Browse Items (59 total)

  • Tags: RAF Westcott

LOpenshawB19211117v1.pdf
Record of training navigation star and sun sights from ground and air between April 1943 and February 1944. Locations April to July 1943 at 24 bombing gunnery and navigation school at Moffat Southern Rhodesia on Anson aircraft. December 1943 at No 23…

BHollisANHollisANv1.pdf
Second page has colour photograph of Arthur Hollis, wearing blazer with medals, standing in a field at an event. Narrative covers early life in Hornchurch and Carshalton including schooling and hospital admissions. Writes of Dulwich College studies…

MHollisAN124522-171107-060001.jpg
Thanksgiving eulogy for the life and times of Arthur Hollis OBE, DFC of Bomber Command which covers his childhood successes whilst at Dulwich College, his subsequent enlistment into the RAF in 1941, and his pilot training in Florida and the UK. It…

MHollisAN124522-171107-030001.jpg
Including duration and purpose of course, flying time on Oxford, ground training results, assessment of ability etc. Remarks by Chief Instructor include: 'A good average pilot who should prove his worth at 11 OTU. A sound reliable officer.'

MHollisAN124522-171107-020001.jpg
Provides particulars of previous instructor courses, present category, experience flying hours, particulars of test, assessment, category recommended and remarks by testing officer. Notes that had good knowledge of principles of flight and…

MHollisAN124522-171107-010001.jpg
From 92 Group instructors flight to officer commanding 11 Operational Training Unit. Gives hours flown and assessment as an instructor. On the reverse a proforma not filled out.

LStoreyDP1334123v1.pdf
Observer’s and air gunner’s flying log book for David Storey, navigator, covering the period from 3 October 1942 to 6 June 1946, and from 25 June 1949 to 29 November 1952. Detailing his flying training, operations flown, instructor duties and…

AWilliamsRS180115.mp3
Roland Spencer Williams was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. Wanting to get involved in the war he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1942. After initial training in New Zealand, as an air gunner, he sailed on the SS Nieuw Amsterdam to San…

PSchneiderT1702.jpg
Tim Schneider lived at Westcott before, during and after the construction and occupation of RAF Westcott as 11 Operational Training Unit. He tells of feeding the rabbits when he was four years old; leaving school at fourteen to help working on the…

PNeechPRR1601.jpg
Peter was born on the 7th of January 1925, in West Hampstead, London. He worked in a jewellers in Hammersmith and left his job to join the air cadets at RAF Hendon from 1941 to 1943. On his eighteenth birthday, he joined the RAF to begin training as…

Matthew Adams’ family farmed the land around the site and once covering the site taken over by RAF Westcott. He describes the reaction of landowners, the details of the takeover and the building of the site for use by the RAF.

In accordance…

PHollisAN1801.jpg
Richard’s father, Arthur Hollis, went to Dulwich College as a day boy. He left at sixteen to join the Home Guard , then worked for a firm of accountants for a couple of years before joining the Royal Air Force. He was sent to Manchester University…

PHamptonJ1601.jpg
James Hampton was born in February 1925. He was an apprentice engineer before the war with Laystall Engineering Company and was in a reserved occupation before joining the Royal Air Force in 1943, where he trained as a flight engineer in Bomber…

PGossRG1701.jpg
Raymond Goss lived on the family farm at Westcott before, during and after the construction and occupation of RAF Westcott as 11 Operational Training Unit. One evening a Lancaster collided with a Wellington on the field and both exploded. The Goss…

ACunninghamAB171104.mp3
Bruce Cunningham was born in New Zealand. After initial training as a pilot he was posted to RAF Wescott Operational Training Unit and flew operations with 514 Squadron at RAF Waterbeach. His first operation was over Berlin. On one operation they…

AColbeckJC170524.mp3
Joy Colbeck was born in Maidstone, Kent and served within the Women’s Royal Naval Service during the war. Her brother, John, joined the RAF on the 28 of April 1943, qualified at as an air gunner in April 1944, before being transferred to an…

LParryHP2220054v1.pdf
Flying log book for navigators, air bombers, air gunners, flight engineers for Hugh Parry, air gunner, covering the period from 27 May 1944 to 16 October 1945. Details his flying training, operations flown and post war flying. He was stationed at RAF…

AParryHP180723.mp3
Hugh Parry was a member of his local ATC and was awaiting the time when he would be able to volunteer for the RAF. His slightly older friends had qualified to train as pilots, navigators or bomb aimers, but because of a backlog of trades they were…

PBarnettWE1701.jpg
William Edwin Barnett talks about his experience of living on the edge of RAF Westcott, near Aylesbury. Remembers starting to work on a farm at the age of fourteen and describes his everyday life and duties. Tells of being conscripted into the Home…
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