Edmund Hall where he did a short course on I think it was —
Other: Short course. Maths. But sort of to do with —
VD: Yeah.
Other: Required for flying.
VD: I can’t tell. Somewhere we’ve got a copy of his — I don’t know what we did with it. With his. When he was commissioned. He started, anyway he was obviously, he was obviously a pilot officer first of all. Then he became, what’s the next one up?
CB: Flying officer.
VD: Flying officer. And then he was a flight lieutenant.
CB: So, he joined at, he went to Blackpool.
VD: Yeah. Somewhere like that.
CB: But he joined first of all in London, did he?
VD: Yes. Yeah.
CB: Did he go to Lords as the starting point? Do you remember?
VD: I think he did.
CB: ACRC.
VD: Yes. ACRC. Yes.
CB: At Lords. Then the Initial Training Wing.
VD: Yeah.
CB: At Blackpool.
VD: Yeah. Yes. We were, we were, at this point we weren’t what you’d call, used to call courting. We were just part of a big group of youngsters. Boys and girls. As I say I belonged to this organization called the Women’s Junior Air Corps and we did a lot of things together and training and that. Marching and that sort of thing. And that, and then he went from there he went straight across to America.
CB: America or Canada?
VD: Well, Canada. Prince Edward Island.
CB: And what was that for?
VD: Well, I don’t know.
Other: Training.
VD: That’s where they were training pilots weren’t, they?
CB: Well, navigators.
VD: Air crews I mean.
CB: Yes.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Ok.
VD: When he left there I think, as far as I can remember he, almost all, straight away was shipped out to the Far East.
CB: Oh.
VD: Yeah. Was, Janet was it on the Queen Mary? It was wasn’t it? And he, he stayed in the Far East ‘til 1947 I think it was. It was, he was, wasn’t —he was using [pause] he was flying Sunderland Flying Boats out there. And —
CB: But when he came back from Canada —
VD: Yeah.
CB: Then he flew in England.
VD: No.
CB: He didn’t at all.
VD: He didn’t. He automatic almost straightaway went out to the Far East.
CB: Right.
VD: I think.
CB: So he joined, what year did he join up? He joined in 19’ —
VD: Seventeen. He was seventeen. So what year would that be?
CB: That make him 1941.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Ok.
VD: Yeah.
CB: So ’42 was, end of ’41 was when the Japanese invaded.
VD: Yeah.
CB: The Far East.
VD: He was out there for the fall of Singapore. And because the Japs poisoned all the water —
CB: Oh.
VD: So that was always his excuse for drinking beer. Because they couldn’t drink the water [laughs]
CB: Right.
Other: He wasn’t a big drinker.
CB: Ok. So, he, he was out in the Far East. Do you know where? He was in Singapore.
VD: Koggala.
CB: Where?
VD: Koggala. It was Ceylon, wasn’t it?
CB: Oh, in Ceylon, was he?
VD: Yeah.
CB: Right. Ok. Yeah. And what was he doing there?
VD: Well, he was, he was on flying boats. And was also then at the end as I say he was a signals officer and he was always looking for signals to come through. Putting him back on flying. And I think, I’m not sure when he saw a certain signal that they wanted someone somewhere he put his name straight forward for it.
CB: Right. And so he was in Ceylon for how long?
VD: Oh dear. I really couldn’t honestly tell you with any accuracy.
Other: You got married in ’50.
VD: Pardon?
Other: You got married in ’50.
VD: We got married in 1950. Yeah. But he’d been, by that time he’d been, he’d come home and he’d gone to St Eval.
CB: Yes.
VD: In Cornwall. And they did air, flying to the weather ships and dropping mail to the lighthouses and weather ships and things like that.
CB: It, it looks —
VD: St Eval.
CB: It looks as though before that he was at the Air Navigation School at Charlottetown.
VD: Yes. That’s right. He was at Charlottetown.
CB: From August ‘44 to January ‘45.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
VD: That’ll probably tell you more than I. You know.
Other: That was on Prince Edward Island wasn’t it?
CB: So that is as a pilot officer then.
VD: Yes.
CB: So that was good. And then he went Nassau.
VD: Yes. He did go to Nassau for a while. And I think it was from Nassau he went out to the Far East.
CB: Right. Ok. And so when he was out there flying the Flying Boats then do you know what he was doing at that time?
VD: Well, I think they were searching for Jap submarines and that sort of thing.
CB: Yes. It’s 205 Squadron.
VD: That’s right.
CB: At Koggala.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Yeah. Got that. Right. Ok. So, it looks as though he did quite a bit of time there. Until 1947. From ’45 to ’47.
VD: Yes. He probably was. Yeah.
CB: Yeah. Ok. And then after that —
VD: He was down at St Eval.
CB: He went to St Eval. In Cornwall.
VD: Yes.
CB: As you said. No. He went to Changi, Singapore for a bit.
VD: That’s right. He did.
CB: And then he went to St Eval. And St Eval was 1948.
VD: That’s right.
CB: January ’48. Right. And so he was there for a while.
VD: Yeah.
CB: On 203 Squadron. And where were you in those days?
VD: I was working as a secretary at Dr Barnardo’s Homes in the East End of London.
CB: Right. So what contact did you keep with him?
VD: Oh occasional letters really. That was all to start with. Just —
CB: Because these were as friends.
VD: Yes. Yeah.
CB: Rather than anything more serious you said.
VD: Yes. Yeah.
CB: Yeah. Ok. And after St Eval he’s been there, he’s there actually for quite a long time isn’t he?
VD: Yes.
CB: ’48.
VD: And then he went to a Flying Boat station.
CB: At Calshot.
VD: Calshot.
Other: Calshot.
VD: Yeah. He was. I think we were married when he was at Calshot.
CB: So, when you were, you were in London how did you get to the stage where you were courting and —
VD: Well, no. We only wrote letters. And he used to get home about once a month.
CB: Yes.
VD: He had a motorbike and he used to come home on that.
CB: Crikey.
VD: And then early, well in, I can’t remember the exact date but sort of earlier in the year of 19 —
Other: ’50 ’49 ’48.
VD: No. It must have been 1950s.
Other: You got married in October.
VD: Eh?
Other: You got married in October.
VD: He was, he was coming home on his motorbike and he was going to ask me to marry him.
CB: Yeah.
VD: And he was coming somewhere near the Heathrow region, somewhere, that part of London and an army lorry pulled out without stopping in front of — he was on his motorbike. And this army, learner army driver pulled out of the side turning. Because Alan went for a burton. He’d just picked up an airman to give him a lift and this airman — I mean I’m only telling what I was told.
CB: Yeah.
VD: Went right over Alan’s head.
CB: Yes.
VD: Landed on the verge, the grass verge and didn’t have a scratch. Alan, Alan was in hospital. He had a broken wrist but nothing too bad. But the people at the Matchless factory where the bike went back to be rebuilt said they’d never seen so much damage where the rider had survived.
CB: Really.
VD: So it was his lucky day. So, of course that put off his proposal a bit and then when he did eventually propose we were married quite soon after that. On the 14th of October 1950.
CB: Yes. And he was at Calshot.
VD: He was at Calshot.
CB: At that time.
VD: Yes.
CB: So, he carried on at Calshot until —
VD: And then did we go to Thornhill, Alan?
CB: Then Shawbury.
VD: Well, I didn’t go. It must have been a course at Shawbury.
CB: And then Thorney Island. Right.
VD: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: So what was he flying at Thorney Island?
VD: Thorney Island. We were in quarters at Thorney Island.
CB: Yes.
VD: For about two and a half years.
CB: Were you? Oh right.
VD: It was, he was flying Valettas and Varsities there. They were rigged up as flying classrooms.
CB: Right. Because it’s a Navigation School.
VD: Navigation School. Yeah.
CB: Yeah. Number 2 Navigation School.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Air Navigation School.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Yeah. I know it well. The Varsity and the Valetta.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Right.
VD: It was a lovely posting.
CB: Was it? Nice in the summer.
VD: Janet was born there.
CB: Right. And from there [pause — pages turning] this logbook runs out from there. Where did you go after that? I’m going to —
VD: Well, we must have come up did he come up to the Air Ministry?
Other: Yeah. It was at Ruislip
VD: Because we lived in the caravan at Bovingdon.
CB: In a caravan.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Your caravan or an air force one?
VD: Our own caravan. Yes.
CB: Yes.
VD: But it was a small site and they were nearly all air force people from various places around because quarters you know accommodation was hard to get. It was in Bovingdon.
CB: At Bovingdon.
VD: Yes. And Tim, my second child he was born while we were at Bovingdon. He was born at [pause] what’s the — what’s the —
Other: Halton. Halton.
VD: Halton.
CB: At Halton.
VD: At Halton. Yes.
CB: Yes. Ok. So, after that. So what was he doing in, he was going up on the train every day or what was he doing?
VD: What?
CB: When you were at Bovingdon.
Other: Was it?
VD: No. He drove the car. He was working at Ruislip.
CB: Oh Ruislip.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Oh right.
VD: He went by car.
CB: Yeah. To Ruislip. Do you know what he was doing there?
VD: I think it was route planning for VIPs and royalty and people like that.
CB: Right.
VD: It wasn’t flying.
CB: No. Ok. And then what?
VD: Well, I think he asked a bit to go back on and then we went to Bassingbourn. When they — what was the name of the new plane that came out? Before the V bombers.
CB: What? The Valiant?
VD: No.
CB: The Canberra.
VD: Canberra. That’s right. Yeah.
CB: So he was flying on the Canberra was he?
VD: Canberras. We were, we were at Bassinbourn for about two and half years as well.
CB: Yeah.
VD: That was a nice —
CB: What was that like? Did you get a quarter there?
VD: Yes. We had a lovely quarter. And we did at Thorney Island. And then from there he went to Cottesmore.
CB: Yeah.
VD: On V bombers. Victor.
[pause]
CB: How long were you there?
VD: Pardon?
CB: How long were you at Cottesmore?
VD: About two. Two and a bit years I think.
CB: Yeah.
VD: He went, from there he retired so —
CB: Oh did he?
VD: Yeah.
CB: Yeah. What age did he retire then?
VD: Thirty eight. Because he’d done enough.
CB: Right. He was happy with that.
VD: That’s when he came to Handley Page.
CB: Yeah. So, how did the Handley Page job come up?
VD: Well, because there was quite a lot of liaison between people at Cottesmore.
CB: Yes.
VD: And Handley Page.
CB: Because of the Victor.
VD: And they were, they were short of a test, a test navigator at Handley Page. So I think, I think that was how it came about. He flew with a chap called Group Captain Johnny Allam.
CB: But he was a civilian then. Alan.
VD: Oh, they were civilian. All civilians.
CB: All civilian.
VD: By that time.
CB: Yeah. So where did you live then?
VD: We moved into the house in Bedmond.
CB: Oh right.
VD: In 1962.
CB: Right. That’s when he got the job was it?
VD: Yeah. He [pause] I can’t remember when he actually went to British Airways.
CB: Then he went to British Airways.
VD: I can’t remember whether —
Other: About ’70.
VD: It was after Handley Page went bankrupt.
CB: Went bust.
VD: Obviously.
CB: Yeah.
Other: It was ’68 ’69 or ’70.
CB: Yeah. He didn’t get a job at [pause]
Other: British Airways.
VD: British Airways straight away. He waited ‘til there was a vacancy I suppose.
CB: Did he do something in between? Or —
VD: No. No. Pottered.
Other: Sore point [laughs]
CB: Right.
VD: I went out to work for a while and he was pottering.
CB: Yeah. Having lost his job he lost his focus did he?
VD: Yeah. Well, he was a do it yourselfer who never quite finished anything.
CB: Right. Right. Ok.
VD: It’s sounds harsh to say that but it’s true.
CB: And at British Airways? What was he doing there?
VD: Well, it was just flight planning. They don’t use navigators so it was just a desk job. And you know they do all the flight planning for the pilots. Pilots. It’s all take when they go off everything is planned for them. You know.
CB: Yeah. They knew what they were going to do.
VD: And they don’t actually do it.
CB: No. And when did he, that was his last job was it?
VD: Yes.
CB: When did he retire from that?
VD: When he was sixty three.
CB: So that’s 1986. Is it? Oh. Well, he was born in 1924 so 1987. Yeah. ’87.
VD: ’87. I don’t know. Yeah.
CB: Yeah. Ok. And that was retirement permanently.
VD: Yes.
CB: Right. Just going back to the early stages. So, in the war he couldn’t join ‘til he was, or try to join ‘til he was seventeen. So, you were both in London. What was it like being in London in those days?
VD: Well, it was a bit hairy wasn’t it? You know. We were in the shelters most nights. And he [pause] my family had an Anderson shelter in the garden. I don’t know what Alan’s family had. I don’t think they had one did they? Or they might have done like —
CB: Was it the next road or —
VD: Hmmn?
CB: Were they in the next road?
VD: No. A few roads away.
CB: Yeah.
VD: Quite near.
CB: Ok. So, how often, you had to go in to the Anderson shelter. In what circumstances were they?
VD: Well, once the sirens went you just automatically went to the shelter.
CB: Did everybody get in the shelter everywhere? Or —
VD: Well, I don’t know about anywhere else. My family, yeah. There was only my my mother and my sister and I ‘cause her husband was away in the Royal Artillery. So, there were only the three of us. So, it wasn’t too bad.
CB: So what was Alan doing at that time?
VD: Well, one of those things that —
CB: So, when, when he left school —
VD: Yes.
CB: What age did he leave school?
VD: I don’t, — he did his matric.
CB: Yeah. Was it sixteen he left or —
VD: I presume he left when he went into the air force. I’m not sure.
CB: Right. So, he went on essentially ‘til —
VD: Yeah.
CB: Seventeen. Eighteen.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Ok. And meanwhile you’re in London.
VD: Yeah.
CB: So, how did that change after the Battle of Britain? Or the bombing went on for a while in the Blitz. So, in 1941.
VD: Well, it went on ‘til the Battle of Britain really didn’t it?
CB: Yeah. Well, after the Battle of Britain then. The night bombing.
VD: Yes. Well, once the bombing stopped things sort of got back to normal more or less. As far as I can remember.
CB: And he —
VD: And then Alan, but Alan started writing to me when he was in the Far East. And we, we had just exchanged letters and then he turned up on a Boxing Day. He turned up on my doorstep. That’s right. I can’t remember which Boxing Day it was. And then it more or less went on from there, you know.
CB: Yeah. Yeah. Because when he went to Canada then did he at that stage you said it wasn’t a serious —
VD: No.
CB: Relationship.
VD: No.
CB: So —
VD: No.
CB: It was just casual.
VD: We were just part of a crowd you know.
CB: Yes. So his, his navigation training is August 1944.
VD: What are you after? What are looking for?
[pause – pages turning]
CB: Right. I’m just going to pause for a mo.
[recording paused]
CB: We’ve just paused to get some documentation. So, in practical terms we are talking about what Alan did but also what you were doing. So you left school at what age?
VD: Fifteen.
CB: Ok.
VD: Because —
CB: What did you —
VD: We weren’t getting any schooling in London. I was back in London. I had been evacuated but came home.
CB: Ah.
VD: And we were getting such that so one day a couple of us went out and got ourselves jobs at the Air Ministry in London.
CB: Oh.
VD: And I worked there for quite, in the communications department, for quite a long time until they wanted me to go on night duty and I really was too young to be doing that and wandering around London at night. So, I, I left and I got a job at Dr Barnardo’s Homes in Stepney.
CB: Was that building whole or had it been damaged?
VD: Pardon?
CB: Had that building been damaged?
VD: No. No. Not at that time.
CB: Right.
VD: And, and then when I was, I was —
CB: Because that’s —
VD: I wanted to go in the Land Army. And I could have gone in at seventeen when it, in February when it was my birthday but my best friend, we wanted to go together. She wasn’t seventeen ‘til December. So, I didn’t go. So we literally went at the beginning of nineteen —
CB: Forty.
VD: ’48 I suppose it was.
CB: ’42. Land Army. Was it?
VD: I was born in ’26.
CB: Yeah. So you were fifteen in ’41.
VD: So, it must have been ’43 mustn’t it?
CB: Yeah.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Ok. And where, where did you operate in the Land Army?
VD: In, at a place called Woodham Ferrers near Chelmsford.
CB: Yeah. And how long were you there?
VD: Not, not so long. I was about two years. And I started getting trouble with my legs because the job I was in was dairy work. And —
CB: Yeah.
VD: Your legs in a wet cold environment for a long time. I came out and I went back to Dr Barnardo’s Homes. And I stayed there until I got married.
CB: They were always short of people.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Ok. In the Land Army what were you actually doing?
VD: Dairy work mostly. Some field work. But mostly dairy work.
CB: So actually in the dairy.
VD: Well, milking the cows.
CB: Milking the cows. Yeah.
VD: And seeing to the milk and cleaning up after them and all that sort of thing.
CB: So you sat on a stool, did you? While you were milking.
VD: No. You don’t.
CB: What did you do?
VD: That’s a little fairy tale.
CB: Is it?
VD: Well, no.. They do still use milking stools for some of the cows that won’t take to the machines but they were mostly milked by machinery.
CB: Oh. They had machines then.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Yeah. Ok. And how did you, how was the milk delivered? Did you get involved in that?
VD: Oh, we put it in churns and left by the front gate and it was collected. I don’t know who. But somebody.
CB: Yeah. Ok. Now, what appreciate, what did you understand about what Alan was doing during the war?
VD: Well, I knew it was dangerous. Yeah.
CB: Did you know he was flying?
VD: Oh yes. I knew he was flying.
CB: Yeah.
VD: Yeah.
CB: So, how did, did you know what he was doing?
VD: Not always. But sometimes. Yeah. Yeah.
CB: Did he talk much about it?
VD: No. Not a lot.
CB: Because he’d been told not to. And the same for you.
VD: I suppose. Yeah.
CB: Yes. And in the Land Army in Chelmsford. Woodham Ferrers. Did you have much appreciation of what was happening in the air force at the time?
VD: No. Not really. Because we didn’t have much. But I was still in the Land Army when the flying bomb, the flying bombs came over.
CB: Right.
VD: Because I remember I was out in the fields doing, I can’t remember what I was doing. I was on my own working away from the farm. And one of these things came over with it’s you know —
CB: The V-1.
VD: Yeah. The V-1.
CB: The doodlebug.
VD: With the tail coming out.
CB: Yeah.
VD: And it cut out.
CB: Yeah.
VD: And I just lay flat on the ground.
CB: Oh. Did you?
VD: I don’t know where it dropped but it didn’t drop on me.
CB: What sort of briefing had you got about how to behave when that was —
VD: No. None at all.
CB: Nothing.
VD: Nothing. No.
CB: Because you didn’t expect to get it in the countryside. So, did you know people who — well you did in London who were —
VD: Oh yes.
CB: On the receiving end. So what was their approach?
VD: Well my friend. The one I’d gone in the Land Army with. Her father was doing air warden duties one night and there was a woman who’d come to visit some relatives with a young child and she insisted, she came from East Ham or West Ham or somewhere and she insisted on going home. They wanted her to stay. Stay where she was. Yeah. She insisted on going home and so my friend’s father and another man took her and there was a land mine. They never found anything of them.
CB: Landed in the road.
VD: Yeah. Well they don’t, I can’t —
CB: At the house.
VD: It landed somewhere on their journey.
CB: Oh on the journey.
VD: Between Leyton and East Ham. Yeah.
CB: Oh right.
VD: West Ham I mean. Yeah. I don’t think, you know —
CB: This was a daytime.
VD: No. Evening.
CB: Oh right. In the —
VD: Evening. Yeah.
CB: Right. Yeah. When are we talking about? What time? What date? Roughly. Are we talking about Blitz time? During the Blitz.
VD: Oh, the Blitz. Yes. Yeah.
CB: 1941 ’42.
VD: Yeah.
CB: ’40 ’41.
VD: Yeah.
CB: ’40 ’41.
VD: It was an awful period really.
CB: So Alan’s flying. How did you feel about him flying?
VD: Well, I mean I knew that he was flying and I knew that that was all he really wanted to do so you know you just accepted it really.
CB: And in later, after the end of hostilities. The war finished.
VD: Yeah.
CB: He was still flying. How did you feel about that?
VD: Well, it was what he wanted to do. It was up to him. It’s his life wasn’t it?
CB: Yeah. Yeah. And before the children came you were able to do a lot of things together anyway were you?
VD: Well, I [pause] do you know I can’t remember what we did before we had them [laughs]
Other: Practiced.
VD: Pardon?
Other: Practiced.
CB: Yeah. Because you married in 1950 so —
VD: ’50. And Janet was born in ’53.
CB: Yeah.
VD: Yeah. I had a miscarriage in between. Between. When we living at Bovingdon.
CB: Right.
VD: I had a miscarriage.
CB: Caravans didn’t help.
VD: Hmmn?
CB: Caravans didn’t help.
VD: No. Oh no. I had a, the miscarriage was after Janet. Janet was only two and a bit because we had to ask that, he had to go and knock the people up in the next caravan and ask them if they would take Janet.
CB: Oh.
VD: Because it was quite a messy business in the caravan. The doctor came out and then I went to Halton. And then we stayed there and a couple of years later I had Tim at Halton.
CB: Yeah.
VD: Yeah. So there were four years difference between —
CB: Yeah.
VD: Janet and Tim.
CB: Right. Now, fast forward to the situation where you’ve gone to Bassingbourn and then you’ve gone to Cottesmore. So Cottesmore.
VD: Yeah.
CB: We’re talking about V bombers. Cold War.
VD: Pardon?
CB: We’re talking about the Vulcan.
VD: Yeah. That’s right.
CB: The Victor in this case.
VD: Yes. Because there was the Cold War. They used to sometimes be on call and so he had to stay in the mess all over the weekend and they couldn’t come out. You know.
CB: QRA. Quick Reaction Alert.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
VD: Yeah.
CB: So, how did you feel about him being in that circumstance? It was different from the war but on the other hand —
VD: Well, it was terrifying really but you know I think you were sort of conditioned if you were in a service. You were a service wife. You knew what you were going into didn’t you? You know. Really.
CB: Well, there were two aspects weren’t there? One was flying.
VD: Yeah.
CB: And the danger.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Of just plain flying. But if there had been a war situation to what extent did you discuss that? How it would work.
VD: I can’t remember that we did. No. I can’t really remember that we talked about it.
[pause]
CB: Because the perception was amongst the people, the aircrew.
VD: Yeah.
CB: That when the operation started they would be off to drop a bomb.
VD: That’s right.
CB: But the likelihood of coming back.
VD: That was —
CB: To anything.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Or actually getting back.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Was quite small.
VD: Yeah.
CB: But if they did the place would be devastated.
VD: Yes. That’s right.
CB: I just wondered to what extent that was a realisation that you had at the time.
VD: Well, I can’t remember sort of getting neurotic about it, you know. I do think service wives in a way were sort of I suppose you could say conditioned. They knew. They knew what they were letting themselves in for and you know life had got to go on and made the best of it.
CB: And at Cottesmore you had a married quarter.
VD: Yes.
CB: So, most of the married crews would have lived in married quarters.
VD: Yes.
CB: In those days.
VD: Oh yeah.
CB: The wives were pulled together. Not many of them worked did they?
VD: No. No. Because we were ten miles from Stamford.
CB: No.
VD: There wasn’t much opportunity to work.
CB: No. And people didn’t work.
VD: No.
CB: In those days so much.
VD: No.
CB: But the centre of the wives activity was the CO. The squadron — the station commander’s wife.
VD: Yeah.
CB: So, did, what did she do in terms of —
VD: Not a lot [laughs]
CB: Oh.
VD: That I can remember. There used to be the odd coffee morning and that sort of thing. But do you know I can’t really remember what we did. Of course then I had another baby while we were there.
CB: Yeah.
VD: At Cottesmore. He was born five years after Tim. And he was born in Oakham.
CB: Yeah.
VD: Oakham Cottage Hospital.
CB: Yeah. Yeah. What’s his name?
VD: Martyn.
CB: Oh Martyn. Right.
Other: With a Y.
VD: Hmmn?
Other: With a Y. With a Y.
CB: Martyn. Y. Yeah. Ok. And what about the social life around the officer’s mess?
VD: Well, they used to have the Summer Ball and that sort of thing. And lots of, lots of the people used to go in to the mess and especially Saturday evenings and just socialise and drink. But neither Alan or I were big drinkers so we didn’t go very often.
CB: And with young children on your hands.
VD: Yes.
Other: And a dog.
CB: And a dog.
VD: Pardon?
CB: And a dog.
VD: And a dog. Yeah.
CB: Yes. So you were a bit restricted there. How did you feel about your time at Cottesmore?
VD: Oh yes. I enjoyed it.
CB: And in the forces in peacetime friendships are developed more because of the married patch.
VD: Yes.
CB: How did that develop for you?
VD: Well, I kept in touch with a few wives for quite a, quite a long while but it gradually sort of [pause] I’m not in touch with anybody. Am I? Who?
Other: Esme.
VD: Oh yes.
Other: Esme.
VD: I am.
Other: Mrs Hoxey.
VD: I’ve got a great friend called Esme. Her husband was a pilot. She lives in Macclesfield now.
CB: Right.
VD: We became pregnant when we, I mean we became friends when we were both pregnant.
CB: Yes.
VD: And, and then we used to take it in turns to babysit for each other. One Saturday one would go shopping. Go to Chichester and go shopping. And that was nice.
Other: Mrs Bone. Mrs Hoxey. Mrs Bone. Mrs Hoxey.
VD: Who?
Other: Bone. Hoxey. Mrs Bone. Mrs Hoxey.
VD: Oh, the Bones. Yeah. I mean I’m still, exchange Christmas cards with a lot of these people but you know distance. The distance means that you can’t always visit and that sort of thing.
CB: Yes. It’s a close-knit community.
VD: Yes. It is.
CB: In that sort of situation.
VD: Yeah.
CB: So then, at the end of the service time and going to Handley Page how did the social life change then?
VD: Well, I was in, we were civilians by then you see.
CB: That’s what I meant. Yes.
VD: We came to live in Bedmond which is, you know a village. And I joined the WI and I did go out to work for a while when, whilst Alan was out of work for one period. For about eight or nine months. And I worked in Watford. But it was difficult because the buses didn’t fit, you know. So, I didn’t carry that on very long.
CB: Right.
VD: Some, of course we were members of the church. There’s a church in Bedmond.
CB: Yeah.
VD: And —
Other: Dad got involved with local politics.
VD: Pardon?
Other: Dad got involved with local politics.
VD: Oh yes. Alan became a local councillor.
CB: Oh right.
VD: Yeah. Yeah. He was a Three Rivers District Councillor.
CB: Yeah. How long did he do that for? Ten years.
Other: Several years.
VD: Hmmn?
Other: Several years. Several years.
VD: Several years. Yeah. I can’t tell you exactly.
CB: And during that time there was a change to BA. So what did that do as far as you were concerned? Was it a good salary hike and [pause] but of course he was working further away from where he was living. Did he get a good increase in salary for moving there?
VD: No. He didn’t get the job at British Airways until after he was living there.
CB: Yeah.
VD: Yeah. He had to wait until there was a vacancy I suppose.
CB: Yeah.
Other: I don’t think it was.
VD: Hmmn?
Other: I don’t think it was. It was just a job he could get related to flying. At his age. And I don’t think the pay was very good.
VD: How could you know? You weren’t very old.
CB: So, it sounds as though, that it wasn’t a planned career move as such. It was just a—
VD: No. It was just a means to an end.
CB: Yes.
VD: Because the end of the time that we were being very good, in a very good position for [pause] well, cheap flights.
CB: Oh yeah.
VD: And eventually free flights. We got one free flight a year so we went as far as we could on it. We went to New Zealand. Several times.
CB: Did you? Yeah. Good move.
Other: Twenty five times.
CB: Twenty five. Twenty five times.
VD: No. Not twenty five. Twenty.
Other: No. Twenty five.
VD: Twenty. Twenty.
CB: That’s a lot of times.
VD: A lot of times. Yes. We’ve got lots —
CB: Did you have any relatives there?
VD: No. Just lots of friends though.
CB: Yeah.
VD: Yes. We made lots of friends.
CB: And were any of those ones you’d met in the air force?
VD: No. No.
CB: Just coincidence.
VD: Yeah.
Other: But Violet you met in Dr Barnardo’s.
VD: Pardon?
Other: Violet, you met at Dr Barnardo’s.
VD: Sorry, Janet?
CB: Somebody you met at Dr Barnardo’s was there?
Other: Violet Smith.
VD: Hmmn?
Other: Violet Smith.
VD: Oh no. Yes. That’s right. She, yes she was the only contact we had wasn’t she? Yes
CB: Was she New Zealand?
VD: Hmmn?
CB: Was she a New Zealander.
VD: Oh yes. She and her husband went out on one of those hundred.
CB: Oh yeah. Pounds.
VD: Hundred.
Other: Ten pounds.
CB: Ten pound arrangement wasn’t it?
VD: Ten pound.
CB: Yes.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
VD: Yeah.
CB: For —
VD: Yeah
CB: To encourage people to emigrate.
VD: She was our first contact.
CB: Yeah.
VD: Yeah.
CB: And she stayed there did she?
VD: Yeah. She died eventually and her husband died but I’m still in touch with some of her children. Yeah.
CB: What would you say Alan’s most memorable activity was? Event? In his time in the RAF.
VD: Well, they had a nasty incident whilst he was at Calshot. They were doing what were called circuits and bumps and flying at night and suddenly there was this almighty sort of crash and, but they didn’t, they didn’t crash as such but — and they had evidently hit a piece of high ground.
CB: Oh.
VD: With a hole. You know, the hole —
CB: Yes. And bounced off it.
VD: And so they had to fly around all night. They were plugging up holes in the fuselage with chewing gum and all sort of things. And when they eventually landed of course they’d, they’d radioed ahead to say, you know, what was happening so the boats, the boats were there because it was almost as soon as it landed it started to fill with water.
CB: Yeah.
VD: And, but they were all, they were all alright. Anyway, it was quite a nasty business because at first it was assumed it was Alan’s fault.
CB: Oh.
VD: But then the — what is it? Altimeter was found to be faulty.
CB: Oh.
VD: And they had — but the strange thing about it was that nobody ever reported finding, you know like a furrow suddenly appearing in a field or on a hillside. Or whatever it was. Yeah. That wasn’t, although of course I didn’t know it was happening. I just wondered why he was so late home.
CB: Oh.
VD: Yeah.
CB: And you were living —
VD: We were living in Fawley. In rented accommodation.
CB: Right.
Other: Was that, was that a Catalina or Sunderland?
VD: Hmmn?
Other: Was that a Catalina or Sunderland?
VD: A Sunderland.
CB: Ok.
VD: No. He didn’t fly Catalina’s. Weren’t they American?
CB: They were.
VD: Yeah.
CB: Only Sunderland. Yeah. Ok. Right. One other thing and that is when Alan was out in Ceylon did he, was he awarded any decoration?
VD: No. I don’t think so.
CB: No.
VD: No.
CB: Ok. Right. Stopping there.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with Violet Dicker
Creator
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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
2016-10-15
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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ADickerV161015
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
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00:43:03 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Civilian
Description
An account of the resource
Violet discusses her late husband Alan Dicker. Alan went to Leighton County High School and at 16 he joined the Air Transport Command. At 17 he volunteered for the Air Force and became a navigator after doing his basic training at Blackpool. He went to America and Canada before being shipped out to the Far East where he stayed until 1947 as a Signal Officer. He also spent time in Singapore. Alan was then posted to Cornwall as a pilot officer where he dropped mail to the lighthouses and flew to the weather stations.
Violet remembered when Alan was knocked off his motorbike by an army lorry and suffered broken ribs. Soon after they were married. He was later posted to Coney Island. Later he worked for the Air Ministry at Ruislip, route planning for VIPs. He retired at Cottesmore and worked as a test navigator for Handley Page until they went into bankruptcy. When a vacancy arose at British Airways, he held a desk job until his retirement. Throughout Alan’s RAF career he worked with 205 and 203 Squadrons.
Violet gave a short account of her working life. She left school at 15 and got a job at the Air Ministry, and after that she worked at Dr Barnados homes. At 17 she joined the Land Army for two years and then went back to work for Dr Barnados.
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
United States
Singapore
England--Cornwall (County)
England--London
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1947
Contributor
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Sue Smith
Julie Williams
205 Squadron
aircrew
home front
navigator
pilot
RAF Calshot
RAF Ruislip
RAF St Eval
shelter
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/185/3630/ASayerT151202.2.mp3
ba6057852e62c62cbbfc007b82267a39
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
Sayer, Tom
Tom Sayer
T Sayer
Description
An account of the resource
13 items. An oral history interview with Flying Officer Thomas Sayer DFM (1922 - 2021, 591744 54901 Royal Air Force), two log books, service material, newspaper cuttings and photographs. After training as a pilot in the United States of America, Tom Sayer flew Halifaxes with 102 Squadron at RAF Pocklington. He was commissioned in 1944 and became an instructor.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Tom Sayer and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-17
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. 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
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Sayer, T
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: So my name is Chris Brockbank and I’m in Chalfont St Giles with Thomas Sayer DFM and we’re going to talk about his life and times. And today is the 7th of December 2015. So, Tom would you like to start with your earliest recollections please and then take it right through joining the RAF, what you did in the RAF and afterwards.
TS: The first recollections are that on a spring day in about ’28 I was [pause] no ’24. ’24. I was in the front of the house. Farmhouse. My father was busy in the yard because he wanted to get everything ready for the harvest and I was told that I hadn’t to interrupt my father because he was there doing it all by hand. There was no machinery and he just had to take the file and sharpen all the different tools which were necessary. Especially the mower where the thing went from side to side and it was pulled by one horse because we only had one horse. There was another one but it wasn’t trained to do that sort of thing. But anyway, and I was told not to interrupt. My mother said I didn’t had to, didn’t have to interrupt. I had to not to interrupt. And that was what he was doing. I was watching my father doing this and he was sharpening these tools as I said. And I was looking at the birds at the same time and the birds were quite happy to flutter quite close to us because they had nests nearby and we’d been, we were living there and so we were all good friends. One thing you certainly found though was when the birds just disappeared that there was a cat around and that is something which I also learned. That the cat would have the birds if the birds didn’t fly away. And how come the birds could fly like that when we couldn’t fly was a question in my mind. And it seemed strange that they just opened their wings and flapped them and they went up in the air. Now, I was going to ask my father that but of course I had to be quiet because he hadn’t to be interrupted while he was doing this job. As I say, all by hand and if he cut his hand then that would be, then be awkward for carrying on with the job. And that was my first outlook as to why people fly. How can people fly because I hadn’t seen anybody, people fly because they haven’t got the wings that the birdies have? And so, then sometime after, I don’t know if it was the next year I was playing around. I was still not at school and there was a terrific noise and it seemed to be coming up the valley and then all of a sudden there was this machine flying in the air and that was the first time I saw an aeroplane. And I then mentioned this to my father and at different times I mentioned things like that to him. He noticed that there was a, I can’t remember the name of it again but the air force. Each unit gave a showcase to the public once a year and there was one at Catterick and Catterick was just a small aerodrome apparently and dealing with the air force and the army getting together. And he, however, we had — he owned a motorbike and side car. Maximum speed about twenty five miles an hour I think. And we set off and it took us just a little while to get to Catterick and I was amazed of these things and he said they could fly but they weren’t flying. They were just sitting there. And then all of a sudden there was some activity and somebody came along and jumped on to the wing of the aeroplane and then disappeared into the aeroplane and somebody else came along with something in his hand and he started winding and winding and this thing at the front with a roar from an engine started up. The chappie who was on the wing slid down and off and then I think they were moving something from in front of the wheels of the aircraft and then he took away and went around the field, and then it turned around and then it, with a big roar came just right over me flying in the air. That was when I first saw a real aeroplane close up. From then on all I wanted to do was fly an aeroplane. And I read books if I could get hold of them. There weren’t many books in those days but if I could get books I would have a look at the books. I wouldn’t say read but I hadn’t really learned to read. And I was told that I, if I wanted to join the air force you had to pass exams. And if you had to pass exams you had to listen to what the teacher said and so on and so forth. So there was only one teacher at this school for the whole of the school and she was teaching people from five to fourteen and a few of each all divided up and so on and so forth. And I quickly found myself being pushed in to the higher ones of age and I was the youngest one by quite a while in this, in this group and I was catching my sister up as well which she didn’t think much of. So, anyway, I also was told that if I passed an examination by the local authority which had just come in in the 1930s, it was just a common thing where you could, if you passed the exam you got your schooling at the grammar school for free and it depended on how much you succeeded in the exam as to whether you got transport or not and so on and so forth. And so I really went for it and I got the top rate and was able then to go to the grammar school. But to get to the grammar school I had to get to a railway station which was two and a half miles up hill and downhill and then at Aysgarth Station where I’d join the train and then the other people who’d been coming in. The rest of the Dale and they were all coming up and we went up to Askrigg where the Yorebridge Grammar School was. And I, we, I soon found out that you had to work there as well and work quite hard otherwise you were chastised by the headmaster. If he knew that you could learn and you didn’t learn you got in to trouble. But I wanted to learn anyway and I did. I did learn and moved up as I said into another, the next year up so that I was in, I’d already done a year at school before I’d started it if you’d like to put it that way. But myself and another young girl who just happened to be my wife later on in the things and we were great pals and we joined together and we were — had to battle because of the, we having been moved up a year the people who were in the second year didn’t think much of it and she used to, shall I say, hover around me because for protection etcetera. Verbal mainly. Anyway, we both passed our exams and I wanted to join the air force and I had learned, had got some information that if I had the school certificate I could go in as apprentice and so, I went in as an apprentice. And that meant that the young lady was left at school and she was going in. I spent from the beginning, I was still at school at the Christmas and I joined the air force just in the beginning of the next year you see. But she was left in there and then she decided she’d had enough because when the war came on at the 3rd of September 1939 she decided that she didn’t want to go to university because in the first place she didn’t think her family could afford her going there and then she — because a lot of the exams and that were disturbed by the war she decided to come out. And she had an aunt who lived in [pause] not far from Croydon and so she came down here and she got herself a job in London. And she was on that, in that capacity going higher and higher because she was doing quite well until we were married which wasn’t until after the war. I think that was my fault but I thought I’d seen times when people had come back from their marriage and within days they’d gone missing and I thought that must have been terrible for the wife. To be a wife for such a short time and then be in that situation. And so, it got towards the end of the war and we sort of drifted apart a little and it wasn’t ‘til after I’d established myself in a job here in the south, in the south of England that I could make contact with her again and after a few very heart to heart talks we decided to get married. She died ten years ago. And we had two children. They are now retired. That is it as far as that’s concerned. But the air force was my chief thing and I managed to persuade the people. I was, my apprentice, I was in accounts because I was very good with figures but I would rather have been in the mechanic side of it but anyway that was way they had accepted me in to the air force and I worked hard and I got results and I was soon an NCO. Well before I was eighteen I was an NCO in charge of the whole of the stores side of the station and two new squadrons. And so, some people apparently couldn’t believe it but I did it because the chappie who was in charge had come in from the Civvie Street and of course he knew nothing about, not a lot about the accountancy in the air force. And so he sort of relied on me and they were just building up this station with two squadrons and so I started up the whole of the side from the stores side of it. I didn’t do anything with the pay, pay side. And then when I was eighteen I applied to fly. So I started flying. The chappie in charge of the accounts was not at all thrilled by it and I said, ‘Well sir you’ve got people who had the same instruction as me when I came in. there are ex-apprentices in there, in that lot, who are in the pay side so they should be able to do the job.’ I never found out whether it was successful or not. I just joined the air force. It was quite easy for me in the early part of that because I knew all about drill. I knew all about the rules and regulations and so therefore I had quite an easy time. And I did have a little chat with one chappy who started to order me around. I was an NCO and it seemed as though he didn’t like me being an NCO for some reason and so I said to him, I said, ‘Now look. I think that you are probably an LAC with an acting sergeant.’ And so on. And he looked at me and I said, ‘Yes. That’s enough.’ And he never tried any more with me. I just —but I didn’t, I wasn’t interested in doing anything to him because all I wanted to do was go flying. But that’s me. And so anyway. Where did I go flying? Yes, well, I went down to the south coast. I could point to it on a map but it’s just gone and where the initial side of learning to fly was and that was when I had that chat with that chappy. And then we were told we were going abroad to be trained as pilots. One point which has always interested me was when I was having the medical, as they called it, for, to see whether I was fit to fly you had to look and do certain things to see that your brain was coordinating with your hands or your hands were coordinating with your brain. Which was very important of course in flying. And it, anyway, I just lost a little ground there. We —
[Pause]
CB: So your initial flying assessment.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Was on the south coast.
TS: Yes.
CB: And that’s where they were doing those tests.
TS: Yes. Yes.
CB: That’s wasn’t at Torquay was it?
TS: No. I was at Torquay but I don’t think. That is what I can’t remember exactly where that –
CB: It doesn’t matter because we can pick up on it later.
TS: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: But then they decided that you should be trained abroad.
TS: Yes.
CB: And there were lots of places they trained abroad so where did you go?
TS: Yeah. A little point on this test.
CB: Yes.
TS: There was a test there and there was something where you looked with one eye and you had to get it level and all the rest of it and then the other eye and so on and so forth and then the chappie who was in charge of it went and talked to somebody and he said, ‘Well, will you do it again?’ And so I thought to myself aren’t I going to pass this then?’ Then he said — I asked, I said, ‘Why am I being asked to do it again?’ I said, ‘Haven’t I got it?’ He said, ‘Got it?, he said, ‘You’re the best bloody so and so on there.’ He said, ‘That’s why I [unclear] he said, ‘Its ages since we’ve got anybody who could do that.’ And so, I thought oh that’s fair enough. And of course, I’ve still got very good eyesight. I know I need to sometimes just to read but I can almost tell you how many leaves are on that. No. Not there [laughs] the one at the back. I can see if there’s a cow, or a lamb or anything goes in the field right near that tree quite easily yet. The only time I have to is when I need to read something and I’m fiddling around with these things. Now where have we get to?
CB: So, you did the test and they were very impressed.
TS: Yes.
CB: So, then what?
TS: Then we went to go abroad and it might seem as though it’s quite easy. Just get on a boat and go but it wasn’t as easy as that because apparently we were to go to Iceland and pick up another, another ship in Iceland and we were supposed to be going on a certain day and then we didn’t go. And then, this was when we were in Cheshire. North Cheshire. And we had to sail from Liverpool. And we were going to go and then we didn’t go. We were going to go and then we didn’t go. And that was the sort of situation we felt we were in. And so eventually we did go and on the boat where we left Liverpool was such a lovely boat. It smelled of nothing but cows and what cows had left behind. And they, they’d taken a ship which was being used for bringing cattle from Ireland to Scotland and they’d grabbed it and said they would do this and they’d supposedly scrubbed it out and supposedly that was our ship to get us to Iceland because the other ship just disappeared. And so that was going away from a farm and then I got the smell of a farm as I was on the ship.
CB: Fantastic.
TS: The first ship that I’d been on. And there you are. So, Iceland was quite interesting because we had to go on this ship because the other one as I say had been lost somewhere and we were late and apparently this big ship just coming out of Reykjavik harbour was the one we were supposed to be on. But it didn’t stop and pick us up and we were just dropped in Reykjavik and the boat went away and nobody, you know, there was no arrangements been made for us to be there. And so there was a little, I think it’s something to do with the, not radio so much, as to do with atmosphere which was being looked into by a gaggle of air force people and then they were sending the messages back to England but we weren’t really interested in that. But they couldn’t cope with a great big horde of people. I think there were about fifty odd of us there and then they shifted us a bit further up where there was another little air force base. And they could feed us and they could give us sleeping accommodation but no beds or anything. We could, we more or less slept in what we had. Well, after a while it was a little difficult because there was no hot water. The only heat they were using was where they wanted to do their cooking because they didn’t have the fuel to do a whole load of heating. Heating water and such. So, we said well how about, I think it was one of, one of our blokes, anyway we would go to the, one of these pools which are in Iceland and therefore, therefore we could have our baths there and it was quite interesting to some of the locals who happened to be females [laughs] and it was quite, you know, jolly and all the rest of it. You know, it was, there was nothing serious. There was one person in there who was serious and I don’t think she really thought we should be there. And I think she was apparently of German descent or something. Anyway, it didn’t worry me. We just, and we got on to another boat and we went to Canada. And then at Canada we jumped on a train and we thought oh well we’re just going along to Halifax, not, from Halifax to Toronto. We were just going from Halifax to Toronto but we didn’t realise it didn’t take you one day. It took you about three days to get from Halifax to Toronto and then the size of the place. Looking at the maps that I’d used at school and that going from there to there and then you had to go to there to be at the other side of Canada meant Canada was a very big wide place. And then again, when we set out from there we went to Toronto as I said and then when we were at Toronto we were given civvies. So we didn’t really know — ‘What do we want civvies for? None of the others seemed to have civvies.’ So we jumped on the train and we didn’t go out the west. We went south and then we found we were in the United States of America and as we were, as we entered America they warned us to keep away from the windows because there were some people in America who were stoning these trains because they didn’t want to be involved in the war and some of them were of German descent didn’t want us to be fighting the war anyway. But we got, the further south we got the more accompanied we got and the more warmer we got and so on and so forth. And — and we went to Georgia. Georgia was a big place. Now, I need my logbook to give you the exact — DAR Aerotech. That’s it DAR Aerotech. Now where in Georgia? Can’t remember.
CB: It doesn’t matter. We’ll pick up with it later.
TS: And yes, it was a civilian outfit but with American Air Corps instructors. And it got us going on the, as far as the flying concerned in quite a nice atmosphere and with hardly any discipline as, you know, the rigid discipline and we would just fall in and we’d be marched from one place to another but apart from that there was nothing on that side. And the — quite a noisy lot. One or two of them. One gaggle of them was noisy but as the weeks went by the noise seemed to grow less and less and less. So, they were no longer there. But the chappies like — quite a few of us were ex-apprentices and we knew the ropes as far as the air force was concerned and therefore we drift in to flying that matters. Playing silly boys around the table didn’t matter to us at all. And that’s my attitude about it as well now. If you have a job to do the job’s there and you do that regardless. And it, it was quite an eye opener and brain damaging almost that I was having to accommodate a lot more all at once. Different things. Bits and pieces here and there. The locals were ok but we were told we had to be in civvies and we were told that we had to be careful and certain areas were supposedly out of bounds and because of the German people who were American German or German American. And once or twice we’d wander off in to the wilderness as it looked like and there would be a little village of coloured people. And we managed to chat with them. At first, they were very shy of us. They didn’t, you know, they didn’t talk to the white people and the white people didn’t talk to them sort of thing and they were quite amazed that we’d come. They’d heard of England. They’d knew England. Somewhere. You know. It was mystical place to most of them. And it was quite a nice pleasant chat to them on more than one occasion when we just strolled around there in the evening and then went back to base and went to bed and started another day and most of the chappies who had been in the air force before the war went through. Got through all right. Very few of them didn’t. But it was a very strict situation. Not only as far as behaviour was concerned but as far as remembering what you were supposed to be there for and to get on and get, do the job. Then we went to, having passed on the primary we went to another one and this was an intermediate one which was a little further north. When I say a little further north — about a hundred and fifty miles and there we were right in to the US Army Air Corps. Another experience. So that was another step we had to make. And it was really strict but we wanted to learn to fly so we decided that we wanted to fly. Well we got on with it and we were flying the Vultee BT13As. I don’t know whether you’ve come across it. And then they had, of course, on the first place we were on biplanes. Stearmans. And then it was a move in the right direction which I was able to take quite quickly. It had a fixed undercarriage but we did have flaps and we had a two speed prop. I think those were the main changes. They also had both out there and they had the wings and all the rest of it. And then we moved on to the North American AT6A which is the Harvard in the British air force and, well you got all the details of that before. hadn’t you so-? And we passed. We passed out. Those who made it. And back to England.
CB: So how many hours did you accumulate in your flying? In the basic flying and in the intermediate. Roughly.
TS: I think when we’d finished we had about four hundred hours flying.
CB: So, you got your wings at that stage, did you?
TS: Yes.
CB: And who gave you the wings?
TS: Well the wings I got, we got, were American Air Corps wings. And I’ve still got them.
CB: So, there wasn’t an RAF officer presenting RAF wings.
TS: No. No.
CB: Interesting. Right.
TS: It wasn’t until we got back to Canada that we could have the RAF wings.
CB: Because the war, this is pre-Pearl Harbour isn’t it we’re talking about? We’re talking about ‘40 ’41.
TS: When we were at, on the final lot. We went from the station we were then on in [pause] the next state. The next state to the west.
CB: Yes.
TS: Yes. And then we went from there to the main Florida place for the US Army Air Corps and when we got there — we had to fly our own planes from the Station. Take our planes and land them there. We all went in one big formation.
CB: Right.
TS: And landed there. And then we could see all the new planes coming along and I was most interested in that and I started wandering along. Nobody said anything so I wandered further and I saw that the, the very [pause] what they call the touchy plane. The twin-engined with the big engines in the American Army Air Corps.
CB: What the B25 Mitchell? Was it?
TS: No. No it was —
CB: Before that.
TS: No. It was after that.
CB: Oh right.
TS: There was a bigger one with a bigger engine.
CB: Right.
TS: It was difficult to fly on one engine.
CB: A Marauder.
TS: A Marauder. Yes.
CB: Ok. But you flew over there in your Harvards.
TS: Yes. But we didn’t fly in these planes.
CB: No. I know.
TS: But they were there.
CB: Yeah. Yeah.
TS: And I was going around while other people were doing all sorts of other things.
CB: Right.
TS: I was going around all those planes and looking at them.
CB: It wasn’t Fort Lauderdale was it? In Florida. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. We can pick that up later. So, you got there and that’s when you were awarded your wings was it? in Florida.
TS: No. No.
CB: Oh it was in the previous one.
TS: We came back again.
CB: Oh right. Came back again. Right.
TS: We came back again. And we got the American wings and then we got our English wings when we were in Canada.
CB: Right. They just did a straight swap when you got to Canada.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Did they do a parade? To —
TS: I don’t, I don’t know. I can’t remember. I can’t remember.
CB: So, you got back to Canada. Then what?
TS: Then I caught measles.
CB: Oh.
JS: Oh dear.
TS: And that changed my life.
CB: In what way?
TS: Well, all the people I was with —
CB: Oh yeah.
TS: They went back to England. And there was me. I didn’t feel well. I didn’t want to go to the [unclear] and I was apparently staggering around. So they more or less forced me in to see the doc. And I remember going in and him saying, ‘And what’s the matter with you then?’ Something like that. And that’s, two days later I woke up [pause] because I hadn’t gone early enough for it to be sorted out because I wanted to go back to England. So, I lost all my friends and everything. I came back as a lonely man. If you can imagine one airman on a boat with about four hundred other servicemen but none of them airmen. It was quite interesting. I could go anywhere I wanted on the boat. Nobody, nobody queried it because all the rest were the, were the Canadian army and they were quite restricted in their, they had all their different — but I could go anywhere on the boat and that was it. And it was only because I’d come out of hospital. And then when I got to England they couldn’t find my papers or anything because apparently, I was supposed to come on the —they’d been looking for me and there were some papers and there was no body. And they didn’t know that I’d been left in Canada. And you can imagine me trying to explain to these people what was what. It was ages. I just, I think it was about three weeks I was there. I was nobody because I couldn’t prove that I was who I supposed to be.
CB: You had an id card on you presumably.
TS: Well, I can’t remember. I expect I must have had something there.
CB: And your tags.
TS: Yes. But they —
CB: But they thought you were absent without leave.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Now at that stage you’d been a sergeant technically throughout your flying training had you?
TS: No. I was only corporal.
CB: Corporal. Right.
TS: Corporal.
CB: When you get back to Britain what rank are you then?
TS: I am a sergeant.
CB: Exactly. Yeah. When you got your wings.
TS: Yes.
CB: You became a sergeant.
TS: Yes.
CB: Right. Ok. So, you get back to Liverpool.
TS: Well. No.
CB: They try and sort you out.
TS: No. It wasn’t Liverpool.
CB: Ah.
TS: This was —
CB: Up in Scotland was it? Prestwick.
TS: No. No. No. This was at a Yorkshire place. Not York. Harrogate. Harrogate. And I was sort of the only one in. It isn’t as though I had friends or anything. I was just this little one person who wanted to be known but they didn’t have the proper paperwork so I couldn’t. But they did feed me.
CB: Ok. How long did that go on for?
TS: About two or three weeks. I can’t really remember but — I still don’t know where my books are.
CB: No. So here you are in Harrogate which was a sort of holding place —
TS: Yeah.
CB: Before allocating you so now you’re trained to wings standard with a lot of flying. What happened next?
TS: Well I went to an — not an OTU. An advanced flying place where after having flown the AT6A with all the little knobs in it I flew a mighty Oxford [laughs] with a little bit of fans going on.
CB: Yes.
TS: Yes. And you had to be careful with the Oxford because it — if you misbehaved it let you know.
CB: So, you’re on twin engines and you’re only used to singles.
TS: Yes.
CB: So where’s the Advanced Training School?
TS: That was at Upwood. Not Upwood. Upwood.
CB: In Cambridgeshire.
TS: No. No. It wasn’t in Cambridgeshire. You go down the Great North Road as it used to be there. You come to right next to it. I could put my hand straight to it on the map. Anyway, this, we can work that out later and it was Oxfords and when I was being trained on how to fly and all the rest of it and I just happened to say that I’d never flown an aircraft which had constant speed props. I got a bit of a mouthful from the person who was trying to teach me how to fly a twin-engined aircraft ‘cause he thought I wasn’t taking sufficient notice. But anyway, I was alright and I was alright at night as well. That was when we started flying at nights and I think that had I got back with the gaggle instead of having measles I would have gone forward on the fighter pilot side of it but I, it was sort of the — some of us seemed to have no home at Harrogate and we were the ones who were pushed in to there but that didn’t matter. I was flying. That was the main thing. And then I went, of course, on to Blenheims.
CB: Where was that?
TS: That’s Upwood. Blenheims was Upwood. So that brain there had got too far forward hadn’t it?
CB: Yeah. And that’s the OTU.
TS: Yeah. And then just as we were finishing that the Blenheims were withdrawn from the front line and so as we were used to flying low because we did low flying with the Blenheims then we went to 10 OTU detachment flying Whitleys. Then we learned how, I picked up then there would be five with us in the crew. It was three with the Blenheim and then having five crew when we were flying Whitleys. So, a lovely move wasn’t it from playing? So, it meant that one way and another I had flown all sorts of different types of aircraft and I wasn’t unduly worried about it. I just, I could just get in to the planes and do it. It was like later on when we were after ops and I was instructing on Whitleys and then the Whitleys were falling apart so they came with with the Wellingtons and so there was somebody who had been on Wellingtons and he came along to teach me how to fly and I just went in and I just went and I took off and I came in and landed. He said, ‘I can’t learn — I can’t teach any bloody thing at all.’ And that’s just because I could. This brain of mine could just concentrate on, on these things. Well that lever’s there. I didn’t know that a lot of people had a lot of trouble having to remember where all these things were. Once I’d sat down in an aircraft it looked as though I knew where they all were and that’s one reason I think why I survived.
CB: So, you’re on Wellingtons.
TS: Yes. Just for a short time. No. We were still on Whitleys at the OTU.
CB: Right. Ok.
TS: And then we went down to Cornwall where we did the anti-sub patrols.
CB: St Mawgan.
TS: St Eval.
CB: St Eval. Ok. So that’s your Bay of Biscay flying. What was the pattern of flying there?
TS: Well you jumped into the, well you crawled in to the aircraft and as you were taxi-ing you realised that there was an awful lot weight on there because we had so much fuel on board and although I’d flown the plane without being weighed so much it was quite an experience to realise that you just had to concentrate quite a lot more and make sure that the engines were ok. Which you had to do by sound mainly. And that the — you had all your flaps up and wheels up etcetera and so forth and then you could happily go and do anything up to ten hours sitting in a seat. Driving an aeroplane.
CB: Did you have autopilot in the Whitley?
TS: Yes, but I never, I never took to the auto pilot. There was, even on the Halifax I never used it. I used to trim the aircraft so it could fly itself. That’s what I did. Yeah.
CB: So, on the anti-submarine patrols what did you do? What was the pattern of your work? You take off.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Then what?
TS: Then you’d go to the Scilly isles. And from there you would be given a triangular trip which would be anything up to ten hours over the Bay of Biscay. And sometimes you would [pause] over the Bay of Biscay you’d never see another aircraft until you got back again.
CB: Are we in daylight or at night?
TS: On daylight.
CB: Right.
TS: Of course, we didn’t want to see the German aircraft which were looking for us because we would have been just, you know, been hopeless. All we had was the four guns at the back and a pop-up gun at the back and any Junkers 88s or ME110s would have just shot us out of the sky if we were found. So, we, when we were nearest to France we were very very low down on the sea.
CB: How low would you fly consistently?
TS: I can’t really work it out in feet. It’s just [unclear] but you could definitely, you could definitely see the waves and the forming of the waves and all the rest of it.
CB: Are we talking about a thousand feet? Or —
TS: Oh no. No. No.
CB: Five hundred feet. Or lower.
TS: No. No. A Hundred feet.
CB: Right. So, the intensity of concentration was considerable.
TS: Yes. And then if you wanted to relax a little bit you could come up a bit above the shade and relax a bit more. There was — we did have with us another pilot but we knew nothing about him because he, he just arrived when we were going on the plane so we couldn’t even talk to him about anything. He just came in and sat at the co-pilot’s seat there and so I just let him sit there because I wasn’t going to let him fly my aeroplane unless I knew what he could do. And we were supposed to be keeping low over there. And then he’d just get off the plane and disappear. And it seemed to be a different person every time. So, I thought, well, no continuity. If I had to have somebody who I wanted to do a course and all the rest of it then there was some sense to if I had him every time.
CB: Where did they come from? These people.
TS: I don’t know.
CB: Oh. They weren’t your squadron members.
TS: Oh No. No. No. I think —
CB: Were they experienced?
TS: No.
CB: Coastal Command people.
TS: No.
CB: Oh, they weren’t.
TS: They were all sergeant pilots and the way they, you know, I don’t think they knew much about flying. Just, after the first two when I started talking about one or two things he just sat there. They just sat there and I wasn’t sure that they could fly that aeroplane at the height I wanted them to fly it. It wouldn’t be right down low either. And so —
CB: Did you ever let them take over?
TS: No.
CB: Put it up a bit and take over.
TS: No.
CB: Right.
TS: No.
CB: So here you are flying along. What are you doing? A square search. Or how are you operating?
TS: Triangular.
CB: Triangular search. Which is? How does that operate because it’s not continuous over this same area is it?
TS: No. The —
CB: The triangle moves.
TS: We’ll say this is, this is the Bay of Biscay.
CB: Yes.
TS: And there’s France. And there’s Spain.
CB: Yeah.
TS: And here are we. Well you’d sometimes go that way around and come back again or you go that way around. And then you go there, there, there. Come round. And it was all to do with the navigation and that was why I was so pleased with my navigator who I had when I was on Blenheims. And it wasn’t ‘til a few years ago that I realised in the chatter by some of the other people when we had a get together that he had a PhD in mathematics.
CB: Did he really?
TS: Yes.
CB: After the war or before?
TS: Before.
CB: Did he really?
TS: Yeah. When he was flying with us he had a PhD in —
CB: In maths.
TS: In maths.
CB: Was he a bit older than the rest of you?
TS: Yes. He was. Apparently he was a teacher.
CB: What did you call him?
TS: He was teaching maths.
CB: What did you call him?
TS: Well.
CB: Uncle or grandpa?
TS: Well, we called him Bill because his name was Billborough.
CB: Right.
TS: The — I didn’t know either ‘til the end of the war that my bomb aimer who, he said he’d wanted to be a pilot but anyway he had come down from [pause] what’s the place? Cambridge, and he still had some of his university to do when the war was over. And I met him after the war and he was, he was marvellous. You know. He got his degree and all the rest of it. So when the time came when my son had a chance of going we made sure that he got there too.
CB: Good.
TS: And he finished up with a PhD in maths.
CB: Did he really?
TS: Yeah.
CB: Wasn’t that good.
TS: And he’s now retired as I said. And so, its all a question at times when you’re doing certain things. When you do the right thing and then you realise you’d done the right thing because of the information you got afterwards.
CB: Of course.
TS: And he didn’t, in any way, shall I say, push the issue and say I’ve got a PhD or anything like that. He just was there because he needn’t —I think in his position he probably needn’t have gone to the war but he decided that he was going to do that.
CB: So, he was a very good navigator. Bill.
TS: Yes. Oh yes.
CB: So, going back to the flying you’re doing the triangular search and it’s move, you’re varying the triangle. And how on earth do you keep going for ten hours because you can’t leave the plane flying itself?
TS: No.
CB: If you need to go and look at the plumbing.
TS: No. You don’t. You don’t. There was a little gadget there.
CB: A tube.
TS: A tube. Yes. But other than that. No.
CB: What sort of — ten hours is a long time without refreshment so what was the arrangement for eating?
TS: That did come up a little bit and we had a thermos flask with some supposedly coffee in it. And some sandwiches. And we ate well.
CB: Did you?
TS: When we were on the ground. We did really eat well. So there was no question of were we hungry. It was your own fault if you didn’t eat when you could.
CB: Of course. And the sandwiches. Jam? Or were they something more substantial?
TS: Something a little more substantial. Yes.
CB: So, what about the rest of the crew? When you’re flying your triangular search you’re in a Whitley which has got five people in. The navigator’s got his head down. What’s everybody else doing?
TS: Looking to see if he could see what you really didn’t think you ought, you ought to see. We would have had to go — had we seen a U-boat you would have to attack it. Now, if the boat was right out of the water and they had the guns all ready a Whitley would be so slow getting at it that it would be shot out the sky before he could drop his bombs. So you, if you were going to have one you had — just as it was coming up. Or just when it was going along with a little bit at the top. And we never saw anything of that nature and once I was thinking — I needed a little bit, to go up a little bit and pulled up and then there’s land immediately in front of me. I thought — that’s Spain. And the navigator for once had forgotten to tell me to turn. But we were still in — we were in —
CB: International waters. Were you?
TS: Still in international waters. But if I hadn’t just, for some reason it’s, I’ve got that little magic thing somewhere telling me to do some things. If I hadn’t I’d have been flying right over Spain before I realised it. Of course, you couldn’t immediately turn. Especially if you were down low.
CB: No. Sure.
TS: You had to come up a little bit to turn. And so, I’ve always thought that in lots of times in my life there’s been a little angel just helping me along.
CB: So, thinking of your armament. I’ve interviewed somebody who attacked a submarine. So, what was your forward armament first of all?
TS: We’d got a pop up in the front.
CB: What were they?
TS: It was just a little —
CB: Two.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Two 303s.
TS: Yeah.
CB: And so what anti-submarine stores did you carry?
TS: Four.
CB: Depth charges. And how did you, what was the intended attack mode for that?
TS: Well, you go there and you drop them so that your first ones were just before the sub and then you’d have two land where the sub was and the other one was — but you you had to get them a bit earlier than some people did. It’s no good letting them go and then them all being over the top of it.
CB: Because they’re flying forward with you.
TS: Yes. That’s why we didn’t know it but when we were on a bombing at — Whitleys.
CB: Do you want to stop for a mo?
JS: Yeah. Stop for a minute.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Ok.
TS: Well it’s alright. Yes. Yes. We’d better stop for a bit.
JS: Stretch your leg for a bit.
CB: Right.
[Recording paused]
TS: Well when we were doing OTU we, as a crew, were seen to be doing more low-flying bombing than anybody else. And we were doing this and we’d go up and we’d do it and we’d go up and we’d do it and by getting the pictures and that we realised how early we had to be dropping these because you were going at the speed even though we weren’t going at a terrific speed you were going at a speed and if you’re not careful the sub is back here and you’re bombing something that isn’t there. And so, we said well is it any different to the, for the depth charge type thing which we would be dropping? Well we didn’t even know that we were going to be on Coastal Command then. I said the bombs we would be dropping then for the practice bombs which we were using. You see. Just the smoke bombs. And they say well as far as we can get to it that has the same flying attitude until it hits the ground but it depends largely on the height you are and the speed you’re doing as to where that thing lands.
CB: So, with depth charges the principal is the same except that they’re not aerodynamic are they?
TS: No. But you are very low so that’s not going to be a big thing. And if you have a string of four you have one before and two more or less hitting it and then the third one on that but you had to get it on the —say that’s the sub there you have to come in but you have to be right over the top of the sub to do it. Well, you can imagine if the sub is fully raised and there’s somebody on the gun already it’s a bit warm before you get there.
CB: Now, in your aircraft did you have a bomb aimer?
TS: Yes.
CB: And he had the responsibility of dropping the depth charges?
TS: No.
CB: Or you did.
TS: I did.
CB: Right. And how did you come to do that because you didn’t have the sight? So he had to call it to you.
TS: No. Well, we’ll say that’s the U-boat there.
CB: Ok.
TS: Well you would be going, coming and if you saw it you might be going at an angle across it and all the rest of it. Well, you would have to drop your bombs so that one of them was, it was, they were depth charges so they weren’t bombs and therefore they had to go more or less —
CB: Sure.
TS: Underneath the plane to blow it up.
CB: Under the submarine. Yeah.
TS: Yeah. Underneath the submarine.
CB: They were pre-set before you set off.
TS: Yeah.
CB: On the premise that you were only flying at a hundred feet.
TS: Yeah.
CB: So, who is calling the release time?
TS: I was. We decided, I think, that I would do that. And I would —
CB: You’d pressing the button.
TS: I’d press the button.
CB: He’d call.
TS: And I was pressing the button when we were practicing.
CB: Yes. But who gave the call for the timing of the dropping? So, the bomb aimer is saying, ‘Right. Drop now.’
TS: No.
CB: Is he?
TS: No.
CB: You are.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Ok.
TS: Because you were so low that the bomb aimer couldn’t use the bomb aiming thing or anything.
CB: So it was just a Mark One eyeball.
TS: Yeah.
CB: You didn’t have a sight yourself.
TS: No. No
CB: And did you —
TS: But that was because you had the four —
CB: Yeah. The final question on this is did you drop them automatically as a stick or did you have to press each time to drop each one?
TS: No. You dropped and your whole load went.
CB: Right.
TS: That was how we were set anyway. So therefore you’d drop a little early than you thought for the first one to go because there was a tendency to get too close to it.
CB: Yeah.
TS: And you went over the top of it. And that is why we did the low levels.
CB: Ok.
TS: And I have pictures somewhere of the, of us dropping low level.
CB: So, detached to Coastal Command how many ops did you do?
TS: At. Then. I think it was eight. Eight of those ops.
CB: Ok. And then after that what happened?
TS: I went back to bombers. And I went from there to [pause] Stanton. No. Not Stanton Harcourt. The one near York where you went from Whitleys to Halifaxes.
CB: Is that Riccall?
TS: No. It was the other one. There was Riccall was one. It was the other one.
CB: Holme on Spalding Moor.
TS: Yes. No. No. There was another one. Anyway.
CB: Yeah
TS: Yeah. And the chappy. I’m trying to remember.
CB: There was Elvington and Pocklington later.
TS: I’m just a little bit.
CB: Ok. And this was the HCU was it? The Heavy Conversion Unit.
TS: Yes. Heavy Conversion Unit.
CB: Ok.
TS: We went to [pause] in Yorkshire. Not far from York. The Moor.
CB: Ok. I’ll look it up.
TS: There was a big, a big battle fought there during one of the years long before we were born. And —
CB: Ok.
TS: I’m just wondering. You see all the time my brain is thinking where the heck are those things.
CB: Those logbooks. Yeah. So how long were you at the HCU?
TS: Not very long. And it was, I think more of them deciding your capacity early than anything else because you hadn’t to do anything more than just convert from one plane to another.
CB: Yeah. Because you already had experience in operations.
TS: Well, that might be the case but I think everybody had to be at that and if you’re just going from one plane to another well you just go from one plane to another. It’s like going from one car to another isn’t it?
CB: Yeah.
TS: As far as I’m concerned anyway. And it [pause] it was interesting to have these. The four engines and you had the engineer and the mid-upper gunner as extra crew. You had to get to know them and they had to know who was boss in the second, looking at it from another angle. And we made quite sure that we got the right people. I was lucky, as I said, in getting my original crew. When we went from three off the Blenheims to five I said to the [pause] you know on to the Whitleys, I said to the observer, as he then was, I said, ‘Well you know more about bomb aiming than I do. You find the best bomber.’ And I said to, you WOp/AG, I said, ‘You know more about the thing. Go and get me a good air gunner,’ and that’s what they did. They were successful because I’m still here. That’s the thing and the same sort of thing was when we went — that was from three to five and then from five to seven it was a similar thing except that I chose the engineer.
CB: Right. Ok.
TS: And I walked up to the gaggle of the engineers and I said, ‘I’m a pilot who’s looking for an engineer. What have you done? What engineering have you done?’ And I was quite blunt about it. So this chappy there was saying, ‘I haven’t passed many exams,’ he said, ‘Because the job was to keep machinery going twenty four hours a day.’
CB: In civilian life.
TS: In civilian life. I thought, well, we’ll have him. Some of the others had just done, more or less, a verbal course. And so when the engineer and I first went into an aircraft the first thing we did was start at the nose and work right to the back and all the bits and pieces and he seemed as though he’d done his learning in the classroom and he never let me down one, one little bit. He was a very good man. Because he had also, he hadn’t come straight from somewhere where he hadn’t been involved in anything much and he had been where he kept, had to keep these machines going for twenty four hours a day in a factory as I said. And I think it makes quite a difference.
CB: Yeah. Ok. So just going back on timings what are we talking about here? You go to the HCU. When would that be?
TS: Oh well actually we didn’t go straight from what we were doing to the HCU. We went on a battle course. That has nothing to do with flying though has it?
CB: No. With the RAF regiment was it?
TS: No. It was — we had somebody in the army who didn’t really want to be on the job. So it was interesting.
CB: So the whole crew goes on the battle course.
TS: Yes.
CB: And they’re all sergeants.
TS: Yes.
CB: And what’s the army man?
TS: He was a sergeant. I think he was a real sergeant as well. He wasn’t just a sergeant. Somebody —
CB: Experienced man was he?
TS: Oh yes. Yes.
CB: So what did you do on the battle course?
TS: Well what the army did. It was an army’s battle course. Live — live ammunition at the end and that was being introduced then more and more I think because if you baled out and you happened to land somewhere over the other side and you weren’t picked up by the enemy you could probably fight with the people who were just making a nuisance of themselves to the Germans or when the — we really went for them then you could help too, as battle course behind their lines. That was the theory of it. I don’t think it would have been very very efficient because [pause] anyway we’re talking here now because we won the war. Or well we officially won the war but –
CB: I interviewed a man who was shot down and had done a battle course and joined the Maquis.
TS: Yes. Yes, well that was the other one. Yes.
CB: Right. Ok. So when is this? What time are we talking about? 1942? Or are we still in ‘41. Where are we?
TS: Well, we are now going to four engines aren’t we?
CB: Yeah. HCU.
TS: HCU. HCU was in the 1943. In the spring.
CB: Ok.
TS: I did my first ops in May. So we weren’t long at HCU. See. So —
CB: So your first ops were with the squadron. So you spend a couple months at HCU.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Would you?
TS: No. I don’t think as such. I don’t think it was as long as that.
CB: Ok.
TS: And the CO of the HCU was somebody you might have heard of. His name was Cheshire.
CB: Yeah.
TS: You’d already got that information.
CB: No. I know about him. Yes.
TS: He was ok. We went on a night trip and the engineer, as some people call them, had difficulty in as much as he had to tell me that according to his instruments there was something wrong with one of the engines. And so I said, ‘Well it doesn’t feel like it,’ I said. It’s all, because I had the engines all in sync. When there was two it was easy.
CB: Yeah. Yeah.
TS: And you could tell if there was something wrong because even before the instruments would tell you because the engines would let you know. And anyway [pause] I’ve lost it.
CB: Yeah. So the engineer said there’s something wrong with one of the engines.
TS: One of the engines. Yes. And so I shut it down as we were told to do and then the next day we were told to go in front of the CO and he wanted to know why we’d come back early. And so we said we’d done it on what we thought were the instructions and we went through them. And he said [pause] and he said, ‘Well, according to the people on the ground here there’s nothing wrong with that engine.’ And so I turned to the engineer. I said, ‘Well you said this.’ ‘Just a minute. Just a minute.’ The CO said this.
CB: Yeah.
TS: He said, ‘We are here to find out why that happened. We’re not putting the finger at anybody,’ he said, ‘Because we’ve had this happen before where people have come back because they’ve thought there was something wrong with the engine and we were hoping that you might be able to let us know.’ And so I said to the engineer, I said, ‘Well, did you notice anything other than what you just said about the instrument?’ He said, ‘No. I’ve told you everything as I saw it.’ And so he said, ‘Well, thank you very much for calling,’ and he said, ‘This is what we’re here for is to try and find out why these engines are supposedly failing when they’re not.’ And I thought that’s fair enough. He just more or less showed us the door and we went out. And I thought that was fine.
CB: This is an LMF issue. Is it?
TS: Well, no. No.
CB: It’s not. In other words some people were calling engine fault because they didn’t want to go.
TS: No. I know. I know.
CB: But he was, you were relying on your experience and knowledge of the engines and he was relying on the instruments.
TS: Yes. Yes.
CB: So did you crack the code?
TS: Well, we never had anything like it again.
CB: These are radial engines aren’t they? They’re not the Merlins.
TS: No. These were the Merlins.
CB: Oh they were Merlins. Right.
TS: These were Merlins and you see I’d quite a bit of time on Merlins having done the, with the —
CB: Whitley.
TS: Whitleys. Having to listen to them for ten hours at a time over the Bay of Biscay etcetera. Well up to twelve hours we were airborne sometimes.
CB: Amazing.
TS: It makes you wonder how. How you do it. I expect I’d do it again if I had to.
CB: So you didn’t find out what was wrong with the —
TS: No.
CB: Why the –
TS: Why. But I think it was not just on the, on the training side of it. I think for some reason this was happening and whether it was anybody who was interfering with it on the ground or not I didn’t ask the question. But I think that’s probably what it was about. Very difficult things to find out.
CB: Well I did interview a man who had a man, had a ground engineer court martialled for threatening to upset the aircraft on a sortie. So there was an element of this sort of thing clearly.
TS: I hadn’t thought of that at all.
CB: As a bribe. Anyway, sorry, go on.
TS: Anyway, that was that. I thought nothing much more about it until it keeps cropping up about that engine failing. Supposedly failing when it didn’t. And we were learning.
CB: So this is, you’ve just joined 102 Squadron and this is when it’s come up. This isn’t the HCU. This is the squadron.
TS: Yeah. That was HCU.
CB: Oh it was the HCU.
TS: That was the HCU.
CB: Right. So you joined the squadron after the HCU.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Then what?
TS: Well, I had to go as a second pilot with [pause] I had done a second pilot when I was at the OTU. Not the OTU. The HCU.
CB: HCU. Yeah.
TS: And then I did another one when I was, when I joined the squadron. And then I was on my own and then I went flying as expected [pause] and this is when really when I need the book.
CB: Right. So what do you recall as your first operation?
TS: I think it was Essen. Happy Valley.
CB: How did that go?
TS: Well I’m just trying to think whether the Essen one was with the — no. Essen was very early and whether it was when I was going as second pilot or when I was just on my own. I don’t know.
CB: So, going as a second pilot is not a training flight around the country. It is actually an operation.
TS: Yes.
CB: Ok. What other highlights are there that stick in your mind about operations?
TS: Well, I was always of the [pause] aware of a number of aircraft all huddled together.
CB: In the bomber stream.
TS: Yeah. Or before that when people were taking off. We had three stations. Like one, two, three. Anyway. And if, say somebody is a bit slow in being able to get height he’s getting awful near that other station at times and I was very well aware of that. And so as soon as I was pointing as though I was where 10 Squadron was — one of our take off things more or less pointed directly at it. So, as soon as I got nicely airborne I made sure that I turned away and gradually got up and up and up.
CB: This is from Pocklington.
TS: That is from Pocklington. And I always tried to be the first one off. And I was approached once by the, an officer of one of the other flights who said, ‘You came and took off before the wing commander.’ I said, ‘Well I didn’t even know the wing commander was flying. So how the hell was I to do that?’ But I didn’t care. I was doing the op and so was the wing commander as far as I was concerned. And he didn’t take it very kindly. But I don’t know who the hell he was but he didn’t come and talk to me again and I think that’s one of the things where you had to get airborne and you had make sure you had sufficient speed to drag that load higher and higher and get out and if you got off first then you could get on the top of the spiral going up and therefore and you were less likely to hit anything.
CB: So ahead of you is Topcliffe is it?
TS: No. No. 10, 10 Squadron on —
CB: Binbrook.
TS: No. No. No. I had it just a minute ago and then the other one was Elvington.
CB: Yes.
TS: In the clutch. There was Elvington, us and the other one.
CB: Ok. Right. So, you’re climbing out.
TS: Yes.
CB: And making sure you get out of the way.
TS: Yes.
CB: How do you know when to head off?
TS: Well you only take off — you only head off when you’re supposed to be moving off. But if you are waiting for somebody to take off and waiting for somebody else to take off and waiting for somebody else. You’re going to have difficulty in getting off before you’re supposed to be setting course. So, as I say I used to be there and then supposedly been told off by this officer that I shouldn’t have taken off before the flight commander.
CB: You’re a flight sergeant by now are you?
TS: Yeah.
CB: Ok.
TS: I was offered a commission after we’d done about ten ops or something like that and I said, ‘No. We’ve all, we’ve decided. We all had a little chat and we all want to remain NCOs.’ Later on, in my life in the air force I said I would like to take a commission. So, somebody popped up and said well according to the records you refused a commission. And I said, ‘I didn’t refuse a commission as such. I said, I didn’t want to take a commission while we were flying as a crew on 102 Squadron.’ And it looks as though it got the rounds and I eventually got a commission. I was wanting a commission because I was instructing and nearly all of the pilots coming through were commissioned and some of them objected to being instructed by an NCO. I was only a warrant officer mind. But —
CB: So, we’ve talked about getting off and setting off. Tell us the rest of a sortie. So, you’ve all set off at the prescribed time.
TS: Yes.
CB: Which is how it was done because you can’t see the other aircraft can you?
TS: No.
CB: So, you’re off. Now what?
TS: Well we would still be climbing and so having been first off, I was normally up above anybody else from the area and then we would, when we got to the height we wanted and there was the big light on the Lincolnshire coast which you had as a glass which many people saw. But you had that as a guidance and if your navigator was doing his job properly and you were flying the aircraft properly and you flew on the headings that he asked you to fly at the same time and then you changed when he said that then he would know once he got right above that light exactly what the wind was.
CB: Right. So now you’re setting off from the light.
TS: Yeah.
CB: And you’re — what height are you by then?
TS: Well if we were still climbing as far as we could go and they used to say, ‘Well level off at eighteen thousand feet.’ If you got to seventeen thousand feet you were lucky some nights because I knew as soon as I’d lifted off from there that we were, if anything, over laden. I couldn’t prove anything though.
CB: Over laden with bombs or fuel?
TS: Well both together you see.
CB: Right.
TS: Yeah. You had the tanks full of fuel and then you would have different bomb arrangements on different trips.
CB: So, when you were briefing. Going backwards. When you went to your operation briefing you knew, did you, what would be your bomb load and the variety?
TS: Usually yes but you hadn’t always worked it out. There would be a slight difference in the high explosives and incendiaries. And when we went to some of the places in France we were full of incendiaries. I couldn’t quite work that out. And occasionally we were full of incendiaries but it was this, you would climb to eighteen thousand feet was just not on because we would not get to them.
CB: The fuel load was dictated by the target was it?
TS: Yes. Well if it was just Happy Valley it was, you just had all the tanks, all the main tanks full, I think. I don’t know whether there was any less in the tanks because you could get there and get back with having sufficient [pause] sufficient fuel. You would have sufficient fuel to get there and back.
CB: Right. Now fast forward to your trips. Which were the most notable ones would you say? Ops. In your mind.
TS: Well there is only the one that — we’ve mentioned it.
CB: That’s Peenemunde.
TS: Yeah. But we did have some others and I’d have to refer to the book again.
CB: Yeah.
TS: Because I haven’t registered that in my mind to keep.
CB: I see that on your map here. We’re looking at the map with sorties that Tom has put on and two of them show damage to German aircraft. Could you just talk us through that?
TS: Well that one there. We shot it down.
CB: Did the rear gunner do it or the mid-upper or both?
TS: Well we didn’t — at the time we didn’t have a a mid-upper.
CB: Oh right.
TS: Turret.
CB: Right.
TS: That was before we, we only had one lot of guns on the whole aeroplane.
CB: Right. So, you did well to shoot that down.
TS: Yes.
CB: Right.
TS: Well that was, the thing was because of the manoeuvres etcetera. And —
CB: So, what did you shoot down?
TS: I don’t know.
CB: But it was a German aeroplane anyway. Yeah.
TS: Well, that’s as it was recorded. Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
TS: Yeah. This one here.
CB: The further south. Yeah.
TS: The further south is where we were damaged by a fighter. We managed to continue to the [pause] for the rest of the journey.
CB: So, what happened there?
TS: Well, we knew we had by that time got one of these units on the plane which would tell us when there was an enemy aircraft nearby. And we were getting this message and I did some changes of course a little bit and changes of course a little bit and each time it would follow me so it meant that it was a German aircraft looking for me. Looking for us shall I say. Rather than just a casual one of ours getting in to that area.
CB: Yeah.
TS: And so having done that, I think, three times and it was still getting much closer each time because of the beep. You know the beep beep system that was there’s a, so I thought I would just hold it and hold it and hold it until it came very close and then I just whipped over to the one side.
CB: In a corkscrew?
TS: No. No. No. You couldn’t corkscrew in one of those. You might think you were doing it but it was so sluggish when you were up at that height with that weight you had.
CB: Yeah. Ok.
TS: It was minimal sometimes. You had to really decide it. And so, I decided that this one it was coming again. We turned and it followed and I had turned and it followed. I think the book will say exactly how many times. Anyway, and I decided right well I’ll see how far I can go on this and I just sat there. I just sat there and the noise was getting and then it was almost beep all the time you see instead of just getting the beep beeps. Time to go down so I just flung everything over to one side and just as I was doing that he was letting off his things but only sufficiently for it to hit us in the port outer wing. If I hadn’t moved those cannon shells would have been in the half empty petrol containers.
CB: Yeah. The tanks.
TS: Tanks. Petrol tanks. And I wouldn’t be here. No wonder I went bald early.
CB: So, in that circumstance did you break right or left?
TS: No. I didn’t break right. This was the normal things you start and most people start don’t they? It was the opposite way anyway. Yes. In those days. I’m just trying to remember which way it was. I think. Oh, they expected you to go left and I went right. That was it. And it was just a question of luck, I think, in lots of instances where the cannon shells went in to the outer wing instead of them hitting a petrol tank which would have caused it to blow up and that would have been it. It wasn’t ‘til we got out, ‘til I got out the plane and then there was a huddle of all the people looking at the outer wing and the expletives which were being said can’t be repeated at the moment. Still, my luck and, well there was just no aileron at all. The whole of the aileron thing had just disappeared and then of course there was further on was the damage to the wing but we only had torches. It was dark and I didn’t realise that the wing was all so badly — no wonder it was rather difficult to keep on course. And that was, I think, the reason why probably I was awarded the DFM because the —
CB: A good bit of flying. Yeah
TS: Well the next day when I went in to the flight office the squadron leader said that, ‘The wing commander wants to see you.’ And I said, ‘Why sir?’ He said, ‘Well I don’t know.’ He sounded a bit upset about something. ‘The wing commander wants to see you.’ Unfortunately, this chappy had only just replaced the flight commander and so I didn’t know him in any way at all. Just done, he’d just come from, I don’t think he was in the flight before he was made flight commander or anything. And so, anyway this wing commander came charging in and he said, ‘So this is the fella is it? This is the young fella is it?’ and he was going around me like this. I thought what’s he going to do next because he had something in his hand. He said, ‘Take that.’ And he gave, gave me the part of the spar of the wing and he said, ‘You see that?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ I didn’t know exactly what he was saying. I was thinking whoo whoo. He said, ‘Well look. That thing shows that a cannon shell went through there. If it had exploded then I wouldn’t be talking to you today because your whole,’ blankety blank, ‘Outer wing would have gone.’ And I’ve still got it. And that was that. Him coming in like that and he wanted to shake me by the hand and all the rest of it. I didn’t know what the hell to do. The wing commander shaking me by the hands or everything. And anyway it was, the aircraft was taken into the hangar and they couldn’t believe it. That I’d flown it back in the state it was in and I’ve still got a very awkward knee. Five hours.
CB: Pushing hard.
TS: Pushing hard on that. But I’m not going to charge them now.
CB: Oh. You’re not.
TS: Not after all this time.
CB: So no aileron. On the port side this is.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Big hole in the wing.
TS: Yeah. And we had to bomb and we came back with a proper picture.
CB: Picture. Brilliant.
TS: [unclear]
CB: So where were you going that day? Where were you bombing?
TS: Ah that’s.
CB: Was it Frankfurt? Was it? Or –
TS: I don’t know. I don’t know. I [pause] Yes, that would be the one. I know it was five hours after being hit.
CB: Oh. Was it?
TS: When I managed to get out of the plane.
CB: So, in that circumstance what’s it do to the flying characteristics of the aircraft? You’ve got more drag on that side. You’ve got less manoeuvrability.
TS: Well you just had, you just, it’s towards the end, the outside you see, which is less. I mean, there was less of it. The main part of the lift is where the engines are where you have that huge, yes, difference but you’ve only got a very narrow wing when you get towards the wingtip and that’s more for control rather than anything else. There was, there nothing left of the aileron, you see. There was just tangled bits. And it was, I think just the thing that I had that other people didn’t have. The feel of the thing would be almost immediate to me and I was already operating my foot before I realised we’d been hit so badly.
CB: Yeah. So, you were hit in the left. On the port side.
TS: Yeah.
CB: You’re turning around to the right and going down. Are you? You’d turn it.
TS: Well. Yes. I was already –
CB: Then you’ve got to recover from that.
TS: Yeah.
CB: So what did you do?
TS: Well I did what I would automatically do and I can’t tell you exactly what it was but then we got back on to course which was the thing. And now what do we do? We’re badly damaged. What shall we do? Should we drop our load and go back? And I thought well, no, that’s not a good idea at all because if you go back you’ll be all on your own going all the way back there and they’d be picking you off with no trouble at all. So, we just plodded on and bombed. And —
CB: So, you’re approaching the target with a damaged aircraft. What do you do?
TS: You just keep on going as though you’re not damaged. As far as possible. And although we were damaged we hadn’t lost a lot of — the aileron part had gone but the rest of the damage was not so severe but a lot of the — it’s a wonderful thing a wing in an aeroplane you see because if you’re up there and you’re flying and you have a little bit missing, well it doesn’t seem to matter quite so much as if you was trying to land or take off.
CB: So, your roll control is on one side only. In this case the right. The starboard side. What effect does it have on your direction ‘cause you’re pushing hard on the rudder so there’s been some –?
TS: Well you have to keep — this pushing on the rudder is not, you can’t get the same effect absolutely but if you put it so that you don’t have to press against the wind as it were then you are getting more efficient. And if you fiddle around and get that system by adjusting the — well it was the aileron this side. I know there’s no aileron there but you had it on the other side as well. And so, I had to, fortunately we were at the height as far as we could get and we lost a little bit of height but we didn’t lose all that much that we were going to be right underneath the whole of the [unclear]
CB: Right.
TS: And you just have to take what you can think of at the time and I seemed to think at the right, of the right things when anything happened over there and the rest of the crew of course were very good most of the time. The, the engineer although he’d never had much to do with aeroplanes he soon proved to be a very good man.
CB: I’m just thinking that here you are with a damaged plane. Normally your attitude is going to be as level as possible. You’ve got a damaged outer port wing. Are you to maintain control raising that so you’re not actually straight and level. You’re straight but not level. Or how do you compensate?
TS: Well I don’t really know but I did it.
CB: And when you’re over the target. Do you — after the target you hold for a bit to get over to take your picture. Are you then turning left against the damaged wing or do you turn right? What did you do?
TS: I can’t remember. It might be in the book but it was just what you’d normally — you see, we as a crew, because I said so, maintained going on after you had dropped your bombs whereas some people they just turned when they dropped their bombs to cut off and go like that where and I tried to explain it to many, well I say many, more than once to some of these people. I said, ‘If you’re all going as a bunch all along together like that and you drop your bombs and then you go along and you come to the turning point and then you’re turning everybody is turning. But if you for some reason want to turn and you’re here and there’s all these there there’s a likelihood that you’ll run into those.’ And they said, ‘Oh no. It wouldn’t.’ But I used to think it terrible that some of them were doing all these things which they shouldn’t do and then bragging about it.
CB: Bragging because of –?
TS: Bragging that they’d, they’d cut off the corner. As soon as they bombed they cut off the corner because if —
CB: To get away.
TS: If you were going towards your target —
CB: Yes.
TS: And then you go on a little bit and then you turn.
CB: Yes.
TS: Yes. Well they, in that then if they would turn immediately and they know you can’t be sure you got to that point properly if you hadn’t already worked it out. And so, I think some of the navigators would have a difficult time with some of the people.
CB: So fast forward now. You’ve dropped the bombs. You’ve had to push hard on the rudder pedal to get back. How do you set up for landing? How did that work?
TS: Well I had done it in this way. I managed to know that I could land it because at ten thousand feet I did a mock landing.
CB: Right.
TS: I went through all the process of seeing whether —
CB: Wheels down and everything.
TS: Yes. But I couldn’t be sure that I was absolutely straight like that but you could tell by the little bit of light you were getting whether it was getting — whether you were going straight or whether you were going differently. And I’d report to the, and it wasn’t the first time I’d come back with a damaged plane, you see and I’d report to the people on the ground and saying that I’d done a landing at eight thousand feet I think it was in one instance. So on and so forth. So that they would know that I could, I thought I could land but of course you couldn’t see really whether — if you were up here you couldn’t see whether you had been pushed on one side or you had lost another side or anything like that but the feel of the plane as I keep on saying to different people is far more important than lots of other things.
CB: So, you’re making your approach. What are you doing about speed compared with normal approach speed?
TS: Well, I’d know from the [pause] what I was doing up there what it felt like
CB: The practice.
TS: Yes.
CB: Yeah.
TS: Just the practice up there. And then I’d always add at least ten miles an hour on to that.
CB: Right.
TS: So, you couldn’t see exactly what it was but I was doing that here. I don’t know whether I’ve even mentioned it in the book but –
CB: Right.
TS: That’s what it was.
CB: So, you’re on finals. How do you feel then?
TS: Well, I had so much to do that all I felt was that if I keep on going as I’m going now and now and now when I’m doing some of this. The final movements
CB: Corrections.
TS: Corrections and all the rest of it and I would make sure that I was down to the, getting on towards the speed. The approach speed. Of course I was flying above the approach speed a lot of the time.
CB: Yeah.
TS: When I was doing manoeuvres. So that I had speed there to recover it if it wasn’t right. And I got down to that and then I would be making sure that I was going to get on to the thing and then I would level off because it would be the main runway probably had plenty of runway to do it but if you land it, if you always used to land in the immediate area then if you had to use a bit more land you had it there but for those people who come over and then still have to level out and they’re halfway down the runway before they touch down.
CB: Too high.
TS: They’ve got no leeway.
CB: No. So, you made sure you came right over the fence as it were.
TS: Yes.
CB: As near the end as possible.
TS: Yes.
CB: The beginning of the runway as possible.
TS: Yeah.
CB: So, you got that down ok.
TS: Yeah.
CB: You mentioned you’d had an aircraft damaged before. What was that one? Was that flak or fighter?
TS: I’m not quite sure. We. We had, we had the engine. An engine pack up. And that was much more serious than anything else because it was before the target and we were losing height and we couldn’t do anything else but do it. Drop it.
CB: So, what did you do?
TS: Well —
CB: How many, how far short of the target are you when the engine packs up?
TS: This one was, it was —
CB: Where were you going?
TS: We were going to Happy Valley.
CB: Right.
TS: So, it’s just over the border and we, by turning to the port I could drop the bombs in the Zuider Zee and then I reckoned I could get back if I just was out of the, out of the gaggle.
CB: Yeah.
TS: I thought I could. As far as I can remember that’s where I was thinking I could get back without any trouble much
CB: So which engine was it?
TS: It was the [pause] I think it was the starboard outer.
CB: Right.
TS: And shortly after that I had a different plane. I think that was S for Sugar and after that I had another one and the —
CB: What? Another engine failure?
TS: No. Another plane.
CB: Another plane. Right.
TS: Yeah. And then I did most of my ops when the new Mark 2 series 1A came in. They gave me another aircraft and that was a W and of course it was the finer points which had been added. Just a small amount on the aircraft but it was a big difference to flying.
CB: Was it? What had they changed?
TS: Well, instead of having the turret at the front they did away with that and they just put a covering over. It wasn’t very good in as much as it wasn’t in with the rest of the plane. It seemed to be a sort of a bang. Not a bang. It just didn’t feel right to me.
CB: Because it upset the aerodynamics.
TS: Yes. Yes. But when they brought the series 1A in then they had the new front entirely and it was much better because the, with the Mark 1 or the Mark 2 when they still had the front turret it wasn’t at all. You know there was an awful lot of resistance around that because of the turret. I mean it wasn’t at all streamlined really was it?
CB: No. No. So we’ve talked about incidents there. What about Peenemunde? What was significant about going to Peenemunde?
TS: It was the way the people approached us about it. They said that we had to do the job tonight or else you would go for every night after night after night until you’d done it and going in as we did at eight thousand feet [pause] but you see there was practically no resistance at all. There was a sort of a searchlight but nothing very much at all. And the — I don’t think that they thought, I think the Germans didn’t consider us going there anyway. No defence much.
CB: So, there were layers of bombers. What was above you?
TS: Well no. The thing was that we thought we were all going to go in at the same height.
CB: Right.
TS: But we from 4 Group probably went in at the same height as the rest of 4 Group but some of the others went at probably at a different height to us. I don’t know. It was a question I’ve been wanting to ask but I’ve never got around to finding out what they went and everybody was supposed to be going in at the same. You see we would — 4 Group would be in that time. Four minutes, you see. And we were all supposed to bomb within that four minutes. All 4 Group. And I don’t know. It’s who could I ask? Who could give me the answer?
CB: Were you following Pathfinders? Or straight bombing?
TS: We were following Pathfinders until we got there and then we were supposed to be bombing any of the main buildings because we were mostly high explosives. So we were told that there would be some buildings in a certain area and we had to bomb those and according to the result of our photograph we did what we were told.
CB: Right. Now, you’ve got a picture of the target where there’s a bomber that can be seen below. So what’s that?
TS: That was a twerp who wasn’t obeying orders is all I can say. It’s a Halifax. And what the heck that man was doing flying there against the whole of the flow of the — I don’t know. I don’t know whether he’d get back. It is a Halifax isn’t it?
CB: He’s flying your way, is he?
[pause]
CB: It looks as though he’s in the same direction as you so he could end up with bombs straight through him.
TS: Yes. Yes. Yes. Well we were bombing on the height we were supposed to be bombing and he is below. Yeah.
CB: Quite a long way.
TS: I thought that that photograph was one, somewhere I’ve got one where where was somebody going the opposite direction
CB: Oh, is there really? So, when you get to a target. You’re in a stream. It’s in the dark. How do you know if everybody is on the same track?
TS: Well the only persons who would know whether they were on the wrong track would be those who were on the wrong track.
CB: And they’d be on the wrong track for what reason?
TS: I can’t — I haven’t discussed it with any of them who were on the wrong track. Shall I put it that way.
CB: Ok.
TS: But some of the comments on debriefing.
CB: Such as?
TS: ‘Wizard prang. Wizard prang.’ Yah yah yah. When everybody else is being, sitting at the table and quietly talking and there would another lot sitting and then this fella would come out and every night he’d come back, ‘Wizard prang.’ ‘Wizard prang,’
CB: Same man or different?
TS: Yes.
CB: What was your —
TS: My bomb aimer had a different version of his wizard prang because he found out if they could find out where the bombs had been dropped. So that’s something which I, you know, but it was, whether he knew that he was doing it all wrong or not I don’t know.
CB: What was your last operation?
TS: Well, I think it was on my knee [laughs]
CB: [laughs] So, we’ll go back to the flying operation then.
TS: Yeah. Sorry about that.
CB: That’s alright.
TS: I can’t help it. Anyway, it’s [pause] I don’t know where we are as far as what you want.
CB: Right. So what we’re on is, you’re on ops as 102.
TS: Yeah.
CB: And how many ops did you do in total with 102 Squadron?
TS: Well you see I did those ops over the Bay of Biscay.
CB: With Coastal Command. Yeah.
TS: They counted as a half an op when we were in Bomber Command.
CB: Oh right.
TS: We thought that later. But it was only half. So there was four. It was, we were all on, all the rest were on Halifaxes. There were eight on the Whitleys and then the twenty six on the four engine jobs.
CB: Ok. So, the last four-engined on the Halifax. Where was that to?
TS: I can’t really remember.
CB: Ok.
TS: Without looking it up.
CB: So, you finished with 102 Squadron because you’ve ended —
TS: Yeah.
CB: Your prescribed thirty ops.
TS: Yeah.
CB: What did you do next? First of all, when was it?
TS: It was in October ’43.
CB: Ok.
TS: Early October ’43.
CB: And what did you do after that?
TS: Became an instructor.
CB: With whom?
TS: 81 OTU.
CB: Which was where?
TS: The other side of the Pennines.
CB: What? In Shropshire. So, what was the aircraft?
TS: I went back to Whitleys. But it wasn’t Bomber Command. It was 38 Group. You know what they did?
CB: Yeah. They were the tactical air force ones were they?
TS: 38 Group were the people who –
CB: Maquis.
TS: Towed gliders.
CB: Oh towed gliders. Ok.
TS: And dropped supplies to the Maquis.
CB: Yeah.
TS: We were teaching people how to tow gliders and I’d never flown one before.
CB: How did you feel about that?
TS: I was still just relieved to have completed a tour of ops that I thought well I can beat this one if I can do that and it was alright.
CB: Did you — as a prelude to that did they get you to fly a glider?
TS: Yes.
CB: How did you feel about that?
TS: Bloody awful.
CB: In the co-pilots seat?
TS: I don’t know. Now. Yes. It was with the co-pilot’s.
CB: What was the glider? A horsa.
TS: A horsa.
CB: So how many trips did you do in that?
TS: Only the one.
CB: Just one. That was plenty I should think.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Right. Then you went on to towing.
TS: Well yes, we had to instruct the people. They had to do an OTU as a Bomber Command OTU.
CB: Right. First.
TS: For all the different. First. And then they would do the towing which wasn’t very much really. The worst was towing it at night when there was night towing and it looked as though my name had come out of the book to do this and you just, with a plane and you had a series of pilots, RAF. And a series of pilots, glider pilots coming to a certain place in the aerodrome where you then had an experienced pilot in both places and those who were just learning in the others. At night.
CB: Sounds. How did you feel about that?
TS: Not very good because it so happened that my pupil was pulled out of the hat to be the first one and then I was there doing it all ruddy night until I got so far and then I just — some of the pupils didn’t even, I don’t think they knew how to fly the plane at night without anything else there. They weren’t, they weren’t from, on our flight I know that. And I don’t know how they managed and I didn’t like to interrupt too much but once I was just a little bit and all of a sudden I realised we’re not on course ‘Ahhhhh,’ there were those bloody trees there. And I looked out and I could see the trees. Just the top of the trees just going underneath the aeroplane.
CB: Yeah.
TS: In the little light that we had on the front of the aeroplane. I just relaxed a little bit. Well you couldn’t just lift it. You had a glider on behind. So, it took you ages and ages to get any height anyway but you had a lot of trees there and a lot of trees there but you were supposed to be going down there and he was over here. And so I was too tired to act properly.
CB: Go on.
TS: So, when I came down I said to the, you see it was a coordinated thing. The pilot. The pupils coming to go in this plane and there were the pupils coming to go in the glider and all sorts of things and then you had to, after dropping the glider you had to drop the rope and then you had to come around again and get down and then you had to taxi around and pick another one up. And I came into the pointer. Switched the engine off. I said to the sergeant in charge of the plane to make sure that the plane was ok with the, for the — it was quite a gaggle of all different people busy there and I just walked off. And I was expecting somebody would come and ask me why. And I waited and I waited and I waited and nobody came. But I was never asked to do it again.
CB: So, what did you do next?
TS: Well we were having, still doing the normal OTU but it was this flying at night. Towing gliders at night. Off at night. And when I pointed it out they said, ‘Well really, they didn’t think they wanted to take off at night with the gliders. They only wanted to take off in the day time.’ And yet we were doing this at night.
CB: So were there fatalities flying at night? Glider towing.
TS: I don’t know.
CB: Oh.
TS: I don’t know.
CB: Not in the time you saw.
TS: No.
CB: No.
TS: But I was wondering why we were doing it if the people on the front line said they didn’t intend to do anything like that.
CB: But for D-day of course, they did fly at night.
TS: Yeah. Well but I was very irate and I just left it at that.
CB: You were a warrant officer at this stage.
TS: I think so. Yes.
CB: So, the sergeant’s going to be careful.
TS: I didn’t, didn’t fling it around at all.
CB: No.
TS: But you had to be friendly with the glider pilots. You had to be friendly with the pupils coming along. And you had to gently ease them if they were being a bit stupid because shouting at them would have been no good.
CB: So were you flying with a student pilot on the Whitley at the same time as a student pilot on the glider?
TS: Yes. At night.
CB: So, you’ve got a double whammy potentially.
TS: Yes.
CB: Right. I’ve done glider towing myself and I know how long it takes to get up. Right. So, you continued with the daytime OTU which could be dangerous in itself.
TS: Yes. Well I was, I was the, on the OTU and we were on. I did my share of night flying and all the rest of it and I didn’t mind. I did enquire about going back on ops and I was bluntly told that, well, ‘No. You’re here and you’re going to stay here because we want you here.’ And then later on I decided that, well, I did, when I was flying on ops I did refuse the offer of a commission because we were stated, I respected the, I told you at the beginning we were going to remain NCOs all the time. Well, that seemed as though it followed in my papers somewhere along the line that I had refused a commission when offered. But I managed to overcome that and —
CB: So, when were you commissioned?
TS: During the war.
CB: Yeah.
TS: [laughs] Seriously I can’t give you a right date.
CB: No.
TS: Without looking at it on the —
CB: Yeah. So then did that change things? I mean, you were, you said that you were instructing pilots who were commissioned.
TS: Yes.
CB: And that’s what prompted you to —
TS: Yeah.
CB: Re-apply as it were.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Well to apply. So how did that change things once you were commissioned?
TS: Well, in the main I found that I was commissioned and in quite a few instances I was told I hadn’t been to the right school. To my face.
CB: By the commissioned pilots being instructed.
TS: Yeah.
CB: Right.
TS: But I was, it didn’t worry me too much because I knew I could fly the pants off them all.
CB: How did you put that one down then?
TS: Pardon?
CB: How did you put down that comment?
TS: Well.
CB: Or you just left it?
TS: I just left it. The worst part of my career was after the war ended.
CB: Ok.
TS: Because there was a decided inflow of, of the type I felt I’d, you know, fallen out with. They didn’t accept me as being the right person to be a commissioned officer and they were just narked about it and so I thought I was hoping to make the RAF my thing so I decided no. I’d come out. And another things was I was wanting to get married and I was stupid enough not to ask her to marry me during the war when she really wanted to get married then. We were engaged. But we didn’t marry in the end.
CB: When did you get married? After you came out though.
TS: After we came out. Yes. I got myself a job.
CB: So just going back. You were at the OTU. Was that — did you keep in the OTU until you were demobbed or did you go somewhere else after the OTU?
TS: Well the OTU got more and more interested in the towing side of things and I was still an OTU but it was a different from when we started towing and all the rest of it. And it was a different thing as I say. And it had advanced considerably to what it was and I think it was very good and done properly by the book or if there wasn’t a book by what was recognised. It was a good thing. On one occasion the, there was a Halifax came and landed because I think it had engine failure. Supposed engine failure or something and so then they repaired it but it was in the way so they wanted to move it and they didn’t have the thing they could move it. They didn’t have a tractor that could move it so they said, ‘Oh well Tom used to fly on those. He’d be alright.’ So, I thought, right. I very nearly. No. I didn’t. I was very tempted. I was very tempted. I thought, no. You can’t really do it on your own, you see. So I —
CB: What? You can’t fly the aeroplane on your own.
TS: No. You could.
CB: But it would be dangerous.
TS: It would be dangerous because you couldn’t feed fuel or anything like that you see. You didn’t have the instruments you could check to see if they were all working.
CB: Oh right.
TS: So, to a certain degree you had the instruments but it’s —
CB: So, what did you do?
TS: So I had to collect [pause] the headquarters were sort of here. Around in the —
CB: One side of the airfield.
TS: Yes. Well, no. The hangars and that were there and then there were the station. The CO’s office and one or two bits and pieces there.
CB: Another site.
TS: And they wanted it moved. Wanted this aeroplane moved to over there. So, I was, I was asked if I would do it. I said, ‘Do you want me to pull it?’ And eyes all around. They said, No,’ they said, ‘We would like you to, if you could start two of the engines can you take it.’ I said,’ Yes. Well. You’ve done two engines haven’t you? Why don’t you take it?’ Sort of thing. And they were getting a bit fed up of me being awkward and I was only teasing them really but as we came along then I said right. We might as well have all four engines going so and that and then I turned it partly into the field but with my back right to the flight, not the flight commander’s office but the wing commander’s office. And he had made one or two cracks about people, you know, coming from the ground and being commissioned and all the rest of it so I put the plane right like that and his office was here.
CB: Behind it.
TS: Behind it. And I blasted those engines. I knew he was in the office.
CB: So, he got a lot of noise.
TS: Yes.
CB: And a lot of wind.
TS: Yes. And so somebody said, ‘You know you shouldn’t be doing that.’ Well, if he didn’t want me to do that somebody else should have done it shouldn’t they. It’s just one of those things where I perhaps go just beyond the point I should have stopped at.
CB: So were you a flying officer or a flight lieutenant at this stage?
TS: Oh, I was only a flying officer. But it’s, I don’t see why they couldn’t just jump in to a plane and taxi the damned thing.
CB: They hadn’t got the right certification had they?
TS: Well. Perhaps not. As I say there was no instructor to tell them what to do.
CB: So where? What — are we talking about 1945 still?
TS: Yes.
CB: So, you didn’t come out until ’46. So what were you doing?
TS: Well I was doing this but I was getting more and more frustrated with the attitude of the people there and it got to the stage when it was more important what was going on in the officer’s mess in the evening as to whether you could fly in the night or fly or anything and it was, if there were any targets to be met well they definitely weren’t being met. I wasn’t flying my pupils as much as I would have liked to have flown them and all this sort of thing going on so I thought I’d come out of it. Wasn’t, wasn’t done.
CB: The people who were converting on to glider towing. They had all done a tour had they? That’s why they were commissioned.
TS: The?
CB: Well, you were instructing.
TS: Yeah.
CB: People who already had experience on tours. On heavies. Were they?
TS: No.
CB: Oh.
TS: No.
CB: What were they?
TS: Well —
CB: Or on twins or some kind.
TS: Yes. Yes, they were. Some of them were coming straight through the thing. There were some experienced people and you could, before you’d taken off you realised that it was an experienced person. Even if you hadn’t been told. And it was more than awkward on more than one occasions where I didn’t really want to pass some people but they said they had to be passed if they’d got that far. So, I made a point of making a point of it so that they couldn’t say well you didn’t say.
CB: They could record it.
TS: And so anyway in the, after the war had ended and I thought of applying, I was applying for a permanent commission and there was just no chance at all.
CB: No.
TS: Came out.
CB: So where were you demobbed and when was that?
TS: Where was I demobbed? I don’t know exactly.
CB: Because you had to go and pick you suit up.
TS: Actually, I was driving a car. I’d got an old car and one of the chappies — I was in the same billet as him and he was the NCO in charge of the transport, the ground transport and so he made sure my car was ok. That was about the one thing I got, shall I say. Rather than just being there and having the general things. He said, ‘Of course I can’t do it on site,’ but he had to send off some of the vehicles outside the thing to somebody who was a local man doing repairs and my car went along with that but he didn’t know about it.
CB: He never heard a thing.
TS: That was the only thing I got like that.
CB: So, you left in ‘46. What time of the year?
TS: I can’t really remember that. It was pretty good weather. I can’t really remember.
CB: And you got a job. How quickly did you got a civilian job after you left?
TS: Before my leaving.
CB: Terminal leave.
TS: Terminal leave. Yes. Was up.
CB: Where did you? How did you get the job? And what was it?
TS: Well I came down south here because there was nothing up north really for me. From what I thought. And all I wanted was a job. I mean I was enough, far enough around the bend to go completely around there if I didn’t get a job. And it —I tried. My parents had moved from the Dales in to Darlington. My father had given up farming and was running the the animal auction market at Darlington which was quite a big job. And he wanted me to join with him to do that and I thought he’s still a young man. I wouldn’t be getting anywhere for years. I decided that I didn’t want to stay at home and do that. And I came to — one of my crew was in West London and so I came down and asked him about it and he said, he said, ‘Well all sorts of jobs going,’ he said. It’s what you’re even qualified for. They don’t want pilots here. They want bus drivers.’ I said, ‘I don’t want to drive a bus.’ I knew he was only joking anyway. But in the end I got a job at EMI and it so happened he was working at EMI but he had no control over the things. And he had said to me, ‘Don’t get a job at EMI whatever you do.’ I went around all sorts of places and I have sympathy for anybody who is in a similar situation now. If they want a job and they keep going around different places and then they can’t get it. There was one there he said, ‘There’s one or two jobs going here,’ he said, ‘But the thing is that it’s likely that I’ll be retiring soon,’ he said. ‘And you’d have to wait a bit but if I take you on you can have my job.’ And when I went in to it a bit more I decided, no, I didn’t want it. And then I took a job in EMI and I said, ‘Now look I don’t want to sit behind a table all day long shifting bits of paper. I want something on the move.’ So, I finished up half the time doing something on the table and the next was to keep a department of EMI Records going. Which meant there were several aspects towards the keeping the smooth running going and you had to be sure you got all the bits and pieces coming and going. It wasn’t tremendously, shall we say, a money-making job but it kept me going. I could go on. It’s about time you had a cup of tea isn’t it?
CB: That’s sounds —
JS: My knee’s getting set.
CB: We’ll stop there for a mo. 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 Tom Sayer
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
2015-12-07
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
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
02:30:30 audio recording
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
ASayerT151202
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Coastal Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
United States
Atlantic Ocean--Bay of Biscay
England--Yorkshire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
1945
Description
An account of the resource
Tom Sayer was accepted in to the Royal Air Force as an apprentice and began training as a pilot as soon as he was old enough. He trained in the United States and on his return he was detached to Coastal Command. He completed eight operations patrolling for submarines before being posted to 102 Squadron at RAF Pocklington where he completed his tour. His aircraft was badly damaged on one operation but he continued to the target and managed to get the aircraft back.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
10 OTU
102 Squadron
81 OTU
aircrew
Blenheim
bombing
Bombing of Peenemünde (17/18 August 1943)
Cheshire, Geoffrey Leonard (1917-1992)
Distinguished Flying Medal
Halifax
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Horsa
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Pocklington
RAF St Eval
RAF Upwood
Stearman
submarine
training
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/891/11130/PHuntleyR1702.2.jpg
772e2bac2b4cb78c68eccb91e1b6af99
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/891/11130/AHuntleyR171005.1.mp3
6ec0e5fd9579328c0aa13a76e4afa137
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
Huntley, Ronald
R Huntley
Description
An account of the resource
Six items. An oral history interview with Ronald Huntley (b. 1922, 1436327 Royal Air Force), an account of the shooting down and rescue by one of the Liberator crew, and photographs of RAF high speed launches and personnel. After service as a flight mechanic on fighter aircraft, he applied to join the Air Sea Rescue service as a engine engineer on high speed launches. He was involved in the rescue of the crew of a United States Navy PB4Y-1 Liberator shot down in the Bay of Biscay in February 1944.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Ronald Huntley and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
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2017-10-05
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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Huntley, R
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HB: This is an interview for the International Bomber Command Digital Archive on the 5th of October 2017 at 3:15 PM between Harry Bartlett, the interviewer from the International Bomber Command Centre Archive and Mr Ronald Huntley who was a member of the RAF and eventually became a member of the Air Sea Rescue Service of the RAF and all I’d like to do first Ronald is to ask you where were you actually born originally?
RH: I was born in London.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Edmonton in London.
HB: Right. And you went, did you go to school there?
RH: Yes. I went to Crowland Road School.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Not a particularly good pupil. We moved. My parents moved from a flat. Is this on?
HB: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, it’s —
RH: Moved from a flat in, in Ferndale Road in, just off, just off Stamford Hill.
HB: Yeah.
RH: In London. We moved to Thornton Heath in the Croydon area in 1929 and we moved to Foxley Road, Thornton Heath. I went to school at Winterbourne School in Winterbourne Road in Thornton Heath.
HB: Right.
RH: And then when I was eleven I went on to the Norbury Manor School in Norbury which is just in South London. I ran for the school in 1934 at the Crystal Palace and I was fourth in the hundred yards and I was in the winning relay team. I was at the Streatham ice rink in 1936 and that night in November the Crystal Palace burned down and I was with three of my pals. We raced up the Common, got to the top of Gipsy Hill and tried to get on and the police stopped us and that was the end of, of course Crystal Palace that time.
HB: Yeah. What, what did you, did you study anything particular at, at Secondary School, Ron?
RH: No. I didn’t. I failed to get a scholarship. I left school at fourteen. I, my, if you will my first job was with a wholesaler in the Crescent which was right opposite St. Paul's Cathedral.
HB: Oh right.
RH: Right opposite.
HB: Yeah.
RH: I worked on the third floor in gent’s material lengths for suitings. Customers used to come up there. Unfortunately, I had a habit of whistling and I was told off many times for whistling and in the finish, believe it or not after three months I got the sack for whistling. You couldn't do that today of course but there you are. I did. That’s it.
HB: So, so you so from —
RH: This was, this would be 1937.
HB: Yes. Working in, working in a gent’s suit.
RH: I went to an advertising agency in Queen Anne‘s Gate run by a one man business. Very good customers. Overlooking St James’s Park.
HB: Yeah.
RH: I think he was an engineer. I did some engineering work with him because he, he’d in fact started the business on a thousand pounds he’d won for making a bomb release for the Bristol Bulldog in the First World War.
HB: He made a —?
RH: A bomb release.
HB: Oh right.
RH: For the Bristol Bulldog.
HB: Yeah.
RH: His name was Morgan. Anyway, come the, come the start of the war of course advertising went down the drain and that’s when I went in and I did one or two odd jobs then because I hadn’t, I was obviously [unclear] and then I took a Government Training Centre course at [Whaddon]. I think it lasted nine months. And then from there I was posted to Chobham. This is Fairoaks Aerodrome in Chobham as an improver I suppose you’d say. I learned various things there about the Tiger Moth. How to swing a prop without getting your fingers chopped off. But mainly it was concerned with Blenheims that were coming in and landing flat. Undercarriages giving way and that and they we were doing body repairs. I was then put on nights and that really destroyed me because you were working six days a week in those days and I only had one day at home which was Saturday night. So I left on Friday morning as it were or Saturday morning when it finished I’d go home and you’d have to have a kip and then you’d, and then you’d got to go back for Sunday. Well, this lasted about three months before I said to myself, ‘I've had enough of this. I’m going.’ I said to the foreman, a fellow called Tommy [Glynn] and he came from Limerick. This shows you how the memory plays you. I said, ‘Tommy, I'm going to pack up this job. I’m fed up with this. I'm not going to keep working nights.’ And that’s when he told me, ‘Well, you’ve taken a Government Training Centre course. They will dictate where you go. You may finish up even worse off. The only way you’ve got out is to join the Services.’ The next morning I put my suit on, went back into Croydon, into George Street where the Recruitment Centre was and joined the RAF and that was in February I actually went there. But I failed believe it or not to go in there for the course. I failed to get as a mechanic. I could get in the Air Force but I couldn’t get as a flight mechanic. I failed on the bloody fractions and decimals. So I spent the time learning fractions and decimals and in July I went back and funnily enough saw the same flight sergeant at the desk. He didn’t know it was the same, he asked me. I said I’d been before. He said, ‘Who saw you?’ I said, ‘You did.’ Anyway, I passed all the exams that day and he said, ‘You’re in.’ And you know and I went in and that was almost within a week.
HB: That’s good.
RH: And that’s, that’s when I, from there I went to Cardington. Four days. Kitted out. Short cut. Short back and sides. I then went to, then was posted to Skegness and there was about three hundred or so of us on the train going to Skegness. We came off on what was a wooden station platform with all the, with all the PTI, you know the PT blokes all in their white jumpers looking as fit as a fiddle and I remember one was standing there about six foot two. He had a crooked nose and I thought, I just thought to myself I hope to God I don't get him and sods law being what it is who did I get but this fellow. A fellow called Tommy Rellington. Turned out to be a professional boxer.
HB: Oh right.
RH: And he was the nicest chap you could wish to meet.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And he fought Freddie Mills while I was there.
HB: Oh, did he?
RH: Yeah.
HB: Right.
RH: I was there six weeks. [unclear] then. And that's when I was, I was then posted to Cosford. I was at Cosford for sixteen weeks on a, on a flight mechanics course and then I was posted to Northern Ireland. Eglinton Station, Northern Ireland on a Spitfire squadron that was doing Western Approaches patrols for the shipping coming in. I don't know how quite I was there but one morning the squadron was told, ‘You’re moving. Lock stock and barrel.’
HB: Was that a temporary base that one?
RH: Yeah. Yeah.
HB: Eglinton.
RH: Yeah. I’ve got a friend who goes to Limavady who, and he knew of Eglinton straight away.
HB: Yeah. Right. Yeah.
RH: Yeah. It’s quite close to Limavady there but it was also RAF.
HB: Right.
RH: Moved. The whole squadron was posted down to Baginton. It took us fourteen hours on the train to get down. The whole station came down. The planes came in after we were there. Nobody really seemed to know why we were there but we were there. And then it turned out that we were all going to be kitted out and we were going overseas. We were given a fortnight’s leave, overseas leave before we went and funnily enough I was told along with a few others, ‘You’re surplus to requirements for the station. You’re new to the station anyway. You’re surplus to it. Don’t need it. You're going to be posted.’ And then I was posted. From there I was posted to Larkhill which is Army coop and the aircraft there were Tiger Moths, Taylorcraft, Piper Cubs and a couple of Lysanders and that was flying normally dawn ‘til dusk. The idea was that they were taking flight lieutenant second, second lieutenants up to do a twelve week course and they were flying all these to learn for gunnery so that the gunners could spot for gunners. The flying actually had to be done at four hundred feet and they were good. The practicing was done above that but that was the ultimate when they were out actually on the field was supposed to be four hundred feet which was in, within rifle range now, wasn’t it? Anyhow, a dangerous job in the long run. Those fellows were learning to fly so it was dawn to dusk. And from there not only did I do the servicing in that outside as it were doing normal daily inspections but I was also put in the workshops to do complete overhauls as well.
HB: Oh right.
RH: So I was doing both at that stage and then the squadron did a total move from what was a made up station down to Old Sarum which was a permanent base at that stage.
HB: Yeah.
RH: They flew from there for, I can’t remember the dates but we flew from there and then I was posted from there out of the blue. ‘You’re posted again. You’re going to Duxford.’ And I was posted to Duxford for one simple reason that I found out afterwards that these, the Typhoons that were there at the time had been made a permanent squadron, operational squadron and then it was dropped from operational level because of the number of mods it needed. So a number of reps were sent there. Not a number of reps, a number of fitters were sent there with the sole idea of doing these modifications.
HB: And that was modifications to the Typhoons.
RH: Yeah. Modifications on the Typhoons.
HB: Yeah.
RH: There was a book full of them and they were in sandbag bays dispersed, tied down and everything but they had, because of the weather and the coldness they had to be run up every four hours. So you’d work a day and may have to work four hours in to the night every four hours, something like. And you had to do, you had to do about five or six of these and get, if you wanted a cup of tea you’d got to them fairly quickly because you were going to stand up to a level in the oil, then strap it all back and then run the service to get it to the next dispersal point and do them and if you wanted a cup of tea you got to do it in three and a half hours roughly. Go back to the hut, get a cup of tea and start all over again.
HB: Right.
RH: I came off one, off one Saturday night or a Sunday morning and I went over to the DROs to look for the daily, daily report, orders to see what was on before I went to breakfast. Not a thing I normally did funnily enough. But on this it was got that they wanted fitters for air sea rescue launches. And somehow or other I suppose because I was fed up with the nights again all going I just said I’m going to have a go at that with my pal and we both volunteered. We went in to the chiefy and said we wanted to go and within a week I was posted to Locking, Super Mare. Down at Super Mare on a course on diesel for, because some of the boats had diesel on.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: I was posted there.
HB: That was at Locking. Weston.
RH: Locking. At Weston Super Mare.
HB: Weston Super Mare. Yeah.
RH: And I did a nine week course there and then I was posted to Padstow in Cornwall to take over.
HB: Were you with your pal all that time while you were doing your training —
RH: No. My pal went somewhere else.
HB: He went somewhere else.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Yeah.
RH: No. I did my own [pupilship]. I then went, I then went from there to Padstow. The first launch I was on was a sixty foot Pinus. It had three Perkins diesels. P6 Perkins diesels in. The boat number was 12341234 it was called. It also had a long mast on it which was like the leigh, leigh lights on a plane. From St Eval they went out and on this, this tall light that was standard that we had on the boat they were coming in and locking on it and dropping lights on it or dropping their bombs on it for doing bombing submarines when they were sufficient.
HB: Oh right. Yeah.
RH: And this thing ran for twelve weeks continually, twenty three and a half hours a day every day outside Padstow on about a six seven mile run each way at about a twelve knot speed for twelve weeks while they practiced.
HB: Which aircraft? What aircraft were they then there Ron?
RH: Well, anything that they always sent out. Anything they sent out. Yeah. Anybody that was learning to bomb. They would be Liberators. They would be Whitleys or anything like that you know. All sorts of aircraft they sent out. I know that. And this boat went up and down, came in, refuelled, got a couple aboard and out it went again with another crew of course.
HB: Right.
RH: And that —
HB: So that, so that would, twenty three and a half hours that would be daylight, night.
RH: Yeah, oh yeah.
HB: What? All weather conditions.
RH: Yeah. All weather conditions. Mines out there. Many times we sunk mines out there. Get the rifles out and sink the mines. I’ve been within fifteen feet of a mine on a boat when, and you know, you know. But that’s a risk you take.
HB: Yeah.
RH: From there we picked up, we picked up quite a few and then I had another launcher after that. 2641 which is that launcher up in the photograph. That was, that’s a Thornycroft. It had two RY12 Thornycroft six hundred and fifty horsepower engines in that. Top speed of only about twenty seven knots but it was a different kind of boat altogether. It was faster and shaped better. Could shine better. On that we picked up a lot of people.
HB: Yeah.
RH: The Warwick went down. The Warwick cruiser, the Warwick went down and there were fifty, reported, fifty five on one boat extras. Liberty ships go down there.
HB: Did you, did you go out to the Warwick?
RH: Yeah. Well, it was only about six mile out. It was torpedoed.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Yeah.
HB: And you brought survivors back did you?
RH: In boats. Yes. Yeah. Exactly.
HB: Yeah.
RH: They had to beach one of the boats. They couldn’t get out to the, on to buoy. They had to beach it to get it up and they jumped off it. Yeah. And then a Liberty ship went down. On that we picked up six, five cartons of all sealed and everything. Turned out it had all their cigarettes in it.
HB: Oh right.
RH: There was ten thousand cigarettes in each pack. Fifty thousand fags and the skipper wouldn’t let us pick them any more but the Navy were running around picking them up as fast as they could.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Anyway, the skipper sold them at a penny a packet to the base. You know, on the base.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And for the money we invited some WAAFs down from St Eval for a party one Saturday night. That was when they went. The incident that really sent us out there was in February, February the 15th, the day after [pause] what’s the 14th? Yeah. Somebody’s day, isn’t it? Anyway, the 15th of February 1944 and we picked up the crew and nine men in three dinghies and they turned out it was an American crew. Flight Wing 7 of the American flew out of Dunkeswell near Honiton, had done Biscay patrol, got shot down about fifty miles off Brest by two JU88s a line astern coming at them. Remember all aircraft had, the aircraft, on a Liberator only had .3s. The Germans on their 88s had 5s and [unclear] So you had to get within a thousand yards to even be able to hit them never mind see them and they could fire from far away. The story which is in that book, the fella who tells the story they were sure they’d hit the first plane. Right. But they were hit themselves and eventually of course outer engine went, another engine went. They were throwing everything over the side that they could to keep it afloat. Eventually we had to ditch and luckily of course the two wireless operators aboard were giving out SOSs and the Americans made a big effort to get them. Sent out a lot of their own planes, their own stuff to get them. Right.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: And we, we’d been out the night before knowing that there was, there was a call but we couldn’t find them and it went dark and you had to pack it in. And we waited all the following morning. Everybody was on edge because we knew they were going to get called. And we were called out to it and this time with aircraft support you were bound to hit it. On your own you’re doing mile, square mile searches and there’s every chance you could sit out, you could be within a hundred yards of them and because of the swell you wouldn’t see them. You’d have everyone aboard looking but there’s no guarantee. And with wind and drift there’s no certainty that you were even going to get to it.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Because the position you were told would probably come out an hour or two before. Could be three or four hours before. You don’t know. If you’ve got aircraft that’s it. An aircraft would come over. We’ve had it. I’ve had it where we’re going one way and an aircraft comes over, dips over the top of it, goes away, dips again, comes back and does the same thing. And the skipper would just say, ‘Sod where we’re going. Go there.’ And there’s where the bloke is. He could see him. We couldn’t.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: Well, on this particular day we went out and of course we went to the place because the aircraft were there. Picked up nine people and when they’ve been in the water twenty four hours I’ll tell you it’s, they’re heavy and they are absolutely dead from the stomach down because they’d been sitting in water all night. It’s a hard job and everybody is involved fitters or not, you’re all involved in trying to pull them on board and you’ve got to hang on because if you let go you’re both going to go. And you’re both going to finish up in the —[laughs]
HB: Yeah.
RH: Anyway, we got them all on board. Found out one was dead and they knew he was dead. But the medical officer didn’t know that they knew because he left him showing and I actually, I said to George, George Hardy who was the medic aboard, I said, ‘What about him George?’ And he said to me, ‘He’s dead. I’ve left him like that deliberately not to upset the rest of the crew.’ But the rest of the crew in fact they kept him aboard knowing he was dead so that he would be buried at home.
HB: Right.
RH: It was eight we picked up. Put them on the, on the, when we went to Padstow. Four of them walked off believe it or not. After all that time they just walked off. One or two had bad injuries or injuries to legs and so and then two were met by the senior medical officer from St Merryn at that stage. St Merryn which was a Naval base. And they went and that was the end of that and I knew no more about that until well into the ‘80s and I, I’d got another photograph of another job and I said to them, I got in touch with a detective inspector called Derek Fowkes who was very keen on aircraft and knew pretty well every action that had happened in Cornwall. But he was walking around the lifeboat station at Newquay one day and he saw their things. All their different rescues and so forth they’d been on and he looked at this particular one in 1944 and he said, ‘What’s that?’ And a bloke called Henwood, who was, who was the engineer aboard that said, ‘Well, that’s what, that’s the “Gold Plane.”’ And if you listen to his talk on the BBC he says, “Gold Plane.” That had a, that had a [unclear] there must be a story there somewhere.’ And for the next sixteen years he followed it up.
HB: Can I just stop you there a minute Ron?
RH: Yeah.
HB: You know the American plane that crashed?
RH: Yeah.
HB: They were —
RH: Yeah.
HB: They’d done, they’d done, the Liberator had done the Biscay run. They [pause] now you, you caught up with them again didn’t you to get the article?
RH: Yeah.
HB: Did you actually go to America to visit them?
RH: Yeah.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Well, if I can.
HB: Yeah. Yeah. So, so the booklet that we’re going to copy was the, the fact that they all got home. Did they actually ditch in the sea?
RH: Yeah.
HB: They actually ditched the plane.
RH: The plane. Yeah.
HB: And they all managed to get out.
RH: In fact, I’ve got a letter. A letter of commendation from their own people.
HB: Yes. Yes.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Yes.
RH: The way they ditched it tells you how they ditched.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Yes. Vertical to the, to the wave.
HB: Yeah.
RH: It’s, it’s a very difficult thing to ditch a plane properly and you could ditch it properly and it come wrong. That plane, the reason there was only nine is that there was eleven on board. The two that died never got out with the two operators and if you know a Liberator at all they’re underneath the bottom they’re underneath the pilot and everything else and the thing split.
HB: Oh right.
RH: And of course they would either be drowned or they wouldn’t get out.
HB: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
RH: So out of the eleven two were drowned.
HB: That’s a shame. That’s a shame.
RH: Yeah. One died.
HB: Yeah.
RH: From injuries. Then they kept on. They got him in the dinghy, kept him in the dinghy and he died in the dinghy. Eight got out.
HB: Yeah. So you’re, on you’re the boat that you were on that time which was two —
RH: The Thornycroft.
HB: The Thornycroft.
RH: 2641.
HB: Yeah. What, what was the crew on, on that boat that you were on? How many were there of you?
RH: Ten, I think. The skipper. There would be First Class Coxswain, Second Class Coxswain, three MBCs, a radio operator, a medic and two fitters.
HB: Right. MBCs?
RH: Motorboat crew.
HB: Motorboat crew. Right.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Right. So that’s so, so you’re fetching nine back albeit one of them has unfortunately died.
RH: Yeah.
HB: But you’ve got eight guys in there.
RH: Yeah.
HB: You’re bringing them back from six miles away.
RH: Yeah.
HB: And then —
RH: It was more than six.
HB: Yeah. Oh, sorry. Oh.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Sorry, I thought —
RH: Yeah.
HB: It was about six miles.
RH: No. No.
HB: But further than that.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Right. Right.
RH: Yeah. It took us an hour to get back I think.
HB: Yeah.
RH: So at twenty seven knots we wouldn’t have been doing full whack. It would be twenty five miles. Twenty mile anyway.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Yeah. Right. So moving on to the “Gold Plane.”
RH: Well, this, this Derek Fowkes found anomalies in it. I mean the first —
HB: As in the report of the crash.
RH: Yes. That’s right.
HB: Yeah.
RH: The anomalies starts with the fact that St Eval told him to bugger off as it were.
HB: Right.
RH: Three times he rang St Eval and they only logged it once and they didn’t do anything with the logging. That’s the point. It was reported the following morning as I said to you earlier by, by a manager of one of the hotels ringing the lifeboat station and saying, ‘There’s wreckage out there.’
HB: Yeah. This was from somebody seeing —
RH: Wreckage.
HB: An explosion at 1 o’clock in the morning.
RH: Yes, that’s what, he was a sergeant in the Home Guard [the secretary] was.
HB: Yeah.
RH: He was on the film as a matter of fact.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Yeah.
HB: And that and that and he he rang in three times and it was only on the third one they actually recorded it.
RH: Recorded it but they didn’t do anything about it.
HB: Right.
RH: Didn’t report it anybody.
HB: No.
RH: So the first time anybody saw anything was when this manager saw it from the hotel and he rang the lifeboat and the lifeboat went out at twenty to ten.
HB: Yeah.
RH: I couldn’t tell you what time ours was but ours was something about 12 o’clock I suppose because the lifeboat had already picked up, I think eleven when we got there.
HB: Yeah.
RH: It looked like an abattoir.
HB: Yeah.
RH: I mean it was, they’d dropped the sides so the bodies the blood and everything was about. It really looked —
HB: Yeah.
RH: A real mess. And then we found the skipper dived to try and get the fellow over the side that was attached to a wheel which was floating. Couldn’t get him out and the lifeboat eventually towed that in.
HB: Yeah.
RH: They put a rope on it and tied it in. We left it. We couldn’t do anything and we were in touch with the Walrus. The Walrus told us to go further out and that was when we found two bodies. Both of course dead. A couple of under arm briefcases, jackets, a couple of jackets. You know, officer’s jackets and suitcases and on opening them up we found out that the officer’s one was going to Alexandria over with penicillin we reported in the thing and that was new in those days. And the other one was going to Yugoslavia as far as we could see. Certainly, he was he was Yugoslavian. He was going there. Everything pointed to that. And they were both senior officers.
HB: So, so the one that was going to Yugoslavia. Is he the one that had some money on him? Had the suitcase of money.
RH: No. No. No, that was the suit, no the suitcases were picked up and nobody knew where they came from.
HB: Right.
RH: The money that was picked up there was a body belt picked up by the motorboat, by the lifeboat which had seventy thousand dollars in.
HB: Right.
RH: In hundred dollar bills and as you know it was four dollars to the pound in those days.
HB: Yeah.
RH: So it was about eighteen thousand quid roughly. We opened ours. We opened up the suitcases on the way back and found that we’d got forty five at a rough quick count. We’d got the old five pound notes in the white in fifties.
HB: Wow.
RH: And somebody added them up and said, ‘There’s about forty five thousand quid there.’ We had, remember the harbour master was still aboard from the Navy, and the petty officer and five of us. I swear to this day if the harbour master had been in charge of the boat instead of our fellow nobody would have seen that money but us. But the skipper we had was a regular in the Air Force. He was only a second lieutenant. No. A pilot [pause] what’s the —
HB: Pilot officer.
RH: Pilot officer. Up from a pilot, pilot, a flight lieutenant. First, first rank up from that in the rank in the RAF.
HB: Flight lieutenant.
RH: Flight lieutenant. But he was a regular.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And he was as honest as the day is long and then he thought that was out of it altogether and we took it back, put it in, put it to the senior medical officer I think it was for St Merryn that came to meet the crew. Of course there was no use picking them up in the early days. Gave all the stuff over to them. Four of them walked off the boat. The rest were taken off and from that point on although that was the talking point of the base for a couple of days because of the money.
HB: Yeah.
RH: It died a death.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Because there were other things going on.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: And other boats picking up other people. And I didn’t hear anything about it. I rang Fowkes over something or other and I can’t think what but something else turned up and I rang him and said, ‘I understand you know about this.’ And he said yes, yes and he starts to talk about the “Gold Plane.” And I said, ‘What is the “Gold Plane” you’re talking about?’ And he said, ‘Well, this was a plane that went down. This was, I think it was on 27th of April 1944’ and I said ‘The one, the one that they had the armament at the back?’ He said, ‘That’s right.’ I said, ‘Well, I was on the rescue boat. I was on 2641 when it went.’ ‘Were you?’ He said, ‘I didn’t know anybody that, other than the Navy bloke.’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ So, of course, I then got in touch with then his story comes up he spent sixteen years of his life that’s, that was put down by the Air Force as an explosion from the engine. He said, ‘I think that was an explosion. I think that boat was sabotaged.’ The story runs that the air commodore in charge of St Merryn, no, St Mawgan told his wife that was by sabotage but not by the enemy. That plane went out —
[pause]
And he looked then to say, ‘Who was on that boat? Who was, who was on the plane? And on the plane were twelve people that he can write off. Right. In itself. Two were people that were suspicious but two were French and one was, it turned out he found out had been in touch with the Cagoule which was a Nazi operation in France and he was suspicious of both of them and he followed those up. He also found that they’d put twelve people down and fifteen of them down. Sixteen people. Twelve of the crew. Twelve visitors, four in the crew. Sixteen altogether on that plane that went down. They got fifteen of them and one was listed, put down as, “An unknown seaman for 1944 found at sea.” And he said, ‘That fella’s the pilot.’ Now, how the hell anybody argues about it I don’t know because first he had a Canadian uniform on. Secondly there was a watch on with the time of 1.30 on it. But they put him down as a seaman. So he said, ‘I want him exhumed.’ And of course being, he was told he couldn’t do it. He said, ‘Well, being a police officer I know there are ways to do things you know that you know isn’t being out of the law.’ And he got permission to do it on the strength of it. If it was wrong he would have to pay. If it was right they would pay and he brought two group captains down and authorities to the blah blah you know the different names they use for these to test it and they took his bones, put it together and said that’s him. That is the fella. I forget his name now but he, anyway, he was the pilot and the pilot was Canadian and he’d been to Canada, fortunately been to Canada. Seen the parents, seen the, seen his brother, seen the only Canadian left that had been on the report that they put through the inquest that they had. Saw him as well and both of these were very well you know I didn’t put anything down there that I wasn’t told to put down. I put down what I thought. Only what they somebody wanted me to put down. This was an RAF captain. They put all that down and as far as he was concerned he said that was sabotage. And then he made I think what was a lot of people said was a mistake he said that that it was easy enough to put something through the, under the pilot to blow it up because the pilot took a package up on that was only from the pilot. That could only have been put on by the pilot alone. If you listen to anything else they’ll tell you everything that was on the plane was logged.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Before they went on. Everything.
HB: Yeah.
RH: This wasn’t about me.
HB: Yeah. Right.
RH: So this put the suspicion and he’s relying really not on the legal law but on civil law possibilities. Probabilities. You know. And he never knew what I found out afterwards unfortunately for him but after it was all over I said to my son in law especially when I’d got the film and seen it all I said to my son in law, ‘You go. I’ve been to Kew. You go down. You go through your Archives. See whether you can find anything.’ He’s a great one for doing. He didn’t start with the RAF which is where you’d expect him to start. He started with the BBC programme. I don’t remember but in the late ‘90s the BBC said, ‘Anybody that’s got a story tell us. We’re looking out for —’ And he went there and he found a short letter which I have from a woman called Hazeldene, [unclear] Hazeldene, which said that her father going down he was he was a major in the Army. He was, he was evacuated before Dunkirk back home with an injury. He finished up at Baker Street in MI6 and she said he went down to Cornwall to put some gold on the plane. Nothing more than that. But that letter. Who’s the fellow’s name? So now I’ve got a four page note now of the whole fellas, he was, he went down. He said he went down in May. That’s just when the only bit’s that’s wrong, he went down in April. He went down in April. He got the date wrong. That’s all. He went, the gold was put on the plane. This was all that was in that. He went to the plane. He actually said, ‘I got to the plane and as I got there I was told, ‘You’re not going tonight. Taking off to go another night.’ He said, ‘They took the gold off.’ And that plane crashed. The following night he goes down he goes right around and that gold finished up at Foggio in Italy on an American station and he came back from there. Now, Fowkes never knew that, that there was gold but every bloody, every fisherman in Cornwall near enough certainly along that coast went out trying to find gold.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And to this day they believe there is gold there.
HB: Yeah.
RH: The other thing is a salvage vessel, the RAF salvage vessel is too large for anywhere else but Ilfracombe. If a plane went down in the war nobody ever bothered to go down and look for it but that boat was brought down for four days down, run out to find out, put out to sea at exactly the same spot. A diver went down. When that diver came up he was searched. And that went on for four days. They never found anything to do with the plane. They found other, other planes. They found a B27 or something that had gone down there before but they never found anything else and that lasted for four days and that’s suspicious in itself. What was there that they thought. This, of course, only made the fishermen think there has got to be gold there.
HB: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, look, just remind me Ron when you were telling me earlier on what squadron was that? That plane from? The “Gold Plane.”
RH: 525.
HB: 525 Squadron.
RH: 525. Yeah.
HB: And then what kind of plane was it?
RH: It was a Warwick.
HB: A Warwick.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Oh right. Yeah. The Warwick. Yeah. A transport plane.
RH: Which wasn’t a particularly well thought of plane.
HB: No. No.
RH: Twin engine.
HB: Yeah. And that was, that was from a, was that a Canadian squadron? Or a —
RH: It was a Canadian squadron, Yeah.
HB: Yeah. Yeah and it was —
RH: 525.
HB: The bulk of the crew would be Canadian.
RH: It was RAF transport.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Yeah. Transport Command.
RH: Yeah.
HB: And there was sixteen.
RH: April 17th 1944.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And one Warwick. 525 Squadron based at Lyneham.
HB: Yeah. And that was one of the stories the BBC did a film on.
RH: Yeah. They were, they called it the “Gold Plane.”
HB: The “Gold Plane.” Yeah.
RH: It was shown in late, late ‘49 err late ‘99 and in 2002.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And I’ve got a copy of the film. Well, I had two copies. One of them is with Leach.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Who is down there. That fella.
HB: Yeah. So that, yeah that’s interesting that. If you, so the two bodies you brought back were part of the group that the lifeboat had got.
RH: No. We were, they brought back eleven. Two more were found. We found two.
HB: Oh right, sorry. Yeah. I missed that bit. Sorry.
RH: Yeah.
HB: I do apologise.
RH: That’s alright. The lifeboat had got eleven when we go there and twelve of course with the chap that they towed in. Two more were picked up. Out of the sixteen only two were left and we picked up those two.
HB: Right. Yeah.
RH: One was put down as an unknown seaman.
HB: And it’s only after I presume well that would be well after the war wouldn’t it?
RH: Oh yeah.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: But he was, he was buried with honours.
HB: Yeah.
RH: After they’d exhumed him and they knew who he was. He was buried with honours and his brother came over from Canada to it and they had the old guns out and everything.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Oh yeah.
HB: So that and that was the work of this, this —
RH: Derek Fowkes. Yeah.
HB: Yeah. This Derek Fowkes.
RH: This detective inspector. Yeah.
HB: Yeah. Oh that’s —
RH: If nothing else he did that.
HB: Yeah. That’s absolutely brilliant.
RH: Yeah. But there was a report by a fellow called Nesbitt.
HB: Right.
RH: Who’s fairly well known apparently in the historical circles and he ridicules the story totally.
HB: Oh right.
RH: Nesbitt. Yeah.
HB: So we’ve got an American crew that you’ve rescued. They’ve lost two. They’ve lost three guys. You’ve got the “Gold Plane.” It sounds like Padstow was a bit of a, a bit of a centre of activity Ron.
RH: Well, in itself it was but of course compared with some stations it wasn’t.
HB: Yeah.
RH: You know, compared with the east coast.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Or Dover you know.
HB: So the, so the bulk of your work from Padstow was Coastal Command, Western Approaches.
RH: Yeah. Well bearing in mind there’s another station at Newlyn.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Okay. And there’s also a station further north up the coast. Where would it be? Before Fleetwood. Somewhere there. Up the coast a bit. Altogether there was three hundred rescue bases over the whole world when we finished.
HB: Yeah.
RH: There was about forty, about forty odd around England.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: Well, we were forty four.
HB: Yeah, and, and so in the main, in the main you really did turn your hand to anything then.
RH: Yeah. We picked up civilians sometimes.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Some silly bugger on holiday goes out in trouble.
HB: During the war.
RH: Yeah. Yeah.
HB: No.
RH: Well, of course it’s a, it’s a holiday spot. Cornwall.
HB: Well —
RH: The beaches are beautiful, you know.
HB: Yeah.
RH: I mean, you imagine, not now if you go, of course, there’s always something but in those days you’d walk across that beach, beautiful sand and nobody about.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Beautiful.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Rather like South Africa. My son’s out there and I’ve been out there. Rather like that.
HB: Oh lovely.
RH: Yeah.
HB: So you so this is all I mean this would be around about 1944ish.
RH: ’44.
HB: ’44. So did you see your time out there, Ron? Or did you —
RH: No.
HB: Did you move on?
RH: Well, this was [pause] when the war was over, 1945 say, you know, late ’45 and they decided that the rescue boat base they only needed one rescue boat base at the most. In fact, they were going to close it. It closed in ’46. But at that time they wanted, they wanted to get rid of everybody. They were, you know basically —
HB: Yeah.
RH: And I was posted to Castle Archdale in Northern Ireland because they needed a [unclear] to take the crews out and service the aircraft that was in the loch, which was Sunderlands.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Yeah. And that’s Loch —?
RH: Lough Erne.
HB: Lough Erne.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: The incident there was the dinghy. The little dinghy. We used to go out and pick up, take the [unclear], out to the pilots and the crews, you know, there were fitters and so on, to the boats and then bring them back and the dinghy was only supposed to take about ten or eight or something like that you know. You’d go out two or three times to it. And one night it comes in about half past four, 5 o’clock in to this jetty where it was and the jetty sort of stopped there and all this was long reeds floating out of the water.
HB: Oh right.
RH: You know.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And this boat came around and too many had jumped on it and it did the turn and they kept buggering about. Turned the boat over and nine were dead before and they never got back to base.
HB: Oh dear.
RH: And then you’re talking of something that’s no more than two hundred yards away from you. Coming around there coming in to the [pause], yeah.
HB: Oh well. That’s nasty.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Yeah.
RH: I had a funny incident there as well. They took a boat down to Killadeas which is at the bottom end of the loch, also a RAF station. They’d taken a boat down there sometime in the fog. It couldn’t get back. They had an overnight crew there like everywhere, you know and I was on crew that night. This was at, I don’t know, 7 o’clock. Something like that. I can’t. I can’t tell the time because I can’t place the, where it was in the, in the January to December but we went down there and as a fitter, you know its nothing to do with you, you know. That’s about crew stuff. And one of the fellas said, ‘Well, I’ll take it down.’ He said. He was going down. I said, ‘Well, I’ll come with you if you like.’ You know, it was something to do. ‘Yeah. Okay.’ What I didn’t know is that he didn’t know that there were buoys put out deliberately to show the boats where to go because of the rocks.
HB: Oh right. Yeah.
RH: We’re going out there as large as bloody life. Been going, I don’t know how long. Bang it goes. We hit a bloody rock. Of course, the boat’s shuddering. Water is coming in at the back. Of course, the props had been pushed through the bottom of the boat, you know. The rudder, you know. Propeller. I get out, I get the floorboard up to examine it and I can say in the mist we could see an island. ‘Make for there.’ And we came across a little buoy. You know a little buoy.
BH: Yeah.
RH: Not a big thing but a little. Bob wanted to stop there. I said, ‘Not on your bloody life, mate.’ You know, because you don’t know how long. I mean it is going dark and you think —
HB: Yeah.
RH: You couldn’t stay there all night. You’d drown. Make for that. And we’d seen this island just and made for it. We got there. Got about from here to that door away from it, two feet and the boat went up like that and it hit a rock and it split the nose up. You could see the bottom, you could see the land. I mean you could walk to it if you wanted to walk through six feet of water. But we decided if we got there and, when we thought it was an island if we get down and we’re soaking wet. You know.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Gotta stop there all bloody night. We’ll stay here where we are and we sat in that top of that boat all night. At half past six the following morning the tannoy went. I realised that it wasn’t an island it was the bloody main base. I could have walked back to my base in ten minutes from there.
HB: Oh no.
RH: And got a night in bed. What else happened though they woke up at the, at the base where we were, at the main base. He gets out. Says, ‘Where’s the —’ this fella was supposed to make breakfast apparently in the morning, ‘Where is he and where’s Huntley?’ They both went out and neither bed had been slept in. Gets a retender which is a forty foot boat there, comes racing out, sees us, turns and he goes over the rock.
HB: Oh no.
RH: Stays on top of the bloody rocks.
HB: No. Two boats written off.
RH: Two boats. The third boat comes out for us and picked everybody up and I’m thinking, I’m not going to be in this at all because I wasn’t supposed to be there as a fitter, you know.
HB: Oh, no. No.
RH: So I had it all right. I don’t know what happened to them. I just went around to the sort of things that came up from Coastal Command when you put boats out of action —
HB: Yeah.
RH: Was nobody’s business, you know.
HB: I can imagine.
RH: Yeah.
HB: I can imagine.
RH: We went, coming back a bit we went to a rescue of of Australians. This is also ’44 sometime. A fellow called [Rossythe] I found out afterwards but there were eight of them in a crew and they were in a Liberator and they were doing some sort of exercises. I think he went out and he went too bloody low and he went in.
HB: Right.
RH: We went out to it and the Walrus had gone out to it and the Walrus actually had picked them up but on the way out on an engine there’s a bloody great filter which of course you clean and do but there’s also a gauge on top. Green and red. And this thing we were just turning up the top if it went. If you were going on a crash call above all things. This thing kept going in red red red and I thought if that blows it’ll kill us and ruin the bloody engine. In the finish I had to close. You could close down the engine of them as well as at the front. I’ll close. That’s when this Canadian fella that I speak to now, the other week, he was with me, I said, ‘Titch, keep those down. Don’t [unclear] I’ll go and see the skipper. I walked up to skipper, I said, ‘I’ll have to close it down that engine. We’ve got someone gone wrong.’ The skipper went bloody mad. Crash call of course, you know. I said, ‘The filter’s gone. I shall have to, I’ve got to take it out.’ ‘How long will it take?’ I said, ‘I’ll do as quick as I can.’ I go back, took the bloody filter out which is about like that. All full of glass mesh all enclosed, you know like —
HB: So about the size of a soup bowl then.
RH: That’s right.
HB: Yeah.
RH: That’s right. The pressure on it. Took it out. Couldn’t get a replacement. Put it back. Ran the engine for three months without it before we got the replacement. Yeah.
HB: And it still worked obviously.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Yeah.
RH: But when we got there the Walrus had taken them, couldn’t get off because the number of people on. So the, a fellow called George Riley was our medic.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And he got in a Carley float. You know, a Carley float? Well, it was on the back of a boat. There was like a little thing. It’s all, all made of cork and it’s just another, it was actually for the crew but he got this put a rope up. Put a rope over there and brought another one from there.
HB: Oh, right. On the Carley float.
RH: I know —
HB: Right.
RH: They were doing it by rope.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And you can’t get too close because that’s an aircraft.
HB: Oh yeah.
RH: You know. And he must have sailed over and hour or so. I mean, he must have been knackered by that time but we got him aboard but one medic said, ‘That bloke, if that bloke broke his back. If his back isn’t broken now it bloody will be by the time we get him out of there.’ Of course, a Walrus was going to, in the back [unclear] it’s turning in, turning out with a bad back. You couldn’t understand why they took him.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And of course he can’t get off.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: So we got those back.
HB: Yeah.
RH: You know.
HB: Oh right.
RH: There are various incidents that happen to you.
HB: So, so how many people do you think, it’s a bit of an unfair question, I suppose, Ron but how many people do you think your crew saved?
RH: I should say out of the boat, that boat particularly —
HB: Which was —
RH: 2641.
HB: Right.
RH: I would, close to a hundred and fifty.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Yeah. And there was a lot more satisfaction in picking up a hundred, one person than putting an aircraft in the air that’s going to kill some bugger, I’ll tell you that now.
HB: Yeah.
RH: But I can say that now because the war is over.
HB: Yes. Yes.
RH: You know.
HB: Yes.
RH: During the war I wouldn’t have cared if they killed a dozen bloody Germans you know.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Well yeah.
RH: Yeah
HB: So that so you’ve gone to Lough Erne and it’s what by now? It’s what? 1946.
RH: 1946. Yeah. I was demobbed July 1946.
HB: July ’46.
RH: I went to Uxbridge from, from —
HB: Yeah.
HB: From there.
RH: From Lough Erne. Yeah.
HB: And that is, what’s that? That’s trilby hat.
RH: Yeah.
HB: And mac and suit.
RH: Yeah. So, there and I think fifty quid or something like that in my pocket. Yeah.
HB: Right. And what, what did you do then?
RH: Well actually I couldn’t get. I wanted to go and I wanted to be a rep but I couldn’t get a job as a rep so I actually went to work in a garage.
HB: Oh right.
RH: And I worked on cars and re-cylindering both engines and all that because more cars then were coming back on the road. Old cars being made up. Boring bloody the cylinders out, sleeving them and all that caper.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: Until I wrote, I kept writing to firms. I then took a correspondence course in sales to let somebody know that I was interested and I spent some of my own bloody money and I tried to do it.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And I got a job with a firm called [Kerry, Bowan and Witcher?] I didn’t ever want to do it really because it sold typewriters and carbon paper and all that bloody stuff.
HB: Oh right.
RH: And it wasn’t my cup of tea if you know what I mean. Actually I spent two years with them and I earned good money but I wanted a job in London. Well obviously you get more bloody money in London than walking around Croydon and all that bloody area. Firms were there that are using that kind of stuff and they wouldn’t give me one and they called me up one day. They had a contract they wanted me to sign and I thought he was going to give me a London area. I had to go to Leyton way where he was. A little fella. Came from Lancashire. Twinkly blue eyes. Could lift you up in the stars with one visit. The second visit he was as dead as a dodo. But he could lift you to the stars in one. And I went there. Curiosity. I want to speak to this fella you know. That sort of attitude.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And he, he slides across up to you he [unclear] and he pushed, ‘Just sigh that.’ And I twigged that’s what he’d brought me for and I said, ‘Well, I’ll sign that when I know what you’ve got under there.’ I said, ‘Prove you’ve got nothing under there.’
HB: Yeah.
RH: I said, ‘Well, I’ve been asking for a London territory,’ I said. He said, ‘Well you won’t get one.’ I said, ‘Mr,’ I said, ‘We’ve finished our interview. Thank you very much.’ Off we go.
HB: Yeah.
RH: What do you want?
HB: It’s alright. It’s just that noise had started and I couldn’t, I thought there was a door there to shut. Oh so did you, did you because you mentioned your, was it your first wife. Did you meet your first wife in, during the war.
RH: No.
HB: Or was that after?
RH: Afterward.
HB: Right.
RH: I worked for them ‘til I worked there for another two years. So something like ‘48 sometime I got a job with [Johnsons Wax]. Selling.
HB: Oh right. Yeah. Yeah.
RH: No. Yeah, I did from there. [Johnsons Wax] And I went over to see the boss one night and he said, well these are the areas. And I just said, ‘Which is the best area?’ And he pointed to Worcester as it turned out. ‘Worcester. Hereford. Gloucester,’ he said. So I said, ‘I’ll have that.’ So that’s when I moved. November 1949 I moved up to Worcester. I was put in a hotel for a fortnight then I was going on an area I didn’t know. I had no car. It was train and bus. Had to go back at night and make the bloody forms out and catch the post, you know and all that caper. And he said, ‘You’ve got to find digs.’ Well, I mean you try and find digs when you’re, I mean over the weekend you’ve not a bloody chance.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Really. Or late at night and people don’t want to open their doors do they? Anyway, I found a place over at the cricket ground.
HB: Oh right.
RH: [unclear] I got in there on my own. An old couple with one room sort of thing and I thought oh well, this would suit me for a bit. Out on the Malvern Road it was going out of Worcester and I, I’d no sooner got there, I don’t suppose I’d been there a fortnight and this area manager, ‘I want you to move in to Birmingham. The Birmingham rep’s [unclear] So I want you to move in to Birmingham.’ Christ almighty. I’ve got to move again. So I go in to [unclear] Road near the cricket ground to a hotel. Again, the same thing you know. Give me a fortnight. I’ve got to find digs and I didn’t know Birmingham and you’re walking it and I’m a Londoner and they don’t particularly like southerners [laugh] I found out to my cost. Sort of a Cockney bastard coming up here and taking our [laughs]
HB: Yeah.
RH: You know what it is. Anyway, I got on alright. I mean I could sell. I found out I could sell with the first firm. I knew it didn’t bother me going and seeing people and getting no’s. That didn’t bother me but a lot of people, I saw blokes pack it up in two days by getting too many no’s. I worked a long long time before I ever had a blank day. I always did something in the day and I could usually reckon to get five, six, seven, eight, nine orders in a day you know whether you’d get to [unclear] and you’d want to do it because you know you’ve got to want to do it.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And I got this from there. I went in to Birmingham and I then found out, well to tell you the honest truth the area manager was a real pig really. Cheat you for a bloody halfpenny never mind anything else. I mean you were working bloody hard at digs as well. I met my wife there while I was there.
HB: Right.
RH: At a dance one night. I went to the dances and then went [pause] and then I had an interim bonus out for Christmas and I get letters saying how well I’d done and all this from the firm, from the boss. This was AC Thompson, you know. They were big people and they were at West Drayton at that stage. And I get the bonus the day before Christmas which I think is going to be well, we’ve got a bonus. Four quid it turned out to be. And so I said, I was with my wife then, I said I was disgusted. Four pound didn’t even half a week’s bloody wages never mind any, sod it. I’ll get another job. I went straightaway went to get another job. That’s when I went to County Laboratories which was Silvikrin in those days. Silvikrin were bought out by Brylcreem. So I had Silvikrin, Brylcreem, Bristows blah blah blah. I had a big firm.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And I spent seven years there. If you want to be any good at a firm they had about forty or fifty reps I suppose all told. If you want to be any good you got to be in the first three or four. And I made bloody sure I was there, you know.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And Birmingham was a good area.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: I mean, the bloke in Cornwall couldn’t hope to be in the first four could he? It wasn’t a big enough area really.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Not his fault.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And then I know I was, I’m a bit of a, I want a challenge in life. You know what I mean?
HB: Yeah.
RH: I’d been seven years doing this and I was well organised. I had postal orders. I then sometimes go out for them but I used to go out anyway.
HB: Yeah.
RH: You know, some of those going to the pictures. I wouldn’t go to the pictures. I refused the pictures many a time. Pouring with rain I refused the pictures. You know. That’s my job to go and do the job. Go out and speak to customers. It’s just an attitude I had I suppose from my father really.
HB: Yeah.
RH: After seven years I was walking in to a shop and I could tell you exactly when it was and all of a sudden it hit me. I’m sick of this bloody job. Doing the same. You know.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Another job and I got another job. That wasn’t all that good. Twelve months later I packed it up and went to another job. That wasn’t all that much good. I packed that up and went to another job which was great but I knew the firm were going to go bust the way it was acting.
HB: Oh right.
RH: I was there about five years and I decided now was the time to get out and I got out and I went to Flymo.
HB: Oh yes.
RH: When it was starting.
HB: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
RH: And that probably was, that really was a job and a half.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Of course, I took that from about a hundred and sixty eight thousand to nine million.
HB: Oh yeah.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Really good.
RH: But they unfortunately I was what fifty four and they decided they were going to sell it and he sold it because the patents run out after fifteen years. He knew there was competition coming. He sold it back to Electrolux. He was an Electrolux bloke actually. Sold it to Electrolux, made his money and we were out.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Because Electrolux didn’t want us. They’d got their own reps.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Out you go.
HB: Oh dear. Yeah.
RH: And I finished up with an American firm selling a [plating] process. A hand plating process. I’d been used to going in on advertise goods you know commercially.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: Easy enough. This was a different story. You had to demonstrate it. You had to, they had to grind it back and prove the point.
HB: Yeah.
RH: You know, you put a cylinder in and filled it. They had to prove that it would stop in and all that kind of thing.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And then you’ve got to put that if they’re going to buy the equipment before the board so you’d got months to go, you know before the board meeting.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Once every two months or something like that and I went from the January to the May without an order and having to phone the American boss every bloody week and he was saying, ‘You’ve got to keep at it.’ Blah blah. He was having a go at me all the time pushing me on and then one day I turned to him and I said, ‘Well, look here I’ve been doing this job now for three bloody months or four months. I’ve got promises in the bag. Yes. I’ve done the demonstrations’. I said, ‘and I’m getting, I’m getting just a bit cheesed off and I’m getting disappointed with all this.’ And he turned. ‘Don’t. No. No. No. No. No.’ He said, ‘These are long gestation period orders. Keep on. No, no don’t get disappointed. You’re working hard.’ And I knew then where I stood.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: And it just so happened that May brought me five bloody orders and the equipment was from five to fifteen thousand quid.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And then I got a ten percent commission on it. So you can imagine my —
HB: Yeah. Yeah. Everybody would be happy.
RH: Yeah. I would say now I know I can make some bloody money. Of course, as long as you, you had to keep filling the pot but once you get going —
HB: Yeah.
RH: The world was your oyster.
HB: Yeah.
RH: I was working half the bloody country.
HB: Brilliant.
RH: So I only —
HB: So, when you, when you cast your mind back Ron to your war time service you know.
RH: Yeah.
HB: You’ve, you’ve come from a sort of a modest background, a very modest education, you’ve come in to the RAF. What do you think the RAF gave you that helped you in your later life?
RH: Well —
HB: Your wartime service.
RH: I seem to have said this before and I think it’s right. It turns you from a boy to a man.
HB: Yeah.
RH: You start mixing with all sorts of people. It alters your whole attitude you know.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And you realise that, you know there are people there that are really bad and you also realise there is an awful lot of goodness there.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: Yeah. People that would help you out. People who would back you. You always felt secure.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Yeah.
HB: And now and obviously from the time you went to Padstow you are in a very sort of tight, a tight crew.
RH: Fifty people. That’s all the base was all the time.
HB: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s a very small tight group.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Was, was that part of, was that part of seeing you through the whole thing that? Having that small group to rely on?
RH: No. I mean I don’t think so really. I think I liked being you see when you go on a boat that is your crew.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Ther’s nothing to say you can’t go on another boat but basically a crew stays together and mine happened to be the CO‘s boat.
HB: Oh right.
RH: You see.
HB: Oh right.
RH: It didn’t matter who’s it was you’re in that group.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And you rely on that skipper. He’s, he’s after all he’s, he’s in charge of the boat.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
RH: You know.
HB: Yeah.
RH: Yeah. I mean I enjoyed that. But you don’t necessarily like everybody on the crew.
HB: No. No. Did you stay close to many of them of your crew?
RH: Well, one I still ring now.
HB: Right.
RH: Titch. We crewed.
HB: Oh right.
RH: He’s a fitter. We crewed together. He’s on one of the stories I’m telling you. He was on.
HB: Oh right.
RH: Except he wasn’t on the one where —
HB: The Americans.
RH: Yeah. No. He wasn’t on that one.
HB: Yeah.
RH: We were on standby.
HB: Yeah.
RH: He was in bed probably.
HB: Yeah.
RH: But I rang him a fortnight ago. A week ago.
HB: Yeah.
RH: He’s in, he’s in a place called Kenilworth, would you believe. In Canada.
HB: Oh right.
RH: In Ontario.
HB: Oh right.
RH: His wife picked up the phone. He came on the phone and I said, ‘George, you’re too close to the phone. I can’t understand you.’ And she picked up the phone and she said a fortnight ago we thought we’d lost him. He’s got heart trouble. She’d had a horrible time. She said can I take a —
HB: Oh, that’s a shame.
RH: Yeah.
HB: Well, yeah.
RH: He’s ninety three so —
HB: So, silly question. Was it all worth it?
RH: Yeah. I mean I’ve got a party coming in in nineteen days time. I’ve got thirty eight people coming here family and friends and I thought you know I’m bound to be asked something. and I think to myself yeah I can’t look forward because of this really. You know, I’ve got to balance problem.
HB: With your, with your mobility.
RH: So you tend to say today tomorrow and back.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And looking back over life and looking and comparing it with other people to me and my brother who died at sixty six. Better off than I was. Had a much better job than I ever did but still died at sixty six. I look back over life and at people I’ve met and I think well I’ve met more good people than bad people.
HB: Yeah.
RH: And I look back and I think, well I’ve had a good life.
HB: Well, I think that’s a point for us to perhaps—
RH: Close up. Yeah.
HB: I’m just, I haven’t even looked at the clock.
RH: It’s up there. Twenty past four.
HB: Yeah. Twenty past four. What I’d like to do is thank you, Ron. I mean that really has been very interesting.
RH: Good.
HB: And, and I mean that. It’s an aspect I haven’t seen much of so I’m going to terminate the interview now.
RH: Yeah.
HB: At twenty past four. So I’m going to switch the machine off.
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 Ronald Huntley
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Harry Bartlett
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-10-05
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
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AHuntleyR171005, PHuntleyR1702
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
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
01:04:51 audio recording
Description
An account of the resource
Ronald Huntley enlisted in the Royal Air Force as a flight mechanic before volunteering to join Air Sea Rescue. Born in Edmonton, London, he represented his school in athletics at Crystal Palace and witnessed its destruction by fire in 1936. After leaving school in 1937, several different employment roles preceded his enlistment in the Royal Air Force. Initial training was followed by a 16-week flight mechanic course at RAF Cosford. After several postings on various aircraft, he was at RAF Duxford employed on a modification programme of Typhoon aircraft when he volunteered for the Air Sea Rescue launches. Following a course on diesel engines at RAF Locking, Ron was posted to Padstow and became part of a rescue launch crew where he was responsible for the engine. All kinds of rescues involving both aircraft and shipping covering the Western Approaches were undertaken. Occasionally, they also attended incidents involving holidaymakers around Cornwall. On the 17th April 1944, a Warwick transport aircraft from 525 Royal Canadian Squadron crashed and Ron’s crew were involved in the retrieval of the bodies along with a lifeboat. They also retrieved large sums of money, and Ron recalls what he experienced and the “hearsay evidence” that evolved. It has also been suggested there was a large amount of gold on board the aircraft. When the war finished, Ron was posted to Northern Ireland where he maintained boats used to shuttle crews out to Sunderland flying boats on Lough Erne.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1936
1944-02-15
1944-04-17
1944-04-27
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
Atlantic Ocean--Irish Sea
England--Cornwall (County)
England--London
Northern Ireland--Fermanagh
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Carolyn Emery
air sea rescue
crash
ditching
ground crew
ground personnel
RAF St Eval
Sunderland