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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/576/8845/AGoughH150922.2.mp3
c57cda680fc05053c4ed864f4febb674
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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Gough, Harry
H Gough
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Gough, H
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Harry Gough (1925 - 2016, 1590911 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a rear gunner with 10 Squadron.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-09-22
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
AM: Ok so it’s Tuesday 22nd September 2015 and we are in Tingly near Wakefield and this is Annie Moody for the International Bomber Command Centre and I’m talking today to
HG: Harry Gough.
AM: Harry Gough. So if you would Harry would you just tell me a little bit about your childhood, and where you were born and what your parents did.
HG: I was born in Dewsbury, er Dewsbury Moor actually. My father at that time was er worked in the steel industry at Click Heaton up to me being probably six or seven and then he er decided to leave that and er go into the licensing trade being er, what is it, er steward at a working men’s club that would be when I was six or seven er.
AM: What was it like being a child working in a, er living near a working men’s club then, where you living there in it?
HG: No no we lived away from it
AM: Oh, Oh
HG: But er at that time, funnily enough we were only on about this a few days ago er the way families were brought up, I think it was when Victor was up er, I was the youngest of seven and the house we had a small terraced house (pause) you couldn’t say it was a one up and one down but that’s basically what it was one large bedroom and a small one at the top of the landing so that was the earliest I remember being there er.
AM: What about the bathroom and toilet, where were they?
HG: Oh no bathroom (laughs) there there were sink in the corner
AM: And a tin bath
HG: Tin bath yeah and a toilet way up the yard and er you prayed every day that it didn’t you didn’t have heavy rain (laughs) er but we moved into a council house at that time when I was seven and er there again seven of us and it was a three bedroomed council house you know people just wouldn’t have that today would they and er from there er went to the local school, broke my leg playing football er recovered from that and we moved into a public house then in Dewsbury the Great (unclear) Hotel in Dewsbury and we were there for two years transferred our interest to Leeds another pub, another two years, or less than two years, back to Morley (unclear) Morley and that another pub eventually er and that when my schooling finished that would be 1939
AM: So how old were you then?
HG: Fourteen
AM: Fourteen
HG: My eldest my second eldest brother he worked in the textiles and he had to work at Putsey and he had to go by bike from Morley to Putsey on the night shift his wage was twenty six bob a week so he’d had enough of that and he volunteered for the army me being the stupid lad, oh no I’m not stupid, er if he was having action I wanted it as well so I wanted to go in the boys army along with him er, my father agreed to it but er mother said no you’re not and that was the end of that up to er 41 and er I joined the air training corps local squadron at Morley and er in there until volunteering for the air force in 43 and er eventually accepted and I did the er air crew assessment at Doncaster and er they were full up with pilots and full up with navigators
AM: Everybody wanted to be a pilot
HG: (Laughs) that’s right (laughs) right well if you got to be a gunnery course that’s it well I wanted to fly anyway so it was August 43 when I eventually went and er signed on down at Lords cricket ground, lad at 18 years old and going to London you know, never been out of his home town I don’t think, occasional holiday but not many of those I kind of remember going on holiday with my parents more than once
AM: How did you get to London then did you go on the train?
HG: Train yeah yeah, I suppose you get on the train and follow the crowd (laughs) er when we were there our initial signing and initial whatever it is medicals and er up to er for a fortnight to three weeks and then back up into Yorkshire to Bridlington
AM: So in that three weeks what were you doing?
HG: er getting kitted out
AM: What sort of things?
HG: Medicals er several injections whatever they call them er but er my sister was stationed in London at the time she was in the WAFS and er we met up a few times at er I think it was just routine things er drills whatever marching to the London zoo for meals and er yeah and I met up with a gunner we met on the first day we were there
AM: What was he called?
HG: Bill Field from Chester we were about the same age and er we were together right the way through to finishing flying
AM: Really
HG: We did a gunnery course did our basic training in Bridlington over to Belfast or near Belfast for gunnery school
AM: What was the gunnery school like what sort of things were you doing there did you have to strip em and put em back together and all that sort of stuff
HG: No no you had to do theory work on the guns but er mainly it was er rifle shooting for the clay pigeon shooting er then up in the Avro Ansons for air to air gunnery
AM: So when you say air to air what were you shooting at
HG: A draw yeah there’d be another Emerson dragging a draw if you were lucky he ate it (laughs)
AM: Did you
HG: Well I got a percentage of it whether that’s true or not I don’t know I think they just put this percentage out to get you through and make sure you had a rear gunner or something.
AM: Mmm
HG: But er that was I finished there New Year’s Eve we left New Year’s Eve in 43 that was it so from August I’d done all the basic training air gunnery training and passed out as a Sergeant air gunner before I was nineteen
AM: Blimey
HG: When you think about that you know think about that lady how stupid can it be but er it wasn’t just me everybody was on it er and after a short period at home then oh we finished up in Scotland on New Year’s Eve at Stranraer bit frightening (laughs) as an eighteen year old a bit frightening
AM: Laughs
HG: But er nevertheless we caught the train early morning and er early morning made our way home. After a few days at home up to er Kinross forest in Kinross in Scotland
AM: Scotland again
HG: That was for er crewing up and er operational training
AM: So how did the crewing up go cos’ you’d already got your mate with you
HG: Yes we stuck together all the time did Bill and I and er I don’t remember er well
AM: Who chose who?
HG: (Pause) I think the pilot chose us (laughs) why he did I don’t know er
AM: Maybe he could see there were two mates together and he wanted…
HG: Yes I think that had a lot to do with it we’d been together as pals and Harry Harrison the pilot er then he’d already met the er navigator Johnny Hall from Bradford from there we all got together Scottish wireless operator Cockney lad for a flight engineer and er I don’t remember where he come from South Midlands somewhere… Leicester and er how long did that last probably January late February early March
AM: So that’s where you flew together as a crew then
HG: Crew yes flying Whitley’s doing all the basic things turning dinghy’s over in the bath (laughs) when you can’t swim it’s er a bit of a nightmare but we got through it er
AM: Why turning dinghy’s over in the bath, in case you got shot down
HG: Yeah in case you got shot down
AM: Or crash landed in the sea
HG: Yeah yeah and er flying Whitley’s er the flying coffin some of the cross countries that we did six hours in the rear turret of a Whitley not very nice but it was enjoyable because that’s what I wanted to do er from there we went to er Marston Moor er heavy conversion unit flying the Halifax Mk 2.
AM: Right
HG: Which you don’t get to know until later that was the worst period of your service flying in a Halifax Mk 2 you were safer flying in the Mk 3 and 4 going on operations
AM: Why was that?
HG: They were very unreliable er basically because of the engine I think er and the tail unit the tail unit of the Halifax changed a great deal and they put revised engines in then and they were a much sounder aircraft
AM: Right
HG: But er we didn’t get none (unclear) you were in a death trap really (laughs) but er we got through that and we floated about then in Yorkshire for some reason (unclear) and Maltby, Driffield just for nightly stays and things like until we got posted to a squadron which was Melbourne ten squadron
AM: And there was ten squadron
HG: Mmm from there well
AM: What was your first operation like then
HG: What was it like
AM: Well can you just, I can’t imagine how it must of felt
HG: (Pause)
AM: I bet you can’t remember (laughs)
HG: No I can’t remember, no I can’t remember (pause)
AM: Bacon and eggs
HG: (Laughs) oh aye coming back to bacon and eggs that’s what that’s what you looked forward to but never when they all went out on operations did I ever think that I wouldn’t get back never never entered my head that I would never get back
AM: Did you have any close shaves
HG: (Pause) I suppose there were one or two where er the fighters were about but er in the main there were I think the biggest (unclear) were the night operations which you know they were a bit backwards at coming forwards at coming up in the dark they’d wait till the Yanks went over in the day light and have a go at them
AM: Have a go at them
HG: But er anti-aircraft fire unnerving but even then never entered my head that er I wouldn’t get back
AM: And you were right
HG: Mmm
AM: What was it like ‘cos you were the rear gunner so as you’re coming away bombs have been dropped?
HG: That’s right
AM: And you can see
HG: Yeah
AM: What’s, what’s happened
HG: Oh the in most cases the place was ablaze down below and er I suppose you think at the time oh great we’ve done a good job
AM: Yeah
HG: It isn’t until later days you know was it all that good you know what damage did we do I mean innocent people were killed but this is years later you think about this
AM: I was gonna say that because at the time you were doing it
HG: We were doing what we would been trained to do and er got satisfaction out of doing it as well but er pub visits at the night when you weren’t on operation a little bit naughty at times but er
AM: I’m gonna have to ask you, in what way naughty
HG: Well I don’t know it er probably drink more than what you should really
AM: You’re still only twenty by this time nineteen
HG: Nineteen yes I finished flying before I was twenty so I were only well at that time you were what you called kids at eighteen you weren’t adults at all you were classed as kiddies really
AM: Did you fly with the same crew all the way through
HG: Yes yes stuck together all the way through thirty three operations
AM: Thirty three, blimey, I can see we’ve got your log book is there anything
HG: Laughs
GR: Well your first operation was a daylight
HG: Yeah it was
GR: According to this yeah Macer Owen
HG: Taverni was it
GR: Yeah Macer Owen…and your last op was Christmas Eve (Laughs)
HG: Yeah yeah fly from the 23rd (unclear) the 24th
AM: And you said to me before about the fact that it was Christmas Eve and that was your last one
HG: Yeah
AM: About your mum and dad
HG: Yeah at the time it never struck me at all that it was any different to any other operation or you know you feel a sense of relief that the operations are over but it was only oh much later that I thought about these things. I don’t know what my parents were really thought about me being in the Air Force and what I was doing what it meant to them but what a Christmas box it must have been if that’s the way they thought about that I wasn’t in danger of being shot down or losing my life or whatever er after that particular time I never mentioned it to them in fact it was after they’d both passed I think my dad thought about it but er
AM: Yeah so what did you do after you finished your operations
HG: Oh dear I got kicked about and er
AM: (Laughs) did you do any training or TU stuff
HG: No I went into air traffic control actually
AM: Ahh
HG: Er when they finally got me settled down at Shawbury which was the number one flying training school was it, that’s where the (unclear) flew from when we went over the North Pole wing commander Mcclurough I think it was er I did a few months there I was there up to er VE day which was in May wasn’t it
AM: Mmm
HG: 45 and on VE day I travelled to Valley on the Isle of Anglesey and I was there until after VJ Day, (pause) VJ day what a night
AM: (Laughs)
HG: There was a black and tan drink then wasn’t there Guinness and beer black and tan
GR: That’s right yeah
AM: Mmm
HG: Still only twenty and I’m drinking black and tans I didn’t eat anything for four days (laughs)
AM: Laughs
GR: Laughs
HG: That’s when I learnt how to drive er air traffic control there was a (unclear) out there are you alright, yes I’m alright, never driven a van in my life (laughs) and there was some…how do I start this thing, (laughs) and away I went, but er bit precarious but er
AM: On a road or
HG: No no on the air field on the air field
AM: Just as well
HG: Yeah (laughs) well from the mess to the er traffic control and whatever to the end of the runway and back and things like that but er and from there not long after VJ Day I went back to Shawbury again well just how long I was there I can’t remember can’t remember and by this time I’d er already got my Flight Sergeant that was late 44 I got my Officer late 45 when I was still at Shawbury and then went to various places then just two or three days stopping at one near Warrington I can’t remember I can’t remember what place it was
AM: I wonder why, why were they moving you about like that?
HG: To find getting a posting you just couldn’t get (unclear) to come out I did want to come out anyway because I had the chance to come out on was it class B release or something because I worked in the textiles before I went in and there was no way that I’m going back into textiles after being in the air force and the excitement that I’d had or the life that I’d had and they kick you about a bit until er they get you a posting and I finally got a posting to er Austria just outside Vienna (Schwechat) but in the meantime for some reason that I don’t know why and I always thought it was a bit unfair you had to re-muster and you lost your seniority rank you were taken down from Warrant Officer back down to sergeant in rank but not in pay you still got your Warrant officers pay and it always hit me that er you know you’ve done this, you’ve volunteered for this, you’ve done your flying you’ve done your duty and everything that’s been asked of you and you’ve been fortunate enough to get through and then they demote you which didn’t seem fair to me at all, er but as I say the money was still there you were a Sergeant with a Warrant Officer’s pay and er went to Vienna (pause) mid July 46 July 46 that’s right er (pause) yeah and I enjoyed that er in air traffic control again er the surrounding area you were in the Russian border so you had to be very careful what you were doing but you were allowed out of camp and there was woodlands and through the woodlands you got to the er river what is it in Vienna come on Clarice what river is it in Vienna
AM: I can’t think I should know and I can’t it’s not erm
HG: I’ll be dammed
AM: No it’s gone I can’t remember
GR: Could be the Rhine
HG: No
GR: The Rhone
HG: No
AM: I can’t remember either
HG: Crazy isn’t it, crazy
AM: I’ll find it after, the river in Vienna anyway
HG: Yeah er out of camp and through this woodland I actually walked on the river it was that cold it was frozen over it was really really cold but er the camp that’s about itas much as I can remember about it other than we often visited Vienna itself not nightly but certainly two or three nights a week and really enjoyable and er the diesel in the truck that took us down would often freeze up so you were stuck there in the middle of the night (laughs) trying to keep warm
AM: Laughs
HG: But er I suppose the most that I remember about that there were three of us myself a Geordie lad ex air crew and a Scotch lad ex air crew and we got to like our drinks a little bit I always remember one afternoon we were drinking in the bar and we drunk that bar absolutely dry
AM: There’s a there’s a thread running through this story isn’t there (laughs)
HG: (Laughs) we drank that bar absolutely dry we finished up drinking port of all things and we sat in this bar and an electric light, (pause) can’t be a fire can’t that and it was and er the electrics in upstairs room had caught fire and er everybody had to bail out of course and this Scots lad he went absolutely berserk and we were just across from the er guard room and er the three of us were taken into the guard room and this guy was given morphine to quieten him down he was really really bad so that was almost the end of my service in Vienna we got kitted out and put in with the airmen for the rest of our stay there but er came back to er Blackpool and we were de-mobbed
AM: You were de-mobbed so you did leave in the end
HG: Yes
AM: What did you do afterwards, not textiles?
HG: Oh dear er I did for a very short period my brother worked in the textiles then my elder brother er and I batted it out (unclear) while the money lasted you know (laughs) er eventually I had to get a job so I went there and er oh I think three or four week I’m not sticking this (laughs) and er what did I do from there oh cigarette people Ardath cigarette people they had er they were based in Leeds and I met Gladys then well we’d known each other years but we got together then and er I was there for quite a while months not years months and then we got married February 48 wasn’t it
GH: Mmm
HG: And er these people kind as they are you know oh yes you can have a week off it’s your summer holiday that’s fine as long as I can have a week off we got married had the week off and went down to Kent on our honeymoon and came back and gave my notice in (laughs) they can’t do that to Harry and er from there I went into engineering in Bradford not a very happy time because I was working with people who’d been er what do they call when they weren’t called up
AM: Erm not (unclear) to subject as if they’d been in a reserved occupation
HG: Like a reserved occupation and you’re working with these guys and (unclear) so that didn’t last very long either (laughs) er and from then I went to the Gas Board
AM: Right
HG: In 49 and er that’s been my life I suppose ever since
AM: You stayed there ever since
HG: The Gas Board er finished and had a period with the water authority and I had one spell in between the Gas Board and the water what was that er what do they call it fibre glass moulds making moulds out of fibre glass and it was the summer of 49 I don’t know if you remember it and it was absolutely scorching I think it was 49 48 48 49
GH: There weren’t many in 48
AM: Late forties must’ve been 48
HG: Yeah around 48 49 really scorching and a perspex roof and you could see all this fibre glass
AM: I was gonna say dust I would imagine it’s
HG: Floating about I though oooh Harry (laughs) get out
AM: You don’t want that on your lungs
HG: That was enough of that so from there I went to an outside job with the water authority and thankfully was able to stay there
AM: Stay there ever since
HG: Until I retired
AM: and you know you said just just going back to the bombing bit for a minute you said that at the time what everybody’s said to me we had to do it that’s what we were there for you did it
HG: That’s right
AM: But later on you did start to think about
HG: Yes you did yes you did
AM: The women and children and what have you
HG: And I think what brought that to my mind more than anything was er Munich ‘cos they really did we never went to Munich but er they really did flatten Munich and there must’ve been thousands of innocent people that died because of that and er (pause) were we doing the right thing that’s the way I thought of it later but er but at the time yes that’s what you joined up for that’s what you volunteered for they want you to do it get it done
AM: And that was to bring the war to an end
HG: That’s right yeah
AM: Excellent, I’m going to switch off now.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Harry Gough
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Annie Moody
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
2015-09-22
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AGoughH150922
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
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
00:30:08 audio recording
Description
An account of the resource
Harry Gough was born in Dewsbury, he finished school in 1939 aged fourteen, joined the Air Training Corps in 1941 and volunteered for the Air Force in 1943. He recounts his training as an air gunner and flying over the North Pole. After flying operations he was posted to Austria as an air traffic controller. He was demobbed and after the war he worked for the Gas Board and Water Authority.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Carron Moss
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
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Austria
Great Britain
Austria--Vienna
England--Shropshire
England--Yorkshire
Wales--Anglesey
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1939
1941
1943
1944
1945
1946
10 Squadron
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
Anson
crewing up
guard room
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Initial Training Wing
Operational Training Unit
perception of bombing war
promotion
RAF Bridlington
RAF Kinloss
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Melbourne
RAF Shawbury
RAF Valley
training
Whitley
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/620/8889/PPaineGH1616.2.jpg
c7fb40cc6f0bfbe3e8dfa9843065b6cb
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/620/8889/APaineGH160726.1.mp3
924472391843693055dda8d9ecb5466d
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
Paine, Geoff
Geoffrey Hugh Paine
G H Paine
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Paine, GH
Description
An account of the resource
14 items. An oral history interview with Sergeant Geoffrey Paine (1925 - 2019, 1894345, Royal Air Force) documents and photographs. He flew as a pilot with 100 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Geoffrey Paine and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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
2016-07-20
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and it’s the 26th July 2012 and I’m speaking with Mr & Mrs Paine, Geoffrey Paine the pilot and we’re in Croxley Green and we’re going to talk about the life and times of Geoff in the RAF and other activities. So, what are your earliest recollections of life Geoff?
GP: My earliest recollections of life? Oh, when I was a small boy do you mean? [Laughs] I lived at Gerrards Cross which is just down the road from here so I’m a, almost lived here all my life, yes always have, telephone [telephone ringing] always have done to be frank. [Telephone ringing]
CB: I’ll stop it just for a moment.
PP: I’ll go and get it.
CB: It gets.
PP: That was timed wasn’t it?
CB: I was going to say, yeah.
GP: That’s better, yes.
CB: Yes.
GP: So in Gerrards Cross I went to school first of all at —
PP: Not leaving a message, so can’t be important.
GP: I went to school first at High Wycombe Royal Grammar School and then I went down to Cornwall and went to Falmouth Grammar School, and of course when I was there the war was on and I volunteered for the RAF, I was in the ATC, Air Training Corps, down there I was one, actually joined the Air Training Corps when it was probably first formed quite early on and I volunteered for royal air force and as soon as I was eighteen I was whipped into it. [Laughs] No trouble at all. And then now where did I go first? Oh my goodness me I went to London first and then I was sent down, we had about, when I signed up in London, we had about three or four days in London and then I went to Aberystwyth, and we were billeted on, in hotels on the sea front at Aberystwyth and we used to have our lessons in the University Aber, Aberystwyth and our drill on the sea front of course, there was a great lovely big sea front there you could drill on, hard standing and then I volunteered of course for the RAF and my first recollections really I went to grading school, didn’t I, I think, I think perhaps it was grading school, No 6, yes, of course I went to an ITW first an initial training wing and then I, was on 20th September, at Aberystwyth, it was a nice place to be, billeted in the Belle Vue hotel, little hotel we were all in hotels there, we did all our drill on the sea front and we used their swimming pool, we had to go up to the swimming pool on a very cold morning, and the first time we went there we were all non-swimmers, we had to climb to the top diving board and jump in, and we were fished out with long poles, and there was one chap couldn’t do it, ground staff, [laughs] he wasn’t allowed to join aircrew, amazing. I felt sorry for him because he was very, completely gobsmacked he was. It took a bit to jump in because they’re quite high the top boards, and they had this great big long pole, and you grabbed hold of it and they pulled you in and you soon learnt to swim, I mean within a couple of days you were swimming the length of the pool so it was a good way to start, I think.
CB: Yes.
GP: A good way to start that. That was Aberystwyth, gosh, what did I do then?
PP: Well you’ve got it all written down old man, use your notes, use your notes!
CB: I’m just going to stop it a moment.
PP: Yes, go on.
GP: Elementary Flying Training School, Ansty, I went first, I did my first solo at six and a quarter hours, which was quite early I think ‘cause me instructor was leaping about, he’d beaten everybody else getting me in the air [Laughs]. Then I went to ITW at Cambridge just for a short time this was, they moved you about just to fill up time. Then I went to 100 Sqn, RAF Waltham, and there I packed thousands of blooming incendiary bombs. They were going on big raids then from Waltham and it was a continuous packing of incendiary bombs, thousands they, the whole place, must have put Germany on fire I think. Then what happened then? Bomb damage repairs Hornchurch, [?] where did I get to? Heaton Park, 18th of July ’44 and then Hornchurch, bomb damage repairs, and then Kew, bomb damage repairs, and then Hendon, again bomb damage repairs, and then I was put on a boat, the ‘Andes’ to go to Cape Town and from Cape Town you go on that beautiful train all the way up to Bulewao, I think it took three days, two days and a night I think and we went to RAF Guinea Fowl to start our elementary flying training on Cornells and then from there I went to RAF Ternhill to fly on Harlands, and then I think it was getting a bit near the end of the war. Twenty-five, five, forty-five, oh my giddy aunt yes.
CB: OK, we’ll stop again a mo’. Could you just explain the bomb damage repair you were doing, so what was the scene?
GP: Well we, there were about I think twenty, twenty-five of us, and we had a chiefie, you know an RAF sergeant.
CB: Flight sergeant, um.
GP: Nice old chap, and a lorry and when a bomb had dropped and blew all the tiles of roofs, blew the windows in we were piled off, given a place to go and there we had all the necessary stuff to, yellow calico stuff, to nail to the window to keep the wind out because all the glass had gone, we put stuff on the roofs, if there were tiles we put tiles, if not we put tarpaulins on the roofs just to make the place habitable, habitable after the bombing, that’s what happened then.
CB: So some of this was in East London?
GP: Yes it was, it was in East and West, and West London too, yes.
CB: And what about Hendon, that’s an airfield, so?
GP: Yes.
CB: What happened there?
GP: I went to Hendon just for a few days. They’d had a, a doodlebug had landed in the evening when they were all having showers and things right onto an accommodation block.
CB: An RAF billet block?
GP: And we had to clear the site which meant clearing human remains as well, it wasn’t very nice at all. It meant shovelling bricks, shovelling it on a lorry and off it all went, that was it. A complete barrack block got a direct hit, unbelievable really they picked that one building out on the station.
CB: Amazing. And what with the human remains this was a sensitive thing but what did you do with them?
GP: Well, you find yourself a hand with a bit of the, bit of the —
CB: The bone, yes.
GP: A bit of bone sticking out, you didn’t know whose it was.
CB: No.
GP: You just put it in a pile, no way of finding out at all.
CB: So what did they then do with those?
GP: I think they were buried somewhere ‘cause they didn’t know whose they were. They knew who’d died in the blocks obviously but the remains you couldn’t really match them up, impossible. Didn’t find any heads or anything, mostly arms and legs and bits and pieces like that. Not very pleasant but it was as if you were in another place, it didn’t mean much because there was no body with it, just an arm or a leg, wasn’t very nice at all. Oh gosh what did I do after that?
CB: So going on from there you were on the ‘Andes’ yes?
GP: Yes.
CB: Which route did that take and how long?
GP: Oh, it was lovely we called in on the way, it was a posh boat the ‘Andes’, a cruise ship and we called into, what’s it called half way down?
CB: You didn’t go via Canada?
GP: No, we didn’t, no. [unclear]
CB: You went in the west coast of Africa did you?
GP: Of Africa, I’m trying to think.
CB: OK, and who were the people being transported, were they only air force or?
GP: Only air force yeah, I’m trying to pick it up on here. All here, near Gwelo. Yes, that’s right. It was back a bit, arrived at Cape Town.
CB: Yeah.
GP: We went on this nice boat to Cape Town on 1st March.
CB: 1945?
GP: Then we were heading for Southern Rhodesia.
CB: Yes.
GP: I think it took two and a half days to get to Rhodesia.
CB: OK.
GP: Two days and a night. Each carriage had bunks to sleep six so we arrived in Bulewao on 4th March and spent twelve days there to become acclimatised, being so high up above sea level I think it was, I think it was about six or seven thousand feet above sea level.
CB: How did they acclimatise you?
GP: Well just a matter of —
CB: Exercise or?
GP: Matter of doing a few marches, they used to take us out and drop us out on the bush and we had to find our way back and you had to be very careful because if you didn’t pull your socks up or your trousers down you got ticks sticking in your knees all over the place because they used to be on the undergrowth and they’d burrow into your skin.
CB: Yes.
GP: And —.
CB: How did you get them out?
GP: With a cigarette if you had a cigarette, you’d put a bit of heat behind them and they reversed their way out, that was better than doing it any other way otherwise they left the beak in there didn’t they you see? So you got a cigarette behind them and they soon came in reverse [laughs]. Yeah, oh gosh.
CB: And how did the flying go when you were there, you were flying Cornells?
GP: Cornells, well the weather of course, every day was like this, beautiful weather, beautiful weather, lovely flying, and it was, the airfield was out, well out in the countryside and we did a lot of low level flying. We used to beat up the native villages, I can see them all now cowering underneath their little shelters. They lived in thatched roof, you know rough little places, we were pretty horrible to them really. [Laughs]. We used them as a target, we didn’t hit anybody but we used to go in very low and —
CB: Yeah.
GP: And then what else, I think, the war finished and we were shuffled off down to Cape Town and we were there for several weeks, we had a wild time because we climbed all the, well I climbed all the mountains. As you know Cape Town goes all the way round, I climbed all the mountains there, I used to live on the mountain. We’d go to Muizenberg and we’d learned to surf, lovely surf at Muizenberg and the people there were ex-pats who’d moved out there before the war and they were very nice, if they saw you coming down the mountainside they’d call you in and you’d have coffee and cakes and goodness knows what, they looked after you which was jolly nice. We were there for some time before they shipped us home again you see, it was really like a nice holiday really.
CB: What was the ship like that you returned on?
GP: A bit rougher than the one we went out on, we went on the ‘Andes’, came back on the ‘Reina del Pacifico’, which was a bit of, I think the ball had blew up in Belfast when we came back, it was a real old tramp steamer, [chuckles] packed with RAF people coming home.
CB: So we’re talking about May 1945?
GP: May ’45 yes.
CB: And you then went where?
GP: I went to, can you find it below, yes this is it here, yes. I went to RAF Ternhill, on the 25th May we went to Ternhill.
CB: What did you do there?
GP: I’m trying to think, um.
CB: That would be where you the advanced training. [Dialogue confused with interviewer].
GP: Flying Harvards. Yes I was flying Harvards there. I went solo in three hours forty minutes which was quite good and received my pilot wings and along came VJ day, got my pilot wings there and then a victory in Japan day and the second world war —
CB: Yeah.
GP: All flying training ceased.
CB: OK.
GP: We all returned to Cape Town to await our boat home to England, four wonderful weeks in Cape Town climbing the mountains.
CB: So that’s what you did earlier?
GP: Yeah.
CB: So if I just interrupt you again?
GP: Yes.
CB: We come to the end of the war but in the war you were in the Air Training Corps but you were also in the Observer Corps were you?
GP: Yes, no.
CB: That was later?
GP: That was later.
CB: OK, so we’ll come to that in a minute.
GP: Yes.
CB: OK I’m just going to stop for a moment. We’re just doing a correction here, because it’s not Ternhill in England, it’s RAF Thornhill, before coming back. Let me just.
GP: Yes, we went down to —
CB: So after Guinea Fowl then where did you go?
GP: We went down to Thornhill.
CB: Right.
GP: Another RAF training school, No22 Flying training School at Thornhill, and on, along came VJ Day, that was on Harvards, but along came VJ Day and all flying ceased and we were just enjoying ourselves, put on a train and sent back to Cape Town. And when we got to Cape Town there was no boat. We saw the boat going out, we missed the boat, and so we had about four or five weeks in Cape Town to do what we wanted so we climbed the mountains, I did, I climbed up the mountains went all along the back behind Cape Town [Colossal?] and then down over, it was interesting, coming down Oloch[?] you had to get down on to the main road if you wanted to get back to where camp was and there were all these people who, ex-pats who’d built lovely houses there, obviously moneyed people, and they used to welcome us with open arms, ‘Do come in’, used to open a little gate and they’d give you cakes and tea, coffee and drinks if you wanted it. We had rather a nice time, four or five weeks there, before we came back on the boat to come home. And we got on this tramp steamer I called it, ‘Reina del Pacifico’ it was a rough old boat, a lot of people on it, very much overloaded, I’ve got pictures of it here we have, we kept. We stopped at Mafeking going down through, that was interesting coming down to South Africa and —
CB: On the train?
GP: Yes, I got off the train there ‘cause the train was there for a while. They were changing engines so I said to the driver ‘How long are they going to be?’ he said ‘Half hour, three quarters of an hour’ so I went down to have a look at Mafeking and there, there’s Rhodes.
CB: Statue?
GP: Cecil Rhodes statue. Which was quite interesting.
CB: Yes, yes.
GP: And this was when we spent time down to Cape Town and I spent my time climbing mountains there.
CB: So on this boat then, ‘cause you’re going back on the boat.
GP: Yes, back on the boat.
CB: What was that like?
GP: Yeah.
CB: What was that like?
GP: A bit overcrowded.
CB: Um.
GP: But we came out of Cape Town and then we came up the coast and we called in at St Helena which was interesting because Napoleon had been banished there.
CB: Yes.
GP: And the people came out, and I remember buying my mother a tea cosy made out of local raffia or something. [Laughs]. Had quite a good time really. Now what else happened, what happened after that, oh gosh?
CB: So then where did you dock when you got back?
GP: Liverpool.
CB: Um. And where did they send you when you returned?
GP: Trying to think, Liverpool.
CB: I’ll just stop for a mo’ hang on.
PP: Dad.
CB: Right so you’ve landed at Liverpool then what?
GP: Yes, we went to, went down to West Kirby in October ’45. I don’t think we did very much there at all, we were just swanning around, didn’t know what to do with us and then they sent us to Stansted. Stansted was an airfield that had closed and we were put in the hangars and lorry loads of equipment from closing airfields came in and what we did we built little bivouac’s underneath some of this equipment and hid there, nobody knew we were there, otherwise we were given a job. So, we were there for about four or five weeks, hiding away [laughter] otherwise you would, they just gave you something to keep you out of mischief I suppose really. And then 28th November ‘45 I went to number, Bircham Newton, No27 FSTS Bircham Newton, and then I went to Little Rissington, 6FS, solo flying training school at Little Rissington on the 18th January ’46, then I went to Ternhill where I got my wings on 3rd September ’46, quite a long process wasn’t it?.
CB: What were you flying then?
GP: Harvards. That was in Harvards.
CB: So all three of those you were flying Harvards were you?
GP: Harvards yeah.
CB: Right.
GP: [Indistinct]. Kirton-in-Lindsay, oh I flew everything then, doesn’t go on there. I flew Oxfords, Hansons.
CB: So how did you convert to twin engine?
GP: No problem at all.
CB: Yeah, but where?
GP: Gosh, where’s my logbook, where’s my logbook?
CB: OK, we’ll look at it in a moment.
GP: I can see in my logbook —
CB: But you had a good time with these other ones, flying single?
GP: Oh yes, excellent time.
CB: Yeah OK, we’ll stop there for a moment. So, from Kirton-in-Lindsay which is in Lincolnshire you went down to Oakington?
GP: Oakington yes.
CB: And what did you do there?
GP: Oakington? I think I did a little bit of local flying.
CB: On what?
GP: What was that in? Gosh, um, has it got it there Pete?
CB: But what was happening at Oakington which is in Cambridgeshire?
GP: Yes it was a flying training school and um —
CB: For? ‘Cause you went on to Yorks there?
GP: Yes, I went onto Yorks there. Gosh it’s difficult to think of it all now.
CB: OK.
GP: How it all pieced together now.
CB: OK, well never mind. So you went onto Yorks?
GP: Yeah.
CB: And what position were you flying there?
GP: Second pilot on Yorks.
CB: But you’d never been converted to twin-engine or four-engine?
GP: No, no, I just sat in the right-hand seat and enjoyed myself.
CB: Yes. And what did the captain get you to do as the second pilot?
GP: Well, keep an eye open, [laughs], I used to go back, I used to leave my seat and go back in the back and fill in the logs ‘cause you always had this great big log to fill in. I used to keep the logs in the aircraft and then when I finished that I’d sit back next to the pilot again.
CB: Yeah.
GP: But it was a bit of a swansong really.
CB: And the pilot what was his experience before being on Yorks?
GP: Well, he’d had been on Lancasters.
CB: Had he?
GP: Yeah.
CB: And a Lancaster only had one pilot so he was quite happy?
GP: Flt Lt Horry, ‘Horrible Horry’ they called him.
CB: Did they?
GP: And he flew the last York into the museum.
CB: At Hendon?
GP: At Hendon, yes. Horry, I got on well with him, they used to call him ‘Horrible Horry’ but he wasn’t, quite a nice chap, I had a very easy time.
CB: And where did you go in the Yorks?
GP: Oh, we went route flying. You flew across alongside the Andes, the um, —
CB: So you went down through France?
GP: Yeah, through France, and then you turned left along the Mediterranean and you called in at various places.
CB: Would you stop at Orange?
GP: I stopped at several places there.
CB: In France?
GP: And what amused me at the RAF stations there in North Africa, we still had German prisoners of war, and the German prisoners of war would be given a big stick to keep the natives from coming in and robbing the things on the station, that was his job, yes, he had a big pole and that would keep the natives out, and he used it too [laughs]. ‘Cause they’d come, they’d pinch anything, they’d pinch anything. Oh dear, yeah.
CB: So your re-fuelling stops would be how long?
GP: Oh, sometimes we’d have a night, sometimes we wouldn’t have a re-fuelling on the gain, and we’d get as far as India, go up to Karachi and we used to land at Suez down the bottom there, and I used to love it there ‘cause you could hire a boat there and go sailing on the big lakes down the bottom there, and I used to go up to Karachi, we used to fly up to Karachi.
CB: Did you fly via Aiden?
GP: No, I don’t think I went to.
CB: So you went to Iraq did you, through Habbanya?
GP: Yeah, yeah Habbanya. Cor, it’s all a bit of mist at the moment.
CB: That’s OK and this was doing what?
GP: I was second pilot.
CB: Yeah, but what was the ‘plane doing?
GP: Yorks. Carrying freight.
CB: Freight.
GP: Freight, yeah we didn’t carry, well we carried a few, odd people who wanted to fly back, in fact we brought my brother back from, on one occasion, from Cairo, he came back in the aircraft with us.
CB: And what, what, you delivered freight to Karachi?
GP: Yes.
CB: What did you bring back?
GP: Freight came back as well. I can’t tell you what came back I suppose they were packing up the stations, and the important stuff we would fly back home. Then they moved us from, God where we flying from then?
CB: ‘Cause we’re talking now about the time of partition aren’t we?
GP: Yeah.
CB: Between Pakistan and India?
GP: It’s all in the distant past now for me.
CB: We’ll stop there a mo’. So, this delivery system you were operating was from RAF Lyneham?
GP: Yes.
CB: In Wiltshire.
GP: That’s right.
CB: In the aircraft could you just describe what was the crew? This is a transport version of the Lancaster so what did it carry in crew terms?
GP: We had a first pilot, we had me second pilot, and I was sitting in the right hand seat really as a lookout in a way, and we had a wireless operator and a navigator, that’s all we had and we’d fly down, call in at various places in North Africa.
CB: But you had an engineer?
GP: Flight engineer.
CB: Yes, flight engineer.
GP: We’d stop at various places in North Africa and unload freight, or load freight, a lot of freight came home because they were closing the stations when we came back, they were loaded with all sorts of stuff, stations, getting rid of it, getting it home.
CB: What sort of accommodation did you get on the route? So your first stop is Castel Benito?
GP: Well I’m thinking about Malta, ‘cause we went into Malta, I went into Malta.
CB: Yeah.
GP: I had nice accommodation there, very, very hot and humid in Malta, I didn’t like it at all when I was there, very humid, terrible. In fact one day I spent the whole day sitting on the edge of the shower it was so blimin’ humid, it was awful. On other occasions Malta was very nice, we just happened to get the weather that’s all. I did nothing but act as second pilot really.
CB: In North Africa, were you in tents or were they proper buildings?
GP: Oh I’m trying to think, trying to think. No, we were in proper buildings, we were in proper buildings, hard to place it now.
CB: Um.
GP: Yes, we were in proper buildings there, I don’t remember being in tents at all, I don’t remember being in tents.
CB: And how busy was the route? And you’re the lookout how often did you see?
GP: Well it was pretty busy because really because there was a lot of freight coming back. Some, little bit going out, but a lot of freight coming back from closing stations and so forth, so we used to have a lot of freight on-board. I would be up with the pilot and then once we got airborne I’d go down the back and fill in the log, we had a great big log to fill in, what we’d got on board and everything else, I used to do, keep the log. Then come back home, it’s all misty parts [laughs] —
CB: Yeah, yeah. So after flying in Yorks without training on twin or multi-engine.
GP: Yeah.
CB: Where did you go after that?
GP: Oh crikey.
CB: Did you go for twin-engine training?
GP: Where’s my logbook?
CB: So you went to Valley?
GP: RAF Valley.
CB: In North Wales?
GP: Yeah North Wales, that’s right it was very nice there.
CB: So what did you do there?
GP: [Laughs] Skive most of the time on the beach. [Laughter] because we had um —
CB: This was September ’46?
GP: The airfield was quite near the beach.
CB: ’47?
GP: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
GP: Yeah, was nice there. Cor gosh, it’s a job to remember it was a long way back.
CB: But the flying training was twin-engine training was it?
GP: Twin-engine training.
CB: In Oxfords?
GP: In Oxfords and Ansons yeah.
CB: So how did that go?
GP: And Ansons yeah.
CB: How did that go?
GP: It went very well really ‘cause there were a bunch of us, there’s a photograph of us in there I think, all pilots and navigators. Or is it in this one?
CB: Well, we’ll have a look in a minute. And the point of the question is you’d had experience on multi-engine?
GP: Yes.
CB: So I wonder how well that prepared you for twin-engine training?
GP: Fine, ‘cause I went onto Wellingtons.
CB: From?
GP: Middleton St George.
CB: Oh right.
GP: And flying UT navigators, they were all UT navs, I used to end up with sometimes one, sometimes two or three navigators in the back, and a wireless operator. Used to fly every day or every night.
CB: And then you went to Swinderby?
GP: RAF Swinderby.
CB: 201 AFS?
GP: Yes.
CB: So were you instructing there or what were you doing?
GP: What was I doing in Swinderby?
CB: ‘Cause you were on Wellingtons?
GP: Yes.
CB: And you were on familiarisation for a while, but what was the purpose of that?
GP: I did a bit of flying there. Can I have a look at —
CB: Yes, we’ll stop there for a minute. So, you went to Swinderby to the advanced flying school for Wellingtons?
GP: Yes.
CB: Then you went to RAF Topcliffe, which is clearly a nav school and you’re flying on Ansons?
GP: Yes.
CB: So.
GP: I was learning to be a staff pilot then.
CB: Right.
GP: So I could fly anything, Ansons, Oxfords, Wellingtons.
CB: Yes. OK.
GP: Used to mix it up.
CB: Right. So, um, at Topcliffe you were doing what?
GP: Topcliffe?
CB: So this is the No1 Air Navigation School and you’re flying on Ansons so.
GP: I think I was a staff pilot.
CB: You were a staff pilot OK.
GP: Yes.
CB: So you’re flying in an Anson, who else is in the Anson?
GP: Um, wireless operator.
CB: Um.
GP: And probably a training navigator to train, [unclear].
CB: Yeah.
GP: They were UT navigators.
CB: Right.
GP: So they used a couple, they used UT navigators, sometimes two UT navigators and one staff navigator.
CB: OK, who was the instructor?
GP: Yeah.
CB: Yeah, and were you being trained at the same time?
GP: No, I was just flying.
CB: Right, OK, right. So from there you then went onto Wellingtons again?
GP: Wellingtons.
CB: And this time you were at Middleton St George.
GP: Middleton St George, yeah I spent most of my time there then.
CB: So talk us through that, what was that, what were you doing there?
GP: Flying UT navigators all over the place, every day, every night.
CB: Right.
GP: I was a staff pilot there so.
CB: OK.
GP: I had my own wireless operator.
CB: Um.
GP: Forget what he was called now. He’s there somewhere.
CB: But the practicality of it is that that kept you busy for quite some time?
GP: Oh yes it did, until I finished I think.
CB: OK. So, when you, you were the captain of the aircraft, except when you had to be checked out occasionally?
GP: Yes that’s right.
CB: So that takes you to the end of your flying training by which time you’d done eleven hundred hours?
GP: Yes.
CB: So your biggest, where was your biggest hour accumulation, flying hours?
GP: Probably flying out to India.
CB: And on these Wellingtons you put in a few hours?
GP: No that was on, not Lancasters, on —
CB: On the Anson, on the Wellington?
PP: Yorks?
GP: No, Yorks.
CB: Yorks to India. Yeah, no, no, but this.
GP: Second pilot of Yorks.
CB: But at the end you were doing the training of navigators?
GP: I was training, UT navigators, in the back. Usually a staff navigator and UT navigator.
CB: Yeah, at Middleton, OK. ‘Cause you started there at six hundred and eighty four hours, and you finished up with eleven hundred hours.
GP: Yeah.
CB: That was pretty good going.
GP: There was a lot of flying see.
CB: And how did you feel about flying like that?
GP: No problem I loved it, I did, I enjoyed it, I really enjoyed it.
CB: And the navigators were telling you where to go so sometimes it wasn’t right.
GP: Which course to go on. I dozed off one night, I’d been on nights, I dozed off and got a tap on the shoulder, ‘Excuse me sir’.
CB: And to what extent could you fly on auto-pilot, or was it just trimmed for stability?
GP: Oh you could, almost entirely, almost entirely you could fix it.
CB: But you did have auto-pilot?
GP: We had auto-pilot, yeah.
CB: Yeah. How reliable was that?
GP: Very reliable, yeah, very reliable.
CB: So this is how you could catch up on your sleep?
GP: We kept an eye on things, you just sat there, you were just a passenger on the aircraft. Aircraft flew itself really.
CB: Yes. And where were the sorties, because Middleton St George is on the north east, close to the coast, did you fly?
GP: Well we used to come right down over the country, down to the, down to Cornwall and the Isle of Wight and up, up again up the east side, yeah we did all sorts of trips.
CB: By then we’re talking about peace time, so everything’s illuminated so to what extent could you check where you were without the navigator helping you?
GP: Well you could ‘cause you, as a pilot, you kept a check on where you were. You knew what course you were flying, or you knew the main places you could identify on the route and it was normally anti-clockwise, you’d go down across Wales and then across to the east coast then up, nearly always that way round.
CB: Right.
GP: For some reason or another, I don’t know why.
CB: So that was No2 Air Navigation School at Middleton St George?
GP: No2 Air Nav yes.
CB: So you come to the end of your time?
GP: Yes.
CB: What rank are you then?
GP: Pilot three.
CB: Right. As what rank?
GP: Well it’s equivalent to a sergeant pilot really.
CB: Right.
GP: But um.
CB: What had they done to the ranks?
GP: I was a pilot four, that was equivalent to a corporal ‘cause they changed it all you see.
CB: Right.
GP: And when the SWO found out I was still in the sergeants, I’d been in the sergeants mess, but because they changed the ranks he said ‘You can’t come in here now, you’re only a corporal’ but I went to the airmans mess and had a far better time in there I can tell you.
CB: At what stage was that?
GP: God only knows.
CB: Was that close to your leaving the RAF or many years?
GP: Yes a couple of years I think.
CB: Yeah.
GP: Yes, you can see from my logbook.
CB: OK. So, you’ve come to the end of your RAF term, how many years had you signed on for?
GP: Three years and four years reserve I think it was.
CB: Right. So, you came out of the RAF in ’49.
GP: Yes.
CB: What did you then do?
GP: Farming, [laughs], took a farm. Then what did I do then? I went in the Observer Corps didn’t I?
EP: ’61 you went in the Observers.
GP: Royal Observer Corps.
CB: OK, what prompted that?
GP: I became a commander in the Royal Observer Corps and —
EP: You went full time ’66.
GP: What was that darling?
EP: You went full time in ’66.
GP: Yes I went full time in ’66 yes.
CB: Fine. And how long did that last?
Unknown: [Indistinct]
GP: Three years was it?
EP: No until you retired.
GP: Until I retired yeah, yeah.
CB: Aged what?
EP: Sixty.
GP: Sixty, when I was sixty.
CB: And while you were in the Observer Corps what was your task?
GP: What was?
CB: What was your task? What were you doing?
GP: Pilot.
CB: No excuse me, I’ll stop it.
GP: Oh sorry, Observer.
CB: So as part of the history here —
GP: Yes.
CB: How did you come to meet your wife Evelyn?
GP: Well —
CB: And when did you marry?
GP: I met Phillip, her brother, first and we had motorbikes, and he took me home.
CB: What was he doing?
GP: He was um, he was in the RAF still, and I was in the RAF, but he took me home, and I met Evelyn then, and oh gosh, it’s a long story isn’t it?
CB: Go on.
EP: That was in ’45.
GP: ’45. 1945.
EP: When you came back from Rhodesia.
GP: I’d come back all sunburnt from Rhodesia, yeah. [Laughter]. Yeah that right, and we got, we just clicked didn’t we, we just got on so well. I think, never had any arguments.
CB: Well there you are.
GP: And her family were very nice to me, your father was very nice to me. He was a funny old chap her father but he was very nice to me indeed, in fact he gave you away, came up the aisle with you to me.
CB: Lovely. And he was a farmer was he?
GP: Oh no.
CB: Oh no, what did he do?
GP: Well I don’t know, [laughs], practically nothing I think. He’d um —
CB: So when did you marry?
EP: ’48.
GP: 1948. Twenty sixth of August, was it? 26th? 1948. Yeah, and he gave her away.
CB: OK.
GP: Doesn’t sound right somehow does it, how can he give you away?
CB: Well I’ve just done it twice.
GP: Yes.
CB: It relieves the financial pressure you might think.
GP: That’s right, that’s right.
CB: Doesn’t work that way at all.
GP: We’ve always got on, never had any upsets as far as I can remember.
EP: Show you the letter.
CB: I’m just stopping a moment. Now here we have a letter from the Queen which ‘gives her great pleasure to send you her best wishes on your sixty-fifth wedding anniversary on twenty-sixty August 2013’.
GP: We’ve got, we’ve got two haven’t we from the Queen? The other one’s hanging up there behind the lamp.
CB: Yes. That’s really nice.
GP: We’ve met the Queen.
CB: Yes.
GP: She’s very nice.
CB: You went down to Buckingham Palace did you?
GP: Yeah.
CB: Was there a garden party?
GP: Garden party.
CB: How did that go?
GP: We went to the garden party. At one occasion my nephew drove us there and the car conked out going down Whitehall [laughs] and we walked into Buckingham Palace. [Laughter].
EP: But we met her at Bentley Priory, that’s where you met her ‘cause we went to [?]
GP: Oh yes, I was in charge at Bentley Priory so I had to meet her didn’t I?
CB: Right. So now what we need to do if we may is talk if we may about your time in the Observer Corps.
GP: Yeah.
CB: So how did you come to join the Observer Corps and where?
EP: Because we were farming.
GP: Yeah, we were farming —
CB: Where?
GP: In Cornwall.
CB: Down in Cornwall, yeah.
GP: Who did I meet?
EP: You met, you went haymaking at next door neighbour.
GP: Next what?
EP: You went next door neighbour, helping with the harvest.
GP: Yes.
EP: And a ‘plane flew over and you went over to have a look didn’t you?
GP: That’s right yeah, ‘Are you interested in aircraft?’, I said ‘Yes, I was a pilot’.
CB: Yeah, and how did the conversation go after that.
EP: He said he had a post on his farm didn’t he?
GP: Yes that’s right he did. Who was that? That was um —
EP: Stevens.
GP: Stevens yes. Yes, he said ‘I’ve got a post on my farm’ that’s right. Um, he had these underground posts every, every four and a half, or five miles.
CB: Right. OK.
GP: They’re still there most of them.
CB: Yeah, hang on. So, this chap’s farm was where you started was it?
GP: That’s right down in —
CB: Where was that?
GP: Down in Cornwall, Pelynt in Cornwall.
CB: OK.
GP: And there was an underground post there. Um a bunker.
CB: Right.
GP: And we had a crew of ten.
CB: Right.
GP: So we’d man it with three at a time so you had a succession of people manning the post.
CB: So what did this compromise, the underground?
GP: The underground, you had a bomb power indicator, you had a battle assembly pipe outside which would record the over pressure of a bomb if it dropped and you would record it on a dial, BPI. BPI - bomb power indicator.
CB: Right.
GP: And then outside you had a pin hole camera, 360 degree camera with a cover on it and you had to load up sensitive papers in that, take it up, put it on its stand outside. If a bomb went off then it would record the height, the size of the weapon and the angle from the post, so you knew exactly, you know you could pass all this information onto your headquarters which were down Truro and they could plot it all on a big map and knew exactly what was going on. It was quite clever really.
CB: So this was with a landline reporting?
GP: Yeah. Landline.
CB: On a landline?
GP: We had radio back up but mostly landline, but um —
CB: So this is Observer Corps, so people were out observing how did that work?
GP: Royal Observer Corps, and they’re from down underground. You had a bomb power indicator underground so if a bomb went off immediately you had, the bomb power indicator would show you how many pounds pressure there was.
CB: Yes, right.
GP: How big a bomb was, and then you waited about three minutes and you went up the ladder, got outside, lifted the lid of the ground zero indicator which was a pinhole camera.
CB: Right.
GP: With four pin holes.
CB: OK.
GP: And you’d lift the lid off, took out the papers to come downstairs and then sent the readings through to headquarters and they could plot that bomb and you had several posts call the same bomb and you’d get several angles they knew exactly where the bomb was, if it went, if you had one.
CB: So what sort of bomb was this supposed to be?
GP: Well a —
CB: A nuclear weapon or an ordinary bomb?
GP: A nuclear weapon probably yeah.
CB: But the Observer Corps itself during the war.
GP: Yeah. The eyes and ears of the RAF.
CB: Were doing something different was it? Was that doing something different?
GP: Eyes and ears of the RAF.
CB: Yes. They would be working above ground during the war.
CB: Right.
GP: Spotting aircraft, saying where they were going and what they were doing, and then we went to the nuclear phase where they built all these bunkers, they’re still there ‘cause they’re solid concrete underground, most of them are still there.
CB: Right.
GP: One or two of them have been excavated but most of the are still there, if anybody’s got the keys they can go down them.
CB: So what distance are they apart?
GP: It’ll be eight miles.
CB: Right, and where are they in the country?
GP: Eight to ten miles. [?]all over the country.
CB: Right.
GP: Everywhere. There was one at Pelynt, where was the nearest one to Pelynt?
EP: I’ve no idea.
GP: Oh, um, trying to think now. They were about every eight, between eight and ten miles apart.
CB: So you were doing this part-time to begin with were you?
GP: Um.
EP: Yes.
GP: Yes I was to begin with.
CB: At what point did you change to full-time?
GP: God.
EP: ’66.
GP: ’66 was it?
EP: Yes.
GP: Yeah, she would know [laughs]. 1966 – full time. Yes I became an observer commander so I had quite a responsibility, then I got posted to Preston, Lancashire but I still kept my home here.
CB: Yeah.
GP: Came home on Friday nights, and went back on the two minutes past seven in the morning to get into the office before anything started happening, yeah.
CB: So at Preston you’re now a senior man, what were you doing there?
GP: Preston, well we had, I had a headquarters there, quite a big headquarters, longer than this garden with offices all the way up with staff, ‘cause you had a local area, had a whole area. There was an area Commandant who was a spare time who didn’t really do very much except have a rank but he didn’t do anything, I was the, I was the one that did the work at Preston.
CB: How long did that last?
GP: ‘Til I retired didn’t it?
EP: Five years.
GP: Five years.
CB: Yes. And from Preston where did you go?
GP: Home.
CB: No.
GP: I was sixty then.
CB: Oh you were sixty. So how does the Bentley Priory part fit into this?
GP: Oh, Bentley Priory.
CB: I’m just going to stop a moment. So, from Preston you came to Bentley Priory?
GP: Yes, I did.
CB: Before you retired, what did you do there?
GP: Well I was in, oh what was I, I was in an office there, and I’m trying to think what I did there, cor dear.
CB: The Queen?
GP: Queen’s visit, we had a Queen’s visit to Bentley Priory.
CB: What did you do about that?
GP: We have observers from the whole of the country down there, bought them all down by train and we had a big garden party at Bentley Priory and I remember I went round one way with the Duke and somebody else went round the other way with the Queen, ‘cause we criss-crossed just to introduce to one or two extra people, special people on the way round, that sort of thing, Bentley Priory.
CB: And what was the significance of the event.
GP: [Exhalation of breath].
EP: Wasn’t it the closing down of ROC was it?
GP: I think it was.
PP: Anniversary?
GP: I don’t know, yes I think it probably was that we were anticipating being closed down, the ROC, and we had just this royal garden party and we invited the Queen.
CB: Yes.
GP: And the Duke.
CB: Right.
GP: The Queen, the garden party was split in two places with the, if you know Bentley Priory out the back is a fountain. One half was that side and we were the other side. So the Queen went round one side and we took the Duke round the other and he was hilarious [laughter], he really was the old Duke of Edinburgh, but we got a lot of fun, a lot of fun with him [laughs].
CB: Well he had a lot of background with the military.
GP: Yeah, yeah, he did.
CB: OK. Thank you. Now in the Observer Corps the people needed to be trained?
GP: Yes.
CB: And what did you do on an annual basis?
GP: On an annual basis we would have a big camp at an RAF station that was being closed.
CB: Right.
GP: And um we’d have a week, I think it was a week there, and observers come from all over England to do training there, which was quite good, but I used to go as a full-time staff and help do the training. It was quite good fun really.
CB: What was the training that they had?
GP: Aircraft recognition, mostly aircraft recognition, God, it’s hard to think.
CB: ‘Cause we’re talking about the Cold War time aren’t we?
GP: Yeah, we are.
CB: And um, so aircraft flying very high that’s no good, but so what were they looking for?
GP: They were still looking for aircraft, I’m trying to think.
CB: No more.
GP: Trying to think. There was still low level flying as well, you know it wasn’t all high level. Um, gosh.
CB: Because as well as recording the data.
GP: Yeah.
CB: About nuclear blasts they had to have training for that presumably?
GP: Yeah, we, trying to think about it now. Yes, we used to have exercises which were all planned, co-ordinated so that a post which was perhaps ten miles away would have a reading and a time, and a post which was ten miles away would have details of the same blast but different timing and different angles, you know the whole thing was co-ordinated as if the real attack had come, nuclear attack had come. Massive, massive, awful, awful to contemplate really, but the whole thing was planned nationally so that all the posts, all the stuff fed in would have co-ordinated properly you know? Quite a big job really. Quite a job, a lot of planning went into it.
CB: And where was this information fed to?
GP: Fighter Command, Fighter Command mostly I ‘spose, yeah, and local defence. Surprising we had scientific officers at each group headquarters, they would work out the fall-out, the radioactivity levels and so forth as if a bomb had really dropped and so we had scientific officers there, they weren’t in the Corps but they were scientists recruited to do that job. Great big screens, two big screens. Long range board and another big screen, and you’d plot on the back and the scientific officers would read the front but you’d plot on the back.
CB: Like fighter screens, and where were these regional headquarters located?
GP: God, all over the place. Oxford, big one at Oxford.
CB: On airfields or separate?
GP: No, separate from airfields.
CB: Right.
GP: One at Oxford, there was one here at.
EP: Watford had one.
GP: Here at Watford, the bunker is still there at Watford, and it belongs now to the vets doesn’t it? They use it down below ‘cause I went down it one night, I used to, when I was down at Horsham I used to come home and I used to go and check on the headquarters here at um —
CB: At Watford?
GP: Yeah. And I went in one night, a bit on leave, I came and couldn’t understand a light was on. So, I went in to put the light out and I could hear noises, der, der, der, der and I thought hello, I said ‘Somebody’s here’ so I walked on and there was a bloke there and what he was doing, he was preparing training material for his crew using all the tape and everything you see. So, I crept down there and I didn’t let him hear me coming and I walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. I’ve never seen a bloke jump so high in my life [laughter]. He didn’t think anybody could get in you see, because he had the key. He was using it, he shouldn’t have been using it really, using it to prepare all his training stuff for his crew. That was very funny and I was able to creep right up to him and tap him on the shoulder, I’ve never seen a bloke jump so high in my life. Frightened him to death [laughs], yeah, and that’s still there, that building. If you went to see the vet she’d probably let you in, if you said you’d — gosh when you think the money that was spent on it all.
CB: Yeah. Well this also linked in with the RSG’s didn’t it, the Regional Seats of Government?
GP: Yes, yes it did, that’s right the RSG’s. Yes, it was an interesting time really, in another few years it will all be forgotten nobody will know what it was all about will they?
CB: We’ll have to do research into that as well.
GP: [Laughs].
CB: 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
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Interview with Geoff Paine
Creator
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Chris Brockbank
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-07-26
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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APaineGH160726
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Geoff Paine attended High Wycombe Royal Grammar School and Falmouth Grammar School, joined Air Training Corps and volunteered for the Royal Air Force at eighteen. Upon competition of initial training he was posted at RAF Waltham (100 Squadron) then at RAF Hornchurch, RAF Heaton Park and RAF Hendon. He served in a bomb damage repair unit, and reminisces a V-1 weapon exploding onto an accommodation block at RAF Hendon. Geoff continued his training in Africa (Cape Town, Bulawayo, Thornhill) flying Cornells and Harvards. He qualified as a pilot near the end of the war but after august 1945 flying activities ceased. Back in Great Britain he was stationed at RAF West Kirby, Stansted, RAF Bircham Newton, RAF Little Rissington, RAF Ternhill, RAF Oakington, RAF Lyneham, RAF Valley, RAF Swinderby, RAF Topcliffe where he flew Yorks, Oxfords, Ansons and Wellingtons until he was demobilised in 1949. He subsequently went into farming and joined the Royal Observer Corps first part-time, and eventually progressing into full time role of observer commander retiring at sixty in 1966. Discusses Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh’s visit, Cold war bomb testing and observation roles.
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
Wales--Anglesey
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe--Gweru
Zimbabwe--Bulawayo
South Africa--Cape Town
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Cheshire
England--Essex
England--Gloucestershire
England--Gloucestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Manchester
England--Norfolk
England--Shropshire
England--Wiltshire
England--Yorkshire
South Africa--Mahikeng
South Africa
England--Lancashire
England--Bishop's Stortford
Format
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00:54:12 audio recording
Temporal Coverage
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1945
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
100 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
Cornell
demobilisation
Elizabeth II, Queen of Great Britain (1926 - 2022)
Flying Training School
Harvard
incendiary device
Initial Training Wing
Oxford
pilot
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1921-2021)
RAF Ansty
RAF Bentley Priory
RAF Bircham Newton
RAF Grimsby
RAF Heaton Park
RAF Hendon
RAF Hornchurch
RAF Little Rissington
RAF Lyneham
RAF Oakington
RAF Swinderby
RAF Ternhill
RAF Topcliffe
RAF Valley
recruitment
training
V-1
V-weapon
Wellington
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1000/10691/PGerardJA1801.2.jpg
e5a7614ba6146e4260ccc84450352f8d
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1000/10691/AGerardJA181122.1.mp3
78e1d3aa7d49cf3b7efcecd1216a67d8
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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Gerard, Tony
John Anthony Gerard
J A Gerard
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Tony Gerard (1925 - 2020, 301083, Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a flight engineer with 90 and 7 Squadrons.
(The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2018-11-22
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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Gerard, JA
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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SP: So, this is Suzanne Pescott and I’m interviewing John Anthony Gerard known as Tony today who was a flight engineer with both 90 Squadron and 7 Squadron during the years 1943 to ‘45. Today’s interview is for International Bomber Command Centre’s Digital Archive and we’re at Tony’s home. It’s the 22nd of November 2018. Also present at the interview is Tony’s son Richard. So, first of all, thank you, Tony for agreeing to talk to me today. Do you want to tell me a little bit about your time first of all before you joined the RAF?
TG: Oh, I was in a bank in, in Liverpool. First job. I had to move from, from Dingwall. I was in Dingwall office because the manager there retired and the [old man] who was in the bank was made manager and of course he couldn’t, I couldn’t stay there so I had to move to the Liverpool branch. You know, because you, you couldn’t be managing a place where your direct dependants were, were employed. So, I was in Liverpool office for about six months in ’43 until, you know I had six months by which time I’d spent quite a lot of time in Southport because I got one of the girls in the bank lived in Southport so we used to go there, and she, she, it’s rather interesting as I went abroad because she used to be some, this this is not known to you, she used to be in in what they called, there’s a big hotel in in Southport this side you go so. At the time it was an American Forces leave place and she used to be one of the, they used to call them something and so [pause] so anyway so I was annoyed with her so I went off to Iraq on the, on the what was it? [pause] Oh, a South African ship. What was it again?
RG: Wasn’t this after the war? Sorry.
TG: This is after the war. Yeah.
RG: Yes. No. Life before —
[recording paused]
SP: So, Tony, that was about a year in the bank then in total before —
TG: Yeah. Yeah.
SP: You decided to sign up, was it? So —
TG: Yes.
SP: And what made you decide on the RAF?
TG: I was in the ATC as well, like. In the ATC, and most of the people in the ATC went in to the RAF. Most of my pals in West Kirby here joined the Navy, because they would be on the Naval sails here and I sailed here as well but I joined the RAF. I think I liked the uniform. I forget now like.
SP: So, what sort of things did you do with the ATC to get you prepared for the RAF?
TG: You had a uniform in the ATC and they used to meet in the, meet at the, it was very suitable. But the, what’s the name was [pause] the Golf Club because they had sort of outside so we were able to have —
SP: Like a drill square outside.
TG: A drill square. Yes. That was very suitable and we had every week it was. I forget now which night but it was very very suitable. Where were we?
SP: So you decided to join the, you were in the ATC. You decided to join the RAF.
TG: Yeah. Oh yeah.
SP: Do you want to tell me —
TG: So I had to go to Liverpool first in, in Liverpool where everybody who went to the war, for the initial [pause] initial oh, say who you were, what you were. How you were fixed with mental, night flight and all of that lot.
SP: Whereabouts in Liverpool was that?
TG: That was in, in, I can tell you the exact place. It was in Minshull Street. Minshull Street and that was, and they said righto, ‘Well we don’t, we don’t want anybody else now.’ This was in halfway ’43. So they said we’ve got enough people waiting now for pilots and navigators and bomb aimers because they went to Canada so you can either be, you can be on the list for either air gunner or flight engineer. We didn’t like the sound of air gunner so [laughs] A few people did but that was in March or April of ‘43.
SP: And how long did it take until they called you up for your training?
TG: So, I actually joined the RAF I think on the 8th of November. 8th of November 1943. My number was 015 [laughs] What was it now? Oh, fancy forgetting that. I can remember that at any time. The number. Nobody forgets their number [laughs] Everybody remembers their number.
SP: And what was your number, Tony?
TG: 3010831.
SP: Ok. Fantastic.
TG: [Laughs] yeah.
SP: So, what was the first thing you did?
TG: It’s not in here. The number. I don’t think.
SP: Yeah. Not in your logbook. So, what was the first thing you did with the training then? So, you got your service number and in the November ’43.
TG: 8th of November I joined up, down at um. What’s the name of the cricket ground in London?
SP: Lord’s.
TG: Lord’s.
SP: Lord’s Cricket Ground.
TG: Everybody who joined up, and fortunately I found that this, the whole of the intake was about twelve or fifteen intake were Durham miners and I’d never met any Durham miners before [laughs] At that time I was a bit, you know. I was a bit [pause] and they didn’t trust me of course. ‘From a bank? What’s a bank? We’re miners.’ And I forget now. I think, oh I know the only interest up there was I found they were good people and they’d already got the idea that you looked after everybody. That was in, intense. Intense outlook at, at [pause] what’s that name?
SP: Down at Lord’s when you were all together.
TG: Down at Lord’s. Yeah. We were there for about a fortnight or three weeks. And they, they learned that in about a day because you had to have about half a dozen injections and goodness knows what so, and one night, we’d only be there about a day and I was on the, sitting on the bed, on my bunk and we used to be in bunks and I had the top bunk of this place. I was dropped out through, through all these thingies and in the morning I found myself in the right bunk covered up with clothes. And that that convinced me they were [laughs] they were alright.
SP: They’d looked after you.
TG: Yes. They only learned it took one day and it didn’t matter what you were, you were part of that team at the time and therefore they had to look after you. And one of the blokes had took me, well they must have lifted me up on to the top bunk and, and that was a good start. But that was the, that was a good, a good start to I think probably your, your father thought had the same experience. That as soon as you joined the RAF whatever little bit you were in you were part of that and and everybody looked after each other. And even in that small number and the days, they would have only have been in a day but they looked after me. But, I always forget that, always remember that. And they were all Durham miners. They were tough characters. And I was [unclear] but we went to, in to ITW. ITW was, was a very cold spot because it was in, what’s that place?
SP: So ITW is the Initial Training Wing for you, isn’t it? So, that’s where you went to next.
TG: ITW. Yes. ITW. When you’d been two or three weeks and gone through all the rigmarole and in uniform etcetera in London you went to ITW and I went to ITW in Bridlington of all places. In December [laughs] It was howling gale off the North Sea and we were frozen stiff but we had a very nice corporal running our lot. Very nice. He was, he was a nice chap the corporal was. I can remember him now. Well, I’ve got a picture of him standing in front of our little group and he was a, mind you there was a bloke, a huge big chap and he’d been, he was a warrant officer, or [pause] He’d taken his doings off because he was on the course and he, he’d originally been motorboating.
SP: Right.
TG: Going out the North Sea picking up people who had pranged in the North Sea. There was a lot of people that pranged in the North Sea and he’d been a, he’d been originally been a, been running this motor boat and he was a warrant officer. He was a huge blooming chap and of course he got preferential treatment from the corporal having been a warrant officer before.
But he was the same as us then really. He was alright. But I got flu at the end. The day we, we, and the day we got leave we got leave at the end of ITW and that was six weeks. That day I ended up at Lime Street Station with a dose of flu and you know what you can be like with flu and I had to ring up the old man because it was about midnight. So I would have been there ‘til morning. The train had dropped us there late so that I managed to ring up the old man so he said, oh well of course he had, he had, he didn’t have much petrol but he had a bit and he came over and picked me up at Lime Street and I was sitting against the wall leaning against my kit bag [laughs] I was, and I’ll never forget that because I had flu for about a fortnight. Of course, I lost my course and it proved a very good thing because I met blokes off the following course who had gone, they had started having training at Weston Super Mare. This Locking. Locking camp outside Super Mare and I met some very good blokes there and we had, we had we used to have a good time at Locking. Mainly climbing over the fence at about midnight.
SP: Climbing over the fence at midnight. Where was that?
TG: That was in Locking. It’s, I think it’s still going. It’s about [pause] five miles I would say out of, outside Weston Super Mare. It’s a nice town Weston Super Mare. And they had some good hotels in it. It was —
SP: So was that because you were getting back late you had to —
TG: Yeah.
SP: Go over the fence. Yeah. Because you had missed your squadron bus back.
TG: Yes. We should have been back at eleven.
SP: Right.
TG: We were climbing through, mostly through the fence underneath. Always doing that and never got caught. Never got caught. And then of course eventually, having done six weeks there, six or ten weeks I forget now we went and joined the, the rest of the course at, at, St Athan in, which was a very good place to be there. St Athan. It was a good little place. Mind you, you had to work hard there. We were ten weeks or so there. It was about sixteen week course altogether and we had done ten of it at Locking. So, when this, this, when we’d been sort of six weeks or ten weeks at Locking we had already moved and then we were the next course and they were one above us that I’d been with. But never, you never met them because you were with your own lot.
SP: So, what sort of things did you train on down in Weston Super Mare? What was at Locking? What —
TG: Mainly on, on the Lancaster. There were two courses going on simultaneously there. One was we trained on the Merlin engines and and also on the other plane you were going in to and I was selected or put in the Lancaster lot and some were put in the [pause] what’s it called? Your father.
SP: Halifaxes.
TG: Halifaxes. To learn about the, but the whole thing took, it was in the, in the following August so I’d been nearly twelve months then. The fellas, I was posted and everybody got posted to different places and I got sent to Scampton of all places. Scampton [laughs] what a good place to start your [laughs] I went to Scampton for a few days and waited to be, because there were three Scampton men to the, I was in 5 Group and so that we stayed in 5 Group then. Of course, I spent about oh I’d only been in Scampton a few days when I was posted to Swinderby by myself. And I was still by myself. There was only one. One that had gone from Scampton. That’s where I met my crew. Swinderby.
SP: So, so your crew had already crewed hadn’t they? So they’d been flying.
TG: No. I hadn’t. They had —
SP: They had but the flight engineers always joined —
TG: They always joined at —
SP: At the end.
TG: At the end.
SP: Not at the end. But the end, when the crew got together, wasn’t it?
TG: Yes.
SP: Yeah.
TG: They’d been together for two or three months.
SP: Yeah. How was it to fit in to a team that had already been working together for that time?
TG: Well, I was, I was on in the ground in the, in the, hut when, it was a permanent, permanent station. Swinderby. Yes. It was. And so I was in the ground floor because there was just a spare bed there. So, I took it when I went there and I suppose I’d only been there about a day when a bloke came downstairs and said, ‘Is your name —’ so and so? And I said, ‘Yeah.’ So he said, ‘Oh, well, you’re joining our crew.’ [laughs] And he was the bomb aimer. He was a nice bloke, Tom and I used to go out with him quite a lot. We, Tom and me. Tom said, ‘Well, come and meet the rest.’ They were upstairs. So we just, the beds were moved around. I went in to that. That’s how I joined the crew.
SP: So, it was quite welcoming. That atmosphere that you talked about before.
TG: Oh yes.
SP: About everyone realising it was a team. It was straight away that you were part of that. Yeah.
TG: They, they’d already —
SP: Yeah.
TG: Been with each other for and they’d had a bit, a bit of a time of it. They had been to, been to training places themselves before I joined them. But there was no the point in joining until then because what we knew about the aircraft was, they didn’t need to know. You had to know because you had to mend it [laughs] if it went wrong. So anyway, that, that was how I met the crew and I couldn’t have met, everybody says the same thing. So, they were good blokes. I was, I was. Just as though I’d been with them all along. So —
SP: So how long was it then before you were on operations?
TG: Oh, well you can see here how many trips we did on Stirlings. On, because they, they didn’t have Lancasters at Swinderby.
SP: Right.
TG: They had Stirlings so you were, you were on a Stirling learning to be on a Lancaster but you went to Lancaster Finishing School. There were only four trips there on, on that.
SP: And where were you at Lancaster Finishing School? Was that —
TG: That was at, what’s it called now [pause] What’s the name? It says the name on the top.
SP: So, they’re at Warboys, Hunts’.
TG: Warboys.
SP: Yeah. So that was a Finishing School. What sort of things did you —
TG: No. That was, Warboys was —
SP: Yeah.
TG: Was the Pathfinders. Before we went to [pause]
SP: So, it was the Lancaster Finishing School and then you went on to —
TG: Went straight to, down to south, south, to Tuddenham.
SP: Tuddenham. Yeah. And that’s when you joined 90 Squadron.
TG: The squadron. That was the squadron.
SP: So, what was life like at Tuddenham?
TG: It was a wartime old place. Wasn’t a regular place. It was, actually it was only about a mile or two to our, where we were because we were Tuddenham. 90 was, was a sub to, to Mildenhall which is 15 which was a very posh squadron. Mildenhall, which was, we always had our our post, you know, post and we used to meet once a year. We always had those at Mildenhall.
SP: So, where the Associations used to have their annual —
TG: Yeah.
SP: Meeting.
TG: That’s right.
SP: Yeah.
TG: The annual meeting at Mildenhall which was very posh of course. They had a lovely [pause] it was a mess actually but we took it over for the day. But it was like a, you know a posh [pause] big it, was big and there was a big room with the eating and because originally at first huge but they only started it in about 1948 I think and we packed it in in 1960. But we only packed it in, I will never forget the bloke, he was a, the bloke who was chairman was, he was one of these in Norway and all this sort of caper and he was [pause] I forget now what he was but he was miles above us. We were all, while we were together we were all messed. Not officers. We were all other ranks. Even the pilot was. He started off with us and we had him for quite a while before he got his commission but he only got his because eventually they made all what they called captains of aircraft they made them all officers. So he, he was automatically was away but the way the navigator [laughs] saluted him just the same. He never got on with him really. He was a, he was very good navigator. He went on Transport Command and he always tells the story of the day he went into Transport Command he, he went in to the interview and he said, ‘I said to them, now I’m only a warrant officer and you’re, you’re only, if you’re not going to pass me say so now because I’m not an officer.’ So they passed. He was passed in the end. He was that good.
SP: What was his name? What was your navigator’s name?
TG: The navigator. He’s the next door to me on that, on that photo.
SP: Photo.
TG: The only one alive apart from me now and he’s the one that’s gone deaf. Solidly deaf.
SP: Right.
TG: I’m trying to think.
SP: And what’s his name?
TG: Bill.
SP: Bill. Do you know Bill’s surname?
TG: Bill. Bill. Bill. What was his surname?
SP: Don’t worry I’ll refer, everybody referred to everyone just by their nicknames or first names, didn’t they? Don’t worry.
TG: His name was Bill anyway.
SP: Yeah.
TG: Always to me. Then Fred was next door to him.
SP: And what was Fred?
TG: He was pally with Fred.
SP: What role was Fred on the crew?
TG: He died. The first one that died was Fred. After the war. He lived in Hull. Yes. That’s — [unclear]
[recording paused]
SP: Right.
TG: In, what’s in London? London East End. He was very, his father was [pause] was either couldn’t see or he couldn’t hear.
SP: Right.
TG: I’m not sure. But he had a rough life in the East End of London.
SP: And what was his name?
TG: Bill [laughs]
SP: Bill. And what role did Bill play in the crew?
TG: He was the navigator.
SP: The nav. Right. Yeah. That’s Bill. The navigator. Yeah.
TG: He was a damned good navigator.
SP: Yeah.
TG: He used to —
SP: So, Bill the navigator. And then who else was on the crew?
TG: That’s Fred. He was the first man to die. We all went to his funeral in Hull.
SP: And what role did Fred do?
TG: He, he was ooh, ooh when I left.
SP: Yeah. But he, what role did he play? Was he one of the gunners? Or was he —
TG: No. He was the wireless op.
SP: Wireless op. ok.
TG: He was a very good one.
SP: Yeah.
TG: Because he used to fly in in the Yorks so he was a very good. We had two very good. There we are in—
SP: So just looking at the pictures of the reunion with Tony.
TG: That right.
SP: At the moment.
TG: I’m at the end.
SP: Your pilot’s name?
TG: He was Skip. Always Skip.
SP: Kip.
TG: Pilots are always Skip.
SP: Kip. And where was Kip from?
TG: He was from down, what’s the further down the east coast? What’s the name of the places? Where they’ve now got a big [pause] Anyway, he was engaged. He used to always fly around that because his girlfriend who he married eventually and went to Rhodesia. He was, Proome was his name. P R —
SP: Yeah.
TG: O O M E. Because when he got his [laughs] his pilot, he was a flight lieutenant. No. He’d got a warrant by then. The day he got his his announcement of his, his —
SP: His commission.
TG: Officer Proome.
SP: Yeah.
TG: The bloke came in and said, said, ‘Flight sergeant —’ or whatever he was, ‘Proome. You are now Pilot Officer Proome.’ Of course, Proome [laughs] The whole place just descended in to laughter. He was, and he was writing. Proome his name was but of course it was the old saying. You know. The old P O Prune. But he was, I’ll never forgot the day he got. That’s the rear gunner.
SP: What was the rear gunner called?
TG: Jimmy.
SP: Jimmy.
TG: Jimmy. He got very pally with, after the war, he got very pally with the, what was he? The chief Pathfinder. What was the chief Pathfinder’s name? I C. He ran it from the time he, he was a so and so. I didn’t like him at all. Nobody liked him but he did and he, he got, there’s a memorial on Plymouth Hoe that he organised and got it going after the war.
SP: Yeah.
TG: It’s very good actually. It’s alongside —
SP: Yeah.
TG: Introduced me to—
[recording paused]
SP: And so this is your bomb aimer. What was his name?
TG: Tom.
SP: Tom Saunders.
TG: Tom Saunders. Yeah. And there’s the mid-upper gunner. A bit of a character as you can see.
SP: What was his name?
TG: His name was, oh what was his name now? [pause] Do you know, I can’t. I’ll send the —
SP: Don’t worry. We’ll get the details. So, were all your crew British?
TG: In the same positions there. The same positions. That’s in the bar downstairs in Mildenhall.
SP: So, we’re just looking at your picture of the reunion there. Yeah.
TG: Yeah.
SP: So, was, were all the crew British on yours or was any —
TG: Yeah.
SP: Yeah.
TG: Yeah. They were all British.
SP: So, you didn’t have any Canadians or —
TG: No. Didn’t have any, any, no.
SP: Or Australians.
TG: They were all British.
SP: Yeah. So, so if we go on to your time at, with 90 Squadron do you want to talk were any operations that stood out? What —
TG: Yeah. Well, we did, what did, twenty one of them. Was it twenty one? And then after the war, the war was ending, thank you we did one or two trips to Holland with the, with the what did they call it? They called it something —
SP: Operation Manna.
TG: Manna. We did a couple of Manna trips and then we did a couple of [pause] a couple of bringing POWs home from Juvencourt. We went to Juvencourt and the first day we went there we carried a load of, well about four or five anyway of new, new, new tyres in case anybody, because there were quite a number, quite a number of squadrons going to Juvencourt and in case anybody needed any. We, but of course we didn’t know that until the end of the day so we arrived there about 10 o’clock or eleven and we found out oh well, we never said anything. We don’t take any that day and so we went into Reims. And we went to Reims and in the middle of the square in Reims there is this cathedral. Reims Cathedral and it’s a magnificent frontage and a bloke came up and we got pally talking to him. He said, ‘There’s the, you can still see where the Germans had fired before.’ They were trying to ruin the cathedral and they fired and we saw chips off. Chips off afterwards. When we went back he said, ‘Well, I’ve been keeping this for a special occasion. Now, you come to my house with me.’ And we went around the corner and walked round’ And well, blow me he opened the back door. It was a back door wasn’t it? We thought where are we going in to here. We went inside and he brought out the most beautiful, of course it’s Reims is the centre of, of what’s his name? Yeah.
SP: Champagne, is it?
TG: Champagne.
SP: Yeah.
TG: And he brought out the most beautiful Champagne and he’d been keeping that all through the war for a special occasion and we went in to his house and he gave us a drink of this champagne and it was the best champagne I’ve ever tasted. Champagne’s nothing compared with that. It was marvellous. So that was our day in —
SP: In Reims.
TG: In Reims.
SP: Fantastic.
TG: When we came back. Back, during the afternoon we came back to Juvencourt and saw that we were the only one left. Everybody had left. They didn’t need us. They didn’t need the space for spare tyres.
SP: No.
TG: So, and we so we flew over Paris. We weren’t supposed to but we landed outside via. Skip said, ‘Well, we’re not going to get another way out.’ We were properly on the way southern. We went over Paris on the way and saw the Seine. A nice day that was.
SP: So those, those would have been towards the end of your tour, wouldn’t it? The dropping. The Operation Manna.
TG: Oh yes. We had done the thing.
SP: Yeah. So, do you know, just thinking back to when you joined the crew at Tuddenham. Can you remember where you went on your first operation?
TG: Yes. We, we went to Siegen. Or Siegen was it? Siegen. We went there twice. Where was the first? [pause — pages turning] Actually, we went there twice in wo days. The first day was coming on Christmas. Excuse me. And we [pause] our escorts couldn’t get. We had daylight escorts then. Fighters. And they couldn’t get off from their ‘drome so we were just approaching France and the recall came and we had to drop the bombs in the, in the channel. We couldn’t take them back in case they were dropped on the way down. But that was the first trip. To Siegen. There was a few like —
SP: Were there any major trips that stand out to you because you had a lot of operations that you went on?
TG: Yes. We went on quite a few. A few daylights. There’s oh there’s two. The red ones are night and the green ones are daytime and that was night.
SP: How can —
TG: Munich. I don’t know whether it was Munich or, or the other one.
SP: Cologne?
TG: Cologne. No. Cologne’s this end. Munich’s a long way.
SP: You’ve done operations to Nuremberg.
TG: I don’t know whether it was Nuremberg or Munich where where Jimmy said, ‘There’s a fighter alongside us. He said, ‘Don’t blame me. I’m sure he hasn’t seen us.’ And he said to Bill, ‘Bill, don’t fire anything. Don’t, don’t take any notice because he hasn’t seen us.’ So when [laughs] I can remember that. It was quite a, quite a hefty response from below. I think it was all this business going on so, but he was, the light from the, from the, it was night, both night trips. The light from, from the bombs and the fires.
SP: The flak.
TG: Coming up. There was an air brake on the aircraft, and you could look through and see other aircraft, and he must have. Must have seen us. But he was right alongside us and it was a German fighter. And eventually he left and so Jimmy breathed a sigh of relief, ‘Ok. He’s gone.’ [laughs] But he, ‘Don’t try and shoot. Don’t be a fool and shoot him down because —' he said, ‘He hasn’t, I’m sure he hasn’t seen us.’ I can remember little Jimmy saying [unclear] He was a very good rear gunner though. He never fired at anything but he was always on the lookout for things. And he was better than [pause] than the big big chap in the mid [pause] I think he was better because Bill used to say, ‘Jimmy, have you seen anything?’ ‘No.’ ‘Oh, that’s good.’
SP: So, you got quite a mixture of night and daylight raids.
TG: Yes.
SP: What, what did you find was the biggest difference between the two? What was the experience like?
TG: Well, the night ones you see we ended the night ones when we went to, to the training place at this [pause] we didn’t do many night ones later. That’s the training area for the aircraft.
SP: That was Warboys. So —
TG: Warboys. Yes.
SP: Yeah.
TG: This is —
SP: So, you did. So you did like Essen during daylight and Siegen at night.
TG: We only did four trips with, with, we were there about a month or six weeks before we got seen off back. Back to —
SP: So, what was the biggest difference between, you know a night operation to a day operations? Would it be a different atmosphere in the plane? Was there anything different you did day light to night?
TG: No, I don’t think so.
SP: No.
TG: Well, you could see. I never said [pause] the thing I I can remember the most is the arguments with, between, excuse me. My eyes water.
[pause]
I don’t think there was anything. I remember one, one daylight raid we we shot off the runway and we used to you know sometimes they, he used to like to push the engines up to a certain point and he would say, ‘Right you —' on the right, tell me what, right. And he would let me know. But at that point we headed off the runway and shot across [laughs] really bounced. Poor old Jimmy in the rear turret was bounced up and down and then of course it was just a rough, rough part of the aerodrome. [unclear] started again. Ok. He was a good pilot. He was a good pilot. Even, even [pause] even Bill recognised. He didn’t like him. He used to argue with Bill and he, he’d look round, oh we’d be going [unclear] these were and, ‘Well, other people are going that way. Why are we going this way? What’s your —’ And Bill said, ‘If you want to get shot down go the other way.’ So he said’That is the right way.’ And it always was.
SP: Yeah.
TG: He never never gave him —
SP: Ok.
TG: You know, the wrong course or —
SP: Yeah.
TG: Yeah. Always. And at the PFF I was supposed to drop the bombs but, because Bill, what’s his name, the bomb aimer Tom used to be sitting next to Bill from behind us. Just behind us. We were all on top level in the Lanc. You were down below more in the Halifax. We were all on the top level. You could always see what was happening round you and you were given a course and say, ‘Well, everybody, other people seem to be going the other way.’ They’d be arguing and, ‘Well, I don’t care if they’re going upside down. This is the way.’ And he was always right because he was such a good navigator. Oh, he was. A clever lad Tom and ended up as an IC in London one of the one of the main places of of where you applied for extra, extra money or anything like that and and got to the top of tree by that. He was a very clever lad.
SP: Yeah.
TG: Very clever.
SP: You were telling me before about formation flying. So you’d done sort of formation flying on some of the raids. So that was quite, you saw some events happen on those. Do you want to tell me about [pause] about the formation flying?
TG: It was never the worst one was when the bloke alongside who lost a wing heading in to Cologne. Never forget that. Didn’t know until, until we suddenly [pause] Jimmy probably told us. He was alongside of us and if he, if he’d tipped that way and if he’d tipped too far he’d have gone in to us. That happened quite often in the war books I’ve read.
SP: So can you tell me what happened on that? So, how did it lose the wing?
TG: Nothing happened. Well, something, we presume it must have been a bomb dropped by somebody else because it was near the bombing point. But it was the last raid to Cologne. The last time we went to Cologne so it must have been when we’d gone back from Pathfinders then. It was twenty one or twenty two raids. We didn’t see anything at all. We just disappeared. All of a sudden you looked and the wing had gone.
SP: What effect did that have on the crew?
TG: None. None at all. ‘Hard luck,’ sort of thing. He couldn’t do anything. Couldn’t do anything about it. But he was, if he’d been a bit further over he’d have dropped it through our starboard wing because it wasn’t very far from us and he had the, a port wing went. It wasn’t our squadron though. It was one of the other. Probably one of 15 but it might have been one of ours. I forget now.
SP: So, you did quite a few of your operations with 90 Squadron but then you got posted to 7 Squadron.
TG: Yes.
SP: What, what, what role did you do at 7 Squadron?
TG: Sorry?
SP: You mentioned Pathfinders.
TG: Pathfinders. Yeah. They were, 7 was one of the [pause] what was the, the posh squadrons were 7. Were 7. Ad the, what’s its name?
SP: The one at Mildenhall.
TG: The bomb, the people who dropped the bombs on the dams.
SP: Right. So, 617 Squadron.
TG: 617.
SP: Yeah.
TG: Yeah. They were very unlucky really. Or he was. Very unlucky because the bloke who was IC of that business, what was his name? I can’t remember his name now. He was killed towards the end of the war flying a [pause] what was it called? A twin engine. A twin engine. Very good. A twin-engine thing.
[recording paused]
SP: So, a Mosquito.
TG: He was flying a Mosquito and he was killed at the end of the war. But he wasn’t a popular bloke although he was, he was very smart, very oh, oh the king and that sort of thing but he wasn’t popular. But he wouldn’t have had him killed himself because he did hundreds of operations. But he was, it was about the time of the bloke who started the, the [pause] started the —
[recording paused]
SP: So, when you were at 7 Squadron that was Pathfinders and you were doing some activity with Pathfinders. You mentioned Illuminator.
TG: Yeah. Where you, where you —
SP: You talked about the Illuminator role within Pathfinders.
TG: Yes.
SP: What, what was that role?
TG: Do you know, I can’t remember what [pause] It was the first thing you did when you got there was you were the illuminator. Now, what you did as an illuminator I don’t know. But at this, I remember this particular raid this Hanover one because we were with two aircraft. Only two of us and we were going through cloud. We were flying above the cloud a bit and all of a sudden there was a bang in front of us which blew part of the [unclear] in so we had a howling gale so. [unclear] dived into the bottom and chucked out Window quick in case they were, that would be, it was late in the war this was. Very late. Very late. In case it had been predicted flak flak and the next one would have been, would have been so [unclear] have been alive.
SP: So, it took part of the plane out.
TG: Shot down.
SP: Where the first part of the flak took the first part of the fuselage or the window?
TG: No. It was, maybe it was, I remember seeing a red, a big flash of the, of the whatever it was that they’d thrown up at us. But he was past it and we were following him. I don’t know why. He was past that. The next one might have, could have been even nearer and this was the nearest we ever got to a bit of anti-aircraft fire. But by Jove I was quick. I’d never moved so fast in my life.
SP: And that was on the trip to to Hanover.
TG: That was one to Hanover.
SP: One of the last ones. Yeah. Yeah.
TG: It turned out it was the last trip because [pause] I wasn’t with, I don’t know what had happened there. Whether they’d never, but I didn’t understand what this was all about and I couldn’t ask Tom, because I was supposed to know. But I knew I hadn’t been there. It was a [unclear] drop, you see. Dropped the main one before we got [pause] but I could see what we were supposed to be aiming at was a square in Hanover. It was a square. We were very low at the time. We were, oh a thousand or two feet and what we were doing there I don’t know. But I remember this and thinking this isn’t quite, this isn’t going to hit that square. And I never knew why. And after the war I never asked Tom. [unclear] for which I had the, the understanding of it. Of the, or whether he had just forgotten. Didn’t bother with the bomb aiming part. Fed up with his his navigation and his [unclear]
SP: Screen. Yeah.
TG: Rigmarole of the, on the navigator table.
SP: So that was your last trip with 7 Squadron.
TG: Yes.
SP: You were telling me about a little incident about a motorbike whilst you were at 7 Squadron. Do you want to —
TG: That was during our time.
SP: Yeah. So, what happened there?
TG: This, this, he was a warrant officer so I thought well, he must be a reasonable chap and he was going on leave and he knew Fred, you know. He, I forget now how he came to know about this motorbike and he asked Fred if he could borrow it for his leave in London. He reckoned he was going to London. And —
SP: And this was your brand new motorbike.
TG: It wasn’t new.
SP: Right. But it was new to you.
TG: You couldn’t buy them. You couldn’t buy a new one then.
SP: Yeah. But it was new to you.
TG: Hmmm.
SP: Yeah.
TG: Oh aye. It was too big actually but it wasn’t dear. It was about twenty five quid round about that point, and it was, so I said yes. ok. He only wanted it for a few days. And we didn’t hear anything for a week and then we’d heard he’d had the smash. And there’s a police car of all things. Bang with the investment. He was in hospital. The best. So of course, the police found out that it wasn’t his bike. So, I had to say well I I lent it to him which I did. I did lent it to him. So he hadn’t pinched it but I had to write it off.
SP: And how many times had you been out on the bike before that?
TG: Once.
SP: Once.
TG: Yeah. On the pillion behind Fred.
SP: So, you’d never actually driven.
TG: I wasn’t actually driving the bike, vroom we went off and Fred said, ‘Going to take you a while to sort this out this bike. It’ll do a hundred miles an hour. It’ll —
SP: So you never get to enjoy your bike.
TG: Never got the chance.
SP: No.
TG: Never got it out. Went back to Tuddenham again.
SP: So then yet you went back to Tuddenham.
TG: To Tuddenham. Yeah, that must have been one to[pause] that last one at Tuddenham.
SP: So, your last few operations were there.
TG: Yeah.
SP: And that’s where you did Operation Manna. Do you want to tell me a little bit about Operation Manna?
TG: Noe, we only went once to there. Twice to Juvencourt for for. Twice to Juvencourt. Because, because they drove. You could see them coming in there. People in in droves. In lorries. Big lorries the Americans had and they were all standing round. They were all POWs and you used to see them coming in into the [would be] sitting round wondering what to do with ourselves. That was at Juvencourt. That was, was Juvencourt, when we first went there was, was to carry a load of spare parts. Spare tyres for anybody who.
SP: But this time it was to pick up POWs.
TG: Yes. Yes.
SP: What was that like?
TG: [unclear] the top of, the top of the road. They’d come in and you could see them on the road, on the runway. And I can remember seeing so many people on the back of a lorry. There was, they were big long lorries. Americans of course had to have something big. Bigger than anybody else. And they, they were crammed. They were all POWs. Ex-POWs. And they used to feed the, up there on American K-rations. They used to be K-rations. Think I’ve got one anyway. What on earth it’s like now goodness knows but it’s [pause I I dare open it. They used to wander down to us and then they wouldn’t move. They thought we were going to take them back again. I remember when we were the last one that day. I can’t think of anything before. We’d been to Juven, we’d been to Reims and we came back and they all crowded around the aircraft and we were the only one there. The rest had taken theirs. We had to leave them there. That, that wasn’t good leaving them. They thought they’d be, you know packed in. They were the day after. But —
SP: Where? Which base did they bring them back to in the UK?
TG: We brought them back to a ‘drome near, near, oh I can’t tell you now. It was in the centre somewhere. Anyway, they would drop them there. They would brief them there. Take them up. Take them off our hands. They were so keen. I can remember that crowd. And we couldn’t start one of the engines and I had to get out and fiddle with it and blokes were coming up and you had to climb on, the Lancaster you had to climb on the wheel, up the wheel and then climb up to get at the engine and they all crowded around the [laughs] They were all trying to get me to lift some of them in and we couldn’t because you, I had to say well look when, I remember this so well and then they’d say, ‘We can’t take you because we’re not going where you are. We can’t land you at Tuddenham. That’s where we’re going because you wouldn’t, there’d be nobody there to take [pause] take you.’ But they wouldn’t be, and they were all in funny hats and funny they’d been, had, they had all been POWs. Some of them a long probably a long time.
SP: Desperate to get home.
TG: ‘No. You’ll have to wait another day. You’ve got to wait until tomorrow.’
SP: So obviously you brought other POWs back on other trips and what about the, you brought POWs back on other trips didn’t you? On some of the trips you brought POWs back. Right.
TG: No. The only time we brought —
SP: Right.
TG: The first time we, we, yes the first time we’d been out and had the day in the [pause]. Marvellous. Never tasted anything really like it.
SP: Champagne trip.
TG: Champagne trip.
SP: So, what about Operation Manna? You did a food drop. How? Tell me about that that food drop that you did on Operation Manna.
TG: Yeah. A couple of trips I think on Manna. I can remember we were very low and looking down and seeing people walking in the, in the [pause] That’s about all I can remember about that. And seeing people walking in the streets and it was one of the big towns. But that’s all I can remember about that.
SP: Was it quite a low flight for you to be able to push the food out?
TG: Yeah.
SP: You had to fly quite low, didn’t you?
TG: Yeah.
SP: Do you know about what, what —
TG: No, we didn’t, it wasn’t parachuted out. It was chucked out.
SP: Yeah.
TG: So they must have lost quite a bit but they chucked out quite a bit of grub out. Yeah. That was all—
SP: Yeah. So —
TG: That was all I can remember about Manna is that we flew low.
SP: So, obviously —
TG: Looking down and seeing people walking in the streets. Good grief.
SP: Yeah. Heading towards where the food was coming in were they?
TG: No. They were just [pause] because we didn’t drop it on the town itself. There was specified areas that you dropped these in.
SP: Yeah.
TG: This was it, and they had to be, they had to know it was coming because they were hit by one of them it could kill somebody.
SP: So, I’ve got, sorry so the time you finished Operation Manna and you’re picking up the POWs that’s your tour come to an end.
TG: Yes.
SP: So, what happened then?
TG: Well, we did nothing except go out every night [laughs] and slept while we could. We were all about to be posted. First the two gunners were posted and they became [pause] I forget what they became. Aircrew ended up, and the people that were flying at the end of the war had not been in the Air Force all that long and therefore they, they tried to get bring people from abroad and I was posted to Valley as a gardener.
SP: Right. To RAF Valley.
TG: Yeah. At RAF Valley. And I spent most of the time at home of course. I used to get told off by, I forget who it was. It was on the other side of the aerodrome you see and there was a garden in, a garden in front of the entrance. That was always the IC’s garden.
SP: [Unclear] And then you flew abroad again.
TG: No. I didn’t fly again. Oh, except of course went abroad on the Cape Town Castle. She was a fairly new ship and the Bay of Biscay was a bit of a do. I had to stay on deck and went to sleep on the deck. The Bay of Biscay. She was about thirty thousand tons but she still rolled.
SP: And where were you going on that trip? You were still in the RAF then?
TG: Yes. Oh yes.
SP: Yeah.
TG: That was, well I was on my way to Iraq but it, it was. I don’t know whether it was in Iraq or if it was outside Iraq. Just outside. But there were loads of us. Loads of us. All driving lorries. I’d been on a course in Blackpool but I already knew how to drive a lorry because no one had a car before the war. We used to go to Halkyn Moors on a Sunday and I’d have, I’d drive this car off the moors. I was only about thirteen at the time.
SP: A good experience for your driving.
TG: Yeah. So, I’ve been driving since I was thirteen.
SP: So, after your time in Iraq. What happened then?
TG: I spent about fourteen, fifteen months in Iraq in the same ‘drome and the only routine we had was occasionally they used to [pause] up the, what was it? Euphrates or or the [pause] what was, we used to go in go in to drive a fifteen hundred weight. And I used to have a pal in, who went with me actually but he was IC motor. Motor business. It was a terrible job to keep the engines going it was so hot and you couldn’t. You couldn’t. They were always breaking down. But you used to once a day you went into [unclear] into [unclear] that’s right into [unclear] which was up river from, what’s that place called that’s always in the —
Other: Pause.
[recording paused]
TG: She’d been blown up or something during the war. She wasn’t as good as the one we went out on. That was —
SP: So you sailed back to the UK.
TG: Yes. Back to UK. She came in to Liverpool actually the [unclear] did and we, we all we all got off and we were sent to what’s that place? You called, you named it. It used to be an American.
SP: Burtonwood?
TG: Yes.
SP: Near Warrington.
TG: Yes. That’s right. We all went in lorries to when we got out and from there we got chits to go on leave and they didn’t see us again until they needed to give us you know, yeah you know. Your civvy suit.
SP: No.
TG: And that was [pause] So, I didn’t see the RAF at all. There were so many coming into [unclear] what’s it called? Burtonwood, or this. They used to send you on leave straight away. There was a queue for chits for leave and, you know. So, I didn’t, didn’t bother. I rejoined the bank in Liverpool.
SP: So, then you went back to banking after the war.
TG: Yeah.
SP: Yeah.
TG: Back to, back to Castle Street. That’s the main branch. So I went back to Castle Street and that was that.
SP: And did you stay in banking then the rest of your life?
TG: Yeah.
SP: Until you retired.
TG: Yes. I had a few arguments with the bank because I I used to have a boat to sail. I did a lot of sailing and I have all my life. That’s the last boat I had. That’s off Anglesey. Beaumaris and Anglesey. That was the thing that I’d always wanted since I was about seven or eight years old. I wanted one of those and I was lucky I got one in the end. So for my twenty five years until we, until we we got a flat on the front which was very difficult. I mean to drive to Beaumaris every Saturday for a race as I always used to race, I never used to [pause]. So that was the last one I had. I had her for about twenty five years. Magnificent. So, I’ve been very lucky. I got what I wanted. Thanks to my wife who put up with the sailing. And I got what I wanted. One of those. So, I’ve been very lucky. Very lucky.
SP: What you wanted and what you deserved.
TG: Yes.
SP: So, Tony it’s been a real privilege to meet you today and I just want to thank you.
TG: Thank you.
SP: On behalf of the International Bomber Command story for taking the time to share your memories of your time during World War Two.
TG: Yeah.
SP: And in the RAF.
TG: Yeah.
SP: For people to be able to listen to in the future. So, thank you.
TG: Don’t mention it.
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 Tony Gerard
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Susanne Pescott
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-11-22
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AGerardJA181122, PGerardJA1801
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
01:11:06 audio recording
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
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Tony lived in South Pool before moving to Liverpool with his job in a bank. He also belonged the Air Training Corps. After about a year he decided to sign up for the Royal Air Force. His assessment and medical were at Liverpool. He was called up to in November 1943. He then went to the initial training wing at RAF Bridlington for six weeks, before going to RAF Weston-Super-mare to train on Lancasters and Halifaxes. He was then posted to RAF St Athan for about ten weeks before being posted to RAF Scampton and finally to RAF Swinderby working on Stirlings as a flight engineer. It was there where he met the rest of the crew. After Lancaster finishing school he went to RAF Tuddenham and joined 90 Squadron. From there their first operation was to Siegen. On one trip an enemy fighter flew alongside them and the crew held their fire so not to draw attention to their aircraft. He did some formation flying on some of the operations. Later he joined 7 Squadron on Pathfinders. During this time, he remembered an incident involving his motorbike which he lent to a colleague who had an accident with a police car. The bike had to be written off - tony had only ridden it once. The crew then went back to RAF Tuddenham where they took part in operations Manna and Exodus. Tony was posted to RAF Valley and then went by sea to Iraq driving lorries. The crew sailed back to Liverpool and went to RAF Burtonwood. After being demobbed he went back to banking in Liverpool until he retired.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lancashire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Liverpool
England--Merseyside
England--Somerset
England--Suffolk
England--Yorkshire
Wales--Anglesey
Wales--Vale of Glamorgan
Germany
Germany--Siegen
Iraq
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-11
1944
1945
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Sue Smith
Julie Williams
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending revision of OH transcription
7 Squadron
90 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
crewing up
flight engineer
Halifax
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Pathfinders
RAF Bridlington
RAF Burtonwood
RAF Scampton
RAF St Athan
RAF Swinderby
RAF Tuddenham
RAF Valley
RAF Weston-super-Mare
Stirling
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/620/19079/PPaineGH1606.2.jpg
4d14cc411d50fca0bc7b0ac783ecc89c
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/620/19079/PPaineGH1607.2.jpg
bca9e4aaecc2e9b177b02453380f7373
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
Paine, Geoff
Geoffrey Hugh Paine
G H Paine
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Paine, GH
Description
An account of the resource
14 items. An oral history interview with Sergeant Geoffrey Paine (1925 - 2019, 1894345, Royal Air Force) documents and photographs. He flew as a pilot with 100 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Geoffrey Paine and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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
2016-07-20
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
Geoff Paine and Oxford
Description
An account of the resource
Geoff Paine in flying kit, parachute harness over shoulder, standing behind left wing root of Oxford. On the reverse 'Pilot Geoffrey Hugh Paine 1947 [deleted] Gwelloe, S. Rhodesia [/deleted] R.A.F. Valley conversion to multi engines A/S Oxford'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
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
PPaineGH1606, PPaineGH1607
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Wales--Anglesey
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
1947
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1947
aircrew
Oxford
pilot
RAF Valley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/620/19402/LPaineGH1894345v1.2.pdf
8d0ce55660066fa6cbd2eb6bd174ad7e
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
Paine, Geoff
Geoffrey Hugh Paine
G H Paine
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Paine, GH
Description
An account of the resource
14 items. An oral history interview with Sergeant Geoffrey Paine (1925 - 2019, 1894345, Royal Air Force) documents and photographs. He flew as a pilot with 100 Squadron.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Geoffrey Paine and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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
2016-07-20
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
Geoff Paine's pilots flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for G H Paine, covering the period from 4 January 1945 to 25 July 1949. Detailing his flying training, post war squadron duties with 511 squadron and instructor duties. He was stationed at RAF Anstey, RAF Guinea Fowl, RAF Thornhill Gwelo, RAF Valley, RAF Topcliffe, RAF Lyneham, RAF Little Rissington, RAF Ternhill, RAF Church Lawford, RAF Swinderby and RAF Middleton St George. Aircraft flown were, Tiger Moth, Cornell, Harvard, York, Oxford, York, Wellington and Anson.
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
LPaineGH1894345v1
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Zimbabwe
England--Durham (County)
England--Gloucestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Shropshire
England--Warwickshire
England--Wiltshire
England--Yorkshire
Wales--Anglesey
Zimbabwe--Gweru
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
Mike Connock
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
aircrew
Anson
Cornell
Flying Training School
Harvard
Initial Training Wing
Oxford
pilot
RAF Ansty
RAF Church Lawford
RAF Little Rissington
RAF Lyneham
RAF Middleton St George
RAF Swinderby
RAF Ternhill
RAF Topcliffe
RAF Valley
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1293/31004/LBallantyneWM1395001v1.1.pdf
f50ada92bc28a33e0a1151c94337ac93
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
Ballantyne, Bill
William Morris Ballantyne
W M Ballantyne
Professor Ballantyne
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. An oral history interview with Bill Ballantyne (1922 - 2021, 1395001 Royal Air Force) who flew as a pilot with 77 Squadron. Also includes his pilot's flying logbook, service training documents and a photograph of his crew.
The collection was catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-06-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ballantyne, WM
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
W M Ballantyne pilot's flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Pilots flying log book for W M Ballantyne, covering the period from 3 March 1942 to 18 July 1945. Detailing his flying training, Duties with 267 transport squadron, operations flown and instructor duties. He was stationed at SAAF Wonderboom, SAAF Waterkloof, SAAF Pietersburg, RAF Cairo West, RAF Bari, RAF Bilbeis, RAF Kidlington, RAF Feltwell, RAF Lossiemouth, RAF Marston Moor, RAF Full Sutton, RAF Valley and detachments to Tunis, Francesco and Catania. Aircraft flown were, Tiger Moth, Hart, Hind, Oxford, Anson, Dakota, Beaufort, Wellington and Halifax. He flew a total of 22 operations with 77 Squadron, 14 night and 8 daylight. Targets were, Osnabruck, Essen, Koblenz, Hannover Mainz, Bonn, Goch, Bohlen, Chemnitz, Wesel, Reisholz, Hamburg, Wuppertal, Homberg, Recklinghausen, Sterkrade, Nuremberg, Flensberg Fiord and Heligoland.
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
LBallantyneWM1395001v1
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
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Egypt
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
South Africa
Tunisia
Atlantic Ocean--Flensburg Fjord
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
Egypt--Bilbays
Egypt--Cairo
England--Norfolk
England--Oxfordshire
Germany--Bonn
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Essen
Germany--Goch
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Homberg (Kassel)
Germany--Koblenz
Germany--Leipzig Region
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Osnabrück
Germany--Recklinghausen (Kreis)
Germany--Wesel (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Wuppertal
Italy--Bari
Italy--Catania
Scotland--Moray
South Africa--Polokwane
South Africa--Pretoria
Tunisia--Tunis
Wales--Anglesey
England--Yorkshire
Germany--Oberhausen (Düsseldorf)
North Africa
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
1945
1944-12-12
1944-12-13
1944-12-24
1944-12-25
1944-12-28
1944-12-29
1945-01-02
1945-01-03
1945-02-01
1945-02-02
1945-02-04
1945-02-05
1945-02-07
1945-02-08
1945-02-13
1945-02-14
1945-02-17
1945-02-20
1945-02-21
1945-03-05
1945-03-06
1945-03-08
1945-03-09
1945-03-11
1945-03-13
1945-03-14
1945-03-15
1945-03-20
1945-03-24
1945-04-08
1945-04-09
1945-04-11
1945-04-13
1945-04-14
1945-04-18
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.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
1652 HCU
20 OTU
77 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
aircrew
Anson
bombing
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
C-47
Flying Training School
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 3
Halifax Mk 5
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
pilot
RAF Feltwell
RAF Full Sutton
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Torquay
RAF Valley
Tiger Moth
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1293/31008/MBallantyneWM1395001-191003-04.1.jpg
8510fe77b0f85e37b4efd78c96c01b98
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
Ballantyne, Bill
William Morris Ballantyne
W M Ballantyne
Professor Ballantyne
Description
An account of the resource
Eight items. An oral history interview with Bill Ballantyne (1922 - 2021, 1395001 Royal Air Force) who flew as a pilot with 77 Squadron. Also includes his pilot's flying logbook, service training documents and a photograph of his crew.
The collection was catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2019-06-14
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Ballantyne, WM
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[underlined]R.A.F. VALLEY – LINK SYLLABUS[/underlined]
[underlined]RADIO RANGE[/underlined]
1R. R.R. Lecture on Synchraphone (Introduction, Range Layout, Range Signals, Beam Bracketing, Locating the Cone, Procedure Turns). 1.00
2R. Instrument Flying Revision and Link familiarisation. 1.00
3R. Beam Bracketing, Locating Cone, Procedure Turns (Known Beam). 1.00
4R. Quadrant Identification by Fade Method. 1.00
5R. R.R. Lecture on Synchrophone and R.R. Films – Beam irregularities
(R.R. Orientation methods). 1.00
6R. Close in procedure, and Let Down. 1.00
7R. Fade - 90 degrees orientation and Let Down – with R/T. 1.00
8R. Fade parallel orientation and Let Down – with R/T. 1.00
9R. Beam bracketing and orientation – unknown beam. 1.00
10R. Holding procedure and Let Down. 1.00
11R. Range Cross Country. 1.00
12R. Radio Compass Operation and simple homing on a Range Station. 1.00
13R. Advanced Radio Compass Exercises. 1.00
[underlined] 13.00 hours[/underlined]
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
RAF Valley - link syllabus - radio range
Description
An account of the resource
List of thirteen link training sorties instrument and beam flying.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page typewritten document
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Text. Training material
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MBallantyneWM1395001-191003-04
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Wales--Anglesey
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
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
RAF Valley
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/2044/33158/PProbynEA17010033.1.jpg
35944d31f8605e5d962a807b447c61a5
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
Probyn, Ernest. Scrapbook
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-04-23
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Probyn, EA
Description
An account of the resource
42 items. Scrapbook containing photographs and clippings.
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
Dominies, Glider and Ernest Probyn
Description
An account of the resource
Seven photographs from an album.
Photos 1, 2 and 3 are air to air photographs of two Dominies, captioned 'RAF Stradishall, Norfolk, 1971. Summer Camp. Dominie aircraft of No 1 Air Navigation School'.
Photo 4 is a Slingsby Cadet glider of the Air Cadets.
Photo 5 and 6 are Ernest captioned 'Escape & evasion exercise in Snowdonia while on Summer Camp at RAF Valley, Wales 1968.
Photo 7 is Ernest and colleague in a doorway, captioned 'Peter as an RAF Apprentice. The Old Codger (me) Officer RAFVR.'
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Four b/w and three colour photographs on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PProbynEA17010033
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Wales--Snowdonia
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1968
1971
ground crew
ground personnel
RAF Stradishall
RAF Valley
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1963/41315/BLazenbyHJLazenbyHJv1.2.pdf
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Lazenby, Harold Jack
H J Lazenby
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-10-10
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Lazenby, HJ
Description
An account of the resource
11 items. The collection concerns Warrant Officer Harold Jack Lazenby DFC (b. 1917, 652033 Royal Air Force) and contains his memoir, documents and photographs. He flew operations as a flight engineer with 57, 97 and 7 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Daniel, H Jack Lazenby and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
H Jack Lazenby DFC
Description
An account of the resource
Harold Jack Lazenby's autobiography.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Warrington
England--Wolverhampton
England--Shifnal (Shropshire)
England--London
England--Bampton (Oxfordshire)
England--Witney
England--Oxford
England--Cambridge
France--Paris
England--Portsmouth
England--Oxfordshire
England--Southrop (Oxfordshire)
England--Cirencester
England--Skegness
England--Worcestershire
England--Birmingham
England--Kidderminster
England--Gosport
England--Fareham
England--Southsea
Wales--Margam
Wales--Port Talbot
Wales--Bridgend
Wales--Porthcawl
England--Urmston
England--Stockport
Wales--Cardiff
Wales--Barry
United States
New York (State)--Long Island
Illinois--Chicago
England--Gloucester
Scotland--Kilmarnock
England--Surrey
England--Liverpool
England--Lincolnshire
England--Lincoln
Denmark--Anholt
Poland--Gdańsk
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Essen
Germany--Kiel
Europe--Mont Blanc
Denmark
England--Hull
Czech Republic--Plzeň
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
England--Mablethorpe
Germany--Cologne
Italy--Turin
France--Bordeaux (Nouvelle-Aquitaine)
England--Land's End Peninsula
Italy--San Polo d'Enza
Italy--Genoa
Italy--Milan
Algeria
Algeria--Blida
Algeria--Atlas de Blida Mountains
England--Cambridge
England--Surrey
England--Ramsey (Cambridgeshire)
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Munich
France--Montluçon
Germany--Darmstadt
Scotland--Elgin
England--York
Scotland--Aberdeen
England--Grimsby
Germany--Saarbrücken
Germany--Zeitz
Germany--Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Germany--Wanne-Eickel
Germany--Gelsenkirchen
Germany--Kleve (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Heide (Schleswig-Holstein)
Germany--Wuppertal
Germany--Homberg (Kassel)
Netherlands--Westerschelde
Germany--Rheine
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Bremen
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Belgium
England--Southend-on-Sea
England--Morecambe
England--Kineton
England--Worcester
Germany--Duisburg
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Mülheim an der Ruhr
England--London
Italy--La Spezia
France--Dunkerque
Poland--Szczecin
Poland
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Recklinghausen (Münster)
Netherlands
England--Sheringham
England--Redbridge
France--Saint-Nazaire
Atlantic Ocean--Kattegat (Baltic Sea)
Germany
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
United States Army Air Force
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Memoir
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
99 printed sheets
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BLazenbyHJLazenbyHJv1
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Lazenby, Harold Jack
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending text-based transcription
1654 HCU
20 OTU
207 Squadron
4 Group
5 Group
57 Squadron
617 Squadron
7 Squadron
97 Squadron
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
B-17
B-24
Bennett, Donald Clifford Tyndall (1910-1986)
bomb aimer
bombing
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
briefing
Catalina
Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940)
crewing up
debriefing
demobilisation
Distinguished Flying Cross
Distinguished Flying Medal
Distinguished Service Order
Eder Möhne and Sorpe operation (16–17 May 1943)
entertainment
flight engineer
flight mechanic
Flying Training School
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
ground crew
ground personnel
H2S
Halifax
Hampden
hangar
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hudson
Hurricane
Ju 88
killed in action
Lancaster
love and romance
Manchester
Master Bomber
Me 110
Me 262
mechanics engine
mess
military living conditions
military service conditions
mine laying
Mosquito
navigator
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
Nissen hut
Oboe
Operation Exodus (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
Pathfinders
pilot
radar
RAF Barkstone Heath
RAF Bassingbourn
RAF Benson
RAF Bourn
RAF Brize Norton
RAF Colerne
RAF Cosford
RAF Cranwell
RAF Dunkeswell
RAF East Kirkby
RAF Elvington
RAF Fairford
RAF Halton
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Melton Mowbray
RAF Mepal
RAF Oakington
RAF Padgate
RAF Pershore
RAF Scampton
RAF Silverstone
RAF St Athan
RAF Stormy Down
RAF Swinderby
RAF Talbenny
RAF Tangmere
RAF Upper Heyford
RAF Upwood
RAF Uxbridge
RAF Valley
RAF Warboys
RAF Wigsley
RAF Wing
recruitment
Resistance
Spitfire
sport
Stirling
target indicator
training
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
Victoria Cross
Wellington
Whitley
Window
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Smith, Albert Thomas
Description
An account of the resource
Five items. The collection concerns Sergeant Albert Thomas Smith (b. 1908, 560209 Royal Air Force) and contains correspondence, documents and a photograph. He served as an engine fitter with 106 Squadron.
The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Diane Ralph and catalogued by Lynn Corrigan.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2023-06-14
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
Smith, AT
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
Albert Thomas Smith's service record
Description
An account of the resource
The service record of Albert Thomas Smith covering the period from his enlistment on 15 January 1926 to discharge on 23 March 1953. It includes reference to Albert being twice mentioned in despatches and being awarded the British Empire Medal and the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1926-01-15
1953-03-23
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Cornwall (County)
England--Gloucestershire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Nottinghamshire
England--Oxfordshire
England--Staffordshire
England--Suffolk
England--Warwickshire
England--Wiltshire
England--Yorkshire
Wales
Wales--Anglesey
Iraq
Iraq--Baghdad
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Service material
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two double sided sheets with handwritten annotations
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
OSmithAT560209-230614-010001; OSmithAT560209-230614-010002; OSmithAT560209-230614-010003; OSmithAT560209-230614-010004;
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.
106 Squadron
149 Squadron
170 Squadron
38 Squadron
617 Squadron
ground crew
RAF Castle Bromwich
RAF Coningsby
RAF Cranwell
RAF Filton
RAF Halton
RAF Hemswell
RAF Hucknall
RAF Leconfield
RAF Mildenhall
RAF Mount Batten
RAF Scampton
RAF Stradishall
RAF Valley
RAF Waddington