2
25
1367
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/165/2191/PWrightJ1510.2.jpg
05c34bc6d08a563867c3ec437f454f3e
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
Wright, Jim
J R Wright
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
2015-05-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Wright, J
Description
An account of the resource
93 items. The collection contains two oral history interviews with Jim Wright, letters, cuttings and photographs. It concerns James Roy Wright’s research into his father, Sergeant Arthur Charles Wright (1911 - 1943, 1149750 Royal Air Force) and an operation to Turin 12/13 July 1943 which caused 100 aircraft to violate Swiss airspace. Two aircraft were shot down or crashed in Switzerland. There are many photographs and details of the activities that night including reports by the Swiss authorities. The crews are identified with photographs and there are several photographs of the funerals at Vevey. Additional material includes aerial photograph of bomb damage in Germany and the logbook and airman's pay book of W G Anderson. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Jim Wright and catalogued by Nigel Huckins, with descriptions of official Swiss documents provided Gilvray Williams. <br /><br />Additional information on Arthur Charles Wright is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/126015/">IBCC Losses Database</a>. This collection also contains items concerning Hugh Burke Bolger and his crew. Additional information on Hugh Burke Bolger is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102186/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Crew of Lancaster ED531
Description
An account of the resource
A crew list of Lancaster 111, ED531, PO-T, 467 Squadron.
Captioned -
'1, F/O Mitchell RAAF (Pilot)
2 F/O St George RAAF (Nav)
3 Sgt Evans RAFVR (Eng)
4 F/O Morgan RAFVR (B/A)
5 F/Sgt Maher RAAF (Wop)
6 F.Sgt Terry RAAF (A/G)
7 F/Sgt Bolger RAAF (A/G)'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One handwritten sheet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
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
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWrightJ1510
467 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
flight engineer
killed in action
navigator
pilot
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/165/2195/PWrightJ1517.2.jpg
11606629d1415b65372aa2122bf70397
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/165/2195/PWrightJ1518.2.jpg
84114aacdf5672cefb29d8ce1271286a
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
Wright, Jim
J R Wright
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
2015-05-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Wright, J
Description
An account of the resource
93 items. The collection contains two oral history interviews with Jim Wright, letters, cuttings and photographs. It concerns James Roy Wright’s research into his father, Sergeant Arthur Charles Wright (1911 - 1943, 1149750 Royal Air Force) and an operation to Turin 12/13 July 1943 which caused 100 aircraft to violate Swiss airspace. Two aircraft were shot down or crashed in Switzerland. There are many photographs and details of the activities that night including reports by the Swiss authorities. The crews are identified with photographs and there are several photographs of the funerals at Vevey. Additional material includes aerial photograph of bomb damage in Germany and the logbook and airman's pay book of W G Anderson. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Jim Wright and catalogued by Nigel Huckins, with descriptions of official Swiss documents provided Gilvray Williams. <br /><br />Additional information on Arthur Charles Wright is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/126015/">IBCC Losses Database</a>. This collection also contains items concerning Hugh Burke Bolger and his crew. Additional information on Hugh Burke Bolger is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102186/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Sergeant Arthur Charles Wright
Description
An account of the resource
Head and shoulders portrait of Sergeant Arthur Wright in airman's uniform. On the reverse '207 Sqn Lanc ED412 'O' 12/13/7/1943 Bomb Aimer Sgt. A.C. Wright RAFVR Vevey'.
Additional information about this item has been kindly provided by the donor.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
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
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
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PWrightJ1517, PWrightJ1518
207 Squadron
aircrew
bomb aimer
final resting place
killed in action
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/165/2250/MWrightJ[Ser -DoB]-150410-010001.jpg
c21d78faa8821b38a0680bb1de3533ce
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/165/2250/MWrightJ[Ser -DoB]-150410-010002.jpg
d54eaf36a3925b002f8537af88d84d8a
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
Wright, Jim
J R Wright
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
2015-05-21
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Wright, J
Description
An account of the resource
93 items. The collection contains two oral history interviews with Jim Wright, letters, cuttings and photographs. It concerns James Roy Wright’s research into his father, Sergeant Arthur Charles Wright (1911 - 1943, 1149750 Royal Air Force) and an operation to Turin 12/13 July 1943 which caused 100 aircraft to violate Swiss airspace. Two aircraft were shot down or crashed in Switzerland. There are many photographs and details of the activities that night including reports by the Swiss authorities. The crews are identified with photographs and there are several photographs of the funerals at Vevey. Additional material includes aerial photograph of bomb damage in Germany and the logbook and airman's pay book of W G Anderson. <br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Jim Wright and catalogued by Nigel Huckins, with descriptions of official Swiss documents provided Gilvray Williams. <br /><br />Additional information on Arthur Charles Wright is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/126015/">IBCC Losses Database</a>. This collection also contains items concerning Hugh Burke Bolger and his crew. Additional information on Hugh Burke Bolger is available via the <a href="https://internationalbcc.co.uk/losses/102186/">IBCC Losses Database</a>.
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
[black and white photograph of LM311 PO-L and the crew]
[page break]
Lancaster MK.3 LM311 PO-L 'Liz'Beth'
Pilot
Fl/Engineer
Navigator
Bomb Aimer
Wireless Op.
Air Gunner
Air Gunner
Pilot Officer C.A. Chapman R.A.A.F.
Sergeant J. Greenwood R.A.F.V.R.
Sergeant AE. Michaels R.A.F.V.R.
Sergeant N.C. Smith R.A.F.V.R
Sergeant P Donlevy R.A.F.V.R.
Flight Sergeant W Bruce R.A.F.V.R.
Sergeant W.S. Buchanan R.A.F.V.R.
Operational Detail 12/13 July 1943.
Take-off Bottestford 12 July 1943 2248hrs. Target Turin. Successful
mission to target and returned towards home base.
On return Pilot informed control that he had sustained heavy Flak damage over target to the effect that he no Elevator control and that a large hole was in the tail section of fuselage. As an added extra he reported aircraft to be short on fuel and requested immediate let down.
Permission given to land and Pilot proceeded to make a very shallow approach to the field. I-le intended to lower undercarriage at the last moment to attempt to avoid the rear airframe from becoming to stressed.
Eyewitness on the ground reported as aircraft over flew him, he noticed that he could see daylight through the rear fuselage.
Pilot them lowered undercarriage and as the wheels locked down, the tail section separated from the main body and fluttered away. The forward section then reared up, stalled and came down into a Wheatfield approximately 1/4. mile from touch down. There were no survivors.
To the present day there is a patch on this field that will not grow any crop. Each time it is ploughed it generally gives up a little more of the debris.
Adjacent to this field there is a memorial plaque together with a tree in memory of those 7 aircrews.
Pilot Officer Chapman was engaged to member of the W.A.A.F, who was a member of the M.T. Section. She by name of Elizabeth was on duty that morning waiting with the crew Gharry awaiting the arrival of LM311.
Pilot Officer Chapman interred in the C.W.G.C at Botley Oxford. The rest of his crew were taken to their hometowns.
A report by C.Allen (within the folder) is disputed by the Brother of the Flight Engineer as well as the eyewitness on the ground as to the cause of the break-up of the aircraft.
From my own research I have not been able to locate any information as to a series of Lancaster's being checked for possible inferior rivets.
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
Lancaster LM311 PO-L
Description
An account of the resource
The seven aircrew are standing at the nose of 'Liz Beth', their Lancaster. Each crew member is identified along with brief details of the crash at Normington, Lincolnshire on completion of an operation to Turin 12/13 July 1943.
The second part of the document is a crew list and details about the operation. They departed RAF Bottesford on 12 July, target Turin. Aircraft was badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire and crashed 1/4 mile from touchdown. All crew died. Elizabeth was the fiancee of P/O Chapman and was waiting for his return.
Additional information about this item has been kindly provided by the donor.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photocopy
One typewritten sheet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Text. Personal research
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MWrightJ[Ser#-DoB]-150410-01
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Italy
England--Lincolnshire
Italy--Turin
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943-07-12
1943-07-13
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
David Bloomfield
467 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bomb aimer
bombing
flight engineer
killed in action
Lancaster
Lancaster Mk 3
navigator
nose art
pilot
RAF Bottesford
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2271/PAllenDJ1532-0005.2.jpg
ca9727bd7179ee6d0159f2caa407bc6f
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2271/PAllenDJ1532-0006.2.jpg
6e5df0326385bfa10387a4e4939485ae
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
Allen, Derrick
Derrick Allen
D J Allen
Description
An account of the resource
75 items. The collection covers the career of Flight Sergeant Derrick John Allen (1880966 Royal Air Force) who was a mid-upper gunner on 467 Royal Australian Air Force Squadron at RAF Waddington in 1944-45. Collection contains his logbook, Royal Air Force documentation, notes on air gunners course and photographs of various aircrew. Collection also contains maps and photographs covering the loss of his Lancaster near Spa in Belgium from which he successfully bailed out on 2 November 1944. There is also an oral history interview with his family.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Judy Hodgson and 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
2015-08-30
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Allen, DJ
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Seven aircrew in front of a Lancaster
Description
An account of the resource
Seven aircrew in two rows three kneeling in front and four standing behind. Derrick Allen is on the right of front row. Two in the centre of the back row are wearing peaked cap and remainder side caps. In the background part of the fuselage of a Lancaster with the aircraft letter C and part of the aircraft registration visible. On the reverse 'Top left to right, W/O Sutton air bomber, F/Lt Evans DFC pilot, F/O Robson Nav, Bottom left to right, F/Sgt Beer wireless operator, F/Sgt Patton rear gunner, F/Sgt Allen CGM m/u gunner, 1945, 9-3-45, PO-C, NG 485'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-03-09
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
PAllenDJ1532-0005, PAllenDJ1532-0006
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 Australian Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-03-09
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
467 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
Conspicuous Gallantry Medal
Distinguished Flying Cross
flight engineer
Lancaster
navigator
pilot
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2276/PAllenDJ1532-0007.1.jpg
bb4724f4daa90acbfbf419e586ebd078
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2276/PAllenDJ1532-0008.1.jpg
46ed7ace9b7e63ccf249278dd69c6942
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2276/PAllenDJ1532-0002.2.jpg
c4365d92cdf8403d5ad8637a9f7f6d9c
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
Allen, Derrick
Derrick Allen
D J Allen
Description
An account of the resource
75 items. The collection covers the career of Flight Sergeant Derrick John Allen (1880966 Royal Air Force) who was a mid-upper gunner on 467 Royal Australian Air Force Squadron at RAF Waddington in 1944-45. Collection contains his logbook, Royal Air Force documentation, notes on air gunners course and photographs of various aircrew. Collection also contains maps and photographs covering the loss of his Lancaster near Spa in Belgium from which he successfully bailed out on 2 November 1944. There is also an oral history interview with his family.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Judy Hodgson and 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
2015-08-30
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Allen, DJ
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Seven aircrew and a crew mascot in front of a Lancaster
Description
An account of the resource
Seven aircrew all wearing flying helmets in two rows. Five aircrew stand in the back row and two kneel either side of a airwoman crew mascot also wearing flying helmet in the centre of front row. In the background part of a Lancaster fuselage with the last squadron letter O and aircraft letter C. On the reverse ' 1st row, F/Sgt Allen CGM m/u gunner, W/O Sutton air bomber, F/O Robson navigator, F/Lt Evans DFC pilot, F/Sgt Hopwood F/Engineer, F/Sgt Beer Wireless Operator, ELSIE crew mascot. F/Sgt Patton rear gunner, 1945'. Second photograph same as the first.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PAllenDJ1532-0007, PAllenDJ1532-0008, PAllenDJ1532-0002
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
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
467 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
Distinguished Flying Cross
flight engineer
ground personnel
Lancaster
navigator
pilot
superstition
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2281/PAllenDJ1532-0009.2.jpg
22184f0f2b192e4011fe967977b9905f
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2281/PAllenDJ1532-0010.2.jpg
63b1fd9bb958bbfffd54228d8ff56ba5
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
Allen, Derrick
Derrick Allen
D J Allen
Description
An account of the resource
75 items. The collection covers the career of Flight Sergeant Derrick John Allen (1880966 Royal Air Force) who was a mid-upper gunner on 467 Royal Australian Air Force Squadron at RAF Waddington in 1944-45. Collection contains his logbook, Royal Air Force documentation, notes on air gunners course and photographs of various aircrew. Collection also contains maps and photographs covering the loss of his Lancaster near Spa in Belgium from which he successfully bailed out on 2 November 1944. There is also an oral history interview with his family.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Judy Hodgson and 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
2015-08-30
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Allen, DJ
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Six aircrew
Description
An account of the resource
Formal portrait of six aircrew in two rows. Front row sitting, rear row standing, all in battledress. On the reverse 'Back row L to R, K Broch W/Op, Don Wills r/g, Bill Le[...], Front row L to R, W Mundy B/Aimr, K E J Tammel pilot, R [...] Nav'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PAllenDJ1532-0009, PAllenDJ1532-0010
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
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
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
navigator
pilot
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2322/PAllenDJ1532-0038.2.jpg
b4b76511719326db781a9fcdb2abfecf
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2322/PAllenDJ1532-0039.2.jpg
3c460cdcbf0b6c99a2168f56e7ea321b
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2322/PAllenDJ1532-0063.1.jpg
a3df423cc4f038fcf6cdd9e2bb597810
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
Allen, Derrick
Derrick Allen
D J Allen
Description
An account of the resource
75 items. The collection covers the career of Flight Sergeant Derrick John Allen (1880966 Royal Air Force) who was a mid-upper gunner on 467 Royal Australian Air Force Squadron at RAF Waddington in 1944-45. Collection contains his logbook, Royal Air Force documentation, notes on air gunners course and photographs of various aircrew. Collection also contains maps and photographs covering the loss of his Lancaster near Spa in Belgium from which he successfully bailed out on 2 November 1944. There is also an oral history interview with his family.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Judy Hodgson and 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
2015-08-30
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Allen, DJ
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Four aircrew
Description
An account of the resource
Four aircrew, three standing in the rear and one kneeling in front. Two left in rear row are wearing peaked cap and the other two side caps. Rear row wearing battledress with brevet. In the background the rear of a lorry with the arm of a flight sergeant resting on the tail gate. On the reverse 'L to R, pilot Terry Evans, nav Robson, bombaimer Sutton, wireless operator Arthur Beer'. Second photograph same as the first.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Two b/w photographs
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PAllenDJ1532-0038, PAllenDJ1532-0039, PAllenDJ1532-0063
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
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
aircrew
bomb aimer
navigator
pilot
service vehicle
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2335/PAllenDJ1532-0067.2.jpg
c3f9887bd3ce804aed29484c92be502f
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2335/PAllenDJ1532-0068.2.jpg
c13c5edd8d33f44626193620fbea3bb8
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
Allen, Derrick
Derrick Allen
D J Allen
Description
An account of the resource
75 items. The collection covers the career of Flight Sergeant Derrick John Allen (1880966 Royal Air Force) who was a mid-upper gunner on 467 Royal Australian Air Force Squadron at RAF Waddington in 1944-45. Collection contains his logbook, Royal Air Force documentation, notes on air gunners course and photographs of various aircrew. Collection also contains maps and photographs covering the loss of his Lancaster near Spa in Belgium from which he successfully bailed out on 2 November 1944. There is also an oral history interview with his family.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Judy Hodgson and 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
2015-08-30
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Allen, DJ
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
P.O.C. NG485.
[deleted]ELSIE[/deleted]
LEFT TO RIGHT STANDING
F/SGT
DERRICK ALLEN
MID/GUNNER
W/O. SUTTON
AIR BOMBER
F/O. ROBSON
NAVIGATOR
F/LT EUROS
PILOT
F/SGT HOPWOOD
FL ENGINGEER
F/SGT BEER
WIRELESS OPERATOR
ELISE BEDAGEL
CREW BUS DRIVER
F/SGT PATTEN
REAR GUNNER
PHOTO TAKEN AFTER AIR TEST. [underlined]1945[/underlined]
NIGHT RAID ON MARBURG [underlined] 7-3-45 [/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
Seven aircrew and crew bus driver in front of a Lancaster
Description
An account of the resource
Five aircrew standing to the rear and two aircrew kneeling either side of an airwoman crew bus driver in front. All are wearing flying helmets. In the background part of a Lancaster fuselage with last squadron letter O and aircraft letter C.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-03-07
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PAllenDJ1532-0067, PAllenDJ1532-0068
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-03-07
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
467 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
bombing
flight engineer
ground personnel
Lancaster
navigator
pilot
wireless operator
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/160/2365/PTolleyFS1502.2.jpg
25fccde4856f9fc14b4d995c702da51d
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
Tolley, Frank
F S Tolley
Description
An account of the resource
Six items. An oral history interview with Sergeant Frank Stanley Tolley (b. 1921, 1152777 Royal Air Force), his log book and four photographs. Frank Tolley was a Lancaster bomb aimer with 625 Squadron at RAF Kelstern. He completed 22 daylight and night time operations before the end of the war in Europe and also flew on Operation Manna, Operation Dodge and Cook's tours.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Frank Tolley and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-07-02
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
Tolley, FS
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Frank Tolley's crew in front of a Lancaster
Description
An account of the resource
Seven aircrew standing under the nose of a Lancaster 'Y2'. All are wearing Mae Wests. Frank Tolley is wearing his chequered bowler hat.
Additional information about this item has been kindly provided by the donor.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph from a scrapbook
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
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
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PTolleyFS1502
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
625 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
flight engineer
Lancaster
navigator
pilot
RAF Kelstern
superstition
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/160/2366/PTolleyFS1503.2.jpg
31daaacb74060d472ae864134a516ac7
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
Tolley, Frank
F S Tolley
Description
An account of the resource
Six items. An oral history interview with Sergeant Frank Stanley Tolley (b. 1921, 1152777 Royal Air Force), his log book and four photographs. Frank Tolley was a Lancaster bomb aimer with 625 Squadron at RAF Kelstern. He completed 22 daylight and night time operations before the end of the war in Europe and also flew on Operation Manna, Operation Dodge and Cook's tours.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Frank Tolley and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-07-02
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
Tolley, FS
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Frank Tolley's aircrew and seven ground crew
Description
An account of the resource
The aircrew wearing Mae Wests are standing under the nose of Lancaster 'Y2'. The ground crew are kneeling. Frank Tolley is second from the left on the back row.
Additional information about this item has been kindly provided by the donor.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PTolleyFS1503
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
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
625 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
flight engineer
ground crew
ground personnel
Lancaster
navigator
pilot
RAF Kelstern
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/160/2368/LTolleyFS1152777v1.1.pdf
c7db9254cabe25a1f53d8d80eb6653ce
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
Tolley, Frank
F S Tolley
Description
An account of the resource
Six items. An oral history interview with Sergeant Frank Stanley Tolley (b. 1921, 1152777 Royal Air Force), his log book and four photographs. Frank Tolley was a Lancaster bomb aimer with 625 Squadron at RAF Kelstern. He completed 22 daylight and night time operations before the end of the war in Europe and also flew on Operation Manna, Operation Dodge and Cook's tours.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Frank Tolley and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-07-02
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
Tolley, FS
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Frank Tolley's Royal Canadian Air Force flying log book for aircrew other than pilot
Description
An account of the resource
Frank Tolley's log book covers the period 29 December 1943 to 27 August 1945 and details his training schedule and operations flown. He served at RAF Fingal, RAF Malton, RAF Moreton-in-Marsh, RAF Sandtoft and RAF Kelstern. Aircraft flown in were Anson, Bollingbroke, Wellington, Halifax and Lancaster. He carried out 22 daylight and night time operations with 625 Squadron to the following targets in Germany: Bremen, Bremen rail bridge, Chemnitz, Cleve, Dessau aircraft factories, Dortmund, Dresden, Hamburg, Hanau, Hannover, Heligoland, Kassel aircraft factories, Lutzkendorf, Mannheim docks, Misberg oil refineries, Nordhausen, Nuremberg and Wiesbaden. His pilots on operations were Flight Lieutenant Russell and Pilot Officer Windrim. He also took part in Operation Manna supply drops to The Hague and Rotterdam, Operation Dodge and Cook’s tours.
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
LTolleyFS1152777v1
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.
Canada
Germany
Great Britain
Italy
Netherlands
Atlantic Ocean--North Sea
England--Lincolnshire
England--Gloucestershire
Germany--Bremen
Germany--Chemnitz
Germany--Kleve (North Rhine-Westphalia)
Germany--Dessau (Dessau)
Germany--Dortmund
Germany--Dresden
Germany--Flensburg
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Hanau
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Helgoland
Germany--Kassel
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Nordhausen (Thuringia)
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Wiesbaden
Italy--Pomigliano d'Arco
Netherlands--Rotterdam
Ontario
Netherlands--Hague
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
1945-02-01
1945-02-02
1945-02-03
1945-02-07
1945-02-08
1945-02-13
1945-02-14
1945-02-15
1945-02-20
1945-02-21
1945-03-02
1945-03-05
1945-03-06
1945-03-07
1945-03-08
1945-03-09
1945-03-12
1945-03-15
1945-03-16
1945-03-17
1945-03-19
1945-03-23
1945-03-25
1945-03-27
1945-03-31
1945-04-03
1945-04-04
1945-04-05
1945-04-18
1945-04-22
1945-04-29
1945-04-30
1945-05-03
1945-06-25
1945-06-28
1945-08-28
1667 HCU
21 OTU
625 Squadron
Advanced Flying Unit
Air Observers School
aircrew
Anson
Bolingbroke
bomb aimer
bombing
Bombing and Gunnery School
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
bombing of Helgoland (18 April 1945)
Cook’s tour
Halifax
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Operation Dodge (1945)
Operation Manna (29 Apr – 8 May 1945)
Operational Training Unit
RAF Glatton
RAF Kelstern
RAF Moreton in the Marsh
RAF Sandtoft
RCAF Fingal
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2384/MAllenDJ1880966-150702-12.2.jpg
a874cb67e5e7585b552458785ff5ea4a
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
Allen, Derrick
Derrick Allen
D J Allen
Description
An account of the resource
75 items. The collection covers the career of Flight Sergeant Derrick John Allen (1880966 Royal Air Force) who was a mid-upper gunner on 467 Royal Australian Air Force Squadron at RAF Waddington in 1944-45. Collection contains his logbook, Royal Air Force documentation, notes on air gunners course and photographs of various aircrew. Collection also contains maps and photographs covering the loss of his Lancaster near Spa in Belgium from which he successfully bailed out on 2 November 1944. There is also an oral history interview with his family.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Judy Hodgson and 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
2015-08-30
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Allen, DJ
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
LANCASTER. BDV396 – 467 RAAF SQUADRON. [underlined] PO.B.[/underlined]
PILOT. F/O L. LAMDRIDGE
NAVIGATOR DOUGLAS BEVERLY. F/S
F/ENGINEER JACK HALSTEAD
BOMB AIMER KEITH WOOLLAMS
WIRELESS OPERATOR BILL DENNY
MID UPPER GUNNER D.J.ALLEN
REAR GUNNER BILL LEMIN
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
Crew of Lancaster B DV396 - 467 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force
Description
An account of the resource
List of crew of Lancaster DV 396 of 467 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One page handwritten document
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Personal research
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
MAllenDJ1880966-150702-12
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Claire Monk
467 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
flight engineer
Lancaster
navigator
pilot
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2392/PAllenDJ1547.1.jpg
9091268fb9b39dbb63a94c721c610999
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/167/2392/PAllenDJ1548.1.jpg
40a3f459a8d392bf966266f580ed5df7
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
Allen, Derrick
Derrick Allen
D J Allen
Description
An account of the resource
75 items. The collection covers the career of Flight Sergeant Derrick John Allen (1880966 Royal Air Force) who was a mid-upper gunner on 467 Royal Australian Air Force Squadron at RAF Waddington in 1944-45. Collection contains his logbook, Royal Air Force documentation, notes on air gunners course and photographs of various aircrew. Collection also contains maps and photographs covering the loss of his Lancaster near Spa in Belgium from which he successfully bailed out on 2 November 1944. There is also an oral history interview with his family.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Judy Hodgson and 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
2015-08-30
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Allen, DJ
Access Rights
Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Access Rights may include information regarding access or restrictions based on privacy, security, or other policies.
Permission granted for commercial projects
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Bomb aimer in Lancaster's bomb aimer's cupola
Description
An account of the resource
Front of a Lancaster showing front turret and bomb aimer's cupola. Aircrew wearing flying helmet and goggles in the cupola looking at camera. In the background open ground and hedges. On the reverse 'W/O Sutton Air Bomber April 1945'.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1945-04
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PAllenDJ1547, PAllenDJ1548
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
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945-04
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
aircrew
bomb aimer
Lancaster
military service conditions
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/185/2415/LSayerT591744v10107.1.jpg
3f0701ba51159a073f242b65dc4e61d1
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Sayer, Tom
Tom Sayer
T Sayer
Description
An account of the resource
13 items. An oral history interview with Flying Officer Thomas Sayer DFM (1922 - 2021, 591744 54901 Royal Air Force), two log books, service material, newspaper cuttings and photographs. After training as a pilot in the United States of America, Tom Sayer flew Halifaxes with 102 Squadron at RAF Pocklington. He was commissioned in 1944 and became an instructor.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Tom Sayer and catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-02-17
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Sayer, T
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Tom Sayer's crew
Description
An account of the resource
Seven aircrew, Leslie Jones, Tom Sayer, Joseph Muldoon, Leonard Hancock, Brendon Reele, James Kid and Hugh Billbrough, three sitting on a concrete path in front, four standing behind all wearing battledress.
Additional information about this item has been kindly provided by the donor.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LSayerT591744v10107
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
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
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
flight engineer
navigator
pilot
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/187/2442/SMarshallS1594781v10007.2.jpg
e657208ea53a64382cea4e6234aa34b6
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
Marshall, Syd. Album
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Marshall, S
Description
An account of the resource
77 items. The album contains wartime and post-war photographs, newspaper cuttings, and memorabilia assembled by Warrant Officer Sidney Charles Marshall (1924 - 2017, 1594781 Royal Air Force). Syd Marshall was a flight engineer with 103 Squadron and flew operations from RAF Elsham Wolds.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Syd Marshall and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
2015-05-08
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
Crew of Lancaster PM-C
103 squadron Elsham Wolds 1944-45
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Five photographs on an album page
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMarshallS1594781v10007
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
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.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
1945
Description
An account of the resource
Photograph 1 is of Lou Morgan at the controls of the Lancaster, captioned 'Lou Morgan (left)'.
Photograph 2 is of Syd Marshall at his position, captioned 'Myself Syd Marshall F/E'.
Photograph 3 is of Nobby Clark standing by a gate, captioned ' "Nobby" Clark (B/A)'.
Photograph 4 is of Murry Ward, standing in front of Nissen huts, captioned 'Murry Ward (mid upper).
Photograph 5 is of Russ Johnstone and wife. Full length portrait, both in air force uniform and standing beside a gate. Captioned ' "Russ" & wife'.
103 Squadron
aircrew
bomb aimer
flight engineer
Lancaster
military service conditions
Nissen hut
pilot
RAF Elsham Wolds
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/187/2461/SMarshallS1594781v10024.1.jpg
f33a850ce6a2f519986b235baeed1d0f
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
Marshall, Syd. Album
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Marshall, S
Description
An account of the resource
77 items. The album contains wartime and post-war photographs, newspaper cuttings, and memorabilia assembled by Warrant Officer Sidney Charles Marshall (1924 - 2017, 1594781 Royal Air Force). Syd Marshall was a flight engineer with 103 Squadron and flew operations from RAF Elsham Wolds.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Syd Marshall and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
2015-05-08
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
Crew of Lancaster PM-C and Jack Round
Description
An account of the resource
A handwritten list of the crew of Lancaster PM-C 44-45,
F/O Lou Morgan Pilot
Russ Johnston Nav
Nobby Clark B/A
Ivor Cole Wop
Murray Ward A/G
Jack Round A/G
F/O Breheney Eng Leader
F/L Wymark Gunnery leader
S/L Van Rollagem flight com
F/O Skinner & crew
G/C Shane Station com
Air com Swain 12 Base com
The Henry Bros (Aust)
Photograph of Jack Round positioned ta the side of a Nissen hut, captioned 'Jack Round tail gunner'.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One list and one photograph on an album page
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
SMarshallS1594781v10024
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
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.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
1945
103 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
flight engineer
ground crew
ground personnel
Lancaster
navigator
Nissen hut
pilot
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/119/2485/MThomasWH152984-150721-01.1.pdf
6e05ffb1f503d2bba606b04b23c36c98
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
WILLIAM HEDLEY THOMAS (AGE 93)
My first interest in the RAF came in 1938 while I was a pupil at Redruth Grammar School in Cornwall, when a flight of the Air Defence Cadet Corps was formed there and I became a member. I am sure its formation occurred because Mr Weatherall our Headmaster had been a fighter pilot in the First World War which really instIlled interest in those of us aged 16 and above. I remained a member of ADCC until August 1939 when I left school for employment.
When the Air Training Corps was formed in 1941 I joined the flight which was formed in Redruth where we had the usual instruction in Morse code, and navigation, shooting and of course drill (dreaded drill). We were fortunate to have visits to RAF Portreath aerodrome and that is where I had my first flight, in a Miles Magister. It was great!
I volunteered and was accepted for aircrew training in August 1941 and placed on deferred service and continued as a member of the ATC, reaching for the dizzy height of Sergeant! While awaiting my call-up to the RAF I had to register for National Service but informed the officials that I was already a member of the RAF and gave them my service number. Two or three weeks later I had call-up papers from the Army! I called the registration office and they said no problem we will sort it. However after another week I had a forceful letter from the Army telling me to report to depot or other, by such and such a date or they come and fetch me! Panic!
Fortunately we had a family friend who was an Army officer in the First World War and he contacted the Army on the phone using language I was not then used to and I heard no more!
So eventually, in February 1942 I was called up by the RAF and went to the aircrew reception centre in London. I reported, as so many had done, to Lord’s cricket ground for registration. We were provided with a uniform (which was tailored to fit) and received the first batch of injections. We were billeted in what had been serviced apartments in Prince Albert Road, quite close to Regents Park zoo. Here we had various lectures, a lot of drill and endured an extremely cold London.
Then came our posting to Initial Training Wing at a very much warmer Aberystwyth in West Wales. Here we received training in navigation, Morse code and RAF Law besides large doses of more drill, physical training and sports.
I enjoyed the course at ITW very much, especially as I knew it was the beginning of flying training. As I said earlier the weather at Aberystwth was warm and we rarely needed to wear greatcoats (which we did in London) and by June, when the course ended, it was a really warm summer. I learned that I had passed the course ended, it was a really warm summer. I learned that I had passed the course and was promoted to the exalted rank of L A C (more pay too!).
I was then posted to Sywell in Northamptonshire to begin training as a pilot. Unfortunately I failed the course because my landings were deemed dangerous and I was unable to go solo. Mind you, I did not get on very well with my instructor who was over 6 feet tall, as against my 5 foot six and as he sat in the front cockpit what chance had I of seeing straight ahead? No contest!
From Sywell I was posted in July 1942 to Heaton Park, Manchester, which was a holding unit for potential aircrew awaiting the decision as to my future training, along with quite a number of others. We were then sent to Hastings, another holding unit, where we were billeted in a large block of flats (Marine Court) right on the seafront. We were only at Hastings for about three weeks because one afternoon at about 4 PM on our return from the sports afternoon, a German aircraft on a hit-and run sortie dropped a smallish bomb on one end of the building. Fortunately no-one was injured, however it caused perhaps the fastest reaction I have ever experienced. By 4 AM the next morning
[page break]
we were getting on a train (with a day’s dry rations) and we were taken to Harrogate to yet another holding unit!!
I enjoyed Harrogate very much where we received the usual few lectures and drill and bags and bags of sport. Harrogate was a great posting, especially as there were lots of young ladies there who were the clerical staff of the General Post Office who had been evacuated there from London!
I was eventually brought out of my reverie by a posting back to Heaton Park with a few dozen other bods, where we were informed as to our future training which for me was as a navigator/bomb aimer. This we were given to understand, would not be in Great Britain but overseas, as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme.
It was in late November 1942 that King George the Sixth sent me to Canada, aboard the Queen Elizabeth, to train as a navigator/bomb aimer, thus enabling the rest of the country to get on with the war. To my delight, I was informed that I would not have to pay my own fare.
The memories of that voyage are still with me. I remember approaching the liner on a small tender and being showered with toilet rolls which were thrown by the disembarking aircrew who had returned to the UK sporting their wings. Not to be outdone, we advised them to hang on to the toilet rolls, as there was a shortage of that commodity in our war-torn homeland.
Once aboard, I was given a job as a kind of security guard (along with 20 or 30 others) to prevent smoking in any place other than the cabins. I remember pointing out to Edward G Robinson that such a rule existed, when I spotted him and a large cigar waiting for the Lift. He promptly took a deep puff on the cigar, stepped into the lift and said with a smile, “Is that so. Bud?”
We had quite a large number of well-known people (including Douglas Fairbanks) on board and to our delight, they provided several evenings of entertainment for us during the crossing. The meals were very good and it was a special treat for us to be served with white bread after eating since 1939, the sandy brown standard wartime loaf.
We took several days on the voyage since we were sailing unaccompanied a long way south before turning and travelling up the Eastern seaboard of the United States. We were informed that the detour had taken place because a U-boat pack had been detected in mid Atlantic. Good intelligence and communication obviously saved us and I understand that Lord Haw-Haw had reported us as sunk on two occasions. We sailed into New York harbour and docked adjacent to the Queen Mary and the Ile-de-France, the latter lying on her side after suffering a major fire some time earlier.
Whilst most of those on board were allowed to disembark, I found myself appointed as a member of the baggage party. About 30 of we unfortunates were given the task of unloading the rest of the RAF contingent kit bags. As a result, at the end of the day we were still aboard but were delights that that evening to be served with the most terrific meal which we considered to be a just reward for our hard labours as baggage handlers.
The next morning we disembarked and after being transported by coach to Grand Central Station, we caught a train that would transport us to Moncton in Canada. But all did not go smoothly, because en route, we were involved in a train crash. The crash was on the Gaspie Peninsula, at the mouth of the St Lawrence River when a freight train, with a huge cargo of logs crashed into us while we were waiting at a small country station. Fortunately we, the RAF contingent, only sustained a few cuts and bruises.
[page break]
Mainly because of the steel constructions of the trains in Canada we were lucky indeed. Further luck for four of us who got invited by the daughters of a nearby farming family to have some breakfast. We accepted and trudged across two large snowbound fields to the farmhouse. Just as we finished, breakfast, we were told that a relief train had arrived at the station to take us on to our destination Moncton. We missed it! However we boarded the next train and we were met in Moncton by an NCO, a sergeant I think, who told us off and then we boarded transport to the camp. It was pointed out to us that the rest of the party had to march there so we were lucky again!
Moncton, on the eastern seaboard of Canada, was another holding unit where we awaited posting to the start of our real training. However we were at Moncton for Christmas 1942 and also over the New Year in Arctic like whether with plenty of snow. A case of infectious disease, scarlet fever I think, caused member of the hut I was in to be in quarantine for some weeks until finally our posting arrived.
In February 1943 I was posted to number six bombing and gunnery school at Mountain View, Ontario where we practiced gunnery in Bolingbrokes, the Canadian version of the Blenheim, as well as on the gunnery range. We then turned out attention to flying in Ansons and practised dropping practice bombs. This seems to have taken quite a while really because it was the end of March 1943 before we left Mountain View for Number 8 Air Observer School at Ancienne Lorette, Quebec, to begin navigational training.
The navigation course at number eight air observer school at Ancienne Lorette, lasted from early April 1943 to early August 1943 and as well as air day and night navigation trips averaging around three hours each, we did a lot of classroom work including a navigation exercises, meteorology, signalling, aircraft recognition and armament together with a lot of practice work in the air and on the ground on astro-navigation.
At the end of the course I learned that I had passed and took my place on the passing out parade to receive my Observer brevet and also I was delighted to find out that I had been granted a commission.
We were then, after three weeks leave which I spent with my uncle and his family in Toronto, posted to Number 1 General Reconnaissance School at Prince Edward Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence River, where for three weeks we were to carry out navigation trips over the sea using what is termed dead reckoning navigation, by star or sun shots, taking bearings from radio transmissions to find our position. We learned how to identify all the naval ships of the world, quite a task. I found this course both challenging and interesting and I was glad to hear that I had received a pass which I hoped would lead me to be a navigator on coastal command when I returned to the UK.
At the end of the course at the beginning of October 1943 we were posted again to Moncton to wait before being shipped back to Great Britain. This did not happen until December 1943 when I returned on the Aquitainia, quite a nice ship but not so well appointed as the Queen Elizabeth. We landed back at Gourock and travelled down to Harrogate.
Harrogate was still a holding unit and there was quite a large number of aircrew gathering there from training in Canada and South Africa, eagerly awaiting postings to operational training units. In my case along with others from course in Canada, it was to be another three months before we got such a posting. I, of course, wanted to be sent to Coastal Command, which is what our extended training had been for, but it was not until early in April 1944 that we were told that we were to go to Wigtown in Scotland. On enquiry we were told that this was an advanced training unit for bomb aimers. We tried to argue that
[page break]
surely all the training in Canada that we had received ought to be for carrying out duties as navigators in one of the RAF commands. We were told that there no chance whatsoever of this and off to Wigtown we went. You can imagine there was quite a lot of disgruntled bods there but we decided that we must grin and bear it. We were told to remove our coveted and hard earner observer brevet and replace them with the B brevet and this produced a lot of very upset and in disgruntled people; so much so that caused a visit from an officer from HQ in London (an Air Commodore I think) to come up to Wigtown to meet us. He informed us that our C.O. had told him that we were refusing to fly, which in fact was totally untrue as we were continuing with our flights. As a result, the Air Commodore contacted London and an official ruling was made and we were told we could continue to wear (with pride I might say) our Observer Brevets. So, we completed the course and were granted 2 to 3 weeks leave and were instructed to report from there to number eight operational training unit at Castle Donington {which is now East Midlands Airport).
We arrived at the O.T.U. late in May 1944 and were crewed up, not being directed as to who would fly with who, but quietly talking to each other and trying to decide who you thought would be someone to trust your life with. I think I was fortunate in my choice as we all seem to get on from the start and it proved to the case when we continued to fly together later in the operations. However before we became members of the squadron there was more training to be done. First of all by the crew of six (there was no flight engineer in the crew at OTU) flying in the Vickers Wellington, learning all about our duties in an operational bomber. We were at Castle Donington from 27 May 1944 until 14 July 1944 and then we transferred to 1667 heavy conversion unit at RAF Sandtoft, learning the skills needed for coping in a four engine aircraft – in this case the Handley Page Halifax and there we were joined by the seventh member of our crew, the flight engineer.
We left RAF Sandtoft on 1 September 1944 and moved to number one Lancaster finishing school at RAF Hemswell. This proved quite a short course of about three weeks and we were then posted to join 166 squadron at RAF Kimmington on 26 September 1944, as members of C flight. This flight was being assembled to be made into another squadron, 153. This was duly achieved and some four operations were flown by the squadron from Kimmington before, on 15 October 1944, 153 squadron moved to RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire, flying their acquired 18 aircraft there, while the ground staff travelled in a fleet of buses accompanied by a group of 3 ton lorries loaded with personal baggage. Our crew had the pleasure of being in the first of the 153 squadron aircraft to land at Scampton from Kimmington [sic] and had an unusual sight of an empty aerodrome: that is no aircraft on the ground, with a small number of ground crews standing by at dispersals to receive the aircraft.
Scampton was a station that was built before World War II and accommodation was in solid built buildings with tarmac laid roads and pavements; no mud to squelch through. Bruce Potter (the pilot) and I were allocated a room within the officers mess itself, but some of the others had to live in the previous married quarters which meant a shortish walk to the mess for meals and so forth.
On 19 October 1944, 153 squadron carried out its first operation from Scampton – 15 aircraft attacking Stuttgart. Our crew’s operations did not start until 31 October 1944 against Cologne. We carried on operations against various targets including the much written about town of Dresden on 13 February 1945, until 8 March 1945, we on takeoff for Kassel, our skipper Bruce Potter fainted at the controls. We were well down the runway with our tail up and it was the first rate action of our flight engineer Gordon Woolley, who managed to haul the control column back; cut the engines and bring the aircraft to a halt after it had executed a flat spin. The skipper was taken off to sickbay and the rest of us gathered outside the aircraft where the squadron commander, Wing Commander Powley, invited us to fly that night with another pilot. We firmly
[page break]
declined his invitation. We were then sent home on three weeks leave and on our return found that our skipper had left the station. He had gone to hospital I think. He never returned.
The remainder of the crew (six of us), completed the remaining three operations to complete our 29 operations with another pilot. Flight Lieutenant Williams, an Australian. Our last operation was on 9 April 1945 and on 10 April that same year we were sent home on leave, never again to meet up as a crew.
There is a list of our targets at the end of this article, together with the duration of each and I must say that we were a very lucky crew. Perhaps it was due to a little black cat which I wore pinned to my battledress. It was sent to me by an “anonymous admirer”. During all our trips we never experienced a single attack from an enemy fighter or received any substantial flak from German anti-aircraft fire. Jack Boyle was a first-class and diligent navigator and kept us on track and on time for every trip. We did have to abort on a trip to Politz on 8 February 1945 when one engine packed up and then another started losing power, but we were able to return safely to base. Another time, on 18 November 1944 while returning from bombing Wanne Eicline, our instruments packed up. It was a filthy night of wind and rain and there was a diversion for us to land at another aerodrome as RAF Scampton was fogbound. The crew decided that it would not be a good thing to try and land at strange aerodrome and we therefore diverted to the special diversion aerodrome at Woodbridge in Suffolk, where the runways were extremely long and wide. Bruce our skipper and Gordon the flight engineer were able to effect a temporary repair the next morning and we were then able to return to Scampton.
My leave on completion of the tour of operations was quite extensive as the great Western Railway managed to lose my kit bag with all my flying kit during my return to Scampton. I was sent home to recover it, something I was unable to do and so eventually, in July 1945 (after being home nearly 3 months) I was recalled to Scampton. I was informed that I was to train as an equipment officer and sent for training to RAF Bicester. This course lasted about six weeks and I was then posted as a fully fledged equipment officer to 35 maintenance unit at Heywood near Manchester. Within a week I was sent to RAF Strubby in Lincolnshire which no longer an operational station, to arrange to clear it of all its equipment. There was only a skeleton staff there and these were gradually posted away, leaving only about 30 other ranks (mainly equipment personnel) and myself, together with another ex-aircrew equipment (Flying Officer Frank Wilkes) who had been sent from Heywood to assist me.
It was a massive task of transferring the wanted equipment to appropriate maintenance units throughout the UK, however I never saw the end of the task and neither did Flying Officer Wilkes, as our times for release from the RAF occurred at the same time and so in July 1946 we left for Civvy Street and I returned to my job with the Cornwall County Council.
I lost contact with the crew but many years later through a letter which I had published in the RAFA magazine I made contact with Jack Boyle our navigator who was at that time living in Blackpool. However, Jack was in rather poor health. We were able to swap phone calls and letters for about 12 months before sadly, he died. Some years later I was fortunate enough to make contact with Harry Hambrook our rear gunner who lives in Harrogate. I’m glad to say that we keep in contact and are able to meet up each year at our squadron reunions.
I moved to Morpeth in Northumberland 20 years ago and on joining the Northumbria branch of the Aircrew Association, I met Mr Bill Foote from Alnmouth who had been a pilot flying Halifaxes with 77 squadron in Yorkshire. It was some little
[page break]
while before Bill and I discovered that we were both on the Queen Elizabeth voyage to Canada in November 1942. Now we both meet up with two or three others on a regular basis for lunch.
Another coincidence occurred after I joined the 153 Squadron Association about 12 years ago and met two associate member who had uncles in the crew of Pilot Officer Gibbins, the pilot in 153 Squadron at Scampton who shared a room with my skipper Bruce Potter and I. “Gibby” and I became great friends and were companions on sorties to Lincoln on days when we were on stand down from flying duties, to carry out “beer testing” in Lincoln’s many pubs! Unfortunately “Gibby’s” aircraft was lost on a daylight raid on Essen on 11 March 1945. Sad to say there were no survivors. These two members of the Squadron Association have been to Germany and visited Reichswald Forest war cemetery in Kleve, where their uncles are buried. I meet up each year with those two members, Ernie and Dave at our Squadron Association reunion which is held in Lincoln.
I must confess that I was quite disappointed at not being able to fly as a pilot (in a Spitfire in fighter command of course!) However, completing our tour of operations on bomber command and being one of “Bomber” Harris’s Boys was something I look back on with pride. I also give thanks for not being wounded or being one of the 55,573 airmen who were killed in action.
Much has been written by historians who have decried the efforts of bomber command and have called its head “Butcher Bomber Harris”, saying that he was targeting the civilian population of German cities. I can in no way agree with them as there was always some industry in each of the cities targeted. Dresden is often referred to as being a civilian target; not so, because it had armament factories including Zeiss Ikon, which provided a supply of precision instruments to the German forces. It was also an important communication centre with considerable concentration of troops within the city.
Our crew took part in the Dresden raid on the 13th and 14 February 1945, unloading our bomb load of a 4000lb “cookie” and lots of incendiaries on the city when I pressed the bomb key. Should I count myself as a murderer for doing that? Some people in this country seem to think so but most of them were not alive at the time and so did not have to endure the bombing of our cities by the German air force.
[underlined] W.H. Thomas [/underlined]
Bill Thomas
11/07/15
I AGREE WITH THE INTERVIEW
[page break]
LIST OF OPERATIONS
DATE DESTINATION DURATION
11/10/44 Fort Frederick Heindrik 3.20
31/10/44 Cologne 5.20
02/11/44 Dusseldorf 5.20
04/11/44 Bochum 5.20
09/11/44 Wanne Eicline 4.55
16/11/44 Duren 4.30
18/11/44 Wanne Eicline 5.35
04/12/44 Karlsrhue [sic] 4.30
13/12/44 Essen 6.05
17/12/44 Ulm 7.50
28/12/44 Bonn 5.40
29/12/44 Buer 6.20
31/12/44 Osterfeld 5.50
02/01/45 Nurnberg 8.40
05/01/45 Royan 7.30
07/01/45 Munich 9.25
14/01/45 Merseburg (Leuna) 8.35
28/01/45 Zuffenhausen 7.15
03/02/45 Bottrop 6.10
04/02/45 Gardening – Heligo Bight 4.45
08/02/45 Aborted – Politz 2.50
13/02/45 Dresden 10.20
14/02/45 Gardening – Keil Bay 6.15
[page break]
20/02/45 Dortmund 6.25
22/02/45 Duisberg 5.50
23/02/45 Phorzheim 8.05
07/03/45 Dessau 10.00
08/03/45 Ground Loop – Kassel
03/04/45 Nordhausen 6.30
04/04/45 Lutzkendorf 8.10
09/04/45 Keil 5.55
Total Hours Night 185.45
Day 19.25
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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Bill Thomas memoir
Identifier
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MThomasWH152984-150721-01
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Bill Thomas
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2015-07-11
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
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Eight typewritten pages
Language
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eng
Type
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Text
Text. Memoir
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Canada
Germany
Great Britain
Scotland
Wales
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Cologne
Germany--Dresden
Wales--Aberystwyth
New Brunswick--Moncton
Scotland--Dumfries and Galloway
New Brunswick
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Ontario
Ontario--Belleville
Description
An account of the resource
He describes his first interest in the RAF, in 1938. He joined the Air Defence Cadet Corps, and later in 1941 the Air Training Corps. He was called up by the RAF in February 1942, and proceeded through initial training and the Initial Training Wing at Aberystwyth. Here he was promoted to leading aircraftsman. Having failed his pilots course, he was subsequently sent to Moncton Canada in late November 1942. Following a number of postings including bombing and gunnery school and navigation he was shipped home on the Aquitania back to the UK in December 1943. In early 1944 he was posted to Wigtown to train as a bomb aimer. He reported to 28 Operational Training Unit in late May 1944 where he crewed up. After flying in Wellingtons he passed through the Heavy Conversion Unit at RAF Sandtoft and the Lancaster Fininshing School at RAF Hemswell. He joined 166 Squadron, his flight forming 153 Squadron, which moved to Scampton, and on 31st October 1944 carried out his first operation on Cologne. He continued on operations including the attack on Dresden on 13th February 1945. On completion of his tour he trained as an equipment officer. He was released by the RAF in July 1946 and returned to his job with Cornwall County Council, He eventually moved to Morpeth in Northumberland and maintained his links with the 153 Squadron Association.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Karl Williams
David Bloomfield
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
153 Squadron
166 Squadron
1667 HCU
28 OTU
aircrew
Anson
Bolingbroke
bomb aimer
bombing
Bombing and Gunnery School
bombing of Dresden (13 - 15 February 1945)
crewing up
ground personnel
Halifax
Heavy Conversion Unit
incendiary device
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
mine laying
Operational Training Unit
perception of bombing war
promotion
RAF Castle Donington
RAF Heaton Park
RAF Hemswell
RAF Kirmington
RAF Sandtoft
RAF Scampton
RAF Strubby
RAF Wigtown
training
Wellington
-
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/189/2500/PCaseyJ1510.1.jpg
530fa74facb11b4ff07808a513e0b80a
Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Casey, John
J Casey
John Casey
Description
An account of the resource
14 items. Collection contains an oral history interview with Sergeant John Casey (- 2016, 2217470, Royal Air Force), an escape map, logbook, service documentation, a wallet and photographs. John Casey served as an air gunner on 61 Squadron in 1944-45.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by John Casey and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-06-10
2015-11-19
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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Casey, J
Transcribed document
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading.
Transcription
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Left to Right
“Mac” Bain - Pilot
Peter Gea – Flight Engineer
John Casey – Rear Gunner
“Taff” Morgan – Bomb Aimer
“Mac” McKenzie – Wireless Operator
- Hodgkinson – Mid-upper Gunner
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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Six aircrew by the tail of a Lancaster
Description
An account of the resource
Six aircrew wearing battledress, four wearing side caps and two wearing flying boots standing in a line by the rear turret of a Lancaster. In the background another Lancaster.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One b/w photograph
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PCaseyJ1509, PCaseyJ1510
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
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.
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Claire Monk
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
dispersal
flight engineer
Lancaster
pilot
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/187/2547/SMarshallS1594781v10095.1.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/187/2547/SMarshallS1594781v10096.1.jpg
a4eb088a78cf61b83b0b791b86891b11
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
Marshall, Syd. Album
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Marshall, S
Description
An account of the resource
77 items. The album contains wartime and post-war photographs, newspaper cuttings, and memorabilia assembled by Warrant Officer Sidney Charles Marshall (1924 - 2017, 1594781 Royal Air Force). Syd Marshall was a flight engineer with 103 Squadron and flew operations from RAF Elsham Wolds.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Syd Marshall and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
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
2015-05-08
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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Nobby Clark
Description
An account of the resource
Sergeant Nobby Clark standing in uniform at gates. On the reverse 'Bomb -aimer "Nobby" Clark turning on the charm'.
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
SMarshallS1594781v10095, SMarshallS1594781v10096
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
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
aircrew
bomb aimer
-
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d2e2e272e830d018ca52ba02b0e5dcc4
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/201/3336/ABaileyJD170113.2.mp3
9586bf522a95037287e44517f779c934
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
Bailey, John Derek
John Derek Bailey
Bill Bailey
John D Bailey
John Bailey
J D Bailey
J Bailey
Description
An account of the resource
17 items. Two oral history interviews with John Derek "Bill" Bailey (b. 1924, 1583184 and 198592 Royal Air Force) service material, nine photographs, a memoir and his log book. He flew a tour of operations as a bomb aimer with 103 and 166 Squadrons from RAF Elsham Wolds and RAF Kirmington.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by John Bailey and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-12-07
2017-01-13
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Identifier
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Bailey, JD
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
HB: This is a further recording with Derek Bailey who was a bomb aimer with 166 squadron. It’s Friday the 13th of January 2017. Interview taking place in Blenheim Close, Hinckley. During the course of it there may be some sounds in the background as I’m in the process of copying a number of documents from Derek but we’re just talking about the fact that Derek was only twenty years old when he first signed up. That’s right isn’t it Derek?
JDB: No. Eighteen when I first signed up.
HB: Yeah. And that was, that was when you went to, where did you go to sign up?
JDB: Leicester.
HB: You went to Leicester.
JDB: On my eighteenth birthday I got on my bike and went down to Leicester to Ulverscroft Road and signed up.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: Went home and told my mother and she burst in to tears.
HB: Oh that’s right. Yes. Yeah. ‘Cause where we finished, where we finished the interview last time we’d just got to sort of the end of the war and we talked a little bit about the guy coming and asking you if you would go and join his crew.
JDB: That’s right.
HB: And we never got on to, never got quite into that. That was, that was something to do with the Far East wasn’t it Derek?
JDB: Yes it was.
HB: Right.
JDB: We got, do you want me to go into it?
HB: Yeah, please. Yeah. Yeah.
JDB: Well, the guy who came. At the time I was a bombing instructor up at Lossiemouth and one of the flight commanders came into our office and said, ‘I’m going back on ops. I need a bomb aimer. Who’s coming?’
HB: Right.
JDB: And so I volunteered myself and I joined his crew.
HB: What aircraft was, was that in?
JDB: Sorry?
HB: What aircraft was that in, Derek?
JDB: It was Lancasters.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: But at Lossiemouth -
HB: Yeah.
JDB: We were flying Wellingtons.
HB: Right.
JDB: Being an OTU and we, he came and enlisted me into his crew and then we got posted down to Swinderby to join Tiger, Tiger Force. The reason we went to Swinderby was that it was a conversion unit, a Heavy Conversion Unit and my new skipper had to do a conversion because he’d done his first tour on Halifaxes and needed to convert to Lancs.
HB: Right.
JDB: So that’s where we were and we got to Swinderby, we did the course and were in Tiger Force and then the war ended.
HB: So, so what was Swinderby like?
JDB: What was it –
HB: At that time of the war.
JDB: Well it was a Heavy Conversion Unit with Lancasters and it was just like any other Heavy Conversion Unit where people from OTU went to Heavy Conversion Unit and converted from Wellingtons to Lancasters.
HB: Yeah. How long had you been, just going back a little bit because you obviously finished your operational tour with -
JDB: 166.
HB: 166 and from there, I presume you had a bit of leave, that’s when you went to, after you’d finished your operational tour -
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Where did you go then?
JDB: Lossiemouth.
HB: And that so it was straight to Lossiemouth to the OTU.
JDB: Yeah. That’s right.
HB: And what were you doing at the OTU?
JDB: I was an instructor.
HB: Right.
JDB: A bombing instructor.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: I did several courses. I was an expert on the mark, oh Christ, where are we going now, saying I remember things. Mark 14 bomb sight and what other course did I do? I did the Mark 14 bomb sight, I did the actual bombing instructor’s course and there was something else which I can’t remember at the moment.
HB: Was it, would you have done, would you have done any special training to go, before that, to go to the HCU?
JDB: No. No. Not, for Swinderby you mean?
HB: Yeah.
JDB: No. No. That was just out of the blue.
HB: So you were, you were instructing at the OTU at Lossiemouth.
JDB: That’s right.
HB: Who was, who was the chap that came and asked you? Can you remember his name?
JDB: Yes. His name was, oh Christ, his name’s in my logbook actually.
HB: Oh right.
JDB: If you look in my logbook under Swinderby when you get to there and his name will be there. He took a duck in in seniority. He actually went from squadron leader back to flight lieutenant to take off his -
HB: Right.
JDB: The course at Swinderby.
HB: Was that Johnson?
JDB: Johnson. That’s it.
HB: Flight Lieutenant Johnson.
JDB: That’s him.
HB: Right. Yeah. Got him. Yeah. And it’s, and you’re shown all the way through to ‘45 your duty is air bomber.
JDB: That’s right.
HB: Yeah. Yeah so was it, what was, what was he? Was he a bit a character was he?
JDB: Who?
HB: Johnson.
JDB: Well, no not really. He’s just, just another Lanc pilot.
HB: Yeah. No. I just wondered how, sort of out of the blue he’d come.
JDB: Well, he -
HB: You know.
JDB: We’d got quite a few bomb aimers up at Lossiemouth and he got about, I don’t know, five or six to choose from.
HB: Yeah. I just wondered how he’d, he’d obviously, he’d obviously put his name up to go on Tiger Force.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: And it’s just it’s always intrigued me this business of how they got crews together. You sort of get the impression he suddenly thinks right I’ll go to Tiger Force and, oh I need a crew.
JDB: Yeah. That’s right.
HB: I’ll go and have a walk around and get a crew.
JDB: Yeah. Well he did.
HB: That’s pretty well what happened.
JDB: That’s exactly what he did. That’s what he did. He went around each section.
HB: Right.
JDB: The navigation section and sorted himself out a navigator, he sorted me out as a bomb aimer.
HB: Right.
JDB: Now. Oh I know, yes he got the gunners there and the wireless op. They were all sorted out up there and then we had to wait till we got to Swinderby before he got a flight engineer.
HB: Right.
JDB: And then, the input flight engineer we got, would you believe was a youngish, in fact he was a bloke I knew, I went to school with.
HB: Never.
JDB: He was recruited as our flight engineer and he was a pilot.
HB: Right.
JDB: Yeah because they were now getting a surplus of pilots you see and so this guy, I can’t remember his name but he was recruited as our flight engineer and he was, like I say he was a, he was a trained pilot.
HB: And you’d been to school with him.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Where would that, which school would that have been?
JDB: South Wigston Intermediate.
HB: Wow.
JDB: I can’t remember his bloody name.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: He was in the ATC with me at Wigston.
HB: Oh right. Yeah. Yeah ‘cause that’s right because yeah I remember you telling me now. You joined the ATC.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Yeah. And then when it, when it came the chance to, to join up, yeah. So you’ve all got together at, or the majority are together. You got to Swinderby. You’ve got a flight engineer. So, was there, like special training for Tiger Force at that point? I mean what was -
JDB: Yeah. Well the only bit of special training that I remember was, for Tiger Force, was that we were using a different navigational radar system. Instead of Gee which we used -
HB: Yeah.
JDB: Over Europe we were using, I think it was Lucan? Locan? No. It was a long range Gee if you like.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: Radar system and that was the only bit of training we got. We needed that to get to the bloody Far East in the first place.
HB: Yeah. So, so, where, where would you, where would you have been based had you actually got out with Tiger Force. Where would you gone to?
JDB: We were going to Okinawa.
HB: Oh right. Right. Yeah. Because obviously the Yanks had -
JDB: Well the Yanks were making Okinawa base ready for us
HB: Right.
JDB: And that’s where we were going.
HB: Right. It makes, it makes sense to do that. Yeah. And how, so how far did you get into that training before you were all stood down then?
JDB: Well we finished our course and then coincidentally the war ended as we were about to be posted to a squadron.
HB: Oh right. So oh of course you’re still on an HCU aren’t you?
JDB: Yes. Yeah.
HB: Yeah. So when you finished with 166.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Went to Lossiemouth. Instructor. But you were instructing on Wellingtons.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Did you not have to do any sort of conversion back for that? To go back on Wellingtons?
JDB: Well I did, I did a specialist course as an instructor you know because what we used to do as an instructor apart from delivering the odd lecture was to fly as a screened, a screened bomb aimer, fly with them to check that they were going through the procedures correctly and doing what they should be doing and they were all Free Frenchmen. We were training Free Frenchmen up at Lossiemouth.
HB: Oh right.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Oh right. ‘Cause, ‘cause there weren’t that many French bomber squadrons were there?
JDB: No. Well they were in 4 Group.
HB: Yeah. I think the French, one of the French squadrons I know about was based at Elvington.
JDB: That’s right
HB: Yeah.
JDB: They were. They were. Have you been to Elvington?
HB: I have.
JDB: Yes.
HB: I have. Very interesting.
JDB: Interesting isn’t it?
HB: Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: That’s, so, right. So the Free French came to you for the training and then you get hijacked for Tiger Force and then as you say the war ends.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: So how did, what was the process of you dispersing then back -
JDB: Well -
HB: From that?
JDB: Well, before I left Lossiemouth, before I actually left there to go to Swinderby we started flying the Wimps down to Hawarden which is near Chester.
HB: The Wimps being?
JDB: Wellingtons.
HB: The Wellingtons. Yeah.
JDB: Yeah. And we, we took three down and brought one back with other crews in. Well not the entire crews.
HB: Right.
JDB: And so we ferried the aircraft. They were, I must say they were all disbursed with almost, almost undue haste.
HB: Right.
JDB: Really.
HB: Oh right. ‘Cause, yeah, so you, you flew out and flew these lot back.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Did you, did you ever do any of these Cook’s Tours?
JDB: No. I didn’t. No. Of course I wasn’t on a squadron then you see.
HB: Oh so. Right. I thought it was just something that happened, you know.
JDB: No. The squadron aircraft did the Cook’s Tours.
HB: Right.
JDB: Lancs. I don’t think they used any Wimps or anything.
HB: Yeah. ‘Cause I did speak to a guy who he was ground crew with Halifaxes and he did a Cook’s Tour in a Halifax.
JDB: Yeah. Yeah.
HB: All down around the Ruhr and -
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Around there. Oh right. So where did you actually, where were you stationed when you were actually demobbed then Derek?
JDB: When I was what?
HB: When you were demobbed. When you were, when you were -
JDB: When I, ah, I was stationed at Headquarters Tech Training Command.
HB: Oh right. Oh right. And what, and what rank did you have then?
JDB: Flight lieutenant.
HB: You were flight lieutenant then. Right. Right. And where was that at? Where was that based?
JDB: Brampton.
HB: At Brampton.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Right. Interesting. So the demob comes -
JDB: Yeah, well the demob. What happened was we were posted from, oh it was a ring around but we were posted from Swinderby. Went to, where did we go? Blyton I think. And they said, ‘What do you want to do?’ Well on the list of what do you want to do was Bomb Disposal Western Europe and that was getting rid of stocks of bombs so I thought well that, that suits my trade. I’ll put myself down for that and I did and I found myself sent to, I found myself being designated an equipment officer and I was sent to Bicester to do the course.
HB: Oh right. So yeah. Right. I suppose yeah so you’re going to go, you’re going to go to Europe.
JDB: No. I didn’t.
HB: Or wherever to get rid of bomb stores.
JDB: Oh yeah. I think they were dumped at sea.
HB: Yeah. But you never actually got to do it.
JDB: No.
HB: Oh right.
JDB: No. Well that’s sod’s law isn’t it? You know.
HB: Always the way.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Always the way. Yeah. So, so that doesn’t happen.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: And you’re going to leave the RAF. What, what –
JDB: Well no. No. I’m not going to leave the RAF.
HB: Right.
JDB: What I’d done I had actually signed on for six months past my demob date. My number.
HB: Right.
JDB: And in the meantime I’d applied for an extended service commission with a view to staying in the Royal Air Force.
HB: Right.
JDB: But in fact I didn’t hear anything and I was talking to the peace staff guys at command headquarters and they were saying, ‘Well you know we can’t rush things. We must, you know.’ I said, ‘Well I’ve got to make my mind up. I have got to make my mind up whether to leave the service or there won’t be a job for me where I, where I had a job before the war,’ sort of thing and and the day came when I had, I had to make a decision because my employer or potential employer had said, ‘Well look Derek if you’re going to sign on for any more time in the service we can’t keep your job for you.’ You know. ‘You, either you come back now or you don’t come back,’ and so I had, for various reasons, I decided that I would leave the, leave the air force. Which I did.
HB: Yeah. And how did you feel about doing that? Was that -?
JDB: Well I tried to go back again.
HB: Did you?
JDB: Yeah.
HB: When was that?
JDB: And I failed. Shortly afterwards. Not too long afterwards. I applied, I applied to start again sort of thing and I went for an interview to London to to air ministry as it then was and one of the questions the guy asked me was, ‘Well you’ve applied for a commission as an equipment officer.’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Well, why?’ I said, ‘Well because you don’t want any more bomb aimers now and I would have liked to have been a pilot but right in the early days I was told I couldn’t be a pilot for an eyesight defect.’
HB: Right.
JDB: And so this guy persisted and said, ‘Well, why didn’t you apply when you re-applied? Why didn’t you apply again for a pilot?’ I said, ‘Because I thought it was a waste of time.’ Anyway I didn’t get it so -
HB: Oh right.
JDB: And by then, by then I’d come to the conclusion that I’d be better where I was anyway so that was the end of that.
HB: So we’re back to Civvy Street and -
JDB: Back to Civvy Street.
HB: And if I remember rightly you were working in the transport industry -
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Weren’t you?
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Yeah. So what was that like?
JDB: Well, it was, it was right in the middle of nationalisation.
HB: Right.
JDB: The company was being nationalised and blah blah blah and you know, eventually I ended up with a private company. I applied for and got a job with them and within about six months I was made a director of that company and that’s what I did for my entire working life then. I was a company director in road transport and, until I retired.
HB: Yeah. When did you actually retire Derek, from that?
JDB: When did I?
HB: Yeah.
JDB: Oh I was in my seventies.
HB: Blimey.
JDB: I’d already taken my pension. I was taking the pension and I was still working.
HB: Right. Right. So you’ve gone back to the transport industry but you do come back to the, was it, it was the ATC wasn’t it you came back to?
JDB: The what?
HB: The ATC.
JDB: No. Oh yeah. Do you mean as far as the uniform is concerned?
HB: Yeah because -
JDB: Yeah.
HB: At some stage you went back in to –
JDB: Yes I did. Yeah. After. It was a few years afterwards. There was a gap and a bloke came to me and said, ‘I’m with 1F founder squadron of the ATC in Leicester.’ It was a bloke I knew.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: And he said, ‘I need someone to teach our air cadets air navigation. How are you fixed?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know. Tell me more.’ Anyway, to cut a long story short I said ‘Ok I’d give it a go,’ so I did and I went to 1F and then a little while later I went to see a bloke on business and I was wearing an ATC tie and this guy said to me, Des Starbuck his name and he said to me, ‘Are you in the ATC?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Well I run the Coalville squadron and I’m desperately short of adults. How, do you feel like helping me out?’ So, so I, I sort of said, ‘Well I wouldn’t mind.’ And so the CO of 1F, he wasn’t very chuffed when I told him I wanted to leave his squadron but Coalville suited me better.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: Anyway I, so I went to Coalville and when I’d been there a few weeks old Des Starbuck said to me, he said, ‘Hey look, Derek, come on,’ he said, ‘You might as well get back into uniform and do the job properly.’ And I said, ‘Well alright. I’ll give it a go.’ So I did.
HB: Right.
JDB: And as I’d been commissioned before it was a very quick process. All a matter of filling a form in really.
HB: Oh right. Right. Yeah.
JDB: So -
HB: So, what year, what year, what year would this be Derek?
JDB: Well, it would be, I retired when I was fifty six and I did twenty years so it was nineteen, no, fifty six, and fifty do a bit of working out here.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: I retired when I was fifty six.
HB: Right.
JDB: So that means, and I was born, born in ’24.
HB: Yeah. So that’s 1980. Yeah.
JDB: I’ve lost myself.
HB: 1924. Plus -
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Plus fifty six.
JDB: Yeah. Well that’s when I retired.
HB: In 1980.
JDB: 1980. That’s when I retired.
HB: Right.
JDB: Twenty years I served so it was 1960.
HB: About 1960.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: All through the interesting years then.
JDB: Yes.
HB: All the youngsters with nothing to do and wanting to do things.
JDB: Yeah. That’s it.
HB: Brilliant. Right. And now, and were you able to bring your wartime experiences to the ATC?
JDB: Oh yeah. To some extent. The experience of the Royal Air Force was, was very helpful.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: So I was teaching them. I was teaching them air navigation because that was a subject for the ATC and some various other ones as well. I’ve got one of the textbooks still.
HB: Yeah. Did you actually fly with the ATC?
JDB: Oh yeah.
HB: Yeah. What sort of flying did they do?
JDB: Chipmunks.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: Gliding and if you went to an RAF base for camp probably get a flight in whatever aircraft they were operating at the time.
HB: Oh right. Right.
JDB: I had, I had trips to Malta, Germany and I took the first ATC camp to Cyprus. I was camp commandant.
HB: Oh right. When would that be Derek do you think?
JDB: It was Cyprus.
HB: Yeah. That would still be in the 60s.
JDB: I can’t remember exactly now. It, I must have some record somewhere. What happened was we used to have annual summer camps for selected cadets in Malta.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: And then when we withdrew from Malta we weren’t able to have the summer camps there and so they decided they’d try Cyprus but it was bit of a problem because of the cost.
HB: Right.
JDB: But anyway we did Cyprus and as I say I took the first camp there and it was very good, very successful and it’s a plum, I don’t know whether they’re still using it at the moment because of the, there must be a lot of actual operational flying going on from there at the present time with the conflicts in the Middle East.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: So -
HB: Yeah.
JDB: I don’t know.
HB: I just, one of the things that I thought of after we spoke last time Derek, because, because of the way you trained.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: And we went through quite a few of the operations that you flew on but I don’t think we actually talked about when you were flying operations.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: What a, what a sort of a typical, your job typically running up to and then going on the operation. I mean you’d obviously get called for briefing.
JDB: Yes.
HB: So having been called for or given a time for briefing what would your job do then until such time as you took off on an op? What would, what would you actually be doing?
JDB: Well the first thing to do, you’d go to the mess and have a meal.
HB: Oh right [laughs] yeah. Don’t forget to -
JDB: And then we go down to the flight, down to the briefing room at the prescribed time and go through the briefing.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: Until time to go out to the aircraft and then carry on from there.
HB: So what would your relationship be with the armourers?
JDB: Well I’d see the armourers earlier in the day.
HB: Right.
JDB: I used to go and see how many, how many bombs we’d got on board and how much petrol. Then I could guess where we were going. [laughs]
HB: Oh right. Right.
JDB: Roughly. If you’ve got a full load of juice.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: And a minimum load of bombs we’d be going on a short range one.
HB: Right.
JDB: And conversely of course. And then we would sometimes sit out on the, on the dispersal in a little shed they’d got there and having a chat with the armourers while waiting for take-off time.
HB: Did you, was part of your job actually checking the bomb load and checking the actual bombs?
JDB: No. It wasn’t. Nothing. Just checking they were on board. They were on. What was said were on. That’s all really.
HB: So how would you do that? Would you actually go to the bomb bay?
JDB: Just count them. Have a look.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
JDB: I mean sometimes the bomb bay was full and sometimes it wasn’t.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: The only, the only exception to the general run of things was when we were doing a bit of mine laying.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: And then they would put the mines on board. The naval petty officer was in charge of that and they’d load the mines on to the aircraft. Usually six of them. Six two thousand pounders. And then they would close the bomb doors and they were on for, until release where they were meant to be.
HB: Right.
JDB: They were never taken off and taken back to the bomb dump. Bloody things were magnetic and acoustic mines.
HB: Oh right. So how, how, I mean I suppose obviously there’s safety measures within the aircraft.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Particularly if they’re magnetic so once, once, once you’ve got them on the aircraft and you’re ready to take off you just, your job then is just to –
JDB: Drop them where they’ve got to be dropped.
HB: Drop them where they’ve got to be dropped.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: So you know, there’s no, you don’t go back during the flight and check everything and all of that.
JDB: Oh no. No. No.
HB: No. So –
JDB: I can’t get at them.
HB: No. No. So when you’ve taken off. You’re flying across to the target. Just can you just explain to me, say you’re about a mile, two miles out from the target and you’re going to start lining up for your bomb run. What, what’s the process then that you’re going through?
JDB: Well, when we’re approaching the target you would, the navigator had control and then when we were sort of whatever distance we decided we were away from the target he’d hand over to me and I’d be down the nose and start a visual, you’d have to have visual approach. We start the approach up in the cabin, on the H2S which is a radar system.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: It’s a ground mapping radar.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: And I would get, we’d locate, locate the point on the coast or whatever datum we were given and we would have to do an approach on that point and when we were directly overhead that started the countdown and from there I would be telling the pilot to steer a certain course from that point and I would have the bomb doors open and then we’d, after the sort of ten minutes or whatever time we’d got we’d, I would say after ten minutes, ‘Change course onto -’ whatever it was, if he needed to change course that was. Change course and start counting again to the, how many seconds and then I would release the weapon.
HB: Right. Right.
JDB: Or weapons. As the case -
HB: Yeah.
JDB: May be.
HB: Right. And that’s, don’t forget your tea Derek.
JDB: Oh I hadn’t forgotten it. Thank you.
SB (Wife of John): I’ll just make a cold drink.
HB: So, right, so you and this all the, all the systems obviously when you’re on the bomb run coming in.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Are you physically, are you physically controlling the aircraft or are you telling the pilot what to do?
JDB: Telling the pilot.
HB: Right. So at no time do you actually take over control of the aircraft for the actual bombing.
JDB: No. No. I could do. I could have done if needed to but generally speaking if I was going to do the drop on radar and not visually then I would probably control the aircraft then.
HB: Right. Right. And you’d, had you got sort of electronic controls in your position?
JDB: Well some aircraft did and some didn’t because there weren’t, everybody didn’t drop mines, didn’t do mine laying. So, yeah, usually I would tell the pilot when to, when to do turns and whatever. That’s all.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: The actual release of the weapons I would have control of at all times.
HB: Yeah. Yeah. Oh that’s, yeah, sorry. I just, I thought after the last interview I suddenly thought we’d talked about various bits and bobs.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: But we never actually went through the process of -
JDB: Yeah.
HB: How, how you actually did your job. So you’ve pushed the button or flipped the switch or whatever and the bombs have gone.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: What’s your job then on on the flight home?
JDB: On the flight home. Well, close the bomb doors and secure the aircraft and that’s it. That’s me done unless I need to use the H2s for navigational purposes.
HB: Right. So, what would be that, that would be an assistance to the navigator.
JDB: Yeah. That’s right, yeah, give him bearings or whatever.
HB: Right. Right. And then it’s home for tea and another meal.
JDB: Yes. That’s right.
HB: Right.
JDB: Egg, bacon and chips.
HB: The staple diet.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Brilliant. Brilliant. Right. Well I think probably that’s covered the bits I wanted to try and cover Derek.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: If that’s alright with you.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: What, I think when we spoke last time you said you’d have a bit of a think about it for me. Sort of things, things where you got a bit of a fright or something that was really really silly that happened.
JDB: I told you about, about [Abbeyville] didn’t I? When we bombed the flying bomb site. The second operation with 103 squadron.
HB: I can’t remember that one, I don’t think.
JDB: Well, we, our first operation, very first was against Stettin up on the Baltic. Nine and a half hours airborne in a Lanc which is not funny.
HB: No. No.
JDB: And anyway that’s the first operation but we, but as far as attacking defences was concerned it was a doddle you know. Nothing to it really. Anyway, second operation we go in for briefing and it’s a flying bomb sight and it’s only just in France which is obvious for a flying bomb site to be. It’s the right place. And it wasn’t far and we thought, oh this is a piece of cake. Anyway, we get briefed and I think, I’m guessing now Harry but I think we were briefed to bomb at something like six thousand feet which is pretty low.
HB: Oh yeah.
JDB: And we went over, we got over there and we were over, nearly over the target area and there was ten tenths cloud so it was a question of well we can’t see the bloody ground let alone the target and then we get the master bomber on the blower saying, ‘Main force. Ground not visible. Descend to three thousand feet.’
HB: Oh.
JDB: ‘Descend to three thousand feet. No opposition.’ And that were his very words and do you know who that was?
HB: Go on.
JDB: Then wing commander. Later a group captain, VC man.
HB: Oh is this the Leonard Cheshire?
JDB: Yeah. Cheshire.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
JDB: Leonard Cheshire, who was the master bomber.
HB: Ah
JDB: Amazing isn’t it?
HB: Yeah.
JDB: Anyway, there we were. Anyway, we said ok and we broke cloud and as luck would have it well it wasn’t luck it was a bit of skill in fact we broke cloud heading straight for the target and suddenly bang bang bang and I was looking out of the front at the time and two shells burst right in front of us and so so we were on the bombing run then.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: So I pressed, I pressed the tit and nothing happened so we peeled away and I I told skip, ‘Nothing’s happened. I’m going to change the fuse.’ So he did an orbit left and I changed the fuse, nothing happened again so we decided to bugger off and then suddenly the rear gunner says, ‘We’re on fire skip,’ he said. Looked out the back and said, ‘We’re not on bloody fire at all. That’s something else.’ And anyway we got away and it transpired that what he’d thought we were on fire and smoke was pouring backwards was vaporising bloody hydraulic oil.
HB: Oh right.
JDB: Yeah so from that point on we’d got no hydraulics. The bomb doors were open and we had no hydraulics. Anyway, we climbed away and started heading back for the, back to the North Sea and we flew into cloud of cunim and we lost, the skip lost his, lost some of his instruments. He had no altimeter.
[phone starts ringing]
HB: That’s alright
JDB: Alright.
HB: That’s alright. I’ll just pause.
JDB: Alright.
HB: I’ll just pause. I’ll pause it while.
[machine paused]
HB: Right. Just recommencing after that.
JDB: Doing that.
HB: Yeah. So, so is this the one where you came through the cloud to Wolds?
JDB: Through the cloud?
HB: To, was it to the Wolds.
JDB: Yeah. We came. No. No. No. No.
HB: That was a different one wasn’t it?
JDB: No. No.
HB: So you’ve -
JDB: We went into this cloud and skip said, skipper said, ‘Christ I don’t know whether we’re inside out or upside down or what,’ you know. ‘Prepare to abandon’. That was the only time I heard that said during my career. ‘Get your parachutes on and prepare to abandon.’ So we carried on and we came out of the cloud and de-iced and the instruments reappeared and we were all right so we ploughed on up the North Sea to the dropping zone and there I got the wireless op to help me and we, I had two pieces of wire about eighteen inches, two foot long with a hook on the end to trip the release mechanisms and drop the bombs manually. Which we did. Dropped them all in the bloody sea and got back late and then it’s a question of well we’ve got no hydraulics. What about the undercart? Well you can actually blow the undercart down with compressed air but you can only do it once and you can’t get them back up again.
HB: Oh no.
JDB: So we blew the wheels down and we’d got no brakes of course so we, we did a circuit, landed and rolled and couldn’t stop, you know and just rolled just to the end of the runway and then got it away and it was full of bloody holes the thing was.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: But that was that. A bit of a come back to earth lads.
HB: Yeah and was anybody hurt on that?
JDB: Sorry?
HB: Was anybody of the crew injured on that?
JDB: No. Would you believe? No. Nobody. The shell must have been just below the shrapnel to knock out wiring and pipes and things and leave the vitals intact.
HB: Blimey.
JDB: So it was quite a, quite a thing.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: But we didn’t have any other major scares.
HB: So basically, so basically, Leonard Cheshire brought you down and you got bracketed pretty well straight away.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Right. I bet you didn’t buy him a drink in the bar.
JDB: He wasn’t on our bloody squadron.
HB: [laughs] Yeah. Yeah.
JDB: Yeah. Well I suppose he’d flown, he’d flown over the target and those German gunners were not stupid. They didn’t shoot at one aeroplane. They just waited till they got several of us there.
HB: Yeah. Yeah.
JDB: And, you know.
HB: What, what was, I mean it’s something that we always ask and I didn’t really go in, much into it in the last interview.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: What, when you were actually on the squadron, you were on 103 and then predominantly you were with 166.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: What, what was your social life like? What, how, what did you do for a social life?
JDB: Well when we first went to the squadron it was just after, not long after D-Day and we were confined to camp. We weren’t allowed off camp for a while because of short notice calls.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: And then after that we used to get, you were allowed off, you had [limited bus], let you go into Scunthorpe for the night or whatever and that was about it but the main social life was around the village pub.
HB: Right.
JDB: Which is still there. The Marrowbone and Cleaver.
HB: Oh yeah.
JDB: The Chopper.
HB: Yeah. I think you mentioned that last time.
JDB: Yeah. I did.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: Did you ever have any socialising on the actual airfield or was that just not allowed?
JDB: Sorry not with you.
HB: Did you have any sort of like dances or anything like that on the airfield itself.
JDB: Oh they had occasional things like that in the, in the WAAF mess once in a while yeah but generally speaking there wasn’t much social life. Mind I had my problem with my, my face as well didn’t I? I think I told you about that. No?
HB: Oh was this when, did you have, you had like a rash or something didn’t you?
JDB: Yeah. That’s right
HB: Yes.
JDB: Yeah
HB: You did. Yeah we went, we covered that in our first interview.
JDB: I think I told you about that. Yeah.
HB: Yeah.
JDB: Oxygen mask dermatitis.
HB: Oh right. Yeah. Yeah.
JDB: It -
HB: A bit of a risk that one.
JDB: Yeah.
HB: But right, right. [coughs] Excuse me. Well, I’ll tell you what Derek I think we’ll just finish it there ‘cause it’s what time is it? Nearly 12 o’clock.
JDB: Don’t worry about it.
HB: I’ll just -
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/.
Identifier
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ABaileyJD170113
PBaileyJD1607
Title
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Interview with John Derek "Bill" Bailey. Two
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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Type
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Sound
Language
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eng
Format
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00:49:33 audio recording
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Harry Bartlett
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-01-13
Description
An account of the resource
Part two of the interview with Derek Bailey, a bomb aimer with 103 and 166 Squadrons.
Towards the end of the war, Derek did various bomber instructor courses and became a bombing instructor at RAF Lossiemouth on Wellingtons for Free French aircrew in 4 Group. He was an expert on the Mark XIV bombsights. He would deliver some lectures and fly as a screened bomb aimer to check they were following the correct procedures.
On the invitation from a flight commander, Derek volunteered to join Tiger Force at RAF Swinderby, a Heavy Conversion Unit onto Lancasters. They trained on a different navigational radar system, Loran, to get to Okinawa in the Far East. However, war then ended.
Derek was posted to RAF Blyton where he was designated as an equipment officer for bomb disposal in western Europe. He went on a course at RAF Bicester. Derek was demobilised when stationed at Technical Training Command headquarters at RAF Brampton. He had wanted to stay on in the RAF but did not want to lose his job with his employer.
Derek describes a typical day on operations and his role as bomb aimer, as well as a difficult operation to Abbeville in which Leonard Cheshire was the master bomber.
After the war, Derek was a company director in road transport and was very much involved with the Air Training Corps.
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.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Oxfordshire
Scotland--Moray
France
France--Abbeville
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
1945
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Julie Williams
Sally Coulter
103 Squadron
166 Squadron
aircrew
bomb aimer
bomb disposal
bombing
Cheshire, Geoffrey Leonard (1917-1992)
H2S
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Master Bomber
mine laying
Operational Training Unit
RAF Bicester
RAF Blyton
RAF Elsham Wolds
RAF Kirmington
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Swinderby
Tiger force
training
V-1
V-weapon
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/209/3348/ABellJR150727.2.mp3
9d02f41eac38212c78457bf9772c6f97
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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Bell, John Richard
John Richard Bell
John R Bell
John Bell
J R Bell
J Bell
Description
An account of the resource
Two oral history interviews with Wing Commander John Richard Bell DFC (-2024). He was a bomb aimer with 619 and 617 Squadrons in Flying Officer Bob Knights’ crew.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-07-27
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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Bell, JR-UK
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
The interview is taking place at Mr Bell’s home in Storrington on 27th July 2015. During this interview Mr Bell recounts his experiences as a bomb aimer in 617 Squadron.
JB: I and my crew begged Wing Commander Cheshire when we asked if we could join his squadron and he was sat in his office, very nice man to talk to, we were an experienced crew and he still wanted to know why we wanted to join his squadron, so we told him that we would like to be flying a little lower, nearer the ground, but he said ‘oh, but we’re not going to be doing that any more, we’re operating normally’ which of course they were but they were operating mainly over targets in northern France, practically to the build up to the invasion obviously and one installation that I remember on operation was against the [unclear] works at Limoges which was the first time that Leonard Cheshire had marked the target with his own flares and, er, having found that marking was essential he came over the factory at about two to three hundred feet and dropped twice, to drop flares on the target and to ensure that the French workers in the factory could get out and get into the shelter, the word being that we should try to avoid killing French workers during our bombing campaign. He was a very compassionate man and very easy to talk to and very good, very easy to get on with, he didn’t stand on ceremony and he didn’t order you to do things, he just asked you to follow him, whatever he was prepared to do, he was an exceptional man, an exceptional leader. Early in 1944 the Allies became aware of [unclear] reconnaissance of some large structures, concrete structures being built in the Pas de Calais area of France. They did not know what they were at that time although they suspected they were something to do with the V weapons programme which had been discovered after the attacks on Peenemunde. Following the attack on Peenemunde it was known that the Germans were developing two weapons, a rocket programme and also a pilot’s - aeroplane programme carrying, each carrying one tonne of explosive warheads. The V1 launch site was discovered in the Pas de Calais area early in 1944 and also at that time the two large concrete structures which the Allies were not sure of their purpose but felt they were probably connected to the rocket – V2 Rocket programme. The V1 sites were attacked by Bomber Command throughout the next three months of 1944 and the construction of the - what became known as the V2 programme, the two sites, one in the Eperlecques Forest and one near Saint-Omer at [unclear] were watched as the building progressed but they were large concrete structures and could not be attacked, although they were attacked with conventional weapons but not put out of action until the 617 Squadron was equipped with the Tallboy in June 1944. The site at [unclear] near Saint-Omer consisted of a chalk quarry with a cliff at the far end of the quarry and on the top of the cliff we saw the construction of a concrete dome, obviously built there to protect the workings within the cliff. 617 Squadron were assigned to attack it on – several times in June and July, I think about four times altogether, mainly because of cloud interfering on two occasions and Tallboys were used to destroy all the facilities of the site and in fact one landed close to this concrete dome which obviously destroyed the foundations of the structure. One of the operations I was on was the 17th July 1944 and it was a clear day and we approached the site from the north-west and from a long way away I could see quite clearly, from the bomb aimer’s position, the dome covering the installation in the quarry. We approached at the normal speed of close on one hundred and eighty to two hundred miles an hour and at a height of around eighteen thousand feet. I signed up er [pause]
AP: It’s OK John, just keep -
JB: I switched on the bomb sight and carried out all of the normal procedures for the bombing run and directed the pilot to - on the bombing run. This took some time, we were on the run for at least five minutes and the - I had the dome in my bomb sight for all of that time and at the appropriate moment the bomb was automatically released. It was a clear day and I saw the bomb – the Tallboy going down and I followed it all the way down to the target and it exploded just beside the dome, there was an enormous explosion, so that was recorded as an almost - a direct hit and in fact I did shout out ‘Bullseye’ to the crew to let them know that we’d had a pretty good hit.
AP: And the consequence of what happened, about what it did, can you talk a little bit about what – later on you discovered that -
JB: Later, much later, we discovered that the foundations of the dome - the supports of the dome had been severely disrupted and it had tilted to one side. Obviously the site was then unusable, other Tallboys had bombed the whole of the site and the whole facility was useless by then. On the 25th of July 1944 the squadron continued its attacks on the V weapons sites in the Pas de Calais, we bombed the first V2 site that we’d seen at the Eperlecques Forest and this was a large concrete structure which would have taken a great deal of destruction by Tallboys to put it out of action. It - there were several direct hits on the target on that particular day and eventually the installation was put out of action by our attacks and only the oxygen-producing facility was maintained there. Both sites were never able to launch V2s as they were programmed to do. A third construction site was discovered at a village called Mimoyecques, also in the Pas de Calais area, and it was noted that there were a number of concrete underground installations with a pattern of openings in the tops of the structures. The purpose was not known although it was thought that they were – it was going to be used for the launch of some sort of rocket projectile. The whole site was bombed by the main force of Bomber Command and also by 617 Squadron and their Tallboys were able to penetrate deep into the earth and destroy the foundations of these concrete structures, thereby putting it out of action. It was only discovered - the true purpose of the site was discovered after the Armies – the Allied Armies moved through following D-Day and found that it was a site designed to launch projectiles with a warhead of several kilograms towards London and the number of missiles that would have been launched could have been as high as three thousand a day. The intention of the site was to bombard London with projectiles from these - from this supergun, each carrying a warhead of around thirty kilos of explosive and the intention was from the number of projectiles that they could launch would result in some three thousand shells, so-called shells landing in London every hour and the destruction of the site obviously saved London from an enormous barrage of artillery from long range. This site at Mimoyecques was extremely difficult to bomb because it was all buried underground and there was very little to see on the surface except two concrete structures but er – and of course the whole of the site had been bombed pretty heavily by the normal weapons by aircraft from Bomber Command and the United States Airforce so the 617 crews had difficulty in seeing the site but nevertheless were accurate enough with their Tallboys. On July 6th 1944 617 Squadron aircraft, led by the CO, Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire, attacked the site at Mimoyecques with Tallboys and completely destroyed the site. This operation on the V3 site at Mimoyecques was Wing Commander Cheshire’s one hundredth bombing operation throughout his bombing career from 1941 onwards and he was stood down from bombing following that day, he was then awarded the Victoria Cross for completing all the operations and for his valour in doing so and his leadership and he was followed in command of the squadron by Wing Commander [unclear] Tate, Wing Commander Tate. In 1941 Barnes Wallis who had given great thought to the bombing of various targets in Germany, particularly those underground or buried installations, and he saw the need for a bomb other than a blast bomb, which was currently in use, a bomb to penetrate the earth and explode below causing some sort of an earthquake. His thought at that time was for a very large bomber flying at forty thousand feet and carrying a ten tonne bomb which of course was quite impractical at that time, but in 1943 the launch of the Air Ministry brought out his project again and asked him to design something that could be carried by perhaps the aircraft of the day, the Lancaster, and so he designed what became known as the Tallboy and he designed it in three sizes – four thousand pounds, twelve thousand pounds and twenty-two thousand pounds, all at that time called Tallboys. The four thousand pound was tested and was found not to be as stable as they thought it should be so the fins on the tail were turned to five degrees from the vertical and this helped to - the bomb to spin as it was dropped thereby giving it great stability and the twelve thousand pounder then became known as the Tallboy and the twenty-two thousand pounder was called the Grand Slam, the twelve thousand pounder was issued to 617 Squadron immediately after D-Day and the first operation was against the Saumur tunnel on I think the 9th of June 1944 and the – it was a complete success in destroying the tunnel and from then on the squadron operated almost solely with Tallboys and later with the Grand Slam, the weapons being central in the destruction of the V weapon sites and any other installation that had been buried below the ground. It had also of course - was later found very – found to be the ideal weapon for destroying bridges and canals so a great weapon by Barnes Wallis again used by the squadron. On the 5th August 1944 we carried out a daylight attack on the U-Boat pens at Brest. This was in bright daylight, sunny day, and I can remember dropping my Tallboy onto the area of the pens and I think it hit fairly close by. My memory of the day is that there was an enormous amount of flak, very heavy flak over the target area but we were, we were not hit, we escaped. My job in the crew in the Lancaster was as a bomb aimer and also as front gunner if need be and my job was to guide the pilot towards the target and then to concentrate on dropping the bombs on whatever the target was and dropping them as accurate as possible and my abiding picture of the whole of all the operations I did, particularly those over Germany at night, was of approaching the target area - the city that was under attack or was about to be attacked and to be met with a wall of anti-aircraft fire. The German gunners would fire their shells into a box at around twenty thousand feet, which was the height we were aiming at, aiming to be at, and we just had to fly through that. It was a pretty awesome sight to behold some miles before we reached the target but by concentrating on what we had to do we just had to ignore it, there was no way you could ig – you could dodge anti-aircraft shells, you just have to fly through them and hope that you’re not going to be hit even by a small amount of shrapnel which of course could damage a vital part of the aeroplane but we were very fortunate that all our operations – that we got through all of them unscathed. Following the raid on the German dams 617 Squadron later became, became used to operate on many other targets for which it was equipped with a bomb sight, a new bomb sight, the stabilising automatic bomb site, also known as SABS. This was a precision-built bomb sight and it was not, it was not used in any other – by any other squadron, mainly because it was difficult to build and very few were actually made. The invention and design of the Tallboy weapon by Barnes Wallis was the – a most important weapon that arrived at the right time in 1944. It was the only weapon that could have destroyed the targets against which it was used, conventional weapons at that time were blast weapons and would have had little or no effect on the structures that the Tallboy attacked and it was, it was essential of course to use it against targets which were buried underground and also, er, heavily armoured targets like battleships, the [targets ?] could never have been bombed by anything else other than a Tallboy so the Tallboy was really the crux of the whole bombing campaign from 1944 onwards to, to hasten the end of the war by destroying those targets which the Germans hoped to use to counter the invasion forces, it just was the [emphasis] weapon that was needed at the right time. The Tallboy was carried in the bomb bay and supported in there by a strap which had – the connection of the strap was electrically operated by the bomb sight at the critical moment. The top of the bomb had a hole drilled in it and in the roof of the bomb bay was a metal plug and the plug was – so when the bomb was hoisted into the bomb bay it married up with the plug and the strap was fitted underneath it and that secured it into the bomb bay. At a critical moment the bomb sight automatically triggered the release mechanism for the bomb, the strap separated and the bomb dropped out. The wireless operator’s job was to go back and wind in the two straps – two parts of the strap. The one thing about the Tallboy was that it was expensive to produce and they could not be produced very quickly so they were in limited supply and we were told that if you can’t drop the bomb, if you can’t see the target, don’t drop it, just don’t drop them all over France said Leonard Cheshire and we were instructed to bring them back which we did on several occasions when cloud obscured the target and – or smoke and if we couldn’t see it clearly then we would bring the Tallboy back and landing with a twelve thousand pounder was not funny and one had to be very careful – the pilot land very carefully which he did of course and there were never any accidents with them as there were never any accidents with the crews that brought back the twenty-two thousand pound Grand Slam when they couldn’t drop it so the aircraft was built to carry it and we never had any problem with it. Following the raid on Brest on the 5th August I completed – that completed my 50 missions constituting two tours of operations that I could retire from operating now and attend to further duties in training other crews in the training, training line. The squadron went on to other targets on U-Boat pens and military and, and naval targets throughout the rest of the war.
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/.
Identifier
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ABellJR150727
Title
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Interview with John Richard Bell
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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Type
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Sound
Language
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eng
Format
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00:21:47 audio recording
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending OH summary. Allocated T Holmes
Creator
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Andrew Panton
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-07-27
Description
An account of the resource
John Bell completed 50 operations as a bomb aimer with 617 Squadron before becoming an instructor.
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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France
Germany
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Atlantic Ocean--English Channel
France--Mimoyecques
France--Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais)
France--Saumur
Germany--Peenemünde
France--Watten
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944
1945
Contributor
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Gill Kavanagh
617 Squadron
aircrew
anti-aircraft fire
bomb aimer
bombing
bombing of the Mimoyecques V-3 site (6 July 1944)
Bombing of the Saumur tunnel (8/9 June 1944)
bombing of the Watten V-2 site (19 June 1944)
bombing of the Wizernes V-2 site (20, 22, 24 June 1944)
Cheshire, Geoffrey Leonard (1917-1992)
Grand Slam
Lancaster
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Tallboy
V-1
V-2
V-3
V-weapon
Wallis, Barnes Neville (1887-1979)
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/221/3362/PCampbellKWP1601.2.jpg
46f4ce48d53bda56bbcf7a7e51feba7b
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/221/3362/ACampbellK160518.1.mp3
90a0845fe49fb6c55e3cebd57026cb8d
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
Campbell, Keith William
Keith William Campbell
Keith W Campbell
Keith Campbell
K W Campbell
K Campbell
Description
An account of the resource
Two oral history interviews with Keith William Campbell (1923 - 2019, 423220 Royal Australian Air Force) and a diary he kept as a prisoner of war.<br /><br /> A further collection about Keith Campbell <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2083">here.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Keith William Campbell and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-06-04
2016-05-18
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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Campbell, KW
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
DG: This interview is being conducted for the International Bomber Command Centre. My name is Donald Gould and I am interviewing Keith Campbell of the Pacific Highway in Sydney. And you just speak from there and that’s fine. What is your name Keith?
KC: Keith Campbell.
DG: And how old are you Keith?
KC: Ninety two years, Don.
DG: Where were you born?
KC: Oh, in the city of Bathurst.
DG: That’s in the country of New South Wales. What, what did you parents do there?
KC: My father was an engineer in the railways.
DG: Right.
KC: Course in those days Bathurst was quite a large depot.
DG: It would have been.
KC: For steam trains.
DG: The railways.
KC: Yes.
DG: Yes. Yes, certainly. And where did you go to school?
KC: After a couple of years in Bathurst my father was transferred to the West Tamworth branch of the New South Wales Government Railways to take charge of the depot there and after, well, being about two at this stage I think aged five or thereabouts, it might have been a bit before I went to kindergarten. Preschool as it’s called now and subsequently went to junior school at the Tamworth School complex and subsequently went to high school where I spent five years and ended up with my leaving, leaving certificate.
DG: And that was in Tamworth.
KC: That was in Tamworth High School.
DG: Yes. Another country town of New South Wales.
KC: Well yes that was [?]
DG: Where were you when the war broke out?
KC: At school.
DG: In Tamworth.
KC: In Tamworth.
DG: And how, how old would you have been then? Around eight, er no about-
KC: Oh war broke out on -
DG: Sixteen. Something.
KC: 3rd of September.
DG: ‘39.
KC: ‘39. I was, what was I? My birthday was on the 18th of September so I would have been about seventeen, sixteen.
DG: Sixteen.
KC: Ahum.
DG: And at, and at that stage what, just as the war broke out and you were still at school did you have any thoughts that you might end up going, going to war? Or were you thinking that it might all be over in a couple of years or what was happening?
KC: I’m sure most of us thought we would be going to the war one way or another.
DG: Right.
KC: My father had been in the Australian Flying Corps during the first war so I immediately said, ‘If I go I’m going in the air force.’
DG: And you, you, you went into the air force because your father had been in the air force.
KC: Well that was one -
DG: And that was one of the -
KC: One of the main incentives and the air force appealed rather than the other services.
DG: Why was that?
KC: Flying.
DG: Oh right. Did you have, did you want to fly? Was it something you wanted to do?
KC: Well, ever since the mid ‘30s when Kingsford Smith was doing his barnstorming tours I had, my father gave me five shillings to do a circuit with Kingsford Smith in the Southern Cross and ever since then I’d been hooked on flying.
DG: And had you, although the war broke out had you or when you were at school had you any thoughts about what you might do? Apart from going to the war of course. Before that happened did you have any thoughts of what you might do when you left school?
KC: Oh. I wanted to be an analytical chemist.
DG: Right. Did you ever follow that up in the future?
KC: I followed that up, had an interview and I was told that if I took the position it was a reserved occupation so I abandoned it.
DG: Oh right. Ok. And how did you, how did you come to join the air force? When you decided you’d join and you went along to one of the recruitment centres I presume and -
KC: Well, I was eighteen in, whatever -
DG: Oh that’s alright. At eighteen you went along -
KC: And then I went. The nearest recruiting centre was at Newcastle.
DG: Right.
KC: So the 31st of December 1941 I was accepted into the reserve of the RAAF and duly received my Reserve badge.
DG: And what did they, what did they do with you then? Where did they, send you somewhere for training or -
KC: No. When you are on the reserve you just had to -
DG: Oh I see. Yeah.
KC: There was such a -
DG: Right.
KC: Oversupply of potential aircrew -
DG: Yes.
KC: That you just had to wait your turn.
DG: Right. Right. And then when you, when you were called up, where, where did you go?
KC: Well during the, about four or five months before I was called up a group of five of us who were also on the reserve in Tamworth and we used to do Morse code and aircraft recognition and similar things to that to prepare us for the possible future.
DG: Right.
KC: And in May I was called up to QITS at Bradfield Park in Sydney.
DG: Oh that, oh that seems to be a very popular spot.
KC: Well that was, all the New South Wales people started there.
DG: Oh did they? Oh I see. Right.
KC: They were put there as AC2s.
DG: And what, what did they do, what did you do there?
KC: You did some basic exercises. Training and indoctrination in to the air force. Discipline, laws and conduct and various assessment interviews to see what you would, to see what they would assess you as. Where you would go.
DG: And what did they assess you for?
KC: Initially they said I was going to be a pilot.
DG: Right. And that, did that eventuate?
KC: No.
DG: Oh right [laughs]. What happened?
KC: I was ready to go to be posted to a training centre but one morning on parade they announced that there was a shortage of observers in the schools in Canada and anyone that volunteered would go within the week.
DG: Right.
KC: Well the temptation for overseas trip was too great so -
DG: Oh right.
KC: I was one of the twenty or thirty that volunteered and we did go within the week or two.
DG: Oh right. So you weren’t at Bradfield for very long?
KC: Only a couple or three months.
DG: Right. And what happened when you got to Canada? Whereabouts, whereabouts did you go in Canada?
KC: Well we could be shipped from Hobart.
DG: Right.
KC: To San Francisco.
DG: Right.
KC: And we called in to Pearl Harbour on the way and saw the devastation.
DG: Oh right.
KC: The Japanese raid had made on the American navy.
DG: Yes.
KC: And then disembarked at San Francisco. Caught the train to Vancouver. Had a wonderful trip across the Rockies.
DG: Yes.
KC: To Edmonton.
DG: Right.
KC: And then we were put in the camp there for further assessment.
DG: And what, and what did they, how did they assess you there?
KC: I was, most days an observer. An observer consisted of navigation and bombing.
DG: Oh right.
KC: And by the time we got to Canada it had been re-categorised as a bomb aimer or a navigator.
DG: Right.
KC: And I was one of the ones categorised as a bomb aimer.
DG: Ok.
KC: And I went to the Bombing and Gunnery School at Lethbridge in Alberta.
DG: Do you know what they, you said they assessed you to be a bomb aimer. What did they, what did they do to judge your abilities or whatever to decide that that sort of thing would suit you?
KC: I think they -
DG: Do you have any idea?
KC: A to N were bomb aimers M to Z were navigators [laughs].
DG: Oh right. So -
KC: I don’t know.
DG: It was, no. No. Ok.
KC: I’m sure they just checked your records.
DG: Right. Yes. Not terribly scientific perhaps.
KC: I don’t think, not at that stage.
DG: And, and when did, have you, can you remember when you finished your training there and went to, to England?
KC: Well, spent about three months at Lethbridge Bombing and Gunnery School and then went to Edmonton to Navigation School and spent, I suppose, another three or four months there.
DG: I should, I should ask you that yes. The training there. I’d skipped over that. The training you, so you did some training in bomb aiming and some in navigation.
KC: Navigation. Yes.
DG: And how did you, what were your, what were your feelings? What? Regardless of what they asked you to do. What would, what did you like the idea of being? A bomb aimer or a navigator?
KC: I just wanted to fly [laughs].
DG: Oh right [laughs] and so how, how did they, they train you in bomb aiming. What did they, how did they do it, did they take you up and show you how to use the sights and all of this sort of thing I assume.
KC: Well, firstly, you had to learn how to use the bomb sight.
DG: Right.
KC: Which was the, the early bomb sight. Not the mark 14 and we went up, about four of us went up in an Anson and dropped nine pound practice bombs on the target and did that for oh however long it took and after about fifty or so bombs I suppose over that period and interspersed, interspersed with that was gunnery as well. We used to fly up in a Fairey Battle and -
DG: Right.
KC: Or something similar.
DG: So you did drop a few bombs.
KC: Oh well nine pound practice bombs.
DG: Oh that’s right. Yes, I missed, yes. Yes, that’s right. And what about the navigation? What sort of, what sort of training did you get with the navigation?
KC: Oh you had to do your star shots. Use of a sextant.
DG: Oh right.
KC: And how to operate the navigation instruments.
DG: Right.
KC: Sorry. Now, I’ve forgotten most of it.
DG: Yes. Yes.
KC: In the -
DG: Sorry.
KC: In the meantime we enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of the Canadian people.
DG: And how did you find that? They looked after you well, did they?
KC: Superbly.
DG: Excellent. And then when, when did you go to the UK?
KC: We -
DG: Any idea of what -
KC: We received our wings in, I think it was the end of May or June 1943.
DG: Right.
KC: We thought we knew everything.
DG: I bet you did.
KC: And after, I think it was two weeks leave, we ended up in Halifax waiting for a ship to go to UK.
DG: And where did they send you when you arrived?
KC: We arrived at Liverpool and after the bright lights and no restrictions in Canada it was a very different country we arrived at. It was blackout.
DG: Oh yeah.
KC: Everything was rationed.
DG: Right.
KC: And it was a country at war.
DG: Totally different.
KC: Totally different.
DG: And where did they, what base or centre?
KC: Well from there we all went to the RAAF centre at Brighton -
DG: Right.
KC: Which was a holding centre for air crew until they found space for them at the training stations.
DG: Right. Were you there very long?
KC: I was there for about two to three weeks I think.
DG: Right. And where did they send you after that?
KC: After that we went to, what was called AFU Advanced Training Unit at Pwllheli in North Wales where we just, we were acclimatised to the conditions in England.
DG: Right.
KC: For crowded skies, fog and -
DG: Ok.
KC: Aircraft everywhere you could see.
DG: Yes.
KC: And we thought we were, we were trained. We very soon found out we, what we didn’t know.
DG: And they gave you more thorough then in er, and were you doing that in bomb aiming or any navigation there?
KC: Well as a, mainly in bomb aiming.
DG: Right.
KC: And some navigation.
DG: And were you there very long?
KC: A couple of months I think.
DG: Right. And what happened after that?
KC: After that we were sent to Operational Training Unit.
DG: Right.
KC: Which was really the start of serious training.
DG: Yes.
KC: We all, I forget how many. it was probably about twenty of each category.
DG: Right.
KC: Pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, gunners and wireless -
DG: Ah.
KC: Operators.
DG: Yeah
KC: Put them all together in a hangar and said, ‘Right. Sort yourselves out as a crew.’
DG: I’ve heard that. And how did you go about finding a crew?
KC: It seemed a very haphazard way of doing things.
DG: Yes.
KC: But it turned out remarkably well. You just talked to people and if they seemed compatible –
DG: Yes.
KC: Said, ‘Well I’m looking for a pilot.’ And he said, ‘Well I’m looking for a bomb aimer. Let’s team up.’
DG: Right.
KC: And then you’d go and talk to someone else who might be a navigator.
DG: And did you did you pick up your whole crew at that stage?
KC: The five crew.
DG: What did that, while you were talking. Right, yeah.
KC: The five crew of a Wellington.
DG: Oh yes, of course. Right ok.
KC: A training station.
DG: Did the Wellington have a flight engineer?
KC: No.
DG: Right. Just had a, what crew did a Wellington have?
KC: Pilot, navigator, bomb aimer, signaller and gunner.
DG: Ah right ok. Were you all Australians?
KC: As it happened we were.
DG: Right.
KC: Lichfield seemed to be an Australian centre.
DG: Oh I see. Yes. Yes.
KC: There were other RAF people there and Canadians and -
DG: And did -
KC: New Zealanders.
DG: And then did you, did you, did you do your further training there at Lichfield with your newly found crew?
KC: Yes, you flew as a crew from then on.
DG: Right.
KC: And learned the responsibilities to each other -
DG: Yes.
KC: You soon learned that you had to be completely compatible and er because each one’s life depended on the other ones.
DG: Yes. Yes. And how long were you at Lichfield?
KC: From memory about three months.
DG: Right. And then did you go to a squadron? [or whatever?]
KC: No.
DG: Or whatever?
KC: We went from there to an advanced, to a conversion unit where we transferred from Wellingtons to the four engine aircraft which we’d be flying on a squadron.
DG: And what, and what plane was that?
KC: That was the Halifax. The Halifax mark ii at that stage we were flying at con unit.
DG: And you -
KC: There we picked up another engineer, another gunner and an engineer. Both were RAF.
DG: Right. And then after that did you go to a squadron?
KC: When we finished our conversion unit and passed out.
DG: Yes.
KC: We went to 466 squadron based at Leconfield.
DG: Where is that? What county.
KC: In Yorkshire.
DG: And did you stay at that, with that squadron all the way through the war? 466.
KC: I stayed with 466 but early June 466 transferred from Leconfield to Driffield. Also in Yorkshire.
DG: And then for the rest of the war? Was it from Driffield?
KC: For the rest of my war it was.
DG: From your, yes. Yes. From your - Ok. And did you only fly the Halifax?
KC: Yes. Driffield, 466 squadron had very recently traded in, for want of a better word, their Wellingtons on to the new mark iii Halifax.
DG: Right.
KC: Which was a superb aircraft. Was -
DG: Did you prefer to the Halifax to the other -
KC: Well you didn’t have a choice.
DG: I know but I mean just, did you, did you have any, did you, you felt, did you enjoy flying in that more than -
KC: Having flown in a -
DG: Halifax.
KC: Halifax it it, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have wanted a better aeroplane.
DG: Oh right. Oh well that, that’s good to fly in something that, that you enjoy doing.
KC: Complete confidence.
DG: A plane that you enjoy.
KC: It performed well. Had, with the new radial engines their performance was outstanding.
DG: What sort of engine did the Halifax have? A radial?
KC: Four radial engines um oh Hercules.
DG: Are they, were they Rolls Royce?
KC: No.
DG: Oh, no. Do you know who made those?
KC: No.
DG: I had, oh well I -
KC: Rolls Royce made Merlins.
DG: Yes. Yes, no, ok. What was the daily life like on, on the base?
KC: Well the -
DG: Daily routines.
KC: Very relaxed. As much as you did what you needed to do. Attended every lecture, parade or things like that. Turned up at the bombing section every morning and compared notes from the people that’d flown previously on raids and generally acquainted yourself with the other crews.
DG: Did you, did you have any sort of roster in so far as did you have, were there times when you’d be on flying duty and then times when you’d have a little bit of leave for a few days or something like that?
KC: Generally after you flew for six weeks and then got a week’s leave.
DG: What did you do on your week’s leave? What sort of activities did you get up to?
KC: The whole of England to explore.
DG: And did you?
KC: As far as possible. Yes.
DG: And you enjoyed that?
KC: Oh very much.
DG: How did you get around?
KC: You had, we were given a rail pass to wherever we wanted to go. So I used to get a rail pass as far north in Scotland as I could which gave me unlimited scope.
DG: You enjoyed Scotland?
KC: Very much.
DG: And when you’ve, after leave, when if you were on flying, six weeks that you were on flying duty what was the sort of routine then?
KC: Well, you’d wake up in the morning and have a look, see whether you were on flying duty and if you were on, on that night you prepared yourself for going to briefing, getting your gear ready and going out to the aircraft.
DG: So, how much, how much of your day was taken up in that preparation from the time that you first started.
KC: Oh.
DG: Getting things to -
KC: Generally the raids were at night so the briefing was afternoon and by the time you got your charts in order and time for dinner and from there you just were taken out to the aircraft by the girls in the transport section and waited until take-off.
DG: Did you have to do any checking out in the aircraft earlier in the day or were you just pretty much just did those final checks when you got out to the aircraft then?
KC: Well, from my point of view there wasn’t much to check.
DG: No. No, we’ve, no, I see. Yeah. Yeah
KG: The pilot used to go out and make sure that everything was oh according to him it was ok.
DG: Yeah. What, how did you, how did you feel? What were your nerves like? What were you, what did you think about when you were going out on a mission?
KC: Oh.
DG: Did you, were you nervous? Were you worried or -
KC: No. No. I don’t think so. You knew what, you knew what you were doing. You knew the odds and, well, I accepted them.
DG: Yeah. And what, now, that was when you were getting ready to go. Did that, did you still feel the same way as during the mission. Did things change or did you just feel pretty much the same all the way through?
KC: I did.
DG: Yes.
KC: Didn’t have time to do myself. By the time I’d done map reading and one of my other jobs was operate the H2S which was a navigation instrument and I had a fairly full time job there.
DG: There was, there was a navigator on the Halifax isn’t there?
KC: Oh yes.
DG: But the bomb aimer operated the H2S did he?
KC: It was up to each individual crew.
DG: Oh right.
KC: The -
DG: I’d understood the H2S was a navigation aid -
KC: It was.
DG: So I presumed the navigator had done it.
KC: Oh it’s a navigation, Gee and H2S -
DG: Yes.
KC: Were navigation. We worked it out between them that I’d done navigation training in Canada.
DG: Right.
KC: So he would operate the Gee and the charts and do all the setting courses and I would operate the H2S.
DG: How many missions did you fly Keith?
KC: Thirty three.
DG: Crikey. So you did your, you did your tour.
KC: Well the tour in those days was flexible.
DG: Oh was it?
KC: Up to, probably up to forty.
DG: Oh I see.
KC: We started off, I arrived on the squadron at, I think it was just after Christmas ‘43 and we spent the next six weeks on the squadron doing training on the Halifax and becoming proficient as a crew.
DG: And did you have any, did you have any memorable experiences from your, from your missions or were they all pretty routine?
KC: No. Well, they were routine in as much as you had, you flew there, changed course to there and somewhere else and changed course on your run up to the target and -
DG: Did you have any interesting situations -
KC: Oh many.
DG: Arise? Could you just tell me about a couple of them? Some of the interesting ones.
KC: Well, going over the coast there was, first there was a belt of searchlights from Denmark to Spain and you had to fly across those.
DG: Right.
KC: And as far as possible avoid the concentrations where you knew there were flak guns and from the time you got over the coast which was the coast of the bombers be very aware that there were potential enemy fighters around.
DG: And did you have, did you, can recall any, any attacks by night fighters on your plane?
KC: Oh yes.
DG: Yes. You get -
KC: Fortunately most of them we, the gunners saw the plane.
DG: Right.
KC: And they gave it, well the gunners tracked the fighter in and then gave the pilot the order to corkscrew port or starboard as the case may be and hopefully discourage the fighter.
DG: And you obviously survived those.
KC: We survived those, yes.
DG: And what about flak? Did you get hit by flak at all?
KC: Every target was infested with flak.
DG: Yes. And not enough to bring you down.
KC: Oh yes. If you got coned over the target you were -
DG: Yeah.
KC: Hopeless.
DG: Well did you, did you come back from all missions ok? Or did you -
KC: From thirty three missions, yes.
DG: Right.
KC: The thirty fourth was a disaster.
DG: You didn’t ever have to bale out or anything exciting like that?
KC: Yes, on our last raid on Stuttgart in July ‘44 we were coming home and another aircraft ran, ran up our rear.
DG: Crikey.
KC: Which upset the whole scheme of things.
DG: And what, and what happened? Obviously the plane came down but what were you aware of. What, what was happening what were you aware of while this was happening?
KC: I was at the front of the Halifax, had just finished dropping the bombs and doing the check on the bomb panel and during the bombing run I used to lean on my parachute and sometimes it would [roll way out of it] the clips on the harness used to, clips on the harness used to connect with the ones on the parachute. On this occasion I was fortunate that the parachute was connected ‘cause I heard an explosion. I heard someone say, ‘Bloody hell.’ The next thing I knew I was about ten thousand feet underneath a parachute in the night skies outside of Stuttgart
DG: So you, you, you were out without really recognising it. You weren’t consciously trying -
KC: No.
DG: To find your way, working out how to get out. You were just out.
KC: I didn’t have a choice. I just went straight through the front.
DG: Right. And how high did you say you were?
KC: Oh about twenty thousand.
DG: Twenty? Oh golly. And it took you a little while to reach the ground.
KC: Well I came to at, I think, at about ten thousand where the oxygen level was sufficient.
DG: Oh yes. Yes.
KC: The force of the, I can only assume the force of the explosion opened my parachute because I have no recollection whatsoever of opening it.
DG: Heaven’s above. And did you, were you very cold? At that altitude you would have been cold. You’d have your flying suit I suppose.
KC: Yes.
DG: But you’d have been pretty
KC: I wasn’t
DG: Pretty chilly.
KC: I wasn’t conscious of being cold.
DG: Right. Yes.
KC: That’s, where I was and what I was doing there.
DG: Yeah, and you landed. Did you injure yourself or were you -
KC: Fortunately, no.
DG: Right.
KC: I landed in a field and rolled over a few times and took my parachute off and found a tree and hid it, hid it under that and assessed my situation.
DG: Did you see anybody else come out of the plane? Did you -
KC: No.
DG: Did you ever find out what happened to the others?
KC: They were all killed.
DG: Were, and, dear oh dear. That was tremendous luck for you.
KC: It was.
DG: Unbelievable. And you didn’t have a reception committee there when you landed.
KC: No. I took off for, at about 3, 2 o’clock in the morning and I looked up and saw in the sky aircraft heading for home [laughs].
DG: Oh golly. Yeah.
KC: Good luck to them.
DG: Yes.
KC: I could see them up there.
DG: Oh golly. What a lucky fellow.
KC: And I spent about three days sort of wandering around Germany with the ultimate aim of trying to get to the Swiss border but in Germany proper it was fairly hopeless.
DG: So you weren’t able to evade being captured.
KC: Well, eventually, I used to hide up of a day and walk at night with the aid of the compass we had.
DG: Right.
KC: And I think it was the third night I was starting out to walk at dusk and a truck came down the road. It was too late to hide.
DG: Yes.
KC: So I just kept on walking and he stopped to give me a lift and I tried to make out I was a French worker but he knew far more French than I did.
DG: Oh dear.
KC: At that stage I was, had very little to eat and wasn’t in particularly good shape.
DG: I was going to ask you, what did you do for food?
KC: Well you had your emergency rations.
DG: Oh right.
KC: Which were very basic but -
DG: Yes.
KC: Very necessary and if you saw a fruit tree you picked some fruit.
DG: Did you get any meat? Did you -
KC: No.
DG: Right. And what was this fellow that picked you up? Who was, who was he? Was he -
KC: He was a farmer.
DG: Oh right. And this, this was in Germany.
KC: In Germany. Yes.
DG: Yes. Yes. Of course. Yes.
KC: Three days walk out on the west side of Stuttgart.
DG: Yeah. And so, yeah, and so of course he had, well what did he do?
KC: He had his little daughter with him.
DG: Right.
KC: And they were going to market and at that stage I still had a few squares of chocolate left from the rations so I gave the little kid some chocolate.
DG: Right.
KC: And when she found out what to do with it she wanted more but I didn’t have any more and when we got past through the nearest village he stopped and went into the local hotel and brought back two bottles of beer and he gave me one of them.
DG: That was a very nice fellow.
KC: He was. And -
[Phone ringing]
KC: Excuse me.
DG: Just pausing the interview for a moment.
[Pause]
DG: We’re continuing again now. So, he bought you a bottle of beer and what did, what did he do with you then?
KC: He took me to the local police station.
DG: Oh right.
KC: And from then on I was a POW.
DG: And how did the police treat you?
KC: Reasonably well.
DG: Yes.
KC: I was taken over then by some army people who took me to the nearest, I think it was a RAF station, and there I met with about eight or nine other air crew who had been picked up. Presumably from the same raid.
DG: Yes.
KC: And from there we were taken to Stuttgart and put on a train to the interrogation centre at Frankfurt.
DG: Right.
KC: That was an experience too of course. The RAF were still raiding Stuttgart and we were on the platform waiting for a train and an air raid siren went and there was a raid and I think there was about four or five German guards looking after us and the civilian population were very, very hostile.
DG: Ah.
KC: The ones that were at the railway station.
DG: Yes.
KC: And the guards turned their bayonets outwards.
DG: Right.
KC: To, we were valuable property.
DG: Yes. Yes.
KC: And we were subsequently taken down to the, one of the cells of the station until the train came in.
DG: Right.
KC: And then we went by train from there to the interrogation centre at Frankfurt.
DG: How long did they interrogate you?
KC: I was there for about a week.
DG: Right. Was it pretty routine sort of questioning?
KC: Fairly routine. Yes
DG: Yes.
KC: Who you are. Yes. Can I have your name, rank and number? What squadron? I can’t answer that. And all these questions I can’t answer. He was a very, well I say, decent German.
DG: Yes.
KC: He’d spent four or five years in England pre-war and he knew, he knew very well we weren’t supposed to answer the questions.
DG: Yes.
KC: And he said well don’t worry about it. Pressed the button. A girl came in. He spoke to her in German. She came back with a file and he said your squadron is 466. You’re stationed at Leconfield. Your CO is so and so. Your flight commanders are, whoever they were and your local village is Beverley. The barmaid’s number in the Beverley Arms is so and so.
DG: Right.
KC: And there’s nothing you can really tell us.
DG: Yeah. Yes I suppose you couldn’t.
KC: I think a more, a more senior person would have been, had a much more severe interrogation.
DG: Yes. Yes. And you went to a POW camp after that?
KC: Yes.
DG: And how long, from, can you remember how long you were in the POW camp till the end of the war?
KC: We started off in the interrogation centre to go to the POW camp at a place called Bankauer in Poland. Near, quite near Breslau. The Red Cross were marvellous to us. They, what clothing we didn’t have they made up for us. They gave us food parcels.
DG: Right.
KC: Looked after us.
DG: And these were obviously getting through to you.
KC: Well, in those days -
DG: Of course.
KC: They were yeah. And they gave us a parcel between two of us for the train trip.
DG: Right.
KC: And subsequently after about three or four days travelling on a very slow train and we arrived at the POW camp.
DG: And how, how long were you there until the war ended?
KC: I arrived in the camp probably about, shot down on the 25th of July and by the time I got to the camp it would be about the middle of August.
DG: What year was that?
KC: ‘44 ’45.
DG: ’45.
KC: Yeah. No ’44.
DG: 44 Yeah ’44.
KC: 1944.
DG: July ‘44.
KC: Yeah.
DG: So you weren’t there for very long.
KC: I was there till after Christmas.
DG: Right.
KC: And the Russians were making their advance and we were right in the path of it.
DG: Oh right.
KC: So the German Command informed us we were going to be marched across Germany in front of the Russians.
DG: Right.
KC: Because we were apparently valuable personnel.
DG: When people were, there were some people who did have very bad nerves and they would perhaps refuse to fly or something and they’d perhaps be put out for LMF.
KC: Yes.
DG: How did you guys feel about that?
KC: It was a disgusting thing. A man had flown twenty missions and he lost his nerve and he was denigrated.
DG: So you had sympathy for them.
KC: More than sympathy.
DG: Yes. Yes.
KC: It was, I suppose using that as an example to the others, don’t do it.
DG: Yes.
KC: But you were stripped of rank and given the very minor duties to perform.
DG: And when the, how did you, how did you come to be released from the POW camp. What happened?
KC: Well we had to march across Germany from our camp at Breslau across to oh I forget the name of the town -
DG: You were freed by the Russians were you?
KC: No.
DG: I thought they were. Sorry I’m -
KC: We were kept ahead of the Russians.
DG: Oh, I see. Right, yeah. Ok.
KC: ‘Cause they wanted us. The Germans wanted us
DG: Oh yes, sorry. Yes.
KC: And subsequently after a march through the coldest winter in twenty years -
DG: Yeah.
KC: We arrived, I think it was about two or three weeks on the march and then they put us on a train and after spending three nights on a train with seventy people in a cattle truck with no amenities we would have rather been marching.
DG: Yes. Yes.
KC: We eventually arrived at another POW camp at Luckenwalde which was about fifty miles south of Berlin.
DG: That was in Germany now.
KC: In, yeah, Germany proper.
DG: Yes. Yes.
KC: Where we spent the next that would have been probably, March, April.
DG: Right.
KC: And we stayed there and the Russians eventually overran the camp and after considerable problems we were repatriated to, taken by American trucks to the American lines and flown back to England.
DG: And what happened to you after that? In England. When did you, how long were you there before you came back to Australia?
KC: Well there we were taken, taken to Brighton to the RAAF centre. Given medicals and re-equipped with our uniforms and given back the personal belongings that had been kept for us. Or -
DG: Oh right.
KC: Kept to send to, either if we came back, if not they were taken, sent to the relatives.
DG: How was your health when you arrived?
KC: I was reasonably good health.
DG: So you -
KC: Very, lost a lot of weight.
DG: Yes.
KC: And fortunately I was one of the ones that were healthy.
DG: Right. And when did you come back to Australia? Can you -
KC: We spent, we were given a months’ leave.
DG: Right.
KC: With a years’ pay.
DG: Oh right.
KC: And an open rail pass.
DG: Oh good.
KC: I went to stay with various people that I’d known in the UK.
DG: Yes.
KC: And eventually went back to Brighton and was transferred to Liverpool.
DG: Right.
KC: And caught the Orion back to Australia.
DG: And how, when you got back to Australia how, how were you treated? How was Bomber Command or veterans from Bomber Command treated in Australia at that time?
KC: We were taken off the ship, taken to Bradfield Park, checked in and all the administration things done and sent off on leave.
DG: Right.
KC: No tickertape parades. No walk down George Street. Just, off you go.
DG: Were they, they, were they trying to sort of keep it quiet or was it just, that just the way it was?
KC: Just the way it was I suppose.
DG: Right. Yeah.
KC: Being Australia they mainly concentrated on the Japanese war.
DG: Yes at that. Yes.
KC: In many cases Bomber Command weren’t highly regarded.
DG: I gather. Yeah, I gather they weren’t terribly well and did you, were there, were you was you conscious of any ill feeling or -
KC: Oh no.
DG: Was it just not, not terribly, just perhaps not quite as well regarded as much as others perhaps.
KC: Well why you weren’t here fighting for Australia?
DG: Oh I see. Oh. Oh golly.
KC: We didn’t have a choice where we were going.
DG: No, of course you didn’t. Oh, crikey.
KC: Actually, at one stage, I think it was ’44, a lot of, well some air crew received white feathers from people in Australia saying why are you enjoying yourself over in England, lots of leave and occasional exhilarating trips over Germany and that appeared in the Australian papers.
DG: I’ve never heard that. That would have been terribly hurtful to you. What you went through to, yes.
KC: Well the flying conditions over Germany compared to New Guinea and the Isles had very little comparison.
DG: Oh yeah. Totally different.
KC: The living conditions were infinitely worse.
DG: Yes.
KC: ‘Cause we did have reasonably good accommodation.
DG: Yes. Well, how, how long before you were discharged?
KC: Oh I think I got out just before Christmas ’45.
DG: And what did you, what did you do then about, what did you think about doing as your job after that?
KC: Well the first thing I thought of I’ve got all this deferred pay and gratuity. Let’s spend it.
DG: Right.
KC: So the three of us went up to Coolangatta and had a, spent our next two weeks in riotous living as far as riotous living could be -
DG: Yeah. Yeah.
KC: In the village of Coolangatta.
DG: Yeah. Yeah.
KC: It was a very pleasant seaside resort in those days.
DG: And what, and what happened when you got back to reality?
KC: Well, I went back to work.
DG: And what were you doing?
KC: Pre-war I had joined the Department of Main Roads as a cadet draughtsman and I came back and started off with them again. They transferred, transferred me from Tamworth to Sydney. To one of the offices in Sydney.
DG: Oh I see. Yeah.
KC: And I started off civilian life there.
DG: As a draughtsman?
KC: Ahum.
DG: And did you continue that?
KC: No. I had problems with my eyesight.
DG: Oh.
KC: And another position came up and I decided to go there.
DG: And what sort of work was that? In the same department?
KC: No. No, I resigned from there and -
DG: Right.
KC: We had been staying at a private hotel for about seventy to eighty people and my wife and I were offered a chance of buying into the freehold in [Romega?].
DG: Oh right.
KC: I always said if I got out of Germany I would never be hungry again.
DG: Yes.
KC: So the idea of a career in the food industry appealed.
DG: Where, when did you meet your wife?
KC: On our -
DG: Was this before the war?
KC: No. No.
DG: It was after the war. Yeah.
KC: Time in Coolangatta.
DG: Oh I see.
KC: She had been in the women’s air force there as a radio operator.
DG: Right.
KC: And she and a few friends had the same idea of -
DG: Oh right.
KC: Spending deferred pay in Coolangatta.
DG: So you obviously got on well there.
KC: Three years later we were married.
DG: And where were you were living? Oh sorry, in the hotel. Yes.
KC: We were in the accommodation.
DG: No. Of course. Where was that?
KC: At Neutral Bay.
DG: Oh right. And then how long were you there?
KC: Ten years.
DG: Right. And what did you do after that?
KC: Well, at that time we had our family. A boy and a girl and um we went out to, oh what’s the name? My wife’s sister had a, they were living at, oh I can’t remember the suburb.
DG: Oh it doesn’t matter.
KC: Around about the [?]
DG: Yeah.
KC: And we decided to go out there to be with them –
DG: Right.
KC: For a while to - We were having medical problems with one of our children and we needed her family to help my wife to cope with things.
DG: Yes.
KC: And I had been offered a job as a manager of a catering division of a company so I accepted that and spent the rest of my career in catering.
DG: Oh right. Good. Do you, do you keep in touch with any of your old comrades from your –
KC: Well –
DG: From your time in Bomber Command?
KC: In half an hour one is going to be here.
DG: Oh right. Oh good.
KC: That’s who I was on the phone to.
DG: Oh I see. Right. So yeah. Oh that’s very good.
KC: Every June, every first weekend in June the Bomber Command Commemoration Day Foundation hold a weekend in June. A formal commemoration of the Australian Bomber Command Memorial in the sculpture gardens at the memorial and that’s officially done by the Australian War Memorial.
DG: And that is in Canberra.
KC: That’s in Canberra.
DG: Yes.
KC: And the previous Saturday night we have what we call a meet and greet at the ANZAC hall of the war memorial where G George is and we’ve got about two or three hundred people there.
DG: That’s good.
KC: Veterans and friends.
DG: Yes.
KC: And family.
DG: Yes.
KC: And after the Sunday ceremony we have a lunch at the, one of the hotels.
DG: Right.
KC: That’s a very important occasion each year.
DG: Yes. I’m sure you look forward to that to see your old friends.
KC: Ahum.
DG: Yes.
KC: We’re in the middle of organising it now.
DG: Oh good. Good. Well thank you, Keith. I do appreciate the time you’ve taken to talk to me this afternoon.
KC: Well that’s -
DG: And I know there will be many other people in the future that will, will get a lot of pleasure out of being able to hear what you had to say.
KC: There’s a lot more to it but -
DG: I’m sure there is.
KC: You could waffle on indefinitely.
DG: Yes. Thank you very much.
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ACampbellK160518
PCampbellKW1601
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Interview with Keith Campbell. One
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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IBCC Digital Archive
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Sound
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eng
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00:56:45 audio recording
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Pending review
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Donald Gould
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2016-05-18
Description
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Keith Campbell grew up in New South Wales and joined the Royal Australian Air Force when he was old enough. He flew 35 operations as a bomb aimer with 466 Squadron from RAF Leconfield and RAF Driffield before being shot down. He became a prisoner of war and took part in the long march.
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
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Australia
Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
United States
Contributor
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Julie Williams
466 Squadron
aircrew
bale out
bomb aimer
bombing
crewing up
Dulag Luft
Gee
H2S
Halifax
Halifax Mk 2
Halifax Mk 3
lack of moral fibre
memorial
mid-air collision
prisoner of war
RAF Driffield
RAF Leconfield
RAF Lichfield
Stalag 3A
Stalag Luft 7
the long march
Wellington
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/221/3363/PCampbellKWP1601.1.jpg
46f4ce48d53bda56bbcf7a7e51feba7b
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/221/3363/ACampbellKW160604.2.mp3
4ec1a402c3e766446124357837dccd8a
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Title
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Campbell, Keith William
Keith William Campbell
Keith W Campbell
Keith Campbell
K W Campbell
K Campbell
Description
An account of the resource
Two oral history interviews with Keith William Campbell (1923 - 2019, 423220 Royal Australian Air Force) and a diary he kept as a prisoner of war.<br /><br /> A further collection about Keith Campbell <a href="https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/show/2083">here.</a><br /><br />The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Keith William Campbell and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-06-04
2016-05-18
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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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Campbell, KW
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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AP: This interview for the International Bomber Command Centre’s Digital Archive is with Keith Campbell, a 466 Squadron Halifax bomb aimer during World War Two. The interview is taking place at the War Memorial’s theatre in Canberra. We’re here at the War Memorial for a Bomber Command Commemoration that will take place tomorrow. It is the 4th of June 2016. My name’s Adam Purcell. Keith, we’ll start from the beginning if you don’t mind. Can you tell me something of your early life and what you were doing before the war?
KC: Before the war I went to school [laughs] Silly question. I finished my leaving certificate at school. And in 1939 the war had just broken out and like all youngsters of sixteen I couldn’t get in the Air Force soon enough. I wanted to get in the Air Force because my father had been in the Australian Flying Corps in the First War. So obviously I had to follow his footsteps. And when I became seventeen [pause while coughing] Excuse me. Sorry about that. At seventeen I applied to join the Air Force Reserve, which I did and for the next, oh six or eight months myself and [coughing] excuse me, got a sore throat. Six or eight others learned aircraft recognition, basic trigonometry which was all done at school anyway. And Morse. Somehow or other, we had to get up to ten words a minute in Morse. Initially it seemed an impossible task. The lines seemed to be a collection of dots and dashes. Every sign you saw you reduced it to Morse. However, in due course we obtained proficiency in Morse and the other things like the aircraft recognition. In May 1942 I was duly called up for service at Number 2 ITS at Bradfield Park, Sydney. ITS was an Initial Training School where all raw recruits came to be sorted out and hopefully made into something resembling an Air Force type. There’s also [pause] also the categorisation as to what you were going to be. Pilot, navigator, bomb aimer or whatever. I was selected to be a pilot and was looking forward to going to initial, Elementary Training School. And one morning in the end of, I think it was July or August [coughing] Oh dear. I’m sorry about that.
AP: That’s alright. Have another drink if you like.
KC: On parade the CO came out and said, ‘There’s a shortage of observers in the Canadian schools. Anyone that likes to volunteer will be off to Canada within a week.’ The temptation was too great so I volunteered and we were off to Canada in a couple of weeks. Went down to Hobart where we went aboard the French liner Ile de France which had been converted to a troop ship and sailed across the Pacific to New Zealand where we picked up some more Air Force people. And then our next stop was at Pearl Harbour where we stopped for a day. We weren’t allowed off the ship but we could see the devastation that the Japanese raid had caused to the American fleet. Things had recovered to a great extent but we could imagine just how great the attack was. There was one battleship upside down and it wasn’t a happy sight. Our next call was at San Francisco where [coughing] Oh dear.
[pause]
Where we caught the train from ‘Frisco to Vancouver. As it happened the train we took up was on Thanksgiving Day and on the buffet in the train we were entertained to a turkey dinner. Thanksgiving dinner. Which was a major occasion after the food in the, on the ship which was adequate but quite basic. Arrived in Vancouver and had three or four days to have a look around that beautiful city. Then off to Edmonton, over the Rockies. Caught the train and about four of us got on the back carriage where there was an observation platform. I think we spent most of the thirty six hours going to Edmonton just watching the magnificence of the Canadian Rockies.
AP: I’m just going to stop there for a minute.
[pause]
AP: Now. We were in San Francisco, I think. Catching a train.
KC: Going over the Rockies was a magnificent experience. Bright moonlight night and to see all that snow which we’d never, most of us had never seen before. It was a wonderful introduction to Canada. We arrived at the RCAF station at Edmonton where we spent another week being sorted out and see just where we were going. Who was going to be a navigator and who was going to be a bomb aimer? And subsequently I was categorised as a bomb aimer. And there were others, along with myself caught a train to Lethbridge in southern Alberta where the RCAF training station was situated. Lethbridge was quite a small Canadian town. Very pleasant. And we spent about five or six months there, I think it was, flying Ansons, and Battles, and whatever, bomb aiming and doing a bit of gunnery to fit us for the trials of squadron life. Having spent, finished the course at Lethbridge we were posted back. Back to Edmonton where the navigation school was. We spent another couple of months there flying over the vast expanse of Canadian prairies. If you got lost you just went down and the nearest railway station you read the sign and you knew where you were. We had a wonderful experience at Edmonton. It was a big Canadian city and the Canadian people were wonderful to us. The hospitality was outstanding and we made a lot of friends in Edmonton. After the, finishing our course we went to a Wings Parade. Apparently, this particular Wings Parade was quite an occasion publicity wise. An American colonel had been brought in to present our wings and we all duly lined up at the, in the sports centre. And after much ceremony we were all, each called out and given an Observer’s wing which we subsequently sewed on our uniform. Or if you had a girlfriend, she got the task. The next port of call was to be Halifax in eastern Canada. We had two weeks to get there and what we did in those two weeks was entirely up to ourselves. We had a leave pass, a pocketful of money, comparatively and myself and two or three others decided to go to New York. And we had a ball there. In Australian uniform it was impossible to buy a drink. If you went to a night club you were entertained by the top brass and it was a quite weary [laughs] After a week in New York we thought we’d better start going to Halifax. And on the way, we went to Niagara Falls and had the opportunity to see the Falls and go on the ride on the, oh, Lady of the Lake or whatever the steamer was called. And subsequently arrived at Halifax. Halifax was a very major port for Atlantic convoys and we had to wait there until a ship came that could take us to England. Spent about two weeks in Halifax and the people were very good to us but it was very much a service town. After a couple of weeks we were put on the French liner the Louis Pasteur which had been converted from a luxury liner to a troop ship and set sail for England. Having got out of the harbour I think they just pointed the ship at England, full speed ahead and off we went. Supposedly, and I’m sure it was, too fast for the submarines and we did a very rapid trip and arrived at Liverpool where we got off the ship and onto a train. It was evening. The contrast was dramatic. After the bright lights and plenty of everything in Canada here we were in England. It was dark, wet, foggy and crowded. And dark. Blackout was on. And we subsequently boarded a train and after many hours arrived at Brighton on the south coast where the RAAF had their accommodation for aircrew. Spent a couple of weeks in [pause] at Brighton waiting for a posting to the Advanced Flying Unit which gave us an opportunity to explore the countryside that’s around Brighton which was a very, very pleasant spot. And we availed ourselves of the opportunities to enjoy ourselves. And after a couple of weeks we ended up in a place called Pwhelli in North Wales where we did an advanced training course. Another pleasant spot. Quite a small town. And I think we were flying Ansons there. In due course we finished our training there and went to an OTU at Lichfield which was more, mainly an Australian OTU. They had a satellite station at Church Broughton which was quite nearby. And our course was posted to Church Broughton where we were to do our Operational Training Unit on Wellingtons. As a Wellington crew was five people and we were all bomb aimers a course of bomb aimers, roughly the equivalent number of pilots, navigators, wireless operators and gunners were put in this huge hangar and told go to it. Crew yourselves up. And fortunately, I happened to know one person there so we became a two, two part crew and within half an hour of talking to the other people we subsequently formed a crew. Seems a very haphazard way of selecting a crew for operations but oddly enough it worked out very well. Very few crews proved to be incompatible. We were very fortunate that we were all Australians and we had similar interests so we didn’t have problems. Spent some months at OTU and in our spare time we used to go to, the nearest city was Derby and patronized the local hostelries there. In due course we graduated and posted to the Conversion Unit where we converted from twin-engined Wellingtons to four-engined Halifax Mark 2s. And we spent about six weeks there and did a lot of flying around England which we found a very great difference to flying in Canada. There was fog. There was hundreds of other aircraft. There were, all over the countryside were aerodromes. And we just had to make sure we dodged the aircraft, found where we were and got back to base. Subsequently we did duly finish our training there and were posted to Number 466 Australian Squadron at Leconfield. Well, while we were at Conversion Unit the Halifax, being a four engine bomber, required an engineer and another gunner. The one, the engineer was a twenty four year old English chap and the gunner was a thirty three year old chap from Birmingham. He was the real grandfather of the crew. However, we all got on very well and went to Leconfield where we were allocated accommodation. We were very fortunate, Leconfield being a peacetime squadron and all the amenities that went with it. After living in Nissen huts for a considerable time it was pleasant to be in regular barracks. New Year in, at that stage it was New Year 1944 and we were the new ones on the squadron. We were flying, at that stage, the new Halifax Mark 3 with the radial motors and the rear designed tail plan which had eliminated a lot of the problems which the Mark 2 Halifax had. And after flying in the Mark 3s they were a magnificent aircraft from all points of view. From the pilot and the rest of the crew was very, well, not exactly comfortable but a lot, a lot less crowded than the previous ones we had.
AP: What was your position in the aircraft like? What did it look like? Can you, can you describe the bomb aimers area?
KC: Coming in the entrance to the aircraft near the tail you walked through the fuselage. There was a rest area. Bunks on both sides and two or three stairs up to the pilot’s deck where the pilot sat and there was a second dickie seat which we folded up and allowed us to go down four or five steps where the navigator sat, you know. Compartment. The, rather the wireless operator sat in a compartment just under the pilot. Next to him was the navigator and the bomb aimer was next to him. All the bombsights and everything else, the bomb panel was right at the front and that was my domain. The Mark 2 Halifaxes had a front turret which had been considered superfluous and in place of that there was a plastic front which gave a much better vision and also a Vickers guns which was really only a pop gun. On the squadron the navigational aids were the Gee and we also had H2S and between the navigator and myself he worked, had the Gee and did the navigation and I did the H2S. Which was a very compatible way of doing things. After a lot of local flying and getting used to operational conditions we finally did our first operation. I think it was the end of February, on a, on the first of what were called the French targets in France. This one happened to be at Trappes which was the rail junction outside of Paris. Subsequent operations consisted of quite a lot of trips like that to disable the communications such as bridges, rail junctions, road junctions and any other ways that would impede the ability of the German armies to get supplies both before and after D-Day. My first trip to Germany was to Stuttgart in southern Germany and we went, duly went to briefing and navigators and bomb aimers went off to a separate briefing to do their navigation. Draw up their charts and get things like that underway. And operational meal. Bacon and eggs. Then up with the rest of the crew and waited for the, drew our parachutes and waited for the trucks to take us out to the aircraft. Going to Germany for the first time was quite an adventure. We managed to keep on track and on time and in due course the target was a quarter of an hour away and I went down to the bombsight and set it up with the height, speed and did the bomb drop panel and got ready to direct the pilot. PFF had laid flares which we saw and I directed the aircraft through the bombsight to the flares. And a little to the left, a little to the right and we finally got on course, dropped our bombs and spent the next ten seconds, the longest ten seconds you’ll ever spend flying straight and level and waiting for the camera. As soon as that happened set course for home. And we had a fighter come in to say hello to us. Fortunately, the rear gunner saw him and we went off in a corkscrew and that discouraged him. He had easier ones to find. And we subsequently set course for England and the engineer said that we’d been using too much petrol. So we had to decide just what we were going to do. And when we got over the channel we decided it was much safer to land at one of the coastal aerodromes. So, we landed at, I think it was Ford, where we spent the night. Between us I think we had seven shillings so we went off for one round of drinks at the local pub. We went there and found everyone drinking cider at sixpence a pint. So that was wonderful. We had two or three drinks of cider decided to go home and we found out cider was a very powerful drink. However, we finally made it. We got, went back to the squadron and started on our trips together. I think there were two or three, without my logbook I don’t know who or what, just where we went but we did some more French targets. I think we did a trip to Happy Valley. Another one up to Kiel. And by that time it was the, in March and we were briefed for Nuremberg. And this was our first really major target. Well, Stuttgart was but Nuremberg was further. Further east. And it was, the briefing there was it was cloudy but the target would be clear and we were flying straight to the target from our crossing the coast which was most unusual and a lot of the navigators queried it because we were being too close to the German fighter ‘dromes. However, that was it and on. We pressed on and shortly over France we had a fighter attack and escaped from it but we found we were losing petrol at a very rapid rate. So, we had a conference and decided to turn back which we did and subsequently landed back at base with not a lot of petrol. Waited four or five hours until the rest of the aircraft came back and found what a disaster the night had been. The cloud cover that we were promised hadn’t eventuated. It was a bright moonlight night and all the fighters were up waiting. Flak was just aimed at us and subsequently it was a loss. I think it was ninety seven aircraft over Germany. Plus, the ones that were damaged and managed to stagger home. Fortunately, we did survive that one and I think the next one was to Happy Valley and more French trips and then where was it? Without my log book I don’t remember. But went to a Berlin trip but got to within ten or fifteen miles to Berlin and we were hit by a fighter and got badly damaged. So, we decided to, we decided to go home and, on the way back we lost an engine from fighter attack and we staggered back to base and lived to tell another day. That was another disaster raid. I think we lost seventy one aircraft on that one. That was [pause] but between there and June I did two or three trips a week. And with our six week, we got leave every six weeks which we enjoyed very much. And eventually came the big day. We didn’t, at the time we didn’t know it was D-Day but we were programmed to bomb a target fairly close inside the French coast. Coming back there was an armada of ships on the Channel. You could have jumped out of the aircraft in a parachute and not got your feet wet. There were battleships, row boats, destroyers, paddle steamers. Anything that could float was on its way to the beaches of Normandy. It was a [pause] we did fly over the same place again a few days later when the beach head had been established but it was a very major effort. After that we just continued on our tour. We had about twenty five trips up by then and looking forward to finishing. And on the 25th of July, 24th of July we were booked for a return trip to Stuttgart. So, all the usual briefings and instructions. Had a very uneventful trip into Stuttgart and did our bombing run successfully and kept our ten seconds to get the camera and set course for home. After about ten minutes we were happily flying on, anticipating a, an uneventful trip home when suddenly there was an explosion. At the time I thought it was a flak shell. Subsequently I found out that an aircraft had run into the back of us and the aircraft just exploded. I was in the front, in the bomb aimers position still. Doing the bombing check and as it happened, I had my parachute on. I always used to lean on my parachute but this night I was leaning on it and had inadvertently clicked on with the wriggling around. The next thing I knew I was flying, descending at about ten thousand feet with a parachute above me. And I have no recollection whatsoever of opening the parachute. I didn’t have the handle so somehow the explosion must have opened it and I landed in a field about twenty miles west of Stuttgart [pause] And took off my parachute harness and hid it under a tree with a parachute and took stock of things. I had all my usual escape kit and similar things and waited around to see if I could hear any, any of the other crew. But there was no sign of them at all. Seeing the way I got out I doubt very much if there would be any survivors. As it happened there weren’t [pause] It was about 3 o’clock in the morning. I could hear the other, the rest of the aircraft flying home and to a nice warm bed and a bacon and egg meal. Here was I stuck in a wheat field in, in the west of Stuttgart. Far from home. I spent the night in a forest and the next morning I checked up where I was on the map, or as near as I could. And the only nearest frontier was the Swiss border which was seventy or eighty mile away. So, I made for that. So, I spent the day in the forest and when the evening came I started walking and went through a village and there was a village pump. So I filled up my water bag and had a wash which was very acceptable and had a few Horlicks tablets from my escape kit. I walked. Walked all night and at dawn I found another wood and subsequently spent the day there having a sleep and working out what I was going to do next. I was fortunate in having the new flying boots that had been issued which were detachable leggings on a shoe which was much easier to walk with than the old flying boot. So, I removed all badges of rank and brevet and set off again. I think I covered about 20K that day. Not a long way but I wasn’t hurrying. Trying to keep out of everyone’s way. Even, even though it was night there was, there was still a few people around and the villages which I tried to walk around but sometimes it was much easier to walk through them. The next day I spent hiding up and set off again at nightfall and passed through a village. And a mile past the village a truck came along and passed me and stopped. And he came back and said, obviously he was going to give me a ride. Asked what I was doing there. Anyway, I tried to make out that I was, I was a French worker but he could speak far better French than I could. At that stage I was feeling well down on very little to eat and water bag was empty so I wasn’t too unhappy to be taken into custody. I had three or four bits of chocolate over from the, that I hadn’t eaten and in the truck was his, another man and his little daughter. So I gave this kid a couple of bits of, pieces of chocolate and he was most impressed. When we came through the village he stopped, went to the local pub and bought us all a bottle of beer. So, it was a very good investment with two or three blocks of chocolate. Subsequently I was handed over to the local police and they called in the army and I was officially a POW.
AP: Alright. That’s, we got up to that stage. Can we maybe backtrack a little bit? You were talking about an escape kit. You were talking about an escape kit that you had.
KC: Yes.
AP: Obviously when you found yourself ejected from the aeroplane it was with you. Whereabouts did you actually have it?
KC: Oh you just carried it in your battle dress pocket.
AP: Oh ok. So, it was only a little thing.
KC: Little.
AP: Yeah.
KC: Well, a box about five by seven inches and about an inch deep and, which fitted inside your battle dress.
AP: And what sort of things were in it?
KC: Horlicks tablets [pause] very basic food stuffs. Some chocolate, not to enjoy but to [laughs] to survive on. And [pause] I’ve forgotten now. It’s so long ago.
AP: Maps and things like that as well.
KC: Oh, maps and a compass.
AP: Yeah. Did you have one of those special compasses that were hidden in a button or hidden somewhere or — ?
KC: Had a button compass.
AP: Yeah.
KC: I also had a little hand compass which I always carried.
AP: Very cool. You were saying as well you, about fifteen minutes before the target you’d go down into where the bombsight was and set it up.
KC: Set it up.
AP: And all that sort of thing. What did you do for the rest of the flight?
KC: I worked the H2S machine.
AP: Where was that physically?
KC: That was next to the navigator.
AP: Ah.
KC: And as I had not a lot to do it was a lot more practical that I did the H2S and he did the navigation. Getting all the fixes. It worked out very well.
AP: What did you, what did you think? Can you remember much about the H2S and what it looked like? And —
KC: All the H2S was, it was a machine, a dial about eight or nine inches diameter and it gave a profile of what was underneath. It had a long range and a short range and once you learned how to read it, it was a very desirable navigation tool. Especially on coastal areas, of course. It had a very sharp delineation between the sea and the land. Flying over land such as southern Germany it could pick up any lakes. It also picked up cities and towns as a darker green on the lighter green of the screen. Once you learned how to interpret it, it was a very useful tool.
AP: You also mentioned a couple, or there was at least three times there you mentioned being attacked by fighters. What does a corkscrew feel like for a bomb aimer?
KC: A corkscrew, in a four engine bomber you’re thinking of a Spitfire. It just goes high, right or left as the case might be, nose straight down, and round and round and pull out and go the other way and hope you’ve lost him. And if you haven’t lost him keep on doing it.
AP: Keep doing it [laughs] It would be quite, quite strenuous for the pilot I imagine.
KC: Oh, it was. The [pause] where they was over the target area if you, if you saw the fighter and went into a corkscrew he’d go and find someone who hadn’t, or hopefully hadn’t seen him.
AP: They were looking for, for easier prey. How did you cope with the stress of flying on operations? What did you do to relax?
KC: It was stressful. I think I coped very well.
AP: What sort of things did you do to, to handle that, or to deal with the pressure? If anything.
KC: Went to the local. And the local dances. The theatre. The pictures. And any entertainment that was on at the squadron when we weren’t flying.
AP: Alright. You’ve mentioned pubs and the local a few times. What, for Leconfield let’s just say, or any other pub that you can remember what did the pub look like and what was in there? What sort of things went on?
KC: Well, the nearest town was Beverley which was a market town and it was quite a big town. We got to know a few of the locals and we used to go to the, the Beverley Arms. Found ourselves a corner and some compatible people. Had a few drinks. Sang a few squadron songs and enjoyed ourselves. At that stage most of us had bikes so it was quite an adventure getting from the local back to the squadron. Fortunately, we made it.
AP: Very good.
KC: A few spills here and there.
AP: Very nice. Were there any superstitions or hoodoos amongst your crew or amongst your squadron that you knew about?
KC: We had a thing about our little, one of us had a little fluffy rabbit. About six or eight inches high and every operation we took the rabbit. And every operation we marked it on the, on the rabbit. And our ambition was to cover the rabbit. We didn’t, [pause] Stuttgart was our thirty third operation so we were looking forward to finishing but unfortunately, we didn’t.
AP: What, how many operations did you need to do for a tour at that period?
KC: Well normally it was thirty.
AP: Yeah.
KC: But with the French targets being shorter and supposedly easier they increased it to up to forty. The first two or three French targets were quite easy. But as soon as the Luftwaffe found out what we were doing they moved their fighter squadrons in.
AP: They did. Yes. I think at one point I think a French target counted as one third of a trip.
KC: Initially it did.
AP: Yeah.
KC: But subsequently they scrubbed it .
AP: There was a 467 Squadron man who said you can’t go for one third of a burton. That’s the way he put it. What sort of things happened in the, in the mess at the airfield?
KC: We were fed. And again had a few drinks and played cards or sat around and talked and had a sing song. There was no shortage of suitable songs [pause] I’m just wondering where Fiona was.
AP: Behind you.
KC: Oh, she’s there is she.
AP: She’s been there for about forty minutes, I think. She’s crept in nice and quietly. Alright. Can we, can we talk a bit about your prisoner of war experience? What — where were you taken after you were, were captured?
KC: Well from the army camp where we were assembled with about another ten people from a Lancaster crew, or two Lancasters that had been shot down in the area and there were about ten survivors. And we were taken from there to Stuttgart and subsequently to be taken to the interrogation centre at Frankfurt. We got to Stuttgart under heavy army guard and put on the platform waiting for a train. It was about midnight and the RAF came over again in force. Sirens went and people started running for shelters, saw us there and [laughs] we were, we were not popular. But the German army protected us, fortunately, and we were taken down to the cells until the train came which was Stuttgart to Frankfurt where the interrogation centre was at Oberursel. Spent the first three or four days there in solitary and then was taken to an interrogation room where the German officer started off with cigarettes and, ‘How are you?’ And all the welcoming. ‘Welcome to the Third Reich,’ He could speak perfect English. He’d apparently spent four or five years in the early thirties in England. And he said, ‘What’s your name?’ So, I gave it to him. ‘Your rank?’ So I gave it to him. ‘Your number?’ I gave it to him. ‘What aircraft were you flying?’ ‘You know I can’t answer that.’ Five or six more questions and he said, ‘Well I know you’re going to say no but we know it anyway.’ So he pressed the button and a girl came in. He spoke some German to her. She came back with a file. A file on 466 Squadron. And he told us the CO’s name, the flight commander’s name, most of the other people. The group captain. What the, how the aircraft, or how many aircraft there were. The fact that we’d transferred from Wellington’s to Halifaxes in 1943. And he knew the name of the barmaid at the local pub. There was nothing I could tell him. So, he gave me permission to have a shave and a shower which was very acceptable. Then back to solitary again and after that three or four days there were enough POWs to make a contingent to go to a POW camp which we subsequently caught a train and three or four, about three days later we arrived at a place called Bankau which was near Breslau in Poland. A very uncomfortable train trip but we finally made it. We were taken in to the camp and searched, interrogated again and duly given our quarters. All the people in the camp welcomed us, wanting us, wanting to know the latest situation on, on the second front. And being new people gave us a welcome dinner. The camp at that stage was very very basic. It was just huts on a dirt floor and bunks. There was a new camp being built just next door and we were looking forward to moving into that which we did after about four or five weeks. They finished the, enough of the camp to move us in which was a very pleasant change and there were rooms rather than huts. A big, big, a big area converted into about eight rooms with a toilet block at the end which was a much more pleasant life than going on, getting in the huts which were very crowded. The Red Cross there were marvellous to us. Before we left the interrogation centre, they fitted us out with warm clothing, boots and any other supplies that we needed. At the camp we were getting, at that stage we were getting a Red Cross parcel every fortnight which was the difference between existing and surviving. The Red Cross did a fantastic job in Germany for the POW’s. And [pause] and when were we there? That was about the end of August, I think. September. October. We used to fill in our time there with games which the Red Cross supplied. And they supplied us with a good library. And we walked around the compound for our exercise. We had to discuss trying to escape but at that stage of the war we were advised not to because they thought it would be over by Christmas. How wrong they were. In due course there was a Russian advance to the westward and the Germans wanted to keep us so we were told we were going to move camp and in January ’45 we were turfed out of our comfortable quarters into the coldest winter that, in Germany for about forty years. Four or five feet of snow on the ground. Cold. About five or six hundred people heading eastwards. We were supposedly to be marching but it soon very, very soon developed into a straggle. Everyone had found they were carrying far too much kit so the non-essentials were abandoned and whatever you could carry was what you had. We marched all day and stopped for a cup of lukewarm soup about mid-day and came to a suitable village at night and found a farm and were billeted in the farm buildings and hopefully had something to eat, which was problematical. We did have a Red Cross parcel each before we started which we tried to ration. We didn’t know how long we’d be marching so we tried to keep as much as possible of that intact. That went on for about two or three weeks. Marching by day and hopefully finding a barn or somewhere covered at night. Fortunately, on most occasions we slept in the farmers barn and threw out his livestock. Food was a very basic problem then and with, with the German army rations and what we had from the Red Cross parcels we managed to survive. And after how long? Three weeks? We were told we were going to be put on a train to our next destination. We were put on a train, about sixty five people to a four wheel cattle truck and there was room to stand up. You had to take it in turns to lie down. We spent three days in that. It was not a happy trip. After about a day we decided we would have been far better, far happier, marching. We eventually arrived at a place called Luckenwalde, about fifty miles south of Berlin and were taken to some barracks there which had originally been barracks for the German army in the Franco-Prussian war. They were in a very decrepit condition. It was a very large camp. All, a lot of POWs had been transferred there and many other, other nationalities. Thousands of Russian prisoners. And conditions were very basic. We used to sit there with nothing, nothing to do. Watched the Americans come over Berlin in the daytime and at night Mosquitoes came over Berlin at night. Subsequently the Russian army overran the camp and we were under the control of the Russians. Initially they were very good. The army people. A couple of thousand Russian prisoners were given a rifle, they said, ‘Come with us which they did. They were very keen to get their own back on the Germans for the appalling treatment that the Russians had had. We stayed in the camp there and the Russian army moved on and the administration took over. And it was a very different story. We were under Russian control and we were so close to the American lines and couldn’t do anything about it. Subsequently an American war correspondent and about six trucks came along and, to take the American survivors out but they wouldn’t, a few got away but the Russians wouldn’t let us go. But the, we were told that if we could possibly get out the trucks would be at a certain position until about 4 o’clock that afternoon. Another four or five of us managed to escape from the Russians, literally, through a hole in the wire and we found our way to the American trucks where two or three trucks had already filled. And at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon they said, ‘Well we can’t wait any further,’ and off we went. And after about an hour or so crossing an emergency bridge over the Elbe to the American army camp which was the front lines. They gave us accommodation and apologised profusely because the ice cream machine hadn’t caught up. From there we made our way to [pause] well the Americans gave us any kit we needed and fed us well and we went to an aerodrome where we were subsequently flown back to England.
AP: And that was the end of it.
KC: So, taken back to Brighton. Re-kitted. Met all our, well a lot of the people that we’d known before but also had been in Germany and given a leave pass for two weeks, a year’s pay, said, ‘Come back when you’re ready.’ So, I was a survivor fortunately. I subsequently found out years later that what had happened was another aircraft, also from our squadron had collided with us and it must have been a collision in our tail because the, our rear gunner, mid-upper gunner and the engineer were never found. The front of the aircraft, the bodies were found. And all the other aircraft were lost. So that was it. And I endured a mid-air collision and I happened to be the lucky one.
AP: How did you find readjusting to civilian life after going through all of that?
KC: Oh, coming back to Australia we were, came through The Heads which was a magnificent sight. Taken off the ship, put on a bus, taken to Bradfield Park. Not interrogated but put on record again and given a leave pass and, ‘Come back in two weeks.’ No ticker tape parade. No marching through, through George Street. Back home and out which suited us fine. It was quite a readjustment getting back to civilian life after the discipline of service life but I went back to my old job and started off life again.
AP: My final question for you. What is Bomber Command’s legacy and how do you want to see it remembered?
KC: Seventy one years later. Well sixty eight years later in Canberra it was decided to build a Bomber Command Memorial which was subsequently unveiled. I think in 2007 or eight, something like that. And it was the first Bomber Command Memorial, as far as we know, that was ever made. And it still stands in the sculpture garden of the Australian War Memorial. We were going to have our ceremony there tomorrow but unfortunately due to the inclement weather we have to have our ceremony inside. But subsequent to that, in England there was a movement to have a Bomber Command Memorial constructed and it was taken up officially and very enthusiastically supported and in 2009 I was one of the fortunate official members of the Air Force, RAAF delegation that went to the opening of the Air Force Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park in London. That is a magnificent Memorial. It took seventy one years but it was worth it. We were one of the fortunate thirty people in the official delegation that were at the dedication.
AP: Any final words? Any last thoughts for the, for the tape?
KC: Well here we are today on what was the 4th of July.
AP: 4th of June. 4th of June.
KC: June rather.
AP: Yeah.
KC: For our annual Bomber Command Commemoration Day Foundation. Remembrance of Bomber Command. It’s a very major event.
AP: It certainly is.
KC: The War Memorial have done a lot of the organisation for us. Made the, made the ANZAC Hall available and the Hall of Remembrance for our ceremony tomorrow and we’re quite looking forward to that.
AP: Here’s to that. Well, thank you very much Keith. It’s been an absolute pleasure hearing your story properly for the first time.
KC: Sorry I was so —
AP: I very much enjoyed it.
KC: The coughing
AP: No. That’s gone, that’s gone really well I think. It’s good.
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ACampbellKW160604
PCampbellKW1601
Title
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Interview with Keith Campbell. Two
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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IBCC Digital Archive
Type
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Sound
Language
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eng
Format
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01:11:55 audio recording
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Pending review
Creator
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Adam Purcell
Date
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2016-06-04
Description
An account of the resource
Keith Campbell grew up in New South Wales and joined the Royal Australian Air Force when he was old enough. He flew 35 operations as a bomb aimer with 466 Squadron from RAF Leconfield and RAF Driffield when, on their thirty first operation another aircraft from their squadron collided with them. All other crew were killed but Keith was thrown from the aircraft and parachuted in to a wheat field. He began to walk towards the Swiss border but was caught and became a poisoner of war.He was first sent to Stalag Luft 7 at Bankau but then was ordered on to the Long March and ended up at Stalag 3A at Luckenwalde from where he escaped the Russians and joined up with the Americans who sent him home.
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Australian Air Force
Spatial Coverage
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Australia
Germany
Great Britain
Poland
England--Yorkshire
Poland--Opole (Voivodeship)
Temporal Coverage
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1939
1942-05
1943
1944-01
Contributor
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Julie Williams
466 Squadron
aircrew
bale out
bomb aimer
bombing
bombing of Nuremberg (30 / 31 March 1944)
coping mechanism
crewing up
Gee
H2S
Halifax
memorial
mid-air collision
military living conditions
military service conditions
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
Operational Training Unit
prisoner of war
RAF Church Broughton
RAF Driffield
RAF Leconfield
Red Cross
Stalag 3A
Stalag Luft 7
superstition
the long march
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/229/3374/ClarkeC2.10.16.2.jpg
8dd8370a9b6d8ad99e993d43c0557203
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/229/3374/AClarkeCH170304.1.mp3
e613e4f7e9c43d46cb6aab49f55d7f06
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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Clarke, Charles Henry
Charles Henry Clarke
Charles H Clarke
Charles Clarke
Charles Henry Clarke
Charles H Clarke
C H Clarke
C Clarke
Description
An account of the resource
Four items. Three oral history interviews with Air Commodore Charles Henry Clarke OBE (1923 - 2019) and one photograph. Charles Clarke volunteered for the RAF when he was seventeen and flew operations as a bomb aimer with 619 Squadron from RAF Woodhall Spa. His aircraft was shot down on his 18th operation and he became a prisoner of war. He was held at Stalag Luft 3 and took part in the long march. After the war, he was posted to the Air Ministry for Aircraft Production, and then to the Middle East. He left the RAF as an Air Commodore in 1978. He later became the chairman of the Bomber Command Association.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-08-06
2016-06-02
2017-03-04
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
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Clarke, CH
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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TO: Right, er, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, whatever the case may be. We’re recording this interview for the International Bomber Command Centre and the gentleman I’m interviewing is Air Commodore Charles Clarke. My name is Thomas Ozel and we’re recording this interview on the 4th of March. Could you tell me a little bit about where you were born and where you grew up?
CC: We’ll start when I joined the Air Force.
TO: OK.
TO: The — I joined, I volunteered for the Air Force in 1941 and, er, we had to report to Lord’s Cricket Ground. Well, Regents Park Zoo, which was the Aircraft, er, Aircrew Reception Centre. We were billeted in flats, in my case Hall Road, about six of us in an ordinary bedroom in this flat. We used to dine, if dining’s the word for it, in the, what is now, the restaurant of the zoo and it’s little changed. It’s quite recognisable. We were only there for a couple of weeks whilst were given elementary drill and, at the time, even corporals and LACs were like gods. We were kicked around. I think I had three haircuts in about two or three days until the corporal was satisfied that my hair was short enough. We were inoculated and vaccinated, er, the — I’m sure all of us with the same needle. We then collected our kit from a garage just off the Edgware Road. And seeing we’d just been inoculated and vaccinated it’s no surprise carrying all our kit, that’s boots, great coat and kit bag and everything, that some of the chaps even passed out on the road, on the main road. After two weeks we were, er, allocated to some Initial Training Wings and we all wore a white flash indicating that we were UTA, Under Training Aircrew. And Initial Training Wings were located at seaside resorts and towns where there was, where there were hotels that were little used, like Paignton, Torquay, Aberystwyth. I was posted to, er, Scarborough and we were billeted in Scarborough College, in the main hall of Scarborough College, because I remember our beds were very close together and I was just under the, er, the stage. We were there for a while. We were instructed in hygiene, law and order, administration, navigation. Then, er, signalling, both Morse and Aldis lamp, and the Morse signalling was done on the seafront at Scarborough. Once again we had taken over small hotels. The lamp part of it, the Aldis lamp was along the seafront and I think we had to reach six words a minute, if I remember rightly. Halfway through we were for some reason we were moved from Scarborough College to old Ayton School. It was inexplicable but there must have been a good reason. Many years later I tried to persuade Scarborough to dedicate a weekend, a dead weekend, so inviting, er, some former UT aircrews to come back. It would have been good publicity for the town but they were too stupid to recognise the advantage of it, so it never happened. After Scarborough — oh, by the way we used to march up and down from the seafront to the school and there a slope and one chap who actually died of a stroke I think on that particular march. We, from there I was, we were all posted to Heaton Park, which is in Manchester, which was a holding unit and we were expecting to go overseas and our kit was marked accordingly. To my surprise some of us were posted to a UK training schools and I was posted to, er, Carlisle and fl— where we flew Tiger Moths from Stanwix, Stanwix, which is now an industrial site. After a while there I caught mumps, of all things, and I was put in a hospital along town with — I think I was the only patient and about seven nurses and I was there several weeks. When I came out I found that I’d been posted and back. Because my course had gone I was posted back to Heaton Park. Once again I expected to go overseas. It was a time the Lancaster was coming in and they were desperate for crews so I was reallocated to be navigator PW. Having joined up wanting to be a pilot, I actually cried. It was, you know, I was so disappointed but looking back it was the best thing that happened to me because so many of the pilots were killed because they were the last to get out of the aircraft. If you look at the veterans around there are very few pilots today, even today. Anyway, um, I was posted to Dumfries, where we flew in Bothas and Ansons. Now Botha had the shortest, shortest career ever of any aircraft and in fact I’m sure most people wouldn’t even know of it. We were there for a couple of — I don’t remember how many months. The weather was pretty ghastly at the time. And then we had our examinations at the end and to my surprise I was, I was given a piece of paper to go buy a uniform. I was commissioned. That was the only training that I had. I suppose the training at ITW was the sort of training you’d give an officer anyway. I then collected my uniform and overnight I became a pilot officer. We were then posted to North Luffenham, where they were flying Wellingtons, and you picked up a crew there. Now, the crewing system was very sophisticated. You put a bunch of people in a hangar and said, ‘Sort yourself out.’ And if you liked the look of a chap he was the chap you were crewing up with. I mean it was really like dating. And three of us got together. There was a Canadian pilot. A very old navigator. He was twenty-six. He looked, you know, I thought he was queuing up for his pension at that age because we were so very young. Anyway, the three of us got together. We flew — I remember flying with Jock Reid VC at one time. After completing a course there, we were posted to a Heavy Conversion Unit at Swinderby. The — where we were flying Lancasters. And there again we picked up the rest of our crew. That’s the two gunners, the radio operator and the engineer. So we were then were a crew of seven. The — after qualifying there we were posted to a squadron and I was posted to, or we were posted to 619 Squadron at Woodhall Spa. Now Woodhall Spa, the officer’s mess at was the Petwood Hotel which was the best officers’ mess in the country. It’s still — it would have been a Grade 1 Hotel if it had a swimming pool but it was sort of ideal. I mean, we were very fortunate. If you read Gibson’s book it tells you how he found this mess for his crew, er, for his crews, or discovered it. But, of course, that’s absolute nonsense because if 57 were there for a while just before us and then we moved in. The loss rate was fairly high and I think we lost about three wing commanding officers in a very short period of, of time. Anyway, we did, I think we did about eighteen operations if I remember rightly and of which six were to a heavily Ber— a heavily defended Berlin. It was certainly not the time to be in Bomber Command because that was when they experienced, the period when they experienced the greatest losses. Equally he weather was foul. Interestingly for you, at the Petwood Hotel, there was a so-called ‘Kinema in the woods’ at the back of the, of the grounds of the hotel, and many [emphasis] years later, sort of probably about 1990, I received a letter that had been written by a friend of mine on the squadron at the time to his sister, saying that he’d been to the Kinema in the woods with Charles Clarke, and then there was a bit about his girlfriend. It came at Christmas time and my daughter and her husband were here and I said, um, how immature the, the writing was and she said, ‘Well, I’m sure you were immature at the time.’ Because we were only eighteen, nineteen. He, he actually was a dedicated Salvationist and he was shot down on one of the Berlin raids and I went to see his parents. They were officers, Salvation Army officers, in Tunbridge Wells and I remember saying [unclear] he could be a prisoner of war but sadly when I came back after the war I learned that he’d been killed with all of his crew. In fact he jumped. A brother, who was, when I went to see his parents, was dying to join the Royal Air Force, or to join the services any way, eventually joined. I always assumed [?] the guards as a musician and became a musician for the Salvation Army. The — anyway we were — as I said the weather at that time was still very bad — we were one particular raid we were all scattered. We couldn’t get back to our own airfield. This was general and we landed at Pocklington and I remember sleeping in someone else’s bed and going into York wearing flying clothing which was all he had, to the disgust of the RAF policeman. By coincident only this week — I’m chairman of The Bomber Command Association, as you know, among many other things. One of my committee, a civilian, who worked at the museum said that he had — one of his relatives, young relatives, had said that their relative was on 619 squadron and, er, he said, told me the name. Well, I remember him well and he was one of those who was in an aircraft when we were scouting about and landed at Pocklington and he had to bail out with his crew. I don’t know whether really — they obviously run out of fuel and when he got back to Woodhall Spa found that he’d been awarded a bar to his DFC. Now, he didn’t even know he had a DFC and he went along wearing a drawing pin on his uniform. We had some interesting visitors at that time. Anyway on a raid to Schweinfurt we were hit by a fighter. The aircraft caught fire, the wing was dropping off, er, but it’s worth remembering that it didn’t matter how good your crew was — the fact that your three COs with their select crews. It didn’t matter how good your crew was if there was a fighter loitering near you, you were almost certain to be shot down. So the fighter had probably been coming from a warm mess thirty minutes before. Your gunners had probably been sitting there for about six hours, freezing. The visibility was limited, the fighter had upward firing guns so the rear gunner wouldn’t see him, his calibre was probably .5 an inch, whereas we had 303 so he knew he could shoot while he was still out of range. Furthermore, he could home in on your equipment. For example, we had a Monica on board, which was similar to what you have on cars, for their parking and things and, in fact, we did the trials at Defford on the visual monitor. Originally we did just peeping or audio and they, I’m sure they homed on that. So, surviving was a matter of luck rather than skill. Anyway, we were shot down and the amazing thing is that I knew roughly the area we were shot down. Only this morning I got a telephone call to say that someone had located the site, there was a memorial had been being built, that — for the three people in the aircraft who were killed, and actually they were amazed that someone was still alive and have invited me back to the town. I was always, I intended to go some day. I never got around to it. I’ve always been preoccupied. But I would have been very cagey about declaring my interest because it could be that aircraft could have landed on a block of flats and killed hundreds but obviously there will be a welcome there. Anyway, er, I came down. I bailed out. Four of us bailed out and three were killed. And I landed in the snow. Another one broke a leg. I mean, we didn’t see one another. I kept disappearing in the snow drifts and I could imagine myself being found in the spring. Remember, I was very much a tomboy, a young, a youngster. I’ve done a lot of skiing since, I mean, really skiing right into old age. And there were footprints, or animal footprints, around. I thought they were wolves but of course subsequently I, I learned they were mountain goats [slight laugh]. But anyway I kept, I was thoroughly exhausted, kept going in snowdrifts. Eventually, I found a mountain hut where I sheltered. I tried to — I was obviously very cold and exhausted — and I tried to light a fire in this mountain hut. I, er, I got out my — oh, by the way I’d started walking in the direction of Sweden — I got out my escape matches and they broke. They were useless. They were about an inch long. So then I decided I’d probably cut off slivers of wood from a bench and, er, start a fire that way. The knife broke so that was useless. I should also explain at this stage that we were very — we had a hell of a lot of training for parachuting. I jumped off a six foot ladder once onto bail of straw. That’s the only training I ever had. Anyway, eventually I had to get down onto a road because I was just passed caring at that stage and I came round the corner. The road ran along by a river and there was a, a detachment of Germans and when they — I looked, I wondered if I could run across the river because it was frozen but when they fired a shot, I decided that for me the war was over. The — interesting their reaction. They were — they cordoned off that area because they thought, well, they knew an American aircraft had crashed there and they were after the American crew and their, their reaction was interesting. It wasn’t particularly hostile. They were absolutely amazed that the RAF were employing children [laugh] because I looked very young anyway. Well, I was [emphasis] young but they were employing children, I mean, these terra fliegers. I was then taken to a prison cell and dumped into a cell. I started shouting in the hope that the other crew might be there and the Germans quite impolitely told me to shut up and keep quiet. So, I wondered what, what I could do to get over this problem. Now, about a week before I was shot down I’d been to a film London and I think it was called I think “Orchestra Wives” and in it was a song which was so appropriate. In those days the high spot of social life was the Saturday night dance. There was nothing and one of the songs in was “Missed the Saturday Dance” because they crowded the floor “Can’t get on without you. Can’t get around anymore” and I started singing that and I got a re— someone else joined in and so I, I believed there was another, sort of allied airmen, either Canadian or British or something, er, in there, in the, in this prison cell but I really didn’t know him. I was then taken to, er, somewhere anyway. We finished up in a guard room of, I think, an airfield and we were in this little guard room with a Feldwebel NCO and a couple of German soldiers for him and one, one was holding Sten gun or Sten type gun, like that, and he pulled the trigger and I thought he was going to murder me and I shouted at him but the Fedwebel NCO shouted at him so it was obviously an inadvertent firing that you would expect a young recruit might do in England. From there I was taken to Dulag Luft which was the interrogation centre for Frankfurt on Maine. We were put in tiny cells. Kept there I don’t know how many days where you know they, sort of, you had a shout if you wanted to go to the loo and try to exercise in this few square yards you had. After the war, er, some Germans were prosecuted for overheating [peep sound] the cells which apparently had asbestos linings. From there — I don’t know, I was there a few days. I can’t really remember. From there I was taken to Stalag Luft III with an escort of two or three airmen or, you know, German airmen. I was glad to have them I think when we were at Stuttgart Station because people were spitting and wanted to tear me apart because, well, to them I was the terra flieger. We went by train from there to Sagan railway station and, in fact, the railway station has little changed, you know, it’s quite uncanny in a way. And I can’t remember how we went from the station to the camp, which is about a mile away, whether it was by truck or we walked or — when we got in the camp — and the prisoners used to call new arrivals milk bottles because they were white. I mean, we were flying at night. We didn’t see much daylight. And I was questioned. We were all questioned to see whether we were plants by the enemy and then we were allocated a room and a knife, fork and spoon and things like that, which I still have actually, although the fork, the prongs have broken off and the knife is broken hallway because I used it as a, what we described, as a ‘pranger’ to make tin plates, as a hammer. Anyway, after I’d been there a little while the ‘Great Escape’ took place. I mean, I was not directly involved. I meant, it had been going on for months. The people that went out were mainly people who’d been prisoners for a long time or prisoners who’d been directly involved in the digging or, er, were continentals, could speak a language and had a better chance, for example, a chap named Tobolski, who was a Pole, and “Wings” Day went out together and the, the night before those who were in the lead of the tunnel, going first, were moved into the huts so there wouldn’t be too much turbulence and our hut was crowded. We knew the escape was taking place and we heard a shot in the night and realised they had been discovered. We, I’ve heard people say they, ‘I was in the tunnel and the only reason I was saved was because there was a bend in the tunnel otherwise the bullet would have hit me.’ Absolute rubbish and one of our members was so incensed with this correspondence in the newspaper, a very distinguished digger, who became a digger because he was Welsh and they thought all Welsh people were miners while he’d never touched — he was a tough character but he — I remember [cough] Ken Reece [?] phoning me and saying, ‘Charles, if all those who say they were involved got together in the camp there wouldn’t be room for them all.’ And it’s perfectly true. You know, I’ve heard so much rubbish. And the — another interesting thing, the chap in charge of the tunnelling had [emphasis] been a miner, so — but he was Canadian and, in fact, he acted as the technical adviser on the film “The Great escape”. He had been a miner but an opencast miner so — anyway he was in charge, Wally Floody. We were — life in the camp was pretty tedious and we never knew what was going to happen to us. Oh sorry, the night after the tunnel, escape had been discovered we were held out on the parade ground. It was bitterly cold, all day virtually, while they counted and recounted to establish how many people had escaped. And they counted and recounted with little help from us because we kept moving round deliberately and then I think they stopped food coming in and lots of things like that. The — we were fortunate, the senior British officer — an interesting thing about the camp, in officer camps the senior British officer by seniority was the boss, for want of a better description, but in NCO camps they were voted in a man of confidence, whether he be Army or Air Force, I mean Dixie Dean was a man of confidence that most people will remember. Anyway we, er, during the rest of the time in Stalag III we didn’t know what was going to happen to us after the shoot— I’m sorry, I really should have said about the senior British officer was a group captain and he was about to be repatriated on the Gothenburg (I think there were two repatriations during the war) and this was a few weeks after and this was fortuitous because he was able to give the information about the shooting, the murdering, first hand, to the extent that Anthony Eden stood up in Parliament and said, ‘We will exert exemplary justice on them when we find the culprits.’ And in fact, the wing commander, who was an ex-policemen, who did the investigation, post-war called his book “Exemplary Justice” and in fact, many moons ago he was given a OBE, many moons afterwards. His OBE was stolen and after he was, he died the RAF, we held a ceremony at Henlow, at which we presented a duplicate OBE to his family, and they in turn gave it back to the, er, the Service Police Department, detachment there, because that’s, they are based at Henlow and its probably still there. Anyway, food was very short, cigarettes were plentiful. When the Germans were beasty they, apart from stopping the, stopping the food coming in, they also punctured the tins so we couldn’t hoard them for escaping. Although escaping had been forbidden by the senior British officer anyway. We followed — when the invasion came we expected to be home the following day, kind of thing. Of course, it went on and on and on. We were very disappointed. We followed the invasion progress. We had a BBC radio and the news used to be read every day. The, the Germans also had their news bulletin. And the map we kept up, it was, er, updated by the German news and not by us, and it was a popular story that the commandant at the camp asked the senior British officer, ‘Where exactly are the British now?’ Whether it’s true or not I don’t know because he knew we had the radio. One story about the radio, there was a Church of England, an Anglican priest, minister, in the camp. He, er, was Army because obviously RAF chaplains don’t fly. He, er, as I say, he was doing his chaplaincy or ministry. He was Anglican. Another chap turns up who was Presbyterian and he was Army. He came into the camp and in his book it was interesting. It said, ‘I met the other chap, the minister. He greeted me warmly but his sermons were dull.’ When the — people often don’t understand why there were no Americans in the film “The Great Escape”, well — rather not in the film, in actual, there were no Americans killed. The reason was the Americans were involved in the digging but before the escape they were moved and there was a story that it was wondered how they would get the news across the wire. The Americans in their new camp would take time to either build a radio or scrounge the parts. And somebody hit upon the idea of just shouting it across the wire. Now this seemed to be insecure but, er, the, er, oh gosh, it was — the answer is very simple and I’ve just forgotten the word for a second. It was shouted across in the Scottish language, Gaelic, that’s right, Gaelic, the — and of course there was no hope in hell of any German speaking Gaelic. That particular chap, the Scot, came back and, in fact, we’ve seen him ministering in Bond Street Church, just off Sloane Square, Sloane Street, and eventually he became he Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland and when he died Brown, the former Prime Minister, attended his funeral because Brown’s father was a contemporary of, of this minister and, in fact, I think the minister christened Brown’s child. Anyway, we, we were very short of food, so much so that if we got a loaf of bread that was made of wooden, er, made of sawdust virtually, there was one bread cutter on the camp and with a bit of luck you might book it, I mean, and you would then cut as many slices as possible. You’d bring it back, and put it on the table and you would cut cards for the choice of slice just in case one had a more than the other. If we had what we called ‘glop’ which was running with weevils, occasionally, we’d do the same. We would ladle out the glop in bowls and then cut cards just in case one had a spoonful more than the other. Then we’d cut cards for who would lick out the container. As I say, cigarettes were plentiful because they were duty free in Canada and America and the Germans were quite illogical in a way because they seemed to let them in when they wouldn’t allow food. The cigarettes were used as a currency. Every — we had an exchange shop called ‘Foodacco’. When I say shop, it was a local room, and you could buy any sort of commodity that came in a food parcel but it was priced in terms of cigarettes and, if I’m not mistaken, I didn’t smoke. I believe a two penny bar of chocolate was a thousand cigarettes and I remember saving up and eventually getting a — it was a Hershey bar, a hard chocolate, and breaking it up, and cutting the knobs of chocolate in half and cleaning my teeth (we had no toothbrush] and getting on my pit, as we called our beds, and with lights out at 10 o’clock and putting this bit of chocolate on my tongue to see how long I could make it last. It was sheer luxury. And we dined as a, within the room so we pooled all our, our rations. And, er, you had one stove in the room which threw out very little heat and you could just about boil a kettle on it. But you were allocated a half hour and it rotated for the one kind of cooking stove in the hut and so you had to have everything ready to throw on the stove and off again in the thirty minutes. We had two or three people in the room who were reasonable cooks, well at least, were prepared to cook. At night, as I say, the shutters came down at dusk and we were locked in. Interesting, every day we a had a quiet period and I think it was either between 1 and 3 o’clock or something like that, where you were forbidden to make a noise, to enable people to write or rest or read or do whatever they wanted to do. It was good discipline. We had two parades a day and usually when we were on parade the ferrets would become particularly active, searching rooms, and anyway after the invasion we thought we would be home the following day but it didn’t work out that way. We wondered what would happen to us, whether we would be held as hostages or whether we would shot like the fifty. And then in January we had a kind of prior warning on the grape vine that we would be moved. Well, the Russians were only twenty miles away and we could hear their guns and we were hoping that the Russians would overtake us that would have been disastrous. But anyway suddenly we were told we’d be on the road. We were going to be marched out and we left the camp at about two o’clock in the morning. I’d made a sledge like that there and, in fact, there’s a copy on the memorial. The, er, Germans had made no provision for food or accommodation on route. We were not equipped for that sort of thing. The temperature was minus thirty degrees centigrade. It was the coldest winter in Polish living memory and it’s been confirmed since. And there was a blizzard. It wasn’t a march. It was a trudge. People often say do you recognise this when you passed? All I recognised was feet, the person’s feet in front of me, you know, sloshing along and it was, as I say, thirty six hours before we got shelter. We were put in a barn. Those that didn’t get in got frostbite. Those that took their boots off had difficulty getting them on again because they were frozen. We got up the next morning, no provision had been made for anything and then we marched and this went on two or three days. One stop I remember we were very fortunate. We were in a glass factory so it was warm. I remember I had a little pot of something that I put in the kiln to, to — remember, we were carrying our blankets and our cooking pots and the — we also stayed at an artillery barracks and, when say we stayed, I think we only stayed a few hours. I don’t really remember that. We got to Spremburg which was the border between until recently, well, still is the border between Germany and Poland. Well, at one time it was manned but it isn’t now. And Spremburg hadn’t changed very much until about two years ago. Because every time we go there we hold a service and the buildings were still there. Occasionally, the Germans in recent years had always been helpful. We had a German escort for our — when we simulate the March. We, we had some interference with a few Germans but the German police have a wonderful way of dealing with it. They put the, they pick up the chaps concerned, put them in the back of a truck, drive them twenty miles outside Spremberg and dump them. It’s amazing. The mayor turns up and things like that and at Spremberg we were loaded into cattle trucks. I think fifty of us, something like that, in the cattle trucks. There was no room to stretch out. Some of us had dysentery and we had one bucket between us so you can imagine the stench but at least it was en-suite. Then the, er, we were there for several days. We parked up overnight and often we wondered whether we’d be victims of our own bombing. You know, we heard the bombing. The, eventually, we came to a place near Bremen, Tarmstedt, and we were pushed out and then had to walk about six, six hours or something to a camp. And certainly it was raining or snowing and it was cold. They seemed to search every one of us and when we got into the camp it had been wrecked completely. It had been a camp for mariners, either Navy or Merchant Navy. And they had wrecked the joint completely. They’d broken the windows, broken the beds, the boards, smashed the stoves. All we had was wet straw. And the reason they did that, yes, our own people, was they thought they were evacuating the camp to make way for refugees from Hamburg and Bremen and, of course, little did they — I don’t know how long we stayed there, probably a month or something. I remember spending a whole morning sitting on my haunches on a cinder path, picking up little bits of coke, you know, about an eighth of an inch, quarter of an inch, to fill a can to — so we could make a reasonable brew. On, on one occasion we saw or heard, knew that there was a bread van coming and we were obviously quite excited. The trouble was a Tempest or a Typhoon shot it up when it was near the camp. But if that aircraft had come down we would have lynched him. It was one of our own. Anyway, after a time we were going on the road again but this time we were living out all, all the time. We were sleeping in fields at night. We put out our towels to show POW for any aircraft. I mean, escape would have been easy, apart from it being [unclear] it would have been easy. But then you’d got to go through German lines and British lines and you were just as likely to have been shot by either of them. We crossed the Elbe and on the other side was a barge called the “Capella” and I went on to try and scrounge some food and the captain wanted me to stay as a kind of hostage but as I said the British were [unclear] on the side, the other back, so I mean the chances of surviving that were pretty remote. Anyway we went on. We were supposed to be going to Lu— to a camp at Lübeck but there was typhoid or typhus in the camp, er, in Lübeck so instead of after a lot of negotiation, we were dumped on a farm outside Lübeck, once again living out in the open, so just making shelters for ourselves. I remember there was a lake there. The Germans, the 21st Army Group, eventually crossed the Elbe and caught up with us but before that, er, a reconnaissance vehicle, one of these little things and you don’t know whether it was going or coming back, with two men in it, usually an officer and an NCO, came into the camp and we mobbed him. I mean we really mobbed him and I don’t think he was the advanced party. I have an idea he’d lost his way but anyway eventually the main body, the troops, came up and we were told to wait there. And so, the main, the main force came up and then they give us transport, buses, to be flown back to England and that was the end of captive world. Well, not quite the end. What’s going to happen to this? Is it going to be published or, or what?
TO: If you’re, if you’re OK with it being published some of it can be viewable online for people can watch. If you’re OK with that.
CC: Yeah, yeah. I won’t tell you — when it’s switched off I’ll tell you how I got back to England. But that’s a different matter.
TO: OK.
CC: Turn that off.
TO: Shall I turn it off?
CC: Yes. OK. Andy Wiseman, he, was born in Berlin. His father was in the embassy, of Polish extraction. He spent his first thirteen years there. He went home crying because, er, they wouldn’t let him join the Hitler Youth and so his father said I must tell you a thing of two. Ian was also a lad he used to go to school with, he said, ‘I can’t walk with you because you’re Jewish.’ Anyway, he came back to England. It was claimed he couldn’t speak English but I don’t believe that. He, er, joined the Air Force at eighteen and by that time he was a remarkable linguist. He spoke French, English, Polish, Russian, um, anyway he, er, died. He was coming to me, with me. I invited him to come with me to the Defence Academy because I was giving a talk there and, er, he eventually wrote his book or had it ghost written and phoned me and he said, ‘Charles, would you write the foreword for me?’ I said, ‘Well send me the proof.’ And I think it was the Christmas before, probably Christmas before last, I was going to Oxford and I said, ‘I’ll take it with me.’ I didn’t read it. I wrote, wrote the foreword. I didn’t need to read it actually but when he asked me I said, ‘I’ll write it on one condition.’ You know he charged by the word because he was Jewish [slight laugh]. Anyway, the sad thing is he died before seeing the foreword, before seeing the book.
TO: Right.
CC: And a lady friend he had, who was about ten or fifteen years longer, younger, a couple of days after he died she had a stroke. And I’m in touch with her still. Anyway —
TO: I was wondering, when you were growing up were you interested in aircraft?
CC: Oh, yes. Ev— everyone was. I mean, I saw the Hendon Air show so, I mean, and I can remember being very envious of an Air Cadet (Air Defence Cadet because it was before the Air Training Corps) directing the traffic [slight laugh] under the control of a, a Service man, so, you know, when I go back to Hendon I think of that.
TO: So was your father in the First World War?
CC: Yes, he was but as I said we start with me.
TO: OK. Fair enough.
CC: He was actually. He was in the Machine Gun Corps. He was wounded and gassed.
TO: So, just to check? What year were you born?
CC: 1923. So long ago I’ve forgotten.
TO: Can you remember the Munich Agreement at all?
CC: I remember Chamberlain and all that, yeah.
TO: And what do you think of Chamberlain, looking back?
CC: It’s so easy to be critical after the event, you know. You could argue that he gave us time to prepare for war. You can argue any way. A neighbour of mine, who’s elderly, Len, I remember him saying something about history. Before you, when you look at history, you need to read two or three books for the three opinions and it’s perfectly true. I mean, you look at companies, as I know only too well. You look at the Chairman and think why doesn’t he do this? But he can only run as fast as the rest his committee or board and people forget that.
TO: And were you in London during the Blitz?
CC: In the early days, yes. I witnessed the Blitz.
TO: Is there anything that stands out for you from that time?
CC: Well, the bombing, the devastation, the fact that walking around, coming, walking around at night you didn’t — the bombing was not the main the problem. It was the shrapnel. You could hear the tinkle, tinkle. I mean, there were many more pieces of shrapnel than bombs.
TO: And, er, what kind of medical tests did you have for being aircrew?
CC: When I volunteered it was quite amusing. As a child I’d had, was told I had a weak heart so there I was at the medical trying to persuade them how fit I was. At the same time there was another chap being examined trying to proving a hole, saying how sick he was, because he didn’t want to be called up. No, the — it was quite strange the medical at the time.
TO: And, er, do you remember when America joined the war?
CC: Not specifically? I mean, I must have remembered but well, obviously a relief, because you know that we had an ally with us but probably at that age I wasn’t as involved in politics as I am now.
TO: What do you think of Churchill?
CC: He was remarkable man. Once again, I mean, you hear of his detractors but whatever you think, he had a remarkable command of English language. Disappointing that he — he probably had his reasons — the fact that he tried to back out from any responsibility for the bombing campaign. I get cross when people try to reinvent the time and, er, criticise Dresden. We — there’s no need to apologise for Dresden. Dresden was a transportation point. Furthermore, it was bombed at the direct request of Stalin. Stalin wanted so many transportation points bombed to ease the pressure on his Front. Three cities were chosen but I think it was Eisenhower who decided it was Dresden and the Americans bombed it at the same time. I got from the radio that Harris was in America at the time, I’m not sure. Once again, another remarkable man. I mean people, we always referred to him as “Butch” Harris but it was term of endearment, not criticism. I, er, I or we always thought the reason he chose our targets was that he was in bed and there was a map of Germany on the wall and he threw a dart [slight laugh] but I’m sure it’s not true. In fact, in one of the messes — let me think? Is it Cranwell or Henlow? They’ve got books of target maps of all the air bases that were bombed. About a year or so there was a book published so I got a copy (it was about forty pounds) showing, er, the site of every bomb that were dropped in England or probably London during the war. It, it is really quite interesting. Also, sorry, another thing about Dresden, people often say that, you know, it was near the end of the war. No one knew it was the end of the war and the Germans were still raining V-2 rockets on England whether it was nearly the end of the war or not. I mean, my wife and I were walking to Kingston, which is about five miles, and we deterred at one stage and I came across a memorial where a V-2 had landed, somewhere between here and Kingston.
TO: What did you think of other RAF leaders, like Charles Portal?
CC: I, I think we were very well served by them. One of the, we got to Sagan this year. We’ve been to Sagan. We go every year. We try to repeat the Long March. I emphasise about fifty officers and airmen, er, including the chief air staff. He came with someone on one occasion and this previous, this last chief air staff, was coming but he had to drop out at the last moment. I emphasise this is the first stage of the Long March. We only marched to Spremberg and nigh on a hundred miles and we stay in the barn we stayed in, which is still there, but they have camp beds and mobile cooking and things, heating and things like that. But, er, what was I thinking of?
TO: RAF leaders.
CC: Oh, the RAF leaders. The, the troops have to put on, what they call, a stand. They have to — they’re given a particular subject to talk about. One of the, er, subjects that often came up, I mean, would Bushell be sixteen [?] in the post-war Air Force? Obviously it’s no. You know, horse for courses.
TO: And —
CC: Just on leadership. I think the RAF have been lucky to have the chiefs we’ve had. I mean, all of them have been good. I can’t think of anyone that you’d say, ‘God, how did they get there?’
TO: And what’s your opinion on Harris?
CC: Harris was remarkable man. I mean, I met him. I’ll show you. Strangely enough, when you came I was just upstairs. I was going to photocopy something. On Monday, yes Monday, I’ve been asked to go to the RAF Club where someone is going to present the RAF Club with a picture of Harris. I’ve got a picture there. A signed picture of Harris. I’ll dig it out. There are some things that would interest you. But he was certainly a great man. I mean, he was single-minded. He was articulate. You couldn’t have wished for a better chap. It’s just unfortunate that he got the so called approbation [?] of the bombing campaign but certainly there should not be any apology for the bombing campaign. After all, the Germans invented area bombing by Rotterdam and Guernica and places like that. I mean Guernica was in the Spanish Civil War.
TO: And just as a side note I have something I have with me that [unclear]
CC: Pardon?
TO: There’s something I have with me that you’ve probably already seen it. There’s a speech Harris gave in 1977 about Bomber Command that I give to all the veterans, Sir. You might want to have a read of that later.
CC: Oh, I’d love to. I’ll have a copy of that if I may?
TO: That’s why I brought it, Sir. You might have heard it yourself right from him.
CC: Er, just turn it off just for a second.
TO: OK, sure.
CC: I [pause]
TO: Do you remember what films they were showing at the cinema during the war?
CC: Certainly. I mentioned one earlier “Orchestra Wives” and in fact we, in the prison camp, er, we had one film, I remember, shown in all the time I was there and what I remember about it is either the, either, the power was cut off or the projector broke. It was while someone was singing a song [unclear] and so we never did hear the end. It was a very popular tune at the time but, er, I suppose Judy Garland, Shirley Temple, things were popular at the time.
TO: And how was morale in the Air force during the war?
CC: It was very good. We were young and fit and I’m talking about aircrew really — young, fit, filtered — I mean to get in the POW camp you’d been filtered so many times. You had volunteered, selected, examined, interrogated, and then shot down. You’d survived and you’d got to the camp and you were still alive so it was a great filtration system and I don’t think there was any problem with morale. And I have people often ask me about lack of moral fibre. I never met anyone that I had were classed by LMF. One person I met after the war intrigues me because I’m sure, er, he was commissioned and then he became a flight sergeant. His story is that he decided that he didn’t he wanted to be an instructor. I can’t believe that’s true. That’s the only one where I expect that might be the case but I could easily be wrong. The other thing too is, er, survival after the war. The — once again, we were all young and fit. We didn’t have post-war stress, but I know two people who actually went in a mental home. One was a friend. One was in the POW camp. He was put in a mental home and there was another one who died recently. I went to his funeral. He had two or three sessions in a mental home. So some people were affected.
TO: How did you feel you feel when Churchill announced that the RAF would begin its bombing campaign?
CC: He what?
TO: When, when Churchill announced that, er, the RAF would be beginning the bombing campaign against Germany?
CC: Oh, the bombing campaign really existed throughout the war. There was no start to it. I mean, the — there were POWs who were shot down in Hampdens, you know, in the early days, and Whitleys and when I, when I joined the Air Force in Oxford we were accommodated overnight in what was a cinema or a theatre in the High Street. It was full of beds about six inches apart, Safari camp beds. The chap in the bed on my right was a sergeant air gunner from Abingdon, flying Whitleys, and he horrified me with his stories [unclear] I was beginning to wonder whether I was doing the right thing, volunteering, and then a few weeks later I saw a film “Target For Tonight” and the hero was Pickard, who was a squadron leader then. He was acting squadron leader. And once again I was wondering whether I’d made the right decision but that was the only time I had any doubt about my survival. Pickard became a group captain eventually and was shot down on the, er, Amiens raid I think.
TO: And what did you — did you see news reels at the cinema?
CC: Sorry?
TO: Did you watch news reels at the cinema?
CC: Certainly, yes. Whilst I was in England, yes.
TO: Yes. Did you ever wonder if they were being truthful?
CC: Oh, I think it was pretty obvious they were being faked. They had to be, I mean, even then. And if you read, if you read the Telegraph today, the despatches from the First World War, and you read them and, er, we won every day but the war went on for four years. It’s interesting to see how — there was very famous commentator. There was a film about him. He came, he came with the squadron and flew on one occasion and he presented us with a, a rather swish radiogram which was all singing and all dancing in those days and subsequently when the squadron moved to Coningsby there was an argument whether the radiogram was presented to the squadron or the mess. Oh, what was his name? He was very — I mean, you would know him.
TO: Was it Ed Munro?
CC: Ed Munro?
TO: Murrow.
CC: Ed Murrow. Yeah, it was Ed Murrow.
TO: He gave the broadcast during the Blitz.
CC: That’s right. Yes.
TO: And do you, er, remember hearing about the raid on Hamburg?
CC: Surely. That’s why, I mean, a great deal publicity was given to it because you have to remember that this was the only way the country could fight back at the time and it was certainly a morale booster to think something like that was happening.
TO: And do you remember the thousand bomber raid?
CC: Yes, I do. Yes. Once again it was a remarkable feat. Then when you hear, subsequently, the efforts that were made to get a thousand aircraft in the air it was quite something.
TO: And, er, how did the mission briefings work?
CC: It, it was to a formula. It went very well. You didn’t know until the day where you were going. You had some indication from the, the great [unclear] there was a few of those so you knew roughly the distance. The briefings were all done very correctly. And, er, in fact there’s a company that does briefings now. They dress up as airmen and they do it very, very well. I can’t remember the name of the group. I saw them performing at Duxford and I thought they were remarkable.
TO: And, er, what was the procedure for when you actually you left the briefing area and you began to prepare for the mission?
CC: Well, after the briefing you left the briefing you went back to the mess to read prior to flying and, yeah, obviously, recognising there was a greater danger going to Berlin than anywhere else. What is interesting about — once again, going back to the mess, last year I went to Potsdam where the forty-eight, the fifty are interred. If you look along the graves there are three or four at the end that are not in order, you know, in a straight line. I looked at them and thought, you know, just the crew together. I, when I left I looked at what you call a [unclear] a long list of names and I found that they were on my squadron, not only that, they were on my squadron whilst I was there and the fact that I didn’t know them, didn’t even remember, indicated they could have been on their first trip. I could have been on leave while they arrived. It indicated the short life. I mentioned this chap who I said went into a mental home twice, he was shot down on his first trip. He was —
TO: And do you — could you tell me about your first ever mission over Europe?
CC: It was to Mönchengladbach and I always — it became the headquarters of the Royal Air Force of the Forces in Germany as it became later. So much so, I laid a foundation stone there because I bombed it. But I remember it very well and was very satisfied I got back but, I say, we never expected anything to happen to us. It’s silly really when I look back.
TO: And what was, what were your duties specifically on the bomber?
CC: Well, I was the bomb aimer, map reading, bombing generally, acting as look-out on the front. There was a, there was a turret and I heard of, of people say they sat in the turret all the time except for the bombing. Pretty pointless because, I mean, eighteen thousand feet nothing there was going to happen from the front turret.
TO: So, where did you sit, near —
CC: Well, in the bombing nose in the front.
TO: And what were the conditions like aboard the Lancaster?
CC: Cold, hungry, you know, difficult to get to the loo if you wanted it, er, noisy. When I say noisy, um, about twenty years ago the Government gave ten thousand pounds to everyone who complained about being partially deaf from what was called “Lancaster Ear”. Strangely enough, I mentioned it to an audiologist, was it yesterday or the day before? I went and had my hearing tested and I mentioned this thousand — I never got it myself but I know people who applied for it at got it with little argument. So obviously the noise level was exceptionally high. I say, the aircraft was very cold.
TO: Did you have any heating in your section?
CC: No. We had — we wrapped up warmly. Then they brought in an electrically heated suit which was good. It improved things.
TO: And what was the flight procedure for take-off?
CC: Oh, you got out of the nose and propped yourself up against the main spar.
TO: And do you remember what your thoughts were during a mission?
CC: Pardon?
TO: What were you generally thinking about during the mission?
CC: Well, you were so busy looking out, you know, the — put it this way there were no deep thoughts [laugh]. Survival thoughts more than anything else.
TO: And was there heavy flak during the missions?
CC: Partly. You’d go through heavy periods and you heard a heavy thump and the aircraft would rock if it was near. I don’t remember actually being hit but once again it was a matter of luck. Occasionally you’d be caught in a searchlight and there was a, the, there was a thing called, oh, “corkscrew” to sort of evade being shot down. I don’t think it did much good.
TO: Did you ever have to ask the pilot to correct his course?
CC: Oh, all the time. I mean, it was a mutual thing. I mean, the navigator and yourself knew more than the pilot and certainly over the target you were aiming for the target markers.
TO: Was this left by the Pathfinders?
CC: Pardon?
TO: Were these target markers that were left by the Pathfinders?
CC: Yes and one time being shot became a kind of game which was terrible but we must have been foolish but we certainly wasn’t very popular with our own crew?
TO: What was, what was your duty once you got over the target?
CC: Well, to pin-point the target and drop the bombs.
TO: Could you see anything other than the flares that had been left?
CC: Oh, well, I mean flak all round and searchlights and aircraft blowing up too. I didn’t realise, I said earlier, that when we were in the prison camp they used to close the shutters when there was a raid but on the march, for the last time, when we slept out in the open we’d see the raids, the American raids and our own raids. And you’d see the aircraft shot down. Some would explode immediately, some would catch fire and you’d see some of the crew bail out and if they didn’t you knew how many were in the crew and you’d think the poor devils, you know.
TO: Were you ever — were your missions always at nights?
CC: Pardon?
TO: Were your missions always at night?
CC: Yes, yep.
TO: And what were the targets generally be?
CC: Mainly Ruhr targets. I remember Stettin, Mannerheim, Schweinfurt, Berlin, Mönchengladbach, you know, typical.
TO: And what did you think of other bombers like the Wellington?
CC: Compared with the Lancaster it was third class but it was what we started with at the beginning of the war and the great thing is it could be patched up more easily because it had geodetic construction with fabric and —
TO: And what about the Halifax?
CC: Halifax, well, was once again inferior in performance. It’s height and range inferior to the Lancaster. I mean, we were lucky to be on Lancasters. There’s no doubt about it. And even earlier on, Whitleys even more — and even earlier Hampdens were shot down.
TO: Were the missions to Berlin the most dangerous ones you could have?
CC: Yes. I mean, you could argue, like the dams’ raid, but they were exceptions rather than — well, I mean, one thing that’s forgotten about Berlin, there was a heavy concentration of anti-aircraft guns. Those anti-aircraft guns, they were the same type as were used for anti-tank purposes.
TO: And when you got back did you think about the losses that had been suffered or did you just carry on?
CC: You couldn’t help thinking about them because usually it was someone you knew but, I mean, it was a well organised system. Very quickly they swept the room and all traces were remove almost the same day.
TO: And would you say you were good friends with everyone in the crew?
CC: Yes. I mean, once again, it’s quite remarkable. As I said, we became almost forced marriages in a way but we certainly I never regretted the crew we had. We were remarkable.
TO: What is your best memory from the war?
CC: Coming home after the war. [laugh]
TO: OK. And do you think there was anything the RAF could have done to reduce the losses they suffered?
CC: No. Everyone was working to achieve a reduction of the losses. I mean some of the best friends in the camp were working on it and it certainly had priority over other things. With hindsight you could think of things but certainly at the time it was impossible to do that. I mean every development from the development of aircraft to the equipment used in the aircraft were designed to reduce the loss rate.
TO: And what, did your, was window ever used on your missions?
CC: Oh, every time, or practically every time as far as I was concerned, and it was effective, particularly at the beginning.
TO: Was there anything that Germans have anything to counter it?
CC: Not that I was aware of but I’m sure they did.
TO: And what do you think was the most important campaign of the war?
CC: I think the Berlin campaign. People who criticise the bombing effort should listen to chaps like Speer, who was the armaments minister, and if you look at his quotations and interviews he had no doubt they were effective.
TO: On the missions were you given a specific target or was it just a certain area that you were bombing?
CC: We were given a specific target and it was marked by the Pathfinders.
TO: And what did you think of the aircraft that the Germany was using?
CC: I had no knowledge of it except they were effective. I mean, someone said the, the aircraft that shot me down or shot us down was, I can’t remember the type, but it was a heavier type, more like a bomber than a fighter, so probably a medium lighter bomber with guns fitted to it so obviously it was a more superior performance than the Lancaster but the attrition rate was such that the Germans were doing quite well. I mean the fact that, what was it? Fifty-five thousand bomber crews, a very high prop— proportion, and people often forgot the ten thousand prisoners of war that were shot down.
TO: And aside from the mission in which you were shot down which mission stands out the most to you?
CC: I, I can’t think of any one. They were all the same, you know, I think the Berlin ones. I suppose the one where we were scattered coming back and had to land at Pocklington and others were bailing out left, right and centre.
TO: And did you have an escape hatch where you, near where you sat?
CC: Sure. Yes. The escape hatch was in the news, in the nose and that’s why you find more bomb aimers survived than pilots and the first thing when the aircraft was aflame and I think it was a mutual decision. I don’t quite know how it was, who said, ‘Bail out. Bail out’. I can’t remember how that happened. It was always — but I, I opened the hatch, got rid of the hatch, and just waited a second until the first person behind me came because I had no intention of jumping out and then finding that I was the only one out and the aircraft got back.
TO: Did you, so did you have to wait until the pilot gave you clearance before you jumped?
CC: Yeah. I don’t quite know how the decision was made. I think it was pretty mutual. The aircraft was ablaze. I’m sure he said, ‘Jump.’ But, you know, I can’t remember specifically.
TO: And did you wear your parachute at all times?
CC: No. And you got to remember, the, er, rear gunner was interesting. The — I hadn’t realised until after the war and I should have known. The rear gunner’s parachute was in the body of the aircraft and he to get out he had to rotate his turret so his, the exit of the turret was aligned to the fuselage, then had to reach for his parachute in the fuselage, get out and put it on. Well, now, if the hydraulics had gone he’d have to wind it by hand. So, once again, it was not easy for a rear gunner to survive. I didn’t realise that until I was looking at the Lancaster Museum at — just outside — oh, gosh. Anyway, just outside the Canadian city — I’m just trying to think what it is — I think the museum is at a place called Nankut and its devoted entirely to the Lancaster.
TO: So, where was your [emphasis] parachute stored?
CC: In a rack. I should think somewhere to the side and, of course, you’re all plugged in to the intercom and electric suit you were wearing so you had to get rid of those at the last moment.
TO: Is there anything more you remember about when the aircraft was attacked?
CC: Just the noise of the shells pumping in the aircraft and the flames, that’s all. Oh, yeah, the only other thing I remember bailing out and as I say having had so much instruction in parachuting I remember counting because I was afraid, I mean it’s unbelievable now, I was afraid the shroud would get caught in the aircraft. I mean, it seems unlikely but I did count before pulling the chute rip cord to extend the chute.
TO: How high do you think you were when you opened the chute?
CC: I’m guessing about ten thousand feet.
TO: Could you see anything below you or around you?
CC: Not really. It was night time. It was a survival frame of mind. I can’t remember looking down as I came down.
TO: When — what happened during the landing?
CC: I just fell in the snow and then I took the parachute harness off and buried it and, you know, covered it with snow. And slavishly cut a piece of material out of the parachute, which I mean, when I look back, I think as crazy. I’ve still got that piece of parachute somewhere, so much so that my sister in law embroidered on it sort of the name of the target and things like that.
TO: Were you on your way back to the target or on the way there?
CC: On the way there and when we got there we jettisoned the bombs too. That was one of the first decision that had to be made.
TO: And what time of year was it that this happened
CC: February and bloody cold.
TO: And what actually was the terrain like around you?
CC: As I say, mountainous, covered in snow, probably a ski centre in — it would be interesting to go back.
TO: And when you’d actually — I don’t know if you could see much around the area but could you see any huts or villages?
CC: No. Only when I came across this mountain hut. That’s all I saw.
TO: And what about the other people who bailed out? What happened to them?
CC: One broke a leg. The others were picked up but I don’t know their individual stories. I mean, looking back, it didn’t occur to me. I mean, were all had a similar experience. I mean, a great friend of mine — we’ve just arranged to go to Buckingham Palace — he’s about four years older than me. A great friend. About fifteen years ago or twenty years ago, he suddenly said, ‘Charles I didn’t realise you were on the Long March.’ I mean, it’s uncanny in a way but he was not aware of it because he was not on the March.
TO: And did you have any rations with you when you landed?
CC: Only a few — oh, we had, I think we had some Horlicks tablets or something. Emergency rations and probably a few boiled sweets or something.
TO: And when you landed were you worried how the Germans would treat you?
CC: Pardon?
TO: When you were captured were you worried about how the Germans would treat you?
CC: Well, naturally. I was amazed and admittedly it was probably more in the country than the town. As I say, the abiding memory I have of them is their amazement of the children the RAF were employing to fly.
TO: And did you see any civilians when you were captured?
CC: Mainly they were servicemen there.
TO: And were you, did you have to go through an interrogation after that?
CC: Well, that was the interrogation centre at Dulag Luft, Luft, which everyone seemed to go there. My son-in-law had to go to Frankfurt to speak at a big medical conference and I told him to start off by saying, ‘Hands up anyone whose father was employed at the interrogation centre.’ [slight laugh] I’m not saying he didn’t but it was a thought, I mean, a thought but you know [unclear] interesting about the Germans, you see, I met Germans sort of ten years ago who are afraid to come to England because they are afraid of the reception we would going to get. Equally go back to the Long March — I’ve been going back for the Long March — I’m amazed at the warm welcome we get by the Germans. In the area of the camp or in Sagen itself. In Sagen, it’s now Sagen with a ‘Z’ but it was Sagen with an ‘S’ and although it’s listed as Stalag Luft III it was an offshoot of the officers’ camp. I think of all the people I’ve met there I think only about two people who remember the POWs and they were children. I think one tells the story of how he was given some chocolate by a POW and he said, ‘Hey you. Inside I’ve got two brothers and sisters.’ I’m a Freeman of Sagen now and I opened a big school nearby of about a thousand pupils. The, the Germans have quite a — I don’t know if you’d call it a celebration — but they mark the 24th of March. They have sort of, er, parades and things like that. It’s interesting. Of course, its tourism too for them. The school, when they asked me to open it, said they wanted to call it the “School of Martyrs”. I said, ‘No way.’ And, er, we compromised. The “School of Allied Aircrew” and I, I remember my wife saying, ‘What are we going to do in the afternoon after the service?’ I mean, there were ambassadors and Uncle Tom Cobley was there and, um, when they had the service of, a three hours service, in the church and they said, ‘We don’t expect you to sit there for three hours. Come for an hour and we’ll reserve a front pew for you.’ And, er, we went in and the guard of honour that had been parading during the unveiling ceremony for — there’s a tablet — the guard of honour was in the church, in the aisle, oh with their rifles, bayonets and things and I remember saying, ‘See you afterwards. Are you there to force people going in or stop them from leaving.’
TO: And how did the guards treat you in the camp?
CC: The — we were, as I said, we were not encouraged to talk to the guards. The guards — there were specific contacts that were appointed to keep in touch with individuals, that helped the bribery and all the rest that goes with it. And the ferrets in the camp — these were what I had in mind. They were army outside, you know, they were manning the sentry box and things but the so-called ferrets, who they used to probe round because the huts were raised on bricks so they could probe around underneath them. Anyway, as I say, they had people allocated to them which was a jolly good move really. One chap told me a story, Andy Wiseman, but then he had so many stories I’m not sure it’s true, said a ferret came to his room and said, er, he was looking for, what was it? Maps or something. And Andy said, ‘I’ve got this and now I’m looking for maps.’ Whether that’s true or not I don’t know.
TO: And how did the guards seem when the news of the shootings came through?
CC: I have no direct knowledge of that but I can say the commandant was shocked. And, in fact, I was sorry to hear he was court-martialled after that. One of his crimes was there was an acoustic device that rings the camp and it was not working. It was being repaired or something and that was one of his crimes. The story goes that he was from a good English family, a good German family, and because of that he was put into a mental home to escape the court-martial. Now whether that’s true or not I don’t know and well, he, eventually he was released and in fact returned to the area as second in command of the French force. Now, whether that’s true of not, but what I think is true that this chap who became Moderator of the Free, Free Church of Scotland, er, kept in touch with him after the war to the extent that he officiated at his funeral. Now whether that was at his request or the request of family, you know —
TO: And how did you and the others feel when you heard about of the news of the executions?
CC: Shocked because we always said that in the early days in was very much easier. I mean, you’ll hear, there’s no doubt about it, escaping was a sport in the early days, but you know, come the time of Stalag III and things like that it was no longer a sport. The Germans — and I’ll show you later — put up a notice that said ‘Escaping is no longer a sport. You’ll be shot’. Nobody knows how the fifty were chosen. It was quite inexplicable. No one’s really — that is a depiction of the tunnel. [background noise] I’ll pull it out if you want to — and all around it is the, all the pictures of fifty that were murdered. Now, that was Tobolski who was caught in Stettin with “Wings” Day. Tobolski was murdered. “Wings” Day was put in Sachsenhausen. Once again, there’s a remarkable story. Tobolski — now I can’t remember at what stage they were moved from camp, but anyway, Tobolski’s widow and his son Paul used to come to our reunions. When the widow died Paul, the son, commissioned that in memory of his father and it’s a limited edition and I was given a few, which I’ve distributed to messes and the RAF club. I mean, I could sell them for a fortune, um, but I’ve got some pictures there of the Long March and other things. I’ve got lots of pictures there of sorts.
TO: I recognise some trivia here. I’ve been to — I was in Jersey with my cousin a few years ago and they actually had a board up about Scheidhauer, the one who was captured with Roger Bushell, the French one.
CC: Strangely enough, the Governor of Jersey is the former chief air staff.
TO: Is he?
CC: Yeah. I think he’s just taken over.
TO: Would it be OK if you turned back this way, Sir.
CC: Sorry?
TO: Would it be OK if you turned back this way, Sir.
CC: Sorry?
TO: Would it be OK if you rotated your chair — there, thank you. And when, when you arrived at the camp how long was it before you heard about the escape plans?
CC: I couldn’t remember that. No, I couldn’t remember that.
TO: Do you remember how you felt when you heard about it though?
CC: Not really. I mean, I was so new, relatively new, it was very much a new period of my life. I was very much the new boy. There was no way I could probably — there were some who were very proficient in international languages and so stood a better chance of getting home. There was a very good theatre in the camp too. A number of them became quite famous after the war. I mean, Mayberry [?] was at — Rupert Davies was a typical example and I know there’s two or three that’s still acting. Certainly one I know is still acting.
TO: And what are your thoughts on Roger Bushell?
CC: Well, I didn’t really know him. I met him so it’s very difficult to judge, but from his reputation I don’t think he would have succeeded in the Air Force. He was too much an individual but that’s just reading. I mean, it’s not for us [unclear] he was a remarkable man but once again the, er, I went down to Brixham after the war. It must have been, must have been about ‘55 I suppose and much to my surprise there was a fishing trawler in the harbour called the “Roger Bushell”. I often wonder what the connection was.
TO: And what was your daily routine in the camp?
CC: Exercising each day, walking round the, er, so-called bashing the circuit, walking round the outside grass ring. Reading. There was a good reference library. It was a good library anyway with lots of books. We’d play cards, rather, I say a lot of reading and, er, you got your own chores, your own laundry and we made a daily stake out of a tin can. When you had a pair of them [unclear] when you washed you had a pale of water, hot water, to do your daily — you had to get it from the kitchen, so-called kitchen. You do your — you had some very hard German soap to do the laundry, your — and then trying and hang it up. Drying it was difficult. In the winter you put it out on the lawn on the, on a line, and then you’d bring it in and you could stand it up against the wall. It was frozen to that extent so — and that was a struggle to get it dry. I mean we didn’t have much to do, just our underwear and shirt, socks and things. We didn’t have a lot of gear.
TO: Sorry, just going back. I meant to ask you this earlier. What, what kind of clothing did you have when, er, you landed, after you bailed out? Was it enough to keep you warm?
CC: Reasonably warm. The — I mean, after all, we’d go this electric — probably got a sweater and an electric suit. I mean, we were given Irvin jackets but I mean you never wore those. They were too bulky. What, what did we have? We had an inner suit and then an outer suit, you know. I think, er, some of them were called Sidcots, if I remember rightly.
TO: And did you hear anything about what was happening in Britain with the V-2s and V-1s?
CC: Yes, well we had the BBC news although, of course, the BBC news was guarded because they didn’t want to give the information to the Germans so, you know, it was obviously limited.
TO: And what — and just before the Long March becan, I think I read somewhere, maybe it’s wrong, that Stalag III was kind of more or less dismantled by the prisoners, was it?
CC: Stalag III?
TO: Was it, was any of the camp dismantled before the March began?
CC: Dismantled? I mean, I used an old Red Cross box. Our, our seating was made out of kind of tea chests, the Red Cross tea chests. I put a couple of runners on a Red Cross box and they were, er, two bed boards and we had no tools. I think, I mean, I sort of got some nails out of the wall and hammered those in. I mean, it wasn’t dismantled. We didn’t have time or the inclination to worry about that. We had lots of cigarettes, not me personally, but the cigs had been held in the Foodacco for example. We, er, tried, I say we generally, tried to make them unusable and, of course, but they won’t burn. cigarettes won’t burn so people were urinating on them to make sure they wasn’t used. It was a silly problem we had after how short we had been. We had after, you know, on a Sunday we had lots of lectures of sorts, from psychology to metrology. I mean, people put on kinds of things, I mean people — I’m trying to think — a very famous Chancellor of the Exchequer took a law degree in the early days in an NCO camp. I’m just trying to think of his name. In the library the most popular book, funnily, was, “The Sex Life” — it was illustrated — “The Sex Life of a Savage” and I think there was a two year waiting list for that. [slight laugh]
TO: And did you get Red, Red Cross parcels delivered?
CC: Occasionally, spasmodically. There was no regular supplies. Sometimes the Germans would often have half a Red Cross parcel per man, not that we split it. I mean, we pooled it in the room, all the, er, Red Cross parcels. They weren’t given out individually, you know. The, the Germans were quite illogical in a way but certainly they stopped them at times like the Great Escape and things like that. And yet the cigarette came in.
TO: As the war continued was anyone worried at all that the Germans might start executing the other airmen?
CC: Oh, sure. That’s what I’ve said earlier. It was the uncertainty of what would happen to us at the end. Having murdered the fifty anything was possible. We didn’t know whether we would be murdered, held as hostages or what and, even now, I don’t think anyone really knows what he intention was, whether they were going to use us as hostage or not.
TO: And what — could you tell me a bit more about the morning when “Harry” was discovered?
CC: Well, we were put on the, er, parade ground and kept there nearly all day in the, in the — I mean, it was freezing, whilst they recounted and recounted us to establish how many were missing and the Red Cross parcels stopped and things like this.
TO: This may or not be a true story but I saw an interview with someone, I think Jack Lyon his name was?
CC: I know him.
TO: He says the commandant was threatening to shoot a prisoner who was continuing to move around or something? I don’t know if that’s true or not.
CC: It’s possible. Once again I haven’t heard that one. Tempers were short. I mean, you can imagine the frustration of the Germans to think that fifty had got away or a number had got away from them.
TO: Did you think it was a good idea at the time to try and get, well, fifty out at once?
CC: To escape? [sneeze] Yes, I mean, when you think they had to memorise the whole country to search for them. That idea in itself was worth it, I think, you know. They put in a lot of effort on the day.
TO: And, er, what kind — during the Long March did — were the Germans short of food as well?
CC: Were they what? Short of food? No, I don’t think they were but they didn’t know where they were going. I mean they were as mystified as we were, I think, to my knowledge anyway, but I, whether the officers knew what was planned I don’t know. What was — another interesting thing about the first march was is that a rugged — in my room there was probably the toughest, scruffiest man I ever met. He had been, er, boxing and billiards at fairgrounds in America. He joined the Marines and was in their Golden [unclear] team and eventually I think he was stationed at the Panama Canal and then he joined the Air, Royal Canadian Air Force and then, I mean, he was certainly a rough and crude chap. He had three — there was hospital for VD people in England. I think it was at Brighton or Spilsby and he’d been there three times so you could see his character. He was a keep fit expert in the days before the days keep fit was popular and he had a home-made bell bar which he used to use and then in the same room we had a chap whose legs were like sparrows. He was once again in the Canadian Air Force but on the march, um, the sparrow like character survived and Jack Fielding didn’t. I mean, fell out some time ago. Last I heard of him was from a Canadian who is director of television of Ottawa I was talking to. I think he said Jack had finally settled in Toronto and, er, he was American and had a wife and about three kids and had a flag pole in his garden and used to fly the flag every day. I often wondered whether his wife knew of his background. He was a rough and tough character, Jack Fielding.
TO: Did anyone or did you see anyone try and scavenge for food during the march?
CC: Oh, sure, yes. I don’t know whether you saw a film on television the other night about the Russian football supporters. It was horrific. I mean, on the train they behaved like animals. [unclear] what [unclear] must think. But why I mention that, as I say, I mentioned cigarettes were plentiful. I’ve seen up there somewhere on the march a butt of a cigarette and seen the Russians fighting for it like dogs. I mean, scavenging, I can remember going into a [unclear] and picking out the [unclear] tops that had been put aside for animals and cleaning those up and boiling them so we were very short of food. The Long March — there’s a very good video of the Long March made by a chap who was based in Bromley. He actually came with us on one occasion and filmed us on one of these staff rides, as we called them, and it’s quite a good film but then he wanted some extra footage so he went back to take pictures of the railway station and he wanted people forming up by the wayside to give it impact so, as I say, he got some film extras but after I said to him afterwards, it was a con because these extras weren’t carrying anything. We were carrying our blankets, our cooking pot, any other stuff we had. One of the films — people often ask me about “The Great Escape” as [unclear] did until he died. Yeah, people often ask me about the “Great Escape” film. My answer every time is this. It’s a good film, an entertaining film, but there’s too much saluting, too much of an Oxford accent all [emphasis] the time, er, the — too many uniforms. I mean, we didn’t have them. There were some uniforms chaps had sent for in the early days of the war but — and of course, Steve McQueen wasn’t there but who would remember the fifty who were killed without that film, “The Great Escape”? I think, I mean, equally, people moan about that it took so, so long to, er, get a recognition of Bomber Command crews and I advocated our use for the Bomber Command medal with some little support from surprising quarters. Eventually, there was a — they agreed to the bar to the, er, to the medal, rather than a medal itself. It really saddens me talking about that. [unclear] Anyway, what is often forgotten too is that once we were there and I wondered whether to raise the subject with the Daily — Sunday Express were here but I hadn’t finished with it yet, it’s probably the wrong time, while we were there, I didn’t know at the time but subsequently I discovered that some of our pay had been deducted. Did you know about this? The POW pay had been deducted and I didn’t know about this until I went to Canada and was invited to go on television to talk about it and there was a flight lieutenant who had retired to Canada was moaning about it. I remember saying I couldn’t really criticise my country when I was in someone else’s, some other country, but anyway they deducted some of this pay, on which income tax had been paid, and it was ostensibly to provide necessities for the POWs. It never happened. It was going to be given to the protecting power except a small amount was given for an NCO camp and this was officer pay which was deducted so it was fair enough. After the war I became involved in the arguments to try to get it back and I remember, even in about ’64, being dragged along to a press conference with the Minister of Defence and I remember a chap with me, a Naval captain who tried to draft the press release, and it was — I re-wrote it I know. But anyway, subsequently, I had four people working on this: a group captain who was in the Battle of Britain and was one of Churchill’s pall bearers, the Naval captain who was in charge of the conflict during the Cod Wars, Blenheim’s squadron leader and a lieutenant colonel (I don’t know quite how he fitted in this) but I had the four of them working on it full time and we petitioned the Government so many times and, er eventually the four of them wanted to return their DFCs and their CBEs and things like that to the Queen but I argued this would be pointless because the Queen didn’t directly influence this. I, when the last of the four died, I was left with a couple of, er, tea chests full of documents, er, which are somewhere around. Really I don’t know where they are now, left with a relative one of them. I say, I had three choices: to give it to a law form to pursue on a pro bono basis, give it a newspaper to make a scene of it, or go back to the Government again, this fourth one. Anyway, I raised it again with the Government about a year ago, a year and a half ago and got a nasty reply that it had been looked at before and dismissed and this time I suggested that obviously POWs couldn’t be recompensed because some were dead anyway and I suggested giving a, a sum of money — I wanted to put token sum but I decided not to put token because they might give you a penny — a sum of money to me or The POW Association of which I would give half to and half to the Benevolent Fund and half to the POW Association. I got this standardised reply from this Minister of Administrative Affairs and I’m now going to have another go. I seriously, I say, I seriously considered raising it when the Sunday Express people were here but I decided I’d give it one more go and start the press thing. I decided I’m going to wait, er, [unclear] put me back a bit. I’m going to write to the Prime Minister. She was once very helpful on another thing through one of her constituents in Maidenhead I think. And I’ll try and there are two things in our favour. Firstly, there’s the Libor money which is available now and being given to charities and secondly there’s a move now to confiscate all accounts that have stood for fifteen years into the — for charity. I mean, but if someone claims subsequently, they still get a refund. I had some of money, strangely, I had a sum of money last week. I got a letter from a company, would I confirm my address? Well, seeing as he letter was addressed to me at my address it seemed pretty pointless and I thought it was a scam and I then, er, checked on the internet and found they were a legitimate company and they, they collect money on behalf of companies or trace. I then saw that they charged to do it and so I then phoned — it begins with a X- something. They keep a record of all, all investments and I said could you tell me what shares I have in various companies. They started to tell me and I said, ‘No, stop there. I don’t really want that as a question. I want to know anyone that I’ve not been in touch with.’ And they came back and said, ‘Yes. Abbey National.’ And there was some money in it from about, it must be about 1970 or something like that. So they said, ‘We’ll charge if we recover it.’ So, I thought to hell with that and so I went along to Santander and raised the matter with them and sure enough I got the money back but I had to pay thirty pounds. I mean, money I didn’t know existed. It wasn’t very much but it was worth having.
TO: Do you mind if we pause there for a bit? Is it OK if we pause there for a while?
CC: Yes.
TO: So how did you feel when you heard the war was over then?
CC: Elated, obviously. I mean, it was hard to believe that at long last it had happened. We’d waited for so long for it but probably at that stage it was still a surprise even though we’d been waiting for it.
TO: And on the Long March did anyone get frostbite?
CC: Sure, yes, and some fell by the wayside. What happened to them I don’t know but I do know a chap who was an artist who wrote the Long March, a book called the Long March, he actually fell out halfway through, a Canadian. He’s dead now. I think he went into hospital. I, I’ve got his book somewhere. Buckham I think his name was, Phil Buckham.
TO: Was there anyone who tried to stay behind and be liberated by the Russians?
CC: I’ve heard of someone who did but of course it was a bad move. The think the prisoners at [unclear] but one of the camps, they were not on the Long March and were liberated by the Russians but were kept there several weeks afterwards whilst, er, the Russians wanted to, were trying to barter them for other prisoners that they wanted to exchange them for and I, I think they were delayed by several weeks and Andy Wiseman, the chap who was a Jew and was born in, er, Berlin, he was an interpreter with the Russians, because he could speak Russian, and he was quite amusing about this story about going to greet the Russian tanks.
TO: For some reason it [background noise] so can you tell me about the role you played in getting the memorial in Green Park?
CC: Most of the Royal Air Force — I’ve forgotten [unclear] take it back. Take it back.
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/.
Identifier
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AClarkeCH170304
Title
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Interview with Charles Henry Clarke. Three
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.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Type
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Sound
Language
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eng
Format
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02:11:34 audio recording
Conforms To
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Pending review
Creator
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Tom Ozel
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-03-04
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
Germany
England--Lincolnshire
Germany--Oberursel
Poland
Poland--Żagań
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
Description
An account of the resource
Charles Clarke volunteered for the Royal Air Force when he was seventeen years old and flew operations as a bomb aimer with 619 Squadron from RAF Woodhall Spa. His aircraft was shot down on his 18th operation and he became a prisoner of war. He was held at Stalag Luft 3 at the time of the ‘Great Escape’. He talks about some of the men who took part in the escape and what happened to them. As the Russians were advancing the camp, he was evacuated and he gives an account of what became known as the Long March.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Christine Kavanagh
619 Squadron
aircrew
Anson
anti-Semitism
bale out
bomb aimer
bombing
Botha
crewing up
Dulag Luft
escaping
final resting place
Lancaster
perception of bombing war
prisoner of war
RAF Heaton Park
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Swinderby
RAF Woodhall Spa
searchlight
shot down
Stalag Luft 3
the long march
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/230/3375/AColeFJ160719.2.mp3
ab9ef48b04d6a65a31fd44e8b43830ce
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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Cole, Frederick
Frederick Cole
Frederick J Cole
F J Cole
F Cole
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Frederick Cole.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-07-19
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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Cole, FJ
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
PL: Right ok, my name is Pam Locker and I am in the home of Mr Frederick Cole of ***. So, if I can just start by saying thank you very much indeed on behalf of the Bomber Command Memorial for agreeing to give us this interview. So Mr Cole if you would just like to start wherever you would like to start.
FC: Yes, welcome to my world, I've been a very very proud man and very lucky that I can say what I am going to say. Now it starts off when I, my first memory in fact when I was a child, they called me Teddy I suppose like a teddy bear of something or other but that goes back to 1922 when I was, my Father was then a lecturer at Derby technical college and we'd gone down on the motorcycle and sidecar to help his friend, also a lecturer whose bungalow backed onto the sea. I remember my Father up on top of the roof right then it's a blank a complete blank. And then I was living in a council house in Uttoxeter Road Derby and that's where the life really started to uproot and come out and surround everything I touched and thought of and my memory starts flashing about and I always recall discovering what the world was about, the invisible tentacles that encircle so many facets of life and memories to cherish throughout the life but going into more serious main, some of the early experiences are flooding back....I won't go into all that detail they are far too long and the loss is embodied in the stories which I have already prepared which are available elsewhere. I would like to go to.........Derby right where I so many deep rooted memories, many delightful beyond repeat, many exciting endeavour to knock you off your seat and i go then into the first days at school and learning teachings I'm learning as others have accumulated and at school in days when educational standard were clear and easy to understand and not influenced by external things I remember early morning prayers and one hour a week scriptures and I was a Christian, Jesus meant the world to be, and wherever I had been whatever I had done I never ever needed to be prompted or reminded right despite all the pomp and glory that now heist behold the world, now religion to me it is a disgrace right, I go back, and then I think ....in my formative years as long as I stayed at school [you would get a trick] and a trick would automatically mean you would have to take a degree it was that consequence that really held me back from getting into the Air Force because I otherwise would have done because I had to start studying for a degree and in fact I was studying a Bachelor of Commerce degree then the brigade, the Air force was in the background I was going in and listening to lectures and that had to continue until I had the results come through and as soon as the results came through I must have almost immediately in fact I was packing a bag and getting ready for a journey which i just couldn't get a hold of what was going on it became an integrable spiders web right, and I remember saying goodbye and boarding a train to a hotel alone not far from Lord's Cricket ground there the reality of life became clear being equipped with the uniform and everything that went with it right, and that's when you start the learn a few lessons and listen and think because, I clearly remember things you get from instinct I full of enthusiasm I remember we used to march down to London Zoo and were fed in the visitors dining room which was obviously were all the monkeys were, and I always remember thinking they must have had a damn good laugh watching us queue right these sort of things stick in your memory apart from that the other thing that you see the the difference in the makeup of people the very strong highly well to do ones were the ones that would collapse when given the chance right, and I always remember in my enthusiastic removing of a mark off the wall and then having have to clean the whole bloody wall right, these sort of infiltrations enter your mind and err that sort of thing it's like in a centre of a spider's web right, and I being near, one of my relatives, one of my father's sisters I remember as Auntie Lynn, I thought I'll take the opportunity and I'll get on the tube and say hello right, but when I got there and saw them the two gits they called boys I immediately said to myself never ever again will I do that! Go and stick my neck out, no stop and that was the life and every time something transpired I would thread, I’d get into this web and trying to probe forward to another time and as time moved on transitions immediately came to being, the one thing i remember so well is the term religion. Religion has ceased to have the meaning it used to have right, it was a title give to what I call a load of self made groups pursuing their own ideals many playing on fear or jealousy and anything to make life something they seize for their own image as to what they want to do, that was to me a gross distortion and influenced every move that I made thereafter and I err then spread my wings going into the more [inaudible] my instincts I enjoyed, I was the first to do a solo in the Tiger Moth right, but I dropped I cod because of this wonderful lad and i didn't think I should waste the petrol right at the end, nonetheless I finished that and I ended up and this is where the memory dries up, and after there I [pause] that is where you get confused it was after flying training, yes because I was through first I had about three weeks leave of absence before then reporting down to official training I think at Newquay right, I remember we used to have lectures on flights and also medical checks right, and all that sort of thing. I was a loner, I didn't go drinking or anything like that but on occasion when they had a dance that was a school I had a dance which was to be the most famous dance with a girl right and the dance was called the Anniversary waltz afterward said goodnight and I went my way and she was with a gang who went their way so these things have memories, but in those moments I would walk around, look around my mind would always be ticking away seeking something i never saw what but i knew somewhere there was an invisible intangible lot of communication right, reaching every part of my brain wherever and it’s intriguing to me that and everything else and later when I finished my career in the RAF and I had a wonderful time doing so many different things as so often when I'm free I would be stopped from going with silver wings and bomber force behind you right there would have been a commotion but I'm very proud of that and i was asked to join another special flight at Marham, where they were into taking all the goodwill flights anywhere in the world after the atomic bomb had eliminated the tiger force. But despite all the prevailing I then had my son, right and a degree which I would finish which would take another two years but in that time as you have seen by my stories that precede this my wife brought a fuss?, and all these distractions in all this time .... all intermingling and mixing into one channel was then I got, passed the degree that I got Rolls Royce where had already being accepted subject to passing my degree and again the strings, the invisible strings that surround us life what do I find my placement at Rolls Royce is straight into the engineering side of life and have all the books, stories concerning entered development and I used to after a while take down the minutes of all the development engineering meetings held every Monday at Three O'clock Lord Hiest? was once in the chair and I remember him looking at me as i had just picking up the flow ‘who the hell is he’ to me it was a start of a very complex detailed career because I used to write the minutes of everything that was said but to do that properly again it was a matter of making sure the individual's comments i was setting out really intended what any impression was, the way it was worded and very often I enjoyed them slightly different wording to to making the purpose and the significance more appropriate to the problem in that way I raised through the ranks I knew all the time spend I was present when the original five bedstead was taken into the air. Wing commander Hayworth tethered you of course and I used to take a hundred engineers who I had trained and refined to Farnborough the technician of their day every year again a stimulating experience which inetrmiglied with the aspects and the relationship in practise between the air force and processes and the one now with industry. There was a big difference in the sense that in the air force with the kings recreation and the ap3 or a3 something anyone with a commision knew what that they should do, could do shouldn’t do could do....right I wanted to finish off my career right and I really retired myself from the raf because everything was been done to prevent my departure, but I stuck my neck out an intriguing way again an unplanned by product but a wonderful way I could not find the sort of job you used to have to fill in the absence of the five pound a week grant from the Air force and I couldn’t find anywhere locally which is for the tax office or whatever so i went down to Hereford and tried down there and it was very much the same but I knew Hereford very well from my RAF career excetra , [pause] and ah yes I did eventually get work to give me the five pounds a week it was a drivers mate with Bulmers cider and I think it was forty five when was with Bulmers cider, a younger driver an ex-paratrooper with this lorry loaded with the,,,arr i was learning the re experience of how other people think how mother nature again brings back an intrex right and I find with myself again embodied in these tentacles of experience and understanding how wonderful and it was the best form of training I could have possible have in the light of the career that was to follow in the managerial status at Rolls Royce so there right from the word go you have these tentacles and as long as they all stay together they all fuse into one and go on and on and on and now I reached the point where I don’t think I want to get any further any deeper involved than I am now I am right I know my numbers nearly up, right and when I look at things and plan there's one thing that’s clear the build up from my first memory that I've always had their intangible invisible threads running right back through a system and everything back to where it all started. I have already said for me religion, with all the pomp and circumstance and the guilt through their interaction being accountable for more deaths per day than any other combined source as far as I am concerned so I bid the world goodbye and as I roll together all of the courses that have been there, roll them all together right together i then just to lay there i just...and simply with a hand pull up a blanket and I bid goodbye, I won’t be long and when I die I want no pomp and ceremony but I would want two songs to be sung the ' We'll meet again' which used to be what I used to write on the bottom of letters to my wife when I went off on a mission when I didn't expect to come back and the second 'The Anniversary Waltz' which you already know having been told about which aculminated in the culmination of my dearest wife the most precious treasured woman that a world has ever had. with that I say now goodbye goodbye and Dorothy dear we will be together again, it won't be long. I want my ashes to be stirred up with your ashes that are over there, shaken and then scattered around the cottage in North Wales where we spent so many happy later years or Tenerife in Los Cantes by the cliffs again for the same reason, whichever will be ...that’s all I ask I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.
PL : Please don’t apologise.
FC: There's column right a memorial stone and all that I have said and felt and thought what I would like to think is embodied within and the intention of my part to feel the community spirit again, this time through, and that’s all I have to say.
PL: Thank you very much Mr Coles for sharing your thoughts with us, they are very precious.
FC: So many memorabilia, Rolls Royce and other things the Lancaster books and the history of the RB211 over there and many more memorabilia and and nearly all this you see here was presented at me at various stages, and various activities which I chaired I used to have it all everywhere, and now it’s not really seen but there’s inscriptions on the base of most of them.
PL: Wonderful
FC: The turbines we used to use but now...I used to clean it all...
Pl: Hard work!
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/.
Identifier
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AColeFJ160719
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Frederick Cole
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
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IBCC Digital Archive
Type
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Sound
Language
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eng
Format
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00:37:35 audio recording
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending OH summary
Creator
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Pam Locker
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-07-19
Description
An account of the resource
Frederick Cole grew up in Derby and was studying for a degree when he joined the Royal Air Force. He met his wife at an RAF dance during the war. He completed his degree after the war and had a career with Rolls Royce.
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.
Great Britain
England--Derbyshire
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Carmel Dammes
57 Squadron
aircrew
bomb aimer
training