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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/281/3434/PJeffreyS1604.1.jpg
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/281/3434/AJeffreySE160613.1.mp3
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Jeffrey, Stanley Ernest
Stanley Ernest Jeffrey
Stanley E Jeffrey
Stanley Jeffrey
S E Jeffrey
S Jeffrey
Description
An account of the resource
24 Items concerning Stanley Ernest Jeffrey (1139581 Royal Air Force) who served as a mechanic engineer groundcrew with 102 Squadron at RAF Topcliffe and RAF Pocklington. Collection contains air force documents, engineering course training notebooks, photographs of aircraft and people and includes two oral history interviews.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Stanley Jeffrey 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
2016-05-18
2016-06-13
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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Jeffrey, SE
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
HB: This is an interview between Harry Bartlett on behalf of the International Bomber Command Centre and Mr Stanley Ernest Jeffrey, a former Flight Mechanic in the Royal Air Force, 102 Ceylon Squadron from 1941 to — 1946. Interview is taking place on the 13th of June at xxxxx Oadby.
HB: That’s the introduction, Stan.
IJ: Yeah. That’s the introduction.
HJ: Yeah.
HB: One of the things we’re interested in Stan, is before the war, I mean obviously you were born somewhere, where — you know, what was your family life before the war?
SJ: Well, I lived in King Street in Oadby and Cross Street in Oadby and I worked at the Imperial Typewriter Company from the last day of the old year 1940 —
IJ: No. 1930 something. Would it’ve been 1934?
SJ: 1934. I left school 1934 of course. Sorry.
HB: Which school was that Stan?
SJ: Oadby School, there was only two schools in Oadby then, the Senior and the Junior. So in the Junior School, in the — when I started school at Junior School in Oadby and then moved to the Senior School in nineteen, [laughs] I get mixed up with the dates — [laughter].
HB: Thirties.
IJ: Thirty-four.
HB: That would be about in the thirties, yeah. What did you do at school? What were your main interests at school?
SJ: Well we did — more or less all schools — the usual school, you know, nothing in particular, that was, what can I say, well we just started school at four, started school in the Junior School at four, from the Junior School we went to the Senior School, that’s on the Leicester Road, Oadby.
IJ: Did you have any interests at school?
SJ: Well not really. We just —
HB: What, what did you enjoy most at school Stan?
SJ: I think I had the schooling really, the teachers were very good to us you know ‘cause we weren’t well off you know, all the kids at school the majority of the time. Yes it was quite nice at school, I enjoyed my schooling really.
HB: So what, what family did you come from Stan?
SJ: There was my mum, dad, I had a brother Aubrey, he died recently.
HB: Oh.
IJ: Ten years ago.
SJ: Ten years ago he died.
IJ: And Aub wanted to go in the Air Force but he had to go down the mines.
SJ: Yes, my brother was very disappointed because he had to go down the mines instead of being in, what he called ‘being in the war’.
HB: What did mum and dad do, what did dad do?
SJ: Dad was — worked in shoes, pressman in shoes.
HB: Was that local or in Leicester?
SJ: Er, it — he was local for a start and he was also at Leicester and mum, she was in the hosiery, and the boots and shoes. [laughter] They both had different jobs, they got work where they could you see.
HB: Yes. So as we get to your leaving school, how did you come to work for Imperial Typewriters?
SJ: Oh, there was a fella, he was the printer at, at the cartwrighter’s, he were a printer and he got me the job.
HB: Oh right.
SJ: He got me the job. He knew me. Me mum went to see him and he got me the job. So I did start school at the last of the old year, 1934 at the Imperial. I worked there until I got called up in — yes, I worked there ‘till I got called up in nine — when were it? I’m getting mixed up with —
IJ: Nineteen forty-one, was it?
SJ: Yeah, in nineteen thirty-four until I got called up in nineteen — oh God.
HB: I think it says on your Service Record early, something like, February 1941, something like that. About February 1941.
SJ: Ah. Yes I think it was about 1941.
HB: Where was, where was Imperial Typewriters at that time?
SJ: At the East Park Road.
IJ: In Leicester.
SJ: In Leicester, East Park Road in Leicester, yeah.
HB: And did er, and did you just go into it or did you go into some sort of apprenticeship?
SJ: I went in as a runabout, I, I were fourteen you see. You started as a runabout and you worked your way through various jobs til I become a foreman.
IJ: Well you did later on,
SJ: Manager yeah,
IJ: Not long before you went into the Air Force.
SJ: That’s right I worked up myself to be a manager at the Imperial —
IJ: But that were after you come out the Forces Stan.
HB: I was just, yeah, I was gonna say, so Imperial Typewriters was an important
SJ: Yes
HB: part of your life before the war.
SJ: Yes
HB: Um, what interests, what interests did you have outside of school before the war Stan?
SJ: Well I didn’t have very little interests.
IJ: Did you go night school Stan?
SJ: I went night school, night school but apart from that there well, there was nothing much in the village then. We had the picture house built, I remember that being built you see and that livened us up a bit, [laughter] somewhere to go at night time. Ahh, but that even closed down, that didn’t last, it lasted a while.
IJ: It were going when the war were on weren’t it?
SJ: Oh yes, yeah.
IJ: So it was after the war when it closed.
SJ: Yes it closed in about, ooh, well after I’d met you and that.
IJ: Oh yeah, yeah, because I mean it was till open when Jan were little, cos we used to take her pictures. So I mean, I think it might have been the sixties when it closed.
SJ: Yeah, as I say it was there for a short while really because as I said, it closed down and it were a shame really because we had do nothing else in the village, there were nothing until the pictures were built in Oadby.
HB: You were doing a bit, you were doing a bit with the Scouts weren’t you?
SJ: You what?
HB: You were in the Scouts weren’t you?
SJ: Yes, yes for a short time. That’s where I met that fella again, who got err, who crashed.
IJ: Hmm —
HB: Yeah, yeah in the, in the, in the accident.
SJ: Yes I met him again. That were funny that was meeting him because you see well when err, when you were detailed to a certain aeroplane and that, perhaps sometimes it had to go in the hangar for a major inspection and perhaps you used to have to follow it in and work on it in there and that’s where I met this fella who, you know, who got shot down yeah.
HB: Yeah, yeah the crash at the um, where the memorial is now yeah. The,so that, that you know, you’ve obviously been called up, when you’ve done, when you’ve done all your training, and you were you know, what was the process, what was, how did they sort of send you out? Did they just —?
SJ: No, well you see, you went to what were called to the school do you see? You went there from errr, I know I come away from there September 1941,
HB: Aha
SJ: yeah September. You had about seventeen, seventeen or eighteen weeks training and then you moved out to a squadron and that’s when I was posted to 102 Squadron in September 1941, I do remember that yeah. And I was with them all through the war years.
HB: So when, when you were posted out, how, how did you feel, how did you feel about going to, you know being posted to 102 Squadron?
SJ: Well it was great really because you felt as though you were doing something towards the war you see? You looked after the engines from you know, and you were, it were nice when we was made, in the latter, that latter part of the war, they made the Ground Crews the same as the Air Crew. The Ground Crew was to a certain aircraft, I was on EEs then, in the latter part of the war.
HB: And from that you formed friendships —
SJ: That’s right
HB: Through that?
SJ: That’s right yes, you went, you were posted to any aircraft to look at in A Flight, I was in A Flight. There was A, B and C Flights with about eight aircraft in each, in each Flight and I was posted to A Flight and I was with A Flight all the while.
HB: Yes. When, when you were working on the aircraft you obviously, you know, you’ve, you’ve done the work, you’ve got to get them ready for the operation. What was that process, getting them ready for the operation?
SJ: Well for a start the aircraft was always out on the dispersal point and you, you were detailed to this one aircraft, EEs towards the latter part of the war, so you went, you went out 8 o’clock in the morning you’re out there doing your inspection. It really [unclear] and sometimes it was about perhaps a 16 hour inspection, a 32 hour inspection [unclear] so the bigger the inspection were the aircraft.
HB: Yes.
SJ: You see, so you had a detailed inspection to do every day and err that, well then sometimes the Air Crew used to come out and they used to have a look over the aircraft and you know, have a chat with us and such like. That were quite nice, quite interesting really that were.
HB: And that, and this is where the bond, the friendship grew?
SJ: That’s right yeah yes, yes we formed quite a lot of friendships with the air air, you didn’t call them sergeants and such like, they were mates of yours really yeah, on our Squadron anyway. I mean you used to come out, perhaps have a fag with them, and a chat, and when they went on operations you always used to have to sign the form 700 which was my work form to, to say I’d done the engines you see and you’d go in when all the Air Crew were ready for Ops, they’d run the engines up, the pilot would, they’d sign to say they were satisfied with the engines and then I’d come out and shut the door and then you’d see, see ‘em off on the Ops. You used to have to sit there at night waiting for ‘em coming back which was quite, it were nice, all the EEs and them in the circuit you know they’re OK, we’d know we’d got ours back you see. And as each one come in we saw each aircraft in.
HB: So did you actually manage the aircraft as they left and as they came back, when they came down onto the ground?
SJ: Yes, seen, seen, seen ‘em off and seen ‘em back, oh yeah. And sometimes, well, well I used to stick a bit of chewing gum on the undercarriage for ‘em, it got a habit, yes I used to [unclear] , that were the good luck charm for ‘em.
IJ: Oh crikey.
HB: On the EEs?
SJ: Yeah on the EEs, yeah and I used to get a bit of chocolate for that [laughter] , from the aircrew and that yeah.
HB: And did, obviously you were there for a long time you know, from 41 through to 46 um.
Doorbell
SJ: That’s all right, it’s only —
HB: It’s all right I can pause —
HB: That’s just a short break in the interview ahh while a friendly neighbour delivers one or two bits and bobs to Stan. Um, we’ll just go back Stan to obviously the length of time you were at Pocklington and er what not. You you had the same aircraft?
SJ: Yeah.
HB: Umm, what was —
SJ: We didn’t from the start we didn’t from the start. You see, what at one time the the Flight Sergeant used to ‘right so and so Stan, Jack you’re on E today, you’re on A ’ he said. And then suddenly it got to it that the same aircraft, the same aircraft and the same ground crew which was, it were more interesting, better for you, you felt as though you were part and parcel of the —
HB: It, it strikes me, from the way you’ve spoken previously that it must have been, quite, umm I won’t say emotional, I would say difficult, to —. You’re looking after the aircraft, you’ve formed these friendships with some of the Air Crew and you’re watching them disappear,
SJ: Hmm.
HB: and obviously there was a possibility that they weren’t going to come back?
SJ: Yeah, yeah. Well we never thought about that, we always thought about them coming back. I never lost an E, in all my, no I never lost an E, not err, not in the latter part. For a start I’d say when you were on any aircraft you see, I did, one aircraft, E, I did lose one aircraft that, he come down shot up with a hundred, hundred holes in.
HB: Phew.
SJ: Yes, he managed to land it. I forget his name now, but he rose in the ranks to Squadron Leader, I forget his name you see. And er, and er of course you saw a lot of that really, you know, crashes and. You used to be fetched out to crashes you know. I mean one crash I did [unclear] , there were seventeen on it, they took the ground crew up and they crashed you see. So we had to sort that out and I didn’t know at the time, it were night time, I didn’t know at the time but the pilot was still in there. When they come in the morning they had to report the pilot still sitting there you see. Yeah, they’d missed him yeah. But anyway, yes we and we also, it was one time perhaps we were stationed in the farmhouse and the farmers and that and the family looked after us through the, oh yeah, perhaps had breakfast with him or something. Oh yes, they were big on breakfasts and that with the, on crash duty yeah.
HB: Hmm. Difficult.
SJ: It were nice, I enjoyed the time there. You see I’d been there all the while with the same fellas and it were quite nice ‘cos you, you formed a bond with them you see and also the Air Crew, and as soon as they’d finished operations of thirty ops they’d take the Ground, they’d take us out for a meal.
HB: Mmm.
SJ: Yeah, I’ve been on one or two [laughter]. As I said I never lost an aircraft in my time. So, yes, before, yes they’d take us out, take us down in the car to Pocklington to the pub and have a meal, come back and sitting on top of the car roof coming back, [laughter] had a good time, all singing and shouting the ground crew and that, we were all one yeah. I think I had about four, four meals. Yeah yeah, I didn’t lose a ground crew, it were quite nice up there for me
HB: Hmm.
SJ: thinking back. It was, it were Hank and Tom and all this lot. One were a tailor, one were a tailor in, err somewhere you know. One were You got to know what they did you know.
HB: 102 Squadron had a range of nationalities in the air crews. Um, was that reflected in the Ground Crew as well, or just —
SJ: No there were some, we did have a group that’d come one time come, perhaps about half a dozen engine and aircraftmen, yeah. We did have that at one time, but normally we had, it were just the lads, you know, the lads who‘d been there on the same aircraft and that and you see you formed this er loyalty and that to the aircrew you see.
HB: So you had, you had four dinners, that’s four crews,
SJ: Yes we had four —
HB: How long, how long would it have, would the aircraft —?
SJ: We had thirty ops
HB: taken the aircraft have taken to do thirty ops?
SJ: They’d done the thirty ops, they’d done the thirty ops and they took us to the local pub yeah. They didn’t err, as I say I never lost a ground crew in the latter part, which was quite chuff really. We all got er, we formed that bond [unclear] for thirty ops and that and seeing them off and back, yeah.
HB: So as you’re coming to the end of your time at Pocklington and then you moved to um err, where did you go after Pocklington?
SJ: Bassingbourn.
HB: Bassingbourn. So you’re coming up to the end of the war, what did you, how did you feel about, at what point did you think this, this ain’t going to last much longer?
HB: Well when the war were over, we were only too pleased it were over and it weren’t the same, it weren’t the same in the Air Force after the, after the war had finished. Well we’ve done it, let’s get out, you know. That’s kind of how it was yeah. Because it, as I say, you formed a bondship with the Air Crew, each Air Crew you see after their first two or three ops you know and that, yeah.
HB: Hmmm. Cos, I mean, in what, about the early part of 1945 you know they were moving towards D Day and all that sort of thing you know. Did you know much about that on the airfield?
SJ: No, no we just carried on you know, every day you did, did the same thing,
HB: Yeah.
SJ: look at the aircraft, see it’s OK but it wasn’t the same as before. You’d think it’s finished, it’s over and done with.
HB: And when when did you and your Ground Crew sort of think to yourselves, or find out. that you were coming towards the end of it?
SJ: Well I think in the latter part, you see and they took, they took us about the second, the second week after the war finished, they took, they took us for a trip over Germany to look at all the bomb damage so we had, we had a quite a good trip out to show us all the bomb damage, yeah. What we’d done. That’s when you started knowing it were over, you know, you’d done your bit, let’s get out.
HB: Hmm, yeah.
SJ: You understand what I mean.
HB: So they, so you were actually in an aircraft, was that your own aircraft?
SJ: Yeah, that’s right it were your aircraft. EEs were our aircraft, we looked after that.
HB: And they, the pilot flew you out over Germany. What was you, what was you f —That must have been a bit of a strange feeling Stan?
SJ: It were nice though.
HB: You see —
SJ: It were nice the way, ‘cos they flew low. Matter of fact I looked up at wotsit Cathedral, cos it were that low going on and all the people were waving to you, you could see all that.
HB: How did, how did you feel when you actually saw what they’d done, the effect of the bombing?
SJ: Yeah, I thought, well I mean when I went out I were in the rear turret, so I had a good view I did. Cos it, it weren’t you know, they were all in their positions, some were sitting in the wotsit, but they gave me the rear turret seat so I was first off and last on ha ha.
HB: [laughter] Was that because of the chewing gum on the aeroplane?
SJ: [laughter] Yeah, I had a good view you see of what happened. All the bomb damage you see.
HB: Hmmm. When, when when you came to actually coming out of the RAF um how did you feel about the sort of attitudes towards Bomber Command, that sort of thing?
SJ: Well, it was, to me, to me I never bothered with me medals because I was that disappointed with how we were treated, you know, Bomber Command, I never bothered. I didn’t get a medal and that. I were in five and a half years and I never got a medal.
HB: And yeah, did you? You say you were disappointed, um what?
SJ: With the attitude of the higher ups, how Churchill treated us, you know. He done nothing, he done nothing really. They did too much damage. What, what killed Churchill was when the last bombing raid on Essen, is it Essen? Where, where they killed, they killed a lot of people and they said it weren’t defended, but it was, it was. Because, err how was it, [pause] they said it, they hadn’t ought to bomb that because it wasn’t a proper bombing raid or something like that.
HB: Hmm right.
SJ: Yeah. They shouldn’t have bombed it, like that. But it was, ‘cos there was, there was a, err they were still using, they were still bombing err us as well as them you see. I won’t say it were tit for tat but we we thought we did a good job you know, to end the war, really.
HB: And that and that feeling towards, you know, as you said, Churchill and the higher ups, um did that affect, did that affect how you looked at the country after, when you came out of the RAF, did that did that affect how you looked at things?
SJ: I don’t think I gave that a thought you know, I’d been, I’d done my bit and I was satisfied what we’d done and that was that.HB: Hmm.
SJ: Yeah.
HB: Hmm. At what point in this, in this time at what point did you meet Iris?
SJ: Did?
HB: Did you meet Iris?
IJ: Yes.
SJ: That was nineteen forty —
IJ: I was sixteen weren’t I,
SJ: Yeah [laughter]
IJ: When you met me and?
SJ: Yes. I met Iris about, oh after I’d been in the Air Force
IJ: Yes.
SJ: for a couple of years or more.
IJ: Yeah that’s right.
SJ: Came home on leave once and I was introduced to Iris at the De Montfort, the De Montfort Hall.
HB: Aaahh.
IJ: Yeah, so that’s when we got together, we had a dance and that were it weren’t it?
SJ: Yeah, yeah. We got married two years after. But it weren’t —
IJ: 1944 we were married.
SJ: 1944 we got married, 1944 yeah.
HB: So you’ve met Iris, you’ve got married, you’ve come to the end of it, you’re coming out of the RAF. Um I think you said earlier that you went back to back to —
SJ: Imperial.
HB: Imperial Typewriters?
SJ: Yes because your jobs, your jobs was er spoken for, you were reserved yes. If you went back, you went back to the same job and everything yes and that’s when we err
IJ: What?
SJ: I had about six weeks leave. I didn’t want to go back to work for six weeks, I thought, well you know, and then I went back, went back after six weeks leave and err I think was it, weren’t it Iris?
HB: Did you, did you just pick up where you left off or did you —? Was your engineering stuff in the RAF useful?
SJ: Yes it seemed a bit tame after, seemed a bit tame after being with the lads.
HB: Hmm.
SJ: I missed the lads when they come out of the forces, yeah. Well you’re bound to after all them years, ain’t you with them?
IJ: Well It’s like the college lads and girls, I’ll bet when they come out they miss all their mates unless they keep in touch with them.
HB: So your, when you actually got back to Imperial Typewriters, um you’ve got your job that’s been reserved for you, you know you sort of start work, the lads that you’ve been with, particularly the ground crew, um how did you, how did you feel about keeping in contact with them?
SJ: Well we kept in touch with one, Eric.
IJ: Yes Eric.
SJ: I kept in touch with him ‘cos he lived near, where were it? Where did he live?
HB: Kettering?
IJ: No.
SJ: About er twenty five mile away.
IJ: I forget where.
HB: I kept in touch with him for quite some time.
IJ: We used to go and see them, haven’t we?
SJ: Yes we used to go and see them, yeah.
HB: Was he the one from Northampton?
SJ: That’s it Northampton.
HB:Right yes I think we mentioned him last time.
SJ: Yes from Northampton, kept in touch with him but he died didn’t he, he died.
IJ: He died yeah.
SJ: I went to see his wife afterwards didn’t I but that’s — when he died —
Iris: She kept in touch for a bit, she sent us Christmas cards and that didn’t she? Then the daughter rang to say that she’d died.
SJ: Yeah.
HB: Did you ever, did you ever get any messages you know about reunions or getting back together or anything like that?
SJ: No, no there was nothing, I’ve never heard of a 102 Squadron reunion at all. Since I’ve been in touch with them they’ve been talking about them now but you see I can’t get up to them at the present time. I’d love to get to one, you know. I mean I’ve been invited ain’t I to —?
IJ: Yeah, oh yes you’ve —
SJ: I’ve been invited, they’ve been in touch, they say I can go to the home at Pocklington.
HB: Hmm yeah.
IJ: We’ll perhaps be able to do that if it —
SJ: I hope to be able to do that one of these days, I might see if I can get back there.
IJ: Well if we can get that wet room done, I mean hopefully if we can get in, we can go there while they’re doing it, you know for at least a week.
SJ: That’s what we’re thinking because they’re going to do the wet room for us you see. They say there’s going to be a bit of a noise for a week and I’m hoping to try, if possible to go for a week whenever they start. It could be six months or more.
Iris: That’s if we can get in.
SJ: Yeah.
HB: That would be really nice.
SJ: They tell me I can because I was on that Squadron for a long while.
HB: Well, yeah I mean, 1941 to ’46 it’s —.
IJ: You were there.
SJ: Yeah.
HB: That’s why, I mean I’m, I come from an era where you know we didn’t have that situation, so it’s hard to think that guys who were together as a team, as a group working every day, you know in war time conditions, um it comes to an end and there doesn’t seem to be much happening afterwards.
SJ: No there was nothing, you think, it were funny really. It took a little while to get used to being back in Civvy Street, as they say, it took a while yeah really. I mean yeah [laughter] you felt like, at one time that I’d like to get back to the lads you know, no disrespect, no disrespect to the wife of course but you miss the lads.
HB: How long, how long before that sort of faded away?
SJ: [pause] Oh I think it took a year or two before it finally, you know because well, you were back in Civvy Street then, which is entirely different to being in the Forces really.
HB: What did you think were the biggest differences at the end of the war when you when you came back to work?
SJ: Well there were the lads and you were, you were all together you know even when you were bombed and that you know.
HB: You got bombed did you?
EJ: Oh yeah, yeah we all went running down the shelter, it were that full of water and we got wet through.
IJ: Where were that Stan?
SJ: Pocklington.
IJ: Was it in Pocklington?
HB: Three foot, three foot deep in water?
SJ: Yeah, yeah [unclear] were full of water yeah. We got err once or twice, as a matter of fact when we got married, that were 1942 when we got married, 1944 sorry, when we got married, and err one aircraft bombed and it took err it damaged another aircraft right at Barnby Moor yeah right at — oh yes, it it bombed this aircraft, I were on leave at the time, come back yeah.
HB: So, so you were [cough] excuse me, actually on the airfield when you got, when it was bombed?
SJ: Yeah, yeah.
HB: Err obviously by the enemy, [laughter] um, so yeah that, hmm yeah so that’s, is that when they were out on operations or had they followed them back or was it just an opportunity?
SJ: Ah well, sometimes they followed ‘em back you know.
HB: Hmm.
SJ: Sometimes they followed them back and one time there were quite a bit of damage done because all the lights were lit up and the aircraft were bombing the airfield.
HB: How many times do you reckon that happened to you?
SJ: Not many times.
HB: Right.
SJ: No not many times it were only about once or twice that were but we had plenty of air raid warnings you know as they were after all airfields you see.
HB: Hmm. Well bearing in mind the time and you need to get something to eat Stan, I think we’ll call it a day and I’ll, I’ll pass this over to the guys at Lincoln but thanks ever so much you know for what you’ve said before and all the photos, it’s absolutely brilliant really because as I say —
SJ: Even so I don’t feel as though I’ve done much.
IJ: Stan can’t quite remember, it’s changed a little bit this last month or two, he can’t he can’t remember quite so much now.
HB: Stan what you can remember is is remarkable and as I say it’s an aspect, that you know the Ground Crews and the way the air stations worked,
SJ: Oh yeah,
HB: And all that. These are things that —
SJ: We did appreciate the grounds crews and they appreciated us.
HB: Yeah.
SJ: They appreciated —
HB: I’m going to turn the tape off now, or the recording, it’s not a tape any more.
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AJeffreySE160613
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Interview with Stanley Ernest Jeffrey. 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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00:40:43 audio recording
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Pending review
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Harry Bartlett
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2016-06-13
Description
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Stan Jeffrey was a flight mechanic at RAF Pocklington. He discusses the camaraderie between the ground and air crews. He would stick chewing gum to the undercarriage as a good luck charm. Shortly after the end of the war, the ground crew were taken on a flight over Germany to see the bomb damage. He worked for Imperial Typewriters before and after the war.
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
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Great Britain
England--Yorkshire
Temporal Coverage
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1941
1942
1943
1944
1945
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Tina James
102 Squadron
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Cook’s tour
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
Halifax
military service conditions
RAF Pocklington
superstition
-
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/359/5527/AFraserD150713.2.mp3
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Title
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Fraser, David
D Fraser
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Description
An account of the resource
One oral history interview with Warrant Officer David Fraser.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2015-07-27
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Fraser, DW
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Transcription
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AM: Ok, so this interview is being conducted for the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is myself Annie Moody and the interviewee is David Fraser. The interview is taking place at David’s home in Winchelsea in Kent. No.
DF: Sussex.
AM: Sussex.
DF: East Sussex.
AM: In East Sussex.
DF: Yeah.
AM: On the 13th of July 2015. So if you can just tell me just a little bit about your, your family background, schooling and childhood?
DF: Yeah.
AM: Schooling and what have you.
DF: I was born in Northumberland. And I was there until I was seven. Then we moved to Wales and that’s where I was educated, in Wales. But, but education was nil. Just the three Rs and I didn’t get to grammar school or, I sat the scholarship but failed [laughs]. Then pressed on and left school at fourteen. And I was too young to join the RAF even as an apprentice but I was determined to join the RAF from an early age. From the time I was a toddler I was always interested in aircraft. And so I had to wait till I was seventeen and a half, which I did.
AM: So what did you do in between?
DF: Oh.
AM: Between fourteen and seventeen?
DF: I had various, I had a great time ‘cause there was plenty of jobs about and I just went - I had a factory job in a radio factory. I had one in a motorcycle factory. And I just bided my time until I was seventeen and a half and then I joined the RAF.
AM: So when you say I joined the RAF. Just talk me through that. How? What did you do first? How did it work?
DF: Oh I just made an application and they gave me an appointment up in London – Kingsway and I had this exam to be done which was easy and wrote an essay about my experiences in London and I joined as a flight mechanic. I thought, I was under the impression that a flight mechanic would be associated with flying and, but I wasn’t. I was a humble mechanic.
AM: Did they give you a choice or did they say that -
DF: I could have had any choice really. When the flight sergeant read this essay he said are you sure you want to be a flight mechanic? I said yes. So I enlisted as a flight mechanic.
AM: And this was in? 19 -
DF: 1939.
AM: ’39.
DF: February ‘39.
AM: So before the war had started.
DF: Yeah and -
AM: So then what happened?
DF: And then I went on a flight mechanic course which involved a lot of filing metal and God knows what and I, I tried to fail the course. I just wasn’t interested in flight mechanicing and at the end of the course I saw the CO and I explained that I was not interested in the thing and they passed me with forty percent, the lowest possible pass mark. He said when you get to your squadron when you’re posted you’ll [remaster?]. So that’s what I did and what they wanted pilots, navigators and gunners and I volunteered for the pilot’s course but the waiting list was three or four months and I was afraid I might miss the war so I got the gunners course.
AM: Where, where, where were you living at this point?
DF: Cranwell. I was at Cranwell then.
AM: Ok.
DF: Which is not far from Lincoln. And -
AM: So you went, you went on the -
DF: Went on the gunnery course in Scotland.
AM: In Scotland?
DF: Evanton Gunnery School.
AM: And this is still just pre-war or?
DF: No the war was on then. That was 1940.
AM: Was on. Oh right. Ok, so what was that like?
DF: Great fun. Flying about. We had lumbering pre-war aircraft and in a high wind they’d fly backwards.
AM: What, what aircraft were they?
DF: They were Harrows, Handley Page Harrows. They were so slow that coming back one day I was in the rear turret and we were trying to fly over the High Street parallel with the high street and which was rather, which was forbidden and I saw the local copper get his book out and take our number [laughs]. He took our number. When we got back we got reported and hauled up before the CO for low flying.
AM: And this was still, so this is while you were in training
DF: 1940.
AM: And this is while you were training?
DF: Yes. While training, yes.
AM: Ok, so what, what was the training actually like? What did that consist of?
DF: Oh. Firing. Air to air firing from air to air firing and air to ground firing. Stripping guns and learning all about the mechanism of them and how they worked and we had a month. That took a month and then after that we went to operational training unit which is another three months.
AM: So where was OT?
DF: That was in Scotland.
AM: That was in Scotland as well?
DF: Yeah. Yeah. Lossiemouth, Scotland.
AM: So what did you do there? What did that consist of?
DF: We got there and one morning we were told to report to the hangar and the hangar was full of bods just milling around. The idea was to just mill around and find people you had something in common with and that’s how you crewed up. It was a marvellous system. And you, you found chaps you took a liking to and they reciprocated and that was the way a crews was formed. There were six of us in the crew.
AM: Who chose who?
DF: Hmmn?
AM: Who actually chose who? Who took the lead in it?
DF: Oh pilot, one of the Australian pilots. We had two Australian pilots. They’d been around the offices and seen who got the best marks. And that was what happened. I had good marks at gunnery so they, ‘well he’s a good bloke’ and picked me and that was it.
AM: Were you with anyone else that you’d done the gunnery training with? Oh no you would all have been together wouldn’t you and milling around as you put it.
DF: Oh yes we were all there and we just formed up crews at that, on that morning.
AM: So you’ve got your crew. Then what?
DF: Then we started training as a crew.
AM: As a crew.
DF: Yeah.
AM: In what kind of aircraft?
DF: Wellingtons.
AM: In Wellingtons.
DF: Yeah and -
AM: So how did that go? What was that like?
DF: Well it was a bit dicey because we used to lose on average one crew per course. There were six crews per course and we used to lose one, an average one, one every course. Weather conditions primarily, hitting mountains or getting lost, snowstorms and God knows what, not and aircraft maintenance wasn’t the best ‘cause they were rushing things through and I think things got missed and -
AM: So as a rear gunner training?
DF: Ahum.
AM: What were you shooting at?
DF: Oh whatever they – sometimes they’d send a spitfire up and we’d have cameras, and have camera gunnery and they would develop later on, see how we’d got on. And and other aircraft again drogue, with a drogue towing - you’d fire at that and it was good fun really. We were there for about three months – November, December, January, February, March – yes just over three months. Then we went to the squadron.
AM: And at -
DF: At Marham.
AM: At Marham so -
DF: Norfolk.
AM: Which squadron?
DF: 115 squadron.
AM: 115.
DF: Yeah and we were only there just over a month, then we were shot down. [laughs]
AM: So how many operations did you actually do?
DF: Four.
AM: Four.
DF: Yeah.
AM: Where did you go on operation?
DF: Emden was the first one. Then Brest after the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau battle ships and the last one was Hamburg when we were shot down.
AM: And this was in, still 1940?
DF: ‘41.
AM: We’ve moved to ‘41 now.
DF: ’41. May 10th ‘41 we were shot down.
AM: So describe that to me. The shooting down, and what happened.
DF: Well we were, went up and approached the target and just before we got there we were knocked off course by a, with a blast of blasts so we went around again and that was our undoing. If we’d just got out, got out of it we’d have been ok but went around again doing the job properly and then caught in a cone of searchlights. There was one pilot beam which, and that latches on to you and the rest follow and you’re caught in this cone of lights like a sort of gnat [laughs] and they shot the hell out of us and hit, hit the hydraulics so I couldn’t operate any guns. I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t operate, I had no gunsights which was electrical had been knocked out so I was useless. Nothing. I couldn’t manipulate anything. The gun, nothing would move ‘cause we rely upon hydraulic pressure for movement. And there I was. And then there was a silence. That meant a fighter was coming in and come in he did and he proceeded to sort of knock the hell out of us, set fire to the flares in the flare rack and she started blazing and that was the start of the, the whole thing.
AM: So then what happened? Describe it to me if you can.
DF: Of course, normally as a rear gunner you could just turn, turn the turret around, jetison the doors and just drop out but of course I couldn’t do that because the damned thing was jammed up so I squeezed back in, went up the fuselage towards the nose and there I saw Alex the second pilot, Aussie, he was lying bleeding profusely. He was bleeding in the arm and chest and I got him, stuffed him through the hatch, put my hand through to the rip cord. I said, ‘pull for God’s sake’ and anyhow I pushed him out and I looked out and saw him. His parachute opened so that was ok [laughs] and he recovered later on but he was badly wounded.
And then I bailed out and the country I landed in was very much like Romney Marsh. All level and no cover at all, there were no trees [laughs] or anything. I really felt exposed but I hit the ground and as I hit the ground I was swinging. I swung forward and landed on the base of my spine and I thought I’d broken my back. So I just lay there manipulating toes and hands to see if I was ok. Everything moved, worked. And a great herd of cows gathered around me. Friesian cattle. They all came out sniffing around the parachute so I just lay there for about half an hour ‘cause they were good cover and they just, they were nice and warm too these cattle, and I just laid there.
And then when I came to my senses I got the parachute and stuffed it into a dyke and sank it by putting a great, a bit of rock on top of it and I thought now where I shall go. The obvious thing was Denmark and that was occupied by Germans so anyhow I made, I was making for the Danish border. I thought I might have a bit of luck, get over it, get picked up by Danish patriots.
I hadn’t gone more than about a quarter of a mile and as dawn was breaking I came to a hut. It was a hut occupied by searchlight crews and there was a sentry outside and he saw me. He said, ‘ach Englander flieger for you the war is over. Come’. And that was it. I was hauled in to this hut and there I saw Alex lying on this table.
AM: Alex was the Aussie?
DF: Who was wounded, yeah
AM: Ahum.
DF: I thought he was dying. But he was breathing, shallow breathing and he said to me, “Look what they’ve done to my best shirt.” His shirt was all mangled and bleeding and then I was whipped away and put on to a lorry and taken away. And I I didn’t know what had happened to Alex. I thought, honestly thought he’d died until nine months later he turned up in the camp. He’d recovered.
AM: What happened to the rest of the crew?
DF: Well Bill the navigator, when I bailed out I put Alex through the hatch I looked across at Bill who was bent over the main hatch and I yelled, “Come this way.” But he made a gesture like that - so I left, at him waving, went out assuming he’d got out from the main hatch. But what had happened, I didn’t realise, what what had happened, when my turret caught fire Bill came down to give me a hand with the fire extinguisher by which time I’d got the fire out so on returning, he was returning to position and he got the second burst of machine gun fire, was hit in the intestines, went right through the back and right through the front and I didn’t realise he’d been wounded. Yeah.
Then the skipper called out and got no reply so he assumed we were all out and he bailed out and Bill was left in the machine on his own. He was a navigator, he wasn’t a pilot and he thought, ‘well I think I may as well, I’m wounded I may as well dive into the, dive into the deck and get it over with’ and he suddenly thought no he’d carry on. He took over and brought the aircraft down, the wheels, brought the aircraft down and he just came below some high tension cables, past a row of cottages in front of a hospital [laughs] and again they came and cut him out of the aircraft and whipped him into the hospital and this eminent French surgeon who was there, one of the the leading surgeons in France performed an operation on him and that saved his life. But later on he got dysentery and the stitches all broke and that was it. He never ever recovered properly. He always had this open wound and, but the skipper, Andy he bailed out and drowned in the river. He just didn’t release his chute obviously and there was - so one killed and two wounded and three whole.
AM: Three in one piece. So you’re on the lorry. You’re being taken away somewhere.
DF: Yes.
AM: Then what?
DF: And went, went to the officer’s mess, of the -
AM: The mess in?
DF: The squadron who’d shot us down. German officer’s mess but first of all we were interviewed by the couple of bods there and they were trying to get information out of us there and I just gave my name, rank and number. And they said, “Hang ‘em. Hang ‘em.”
Anyhow I didn’t say anything at all and they let me go into another room. Then they took us, a car came and took us to the mess and then we met the guy who shot us down. And he gave us Cognac and coffee and had a general chin wag with them and they said don’t worry the war won’t last long about another six months and the Fuehrer will be riding on a white horse down Whitehall and we said, “Wait and see” and this amused them this ‘wait and see’. And we finally left and they all came on to the front steps to see us off and they all said, “Wait and see” ha ha ha and we said, “Yes wait and see.” And I often wonder how many of them remained alive to wait and see.
AM: And you say us. So how many of you were there?
DF: There were two, there were two of us there.
AM: So, you because -
DF: Two of us and one was a bit further afield and he joined us later on. So there were three of us at [unclear] we were picked up and eventually made our way – or were taken to Hamburg station, put on a train and taken to Dulag Luft which was a reception depot.
AM: Ahum.
DF: And again we were interrogated by, by a guy speaking flawless English. He was, he could have been English and we gave our name, rank and number and he wanted to know what squadron we were from and they were interested in the Stirling. The Stirling at that time had just come operational and they had no information on it and they wanted to know about it. Anyhow, I didn’t give them any information and he pushed a packet of cigarettes and he said, “Didn’t I compete against you at the University Games in London?” I said, “No. No.” And he gave me these cigarettes which I politely refused. I was a non-smoker. After about an hour he, they let me into the compound with the rest, the rest of the bods and we met up in the, in the main sort of main hall. And there were about thirty aircrew there who had been shot down in the last few days. And they had permanent staff there who had been shot down way back. And we then went, the RAF camp wasn’t ready, hadn’t been built so we went around various other camps, army camps and we went to Austria, Poland a sort of cooks tour of Germany and we finally settled up and we ended up in Lamsdorf which an army camp near Breslau and there we remained until the RAF camp was ready which was Stalag Luft III.
AM: So how long were you at the one before Stalag Luft III? How long were you there for?
DF: Oh about, our wanderings, we were wandering about almost a year.
AM: On trains or -
DF: On trains yeah. We’d go, they’d take us to a camp. We might be there two months. Another camp we might be there for three months.
AM: And who was in, you said they were army camps.
DF: They were army camps yeah.
AM: So who else was in them?
DF: Well the last one, in Austria in a place called Wolfsburg, was a French army camp. There were about eighteen thousand Frenchmen. And -
AM: What did you do?
DF: We just -
AM: When you were in there?
DF: We just lived. Existed really. We commandeered the ablutions there and made them fit for use, our own use after the French had made a terrible sort of mess of them. The odd French peasant he doesn’t mind where he, where he sort of goes does he?
AM: But you were a bit more discerning.
DF: And we cleaned it up and it became our own, our own ablutions and everything.
AM: So then Stalag Luft III. Tell me about that.
DF: Oh that 1942 we got there. End of ’42. And that was where we really organised there. An organised camp. There were libraries there and skilled teachers. That’s where a lot of guys started their university experience. Qualified in the intermediate.
AM: Amongst the POWs?
DF: Yes.
AM: So they, who ran the -
DF: Ran the, ran the camp, yeah. Now my pilot, the one who was wounded, he took his intermediate economics exams on [?] university and he ended up being the deputy vice chancellor of the University at Perth.
AM: What did you do?
DF: What did I do? I did, I learned German. I read a lot and increased my knowledge generally and of course mixing with all different types of people what they knew rubbed off on you and I just gleaned information that way.
AM: And you were there for how long?
DF: All told four years.
AM: Four years.
DF: Ahum.
AM: I can’t imagine it.
DF: And we dug tunn, I was involved in five tunnels.
AM: Oh tell me a bit more about that.
DF: Well the first one we dug was what we called a moler and it was just, the actual tunnel was about the same size as your body, your shoulders and it was a question of knees and elbows and digging with a implement and the earth was shoved back like a mole does and after about a half an hour you had to give up and signal you were passing out. Of course you had a rope around your ankle and when you gave a signal they pulled you, hauled you back. Next man in and so it went on.
There was a brand new washhouse there the Germans had built, they weren’t using it, between us and the fence and we thought if we could get to that washhouse and crack a pipe and get some fresh air and I happened to have been digging with the pipe and there it was, this lovely salt glaze pipe and I had a bit of a rock with me and I gave it a couple of bangs and it broke and the fresh air came and, oh marvellous. And then the winter came along and the position we were in it was visible. We had dug during the summer by putting up two sticks with a blanket and just were sunbathing ostensibly but it was just that it was just the cover and there was just the blanket was just high enough so that the guard couldn’t see over it. And we dug this and yes carried on for some weeks and then we had to give up because winter started you couldn’t sunbathe.
AM: Don’t sunbathe in winter. So that was one tunnel.
DF: That was the first one.
AM: And what happened to it? Where did it, did it actually get to the outside?
DF: Oh yes it got about forty yards and we had to give it, had to leave it so I don’t know what happened to it. It probably caved in in the end.
AM: So that was the first one?
DF: The first one.
AM: And then?
DF: The second one was one from the one that had been discontinued, again in a washhouse and that was, that was quite a big one and I started on that and that’s when the Americans came into the camp then. American officers and I’ll never forget this ‘cause I was familiar with Roger and Wilko they were the sort of references to Roger and out or Wilco - will cooperate and this guy was a captain. I was handing up sand and he kept saying Roger. And I honestly thought he had two blokes up there - one called Wilkins and the other called Roger. [Laughs] You simply say passing the bucket to one guy Roger, Roger,
AM: And that was sand?
DF: That was compact sand really.
AM: So how did you stop the tunnel collapsing?
DF: Well we dug with, I had a big tablespoon just with the handle off and dug like that ‘cause it was easy digging. Too easy actually. Got some collapses and so had to retain a dome shape. So it kept its own shape and that damp got in to that and we gave it up. And the big tunnel, the best tunnel was the biggest one and that was again near a wash house, near a soakaway. We started on that. Dug down about ten feet down for the shaft and then along towards the wire and it hadn’t rained, we got about fifty yards, it hadn’t rained for about, nearly a month and suddenly it belted it down and it didn’t stop for about five days and we were digging near the soakaway so there was a subsidence in the soil and we saw a German ferret, we called them ferrets, snooping around and we saw him probing cause he saw the ground subsiding and so we went, we went to the barrack hut and the next thing we knew there was a hell of a commotion and there was German fire engine came dashing in and this guy had fallen in through into the soakaway and this fire engine came in and they got a special harness and put it around him and hauled him out and everyone cheered and they got their pistols out and started firing. I’ve never seen blokes move so quickly.
AM: Firing in what direction? At you?
DF: Oh in the direction of us, yes. So I saw blokes making for the huts, diving through windows and [laughs]
AM: Was anybody killed?
DF: No.
AM: Was anybody shot?
DF: No.
AM: No.
DF: No and then, it was then that they started issuing notices saying that all materials because you had we had to used beds and bed boards which in the German eyes was sabotage and they just said that anyone caught tunnelling in future and misusing German material would be guilty of sabotage and would spend a long time in prison or might, could even be shot. That didn’t dissuade us. We just carried on.
And then we went up to Barth a place called Barth on the Baltic coast and started a tunnel there cos the Yanks were there and we.
AM: So you moved up.
DF: Yes.
AM: From where you were.
DF: Yes.
AM: To a different camp. And what camp was that?
DF: Barth B A R T H
AM: It was actually called, right ok.
DF: And we started a tunnel there with the Americans and we were sent back to our own camp again then we started another one from a barrack, from a barrack hut which meant moving a big stove each time, each time and that got us, it was arduous so we gave it up and that was the end of the tunnelling really.
AM: So you never actually got any of them out?
DF: We didn’t no.
AM: Were you aware of what was happening with the ‘great escape’ tunnel?
DF: No we, we knew the Germans were getting trigger happy. They were very concerned about people using materials, sabotage and God knows what and they issued notices in the camp - escape is no longer a sport, it could result in death. And the first information we had was when we got – where were we then – up near Konigsburg. We’d all had to go, move camp and in through the gates came a convoy of motorcycles and vehicles all armed with heavy machine guns and they proceeded to cordon around us. We were out in the open some sort of roll surrounded us and this German, CO, German CO read out what had happened. He said that fifty, fifty officers had been shot and we all booed and then they clicked their safety catches and started getting - so our senior man said, “Cool it blokes, cool it blokes” don’t want any disasters but we knew. They said they were shot while trying to escape but they they’d been recaptured and then shot. We found -
AM: Did you know that or found out later on?
DF: Later on yes yeah. Marvellous, good men lost their, the whole secret organisation leaders were shot and there were several Germans hanged for it after the war.
AM: So what, going back to you and where you were then. So we’re getting towards the end of the war. What things started happening?
DF: Yeah.
AM: What?
DF: Well we ended up at a place called [Fallingbostel?] it wasn’t far from the main autobahn between Hanover and Hamburg and things were getting a bit tight and all of a sudden one day you’re going to march, got to get out and march. So everyone packed up their belongings and gathered, and carried what they could and assembled outside the gates. We thought to hell with this. This could lead to hostage taking so we said no we’re not marching so there were five of us avoided the Germans. They were searching the whole camp get people out of it. We hid up in various places and when the coast was clear we went out through the wire and made contact with our own army.
AM: How? How?
DF: We just went out into the open and we passed through the German lines and saw Germans laying mines in culverts and we met up with - we saw a tank coming towards us over the brow of a hill and the gun swung around and the gun, comms tower was opened and a black bereted head popped out. We said, “Don’t fire. We’re English.” So they drew up about twenty yards from us, the crew got out and gave us cigarettes and there we were smoking and -
AM: You were a non-smoker.
DF: No. No. I tell you what, when I was twenty one, on my twenty first birthday there was a consignment of Red Cross parcels. So everyone – ‘oh food, marvellous’ but it wasn’t food it was tobacco. Cigarettes. The issue was thirteen per man so I had my thirteen cigarettes. I thought well I can’t eat I might as well bloody smoke. That’s when I started smoking. Twenty one.
AM: So here’s the tank.
DF: And, and they drew up and we sat there chatting on a grassy bank and we’d earlier, before we’d met the tank, we’d come to a farm. Went into the farmhouse and there at a long farm table were the farmer’s wife and about six Germans – troops. So we questioned them and obviously they were no longer interested in fighting, they just more or less deserted, or given themselves up. And when we, when we spoke to the tank commander and told them about the guys in the farmhouse his eyes lit up so he sent a guy, one man up to the farm about a mile back and he came back not with six blokes but about thirty. They were all skulking in the cowsheds.
And this guy he’d sent up there was an Austrian and who’d been in England since 1936 and he joined the British army, marvellous bloke. And I always remember this squadron, this tank commander was called Major Hepburn and everyone called him Kathy [laughs] and when these, these Germans came down, he lined them all up and they put their packs in front of them and he said, “Right open them up” and they opened them up. There were tins of beef and pork and eau de cologne and cigarettes, cigars so he said, “There you are blokes take what you want” so we took, there were tins of meat and God knows what and put them in our packs. And then he said you’re running, you’re running a bit of a risk he said ‘cause there are still troops hiding up in woods. This was the SS. And so they armed us with rifles and ammunition and gave us a driver and a jeep and we went back about ten miles up to divisional headquarters and dropped us off there. So we were free once again.
We just we went back through the lines again everywhere like a lot of bandits with rifles and and yards of ammo wound around us and if we felt hungry we just caught up with the nearest army thing and they fed us and gave us a bed for the night and it was a marvellous week really. It was, was blazing hot sun. Marvellous.
AM: And you just worked your way.
DF: Yeah worked our way across the -
AM: Where did you end up?
DF: Well we saw six RAF blokes coming down the road so we said, “Where are you from?” And they said, “Oh we’re from a transport squadron he said but a bit further back, about a mile along there’s a fighter squadron flying Tempests,” and we thought they’re the boys so we walked up there and the sentry said, “Halt” and brought the guard out and took our weapons away and we made statements they gave us pieces of paper saying the bearer is an escaped prisoner of war.
And then we had a marvellous shower and then were, we were guests of the officer’s mess where we drank and oh I’ve never drunk before in my life and funnily enough it must have been because we hadn’t drunk for ages but we couldn’t get drunk. We just, it was a marvellous sense. But the CO, the group captain he went slowly under the table, just collapsed really under the table.
And then there was another guy who saw us - he turned around and embraced one of our mates. He was, Gerry Clark who was with us, he was bilingual French and this guy saw him who was a French, French ace and he turned around and he saw him and, “Oh Gerry” and they were from Biggin Hill. That’s where they’d last met. And Gerry had collided with a German in a dog fight and he and the German were in the same hospital. But Pierre Clostermann was the name of this, this French ace. He wrote two books Flames in the Sky is one and Big Show is the other one.
AM: Ahum.
DF: And he always wore, always wore a pair of guns like he was some old cowboy. He was quite a flamboyant creature and after the war he became an MP.
AM: Ahum.
DF: Alsace yeah from Alsace.
AM: So how did you actually get back to England?
DF: Oh then they thought there’s an Anson going back to Dunsfold tomorrow and oh lovely we can go back just as we are and just as we are dressed in scruff order but they had to, they had to inform Movement Control and we had to go through channels and they gave us army uniforms, all brand new and we had to go through, go through with the rest of the guys and we ended up at Brussels and they were flying in petrol in jerry cans and flying out prisoners of war. So we flew back in a Stirling and I flew back in the rear turret. And then we, we had, after that we went, we had, to Cosford to be debriefed at Cosford and given RAF stuff. RAF uniforms.
AM: Proper uniforms.
DF: That’s it. And then given pay, indefinite leave and that was it. Anti-climax.
AM: So what did you do?
DF: I went back. I went home and that was it. Show over.
AM: When you said they gave you your pay so that’s for all the time that you’d been gone.
DF: Oh they didn’t give us the lot. They gave us an instalment.
AM: Right. So what did you do afterwards then?
DF: What?
AM: You’ve had the anti-climax. You’re back. You’re home.
DF: Yes.
AM: Then what?
DF: I just remained in the RAF till my demob number came up and meanwhile I met my wife. Met her in June and we were married in October. And it worked out marvellously well and she was demobbed first and then I was demobbed and then I thought well what do we do now?
So I got a government grant and trained as a chartered surveyor but I failed the ex, again my mind wasn’t a hundred percent. I just went through the motions and I just failed the exam in one subject and then I gave it up. And I’m glad I did because the idea, in retrospect the idea of being in a routine job never appealed to me so what I did I joined, later on I joined a company selling farm buildings and it was marvellous. I was a freelance representative out every day, living in a place I wanted to live in – Cornwall. It was marvellous. That’s where the family were brought up. We were twenty years down there.
AM: Right. And here you are.
DF: Here we are.
AM: In Winchelsea.
DF: Yeah. In our second love, Romney Marsh.
AM: Ahum. Any other stories for me or shall we switch off?
DF: Hmmn?
AM: Any other stories for me or shall I switch off?
DF: I could go on forever I think but -
AM: Do feel free.
DF: No, then we were in Cornwall and the company, the company I was with, I was a freelance agent and the company I was with thought it was too far too come to erect buildings in Cornwall. They were, they were in Herefordshire so they just withdrew the labour from Cornwall and left me high and dry. So I thought to hell with it I’ve just about had enough of this bloody rat race so I gave it up and I started gardening and I’ve never had a more pleasant time in my life. Self-employed gardening. Marvellous. I used to do a bit of building.
AM: Out in the weather.
DF: Marvellous yeah.
AM: Wonderful so you had a good life.
DF: I had a good life. Very fortunate, very lucky. I had sixty nine years of married life. Marvellous. Got two nice daughters and a son in Australia. Good family.
AM: And you go swimming
DF: Yeah.
AM: When you can. In the sea.
DF: Yeah.
AM: At 94.
DF: Yeah.
AM: I think on that note.
DF: Yes.
AM: I’ll switch the recorder off.
DF: Ok
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with David Fraser
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-07-13
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
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AFraserD150713
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending OH summary
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Description
An account of the resource
David Fraser enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1939 and was trained as a mechanic. He remustered as soon as he was able and flew four operations as an air gunner with 115 Squadron before his aircraft was shot down over Hamburg, in May 1941. He spent the next four years as a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft 3.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Creator
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Annie Moody
Contributor
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Julie Williams
Format
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00:45:54 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Germany
Great Britain
Poland
England--Norfolk
Poland--Żagań
Germany--Hamburg
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1941-05-10
1942
115 Squadron
air gunner
Air Gunnery School
aircrew
bale out
bombing
crewing up
Dulag Luft
flight mechanic
Gneisenau
ground crew
Harrow
Operational Training Unit
prisoner of war
RAF Evanton
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Marham
Scharnhorst
searchlight
shot down
Spitfire
Stalag 8B
Stalag Luft 1
Stalag Luft 3
Stalag Luft 6
Stirling
training
Wellington
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/476/8358/PBrettDT1501.2.jpg
118e663bc5324bf07e5a67487e6467b1
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/476/8358/ABrettD150522.2.mp3
81384cf913618625f74e822cf9a8f9c1
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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Brett, Dennis
Dennis T Brett
D T Brett
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Brett, DT
Description
An account of the resource
Five items. An oral history interview with Dennis Brett (b. 1924) and four photographs. He served as an air frame mechanic at RAF Carnaby.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Dennis Brett and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-22
2015-07-20
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.
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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MJ: It’s on.
DTB: Dennis T Brett. Born 4 9 24. RAF service 12 11 42 to 5 3 47. Tested and found to have mechanical ability and so trained as a flight mechanic airframe at RAF Locking. Served mainly in Yorkshire at Driffield on Martinets. Leconfield, Lissett, Holme on Spalding Moor and Carnaby. Carnaby -
[machine pause]
MJ: Go on.
DTB: Carnaby was used for emergency landings along with two others, Woodbridge and Manston. They were known colloquially as crash ‘dromes. A wide variety of English and American aircraft was seen at Carnaby and on very foggy nights FIDO was in operation. Soon after the war ended I was taken on a low level flight in a Halifax to see the extent of damage inflicted on German cities by aircraft of Bomber Command. My last six months of service was spent in Italy, Egypt and Palestine with a Dakota squadron of Transport Command. Right. In wartime Britain there were three emergency landing grounds a little inland from the east coast. They were Manson, Woodbridge and, in the north, Carnaby, about three miles from Bridlington in Yorkshire. Their purpose was to allow damaged aircraft, sometimes with injured crew, to land if necessary without warning. To facilitate this the runways were large. Carnaby’s being three miles long and three runways wide. The soft bituminous surface was to minimise friction caused by a rough landing. When I arrived [pause] we saw and serviced a variety of aircraft. English and American. Can you put that off?
[machine pause]
We saw and serviced a variety of aircraft. English and American. The US crews were not noted for their navigational skills. I recall seeing the three twin-engined Whirlwinds the crew of which seemed to be lost. One pilot remarked, ‘We thought we were in North Devon.’ When a damaged aircraft landed our fire crews rushed to extinguish any flames. The armourers checked for bombs and guns. And the riggers took, looked for any physical damage to the aircraft and then towed the aircraft away to dispersal. We were puzzled one night when after landing safely the crew got out of the aircraft and ran. They soon told us that there was a long delay fused bomb on board likely to explode at any moment. It was the armourers of course who had to be there to defuse the bomb before other workers were allowed near the aircraft. Can we?
[machine paused]
Sometimes I was on special night duty all alone in a small hut at one end of the runway. This was more than a mile away from the control tower. My bed was two or three feet away from an electrical installation which bore the warning, “Danger 11000 volts.” We were always ready to receive aircraft but on bombing nights we were especially alert. I’m sorry.
[machine paused]
My job was then to operate the lighting system. On receiving an order from the control tower I would pull a switch to turn on the sodium funnel lights. These were spaced in a narrowing V shape embedded near the foot of the runway and were a guide for aircraft approaching to land. The lights were arranged in the shape of a funnel. In bad weather and when many aircraft were expected the order would be given to ‘strike arc’ and I then had to pull a switch to activate the searchlight system. Searchlights were positioned, one each side of the runway, at its entrance. They were angled towards each other to form a cross so that incoming aircraft could enter through the triangular shape below the cross. Bad weather was a great danger to airmen returning tired and cold from a raid lasting eight or more hours. Fog was a major problem. As a counter measure a system of pipework called FIDO, Fog Instantaneous Dispersal Operation had been installed along each side of the runway. In operation, petrol was pumped through the holes in the pipework, then ignited to produce flames several feet high. This was meant to clear the fog and it probably did so but at the time I thought its great value was that the flames could be seen by pilots trying to land. In such circumstances a successful landing was a tremendous relief for the aircrew. This might seem far-fetched but I was a personal witness to a memorable incident when a Lancaster had come in to a halt the crew got out and some of them actually kissed the ground. Reminders of the darker side of war were frequent. Crash landings were a common sight. A faulty undercarriage was usually the cause and the result was what we called a belly landing. Some aircraft burst into flames when landing. Others were already on fire as they approached. The sight of a red gun turret is one that I cannot forget. Even our medical officer was seen to turn pale sometimes. But there was also a lighter side to life at Carnaby. Sometimes a bad landing would cause an aircraft to bounce not just once but in a continuing series from which the pilot could not escape until the laws of physics allowed. We called this a kangaroo landing. The Yorkshire winter was harsh. One night the wind caused my eyes to water and the intense cold froze my tears so that I could not open my eyes. This was only momentary and a good rub was all that was needed to solve the problem. The snow lay thick everywhere and this emboldened the local rats to come rather too close to our hut. We shot at them with our sten guns but I doubt whether we hit any.
[machine paused]
Our commanding officer was a very experienced pilot who was known to have seen much action in the war. His free and easy manner was in direct contrast to the usual strictly authoritarian attitude of the administrators. He would sometimes sit outside the control tower with his legs dangling through the railings swinging them to and fro. In this way he was exhibiting his persona for all to see. I happened to be on duty when he decided to take a Sunday afternoon trip with his young son. After I’d pulled away the chocks and motioned him out he asked me if I would like to come too and I gladly agreed. One fine day I noticed a large number of, to me, unidentified aircraft all flying eastwards. They were not in any kind of formation. They were towing gliders. These gliders were at a certain angle to my vision so that only one wing was visible. A strange sight. It soon became obvious to us that the invasion of Normandy had begun. The gliders were, I believe, Horsas and the planes were DC3, better known as Dakotas. I was soon to become much more familiar with them when I was transferred to a Dakota squadron. At the end of the war I was invited to go up in a Halifax to retrace some of the routes our bombers had taken and to witness the devastation. We flew low over a number of cities including Rotterdam which had been bombed by the Germans and battle areas such as Arnhem and Aachen. Our pilot was on a high, in high spirits after the ending of hostilities. He would approach a city from a certain height and dive bomb it at an angle of about forty five degrees. Then over the city he would pull up sharply out of the dive. This continuing sensation was too much for me and I was physically sick for most of the flight home and my muscles ached for a week afterwards. I still have a reluctance to fly though I had to do so in 1981 when I was seconded to the City University of New York. To my regret the airline did not provide a parachute. Large four-engined, large four-engined aircraft such as the Stirling, Halifax, Lancaster and Fortress were designed for level flight not aerobatics and for a Halifax to be flown in such a vigorous way says much for the strength and construction of this, this aircraft. My experience at Carnaby remained long in my memory. Forty years later I would sometimes wake up in the night. In my dream a large four-engined bomber coming in towards me to crash land.
[machine paused]
Well my elder brother was in Coastal Command and used to fly as the wireless operator rear gunner in a Beaufort and I think it was in 1942 when the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau German battleships made a dash through the channel. He was engaged in torpedoing the Scharnhorst but in the process he was badly wounded and received shrapnel in various parts of the body and face and managed to survive. The gun turret was badly damaged and for this service he was awarded the mention in dispatches. I think that’s all that can be said there.
MJ: What was your actual job in the RAF?
DTB: Well I was what was known as a flight mechanic airframe otherwise known as a rigger and we were responsible for the whole of the aircraft physically other than the engine and the guns. And we had daily inspections for which we had to sign from the safety point of view. We had to check brakes, hydraulics, the movement of the flaps, rudder, elevators and of course petrol filling and so on and we had to make body work repairs where necessary.
MJ: How did you do that?
DTB: Whether it, well on early aircraft it would be on [pause] covered in, the early aircraft, I think the wimpy as well was covered in cloth. Muslin or, not muslin, no. Irish linen and we learned how to make a repair for that. On most of the aircraft they were metal and we had to make a hole and rivet all around it and patch them in that way but that was it. The whole of the aircraft had to be inspected and many points inspected and then signed for for the safety of the pilot. The Lancaster which was the best. It was the fastest and could carry the heaviest bomb load. The Halifax was next and then the other one. I can’t remember the name of it you know.
MJ: Yeah. I can’t remember exactly what one it is but I know which one you mean so, yeah.
DTB: But of course, you know there are other aircraft as well. The Mosquito was the fastest aircraft in that war and it was a bomber and it was a fighter bomber.
MJ: Yeah. Didn’t they take off from the airports with the flame?
DTB: No. It wasn’t a biplane. No.
MJ: No. No. They used to take off in the fog didn’t they?
DTB: There were Swordfish in the early days, I think the Swordfish was in that battle with the Scharnhorst as well as the Beauforts.
MJ: Yeah.
DTB: Well there we are.
MJ: Here’s the end of the interview with Dennis Brett at Ruskington. The International Bomber Command would like to thank him for his recording on the date of the 22nd of May 2015. Thank you very much.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Dennis Brett
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Mick Jeffery
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
2015-05-22
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ABrettD150522, PBrettDT1501
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Language
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eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Transport Command
Description
An account of the resource
Dennis was born in 1924 and joined the Royal Air Force in November 1942. He trained as a flight mechanic airframe at RAF Locking and was responsible for the whole of the aircraft, apart from the engines and the guns. Dennis explained the emergency landing grounds at RAF Manston, RAF Woodbridge and RAF Carnaby, which were wider to allow damaged aircraft to land safely. His last six months of service were spent in Italy, Egypt and Palestine with a C-47 squadron of Transport Command.
Sometimes Dennis was on special night duty alone in a hut a mile away from the control tower. His job was to operate the lighting system on receiving an order from the control tower. He referred to a memorable incident when a Lancaster landed safely and some of the crew kissed the ground.
When the invasion of Normandy began Dennis was transferred to a C-47 squadron. At the end of the war he went up in a Halifax to retrace some of the routes the bombers had taken and to witness the devastation. He left the RAF in 1947. In 1981 Dennis was seconded to the City University of New York.
Contributor
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Sue Smith
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
United States
Egypt
Italy
Middle East
England--Kent
England--Suffolk
England--Yorkshire
England--Somerset
New York (State)--New York
New York (State)
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:18:19 audio recording
bombing
C-47
control tower
Cook’s tour
FIDO
fitter airframe
flight mechanic
ground crew
Halifax
Lancaster
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
RAF Carnaby
RAF Locking
RAF Manston
RAF Woodbridge
training
-
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/484/8367/ABunceFSG161108.2.mp3
c0704c95f5fe0c449e29736dbba3fd70
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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Bunce, Sidney
Frederick Sidney George Bunce
F S G Bunce
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Bunce, FSG
Description
An account of the resource
Seven items. An oral history interview with Sidney Bunce (b. 1925, 3006260 Royal Air Force) notes, service material and four photographs. He served as an engine mechanic with 115 Squadron at RAF Witchford and at RAF Wratting Common with 195 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Sidney Bunce and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-11-08
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is the eighth of November two thousand and sixteen, and I’m in the village of Thornborough near Buckingham with Sid Bunce, and we’re going to talk about his time as an engineer in the RAF. So, what were your earliest recollections of life Sid?
FB: My early recollections, well, I was born in Lower End, Thornborough and, from then on, I stayed there until I was, ten years old and then by this time I had a brother Harold, he’s eight years younger than me, and er, we moved out of the Lower End into Bridge Street in Thornborough, and, Mother died in September nineteen thirty-six. I stayed with my Father, my brother he was, he went around to the police house where my Grandparents on the Baker side, my Mother’s side, they lived, and he was bought up with my Grandparents and an aunt, who was still unmarried and living there [pause] I was, I started school at Thornborough and I stayed there until I was eleven years old and took the eleven plus, and I, and I failed the eleven plus in so far as I got half way through, and in those days, I think if you, there were so many, erm, seats set aside at the [unclear] school, so that if you, if you got, if you didn’t get the full, er, the full marks that were required you could pay to go to school, but obviously my Father he couldn’t afford to do that. So, I went to what was called then, the Buckingham senior school, I stayed there until I was fourteen. When I left school in July, the war broke out in September nineteen thirty-nine, I wanted to be a motor mechanic and one Saturday afternoon my Father and I went up on the bus from Thornborough to Buckingham and saw a Mr Ganderton, who had a small garage. Unfortunately, the job had gone by the time we got there, so, went up to Cantells in West Street where my cousin Cyril worked as a shop assistant, and from there, he, my Father asked him if he knew of anyone who wanted a boy, and he said, the only one he knew of was Bert Campion who was a manager of E C Turner. He said, he wanted an errand boy, and er, so, we went to see Bert Campion and he asked me a few questions and er, I, he asked me when I could start, and I started work there on the Monday. I had about, I think it was, [pause] roughly about four months and I used to have to do the rounds, the deliveries, on a, each day in any case, and on this particular Saturday, Mr Campion he said, I want you to go across to Adcock’s and I want you to get a white jacket and an apron, and I did that and when I got back he said, I’m going to start you off serving in the shop, so for about a month, or so, I can’t remember, about a month anyway, he, only had one shop assistant and he sacked him and he put me into the, promoted me into the, as a shop assistant. I was very grateful to him in actual fact, because he taught me the bacon trade, and if you, I think if you gave me a side of bacon I could still, I could still bone it and cut it up as a, anyway, I stayed there until, I started to work there at eight shillings a week, that’s 40 pence now isn’t it, and by the time I was sixteen, I was getting a pound a week, and one of my best pals he was at a different place earning more money than I, but eventually, when I started work my Father was concerned for what I would do for a midday meal, because I was working in Buckingham, and I had an aunt and uncle who lived in Buckingham, and I went there for my lunch, from then until I went and joined the air force. But, [pause] I was upset in so far that I wasn’t earning very much money, and eventually my uncle said that they wanted a boy up in the garage at the United Dairies at Buckingham, and I started there, and I was in, I started in the garage. I learnt to drive on a milk lorry, I used to round on the milk, collecting milk and from then on [pause] Where have I got too? [pause] Yes, I started work at the United Dairies and I stayed there until I was called up in the air force, but in between times, the ATC was formed at Buckingham and I joined the ATC, and er, when I was seventeen I volunteered for aircrew, but I wanted to be a flight engineer, and actually the flight mechanics engine course which I did, I believe that was one of the training for flight engineer. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I didn’t, I was put on the volunteer reserve, told to wait for my call up, and I was eighteen on June the twelfth and I was in the air force on August the twenty four, joining at Padgate where I did what we called the square bashing and after that I was er, went to Blackpool, stationed at fourteen eighteen, er, 48 Osborne Road [unclear] shore and erm, we were taken by bus or coach to Squires Gate where we did the training as a flight mechanic engines. When I, it was an eighteen-week course and when I passed I was posted to 115 Squadron at Witchford. [background noise] I stayed there until 195 Squadron was reformed and they took our flight, C Flight of 195, er of 115, and called it A Flight of 195 and after the squadron was fully operational, for a month there were two squadrons operating out of Witchford, and then, 195 Squadron was transferred to Wratting Common. Theres an interesting story about that because there’s a Wratting and there’s West Wickham and other villages, and apparently, this is true anyway, at erm, when Wratting Common was opened in 1940, 1943 they called it West Wickham, and from my understand, the signals were getting crossed with High Wycombe, which is Bomber Command Headquarters, and so they renamed it as Wratting Common. I was there until the end of the war, when we were, when 195 was disbanded, from then I went to Mildenhall for a month, then I was put on an overseas posting, went to Blackpool, but did, was taken off before we were drafted out. Then I was posted to Wing and when Wing was closed down I moved to Silverstone, and we were the last unit in Silverstone when they closed Silverstone. We went up to Swinderby and then that was the end of my service, I went to Kirkham and that was where I was demobbed on April the first 1947.
CB: Okay, we’ll pause there for a moment
[recording paused]
CB: So, that’s a good trail of what you were doing. When you joined the RAF you’d been in the ATC so how did that prepare you for what you, what came next?
FB: Well, in actual fact, I joined the ATC because I wanted to go in the air force, I didn’t want to go in the navy, into the navy I’m not a lover of the sea, not sailing anyway, and as far as the army was concerned and after what I’d seen of my poor Father went through in the First World war, in his health. I was interested in aircraft anyway, and so I joined the ATC. We had a very good warrant officer in charge, Mike Westly, he was a very good instructor and taught us the basics of learning to, er, foot drill, not rifle drill, we didn’t have anything to do with rifles, and so of course when I went on my interview for the air force I didn’t have any problems at all with the foot drill. Rifle drill came quite easy, and it, think it really put me on a good footing for service in the air force, in the air force
CB: So, when you were doing your initial training, erm, then what did you actually do in that initial training at Padgate, activities? You had to do the drill, but what did you do overall?
FB: Well, erm, [pause] let me see
CB: So, it was learning about the RAF?
FB: Yes, we had to, you know, get kitted out and obviously we had to do our spit and polishes, record it
CB: Of your boots?
FB: The erm [pause] I remember we have to make sure with our shoes that they were highly polished and the buttons, we used to have to clean our buttons and [unclear] issued with erm, a kit for cleaning and also for, if I remember rightly sort of doing simple needlework, in so far as sewing on badges or whatever, that kind of thing
CB: And cleaning your
FB: We had some, we had some sport, that actually, that, if I remember rightly, that was an eight week course, yes, eight week course, actually we were there, I was there ten weeks, but that was the fact that we didn’t start training straight away, for whatever reason, I don’t know, I also know that Warrington was the nearest town and we weren’t allowed to go in there, apparently there’d been some problems with the Americans, [laughs] think fighting or whatever, something like that, so I think it was actually, we were put out of bounds, I didn’t miss that anyway. But after the, after that, if I remember rightly, we came home on seven days leave and then had to report back to erm, Blackpool
CB: So, Blackpool was the base for technical training for you, for engineering?
FB: Yes, well yes, Blackpool, we were bused down to Squires Gate into the airfield, and we did our training in one of the hangars, which consisted of, that was eighteen-week course, it composed of fortnightly VV’s as they called it, verbal verification, and the first fortnight we were given [laughs] a lump of metal and a file, and we had to file this lump of metal into whatever shape we were told to do, and that lasted for a fortnight, and after the fortnight you had a verbal verification. So, asked various questions on the, what you’ve been doing for that fortnight, and if you passed you went on to the next stage, if you failed you stayed on and were put back for another fortnight, and if you failed you were kicked out. Fortunately, all of our entry, not one failed. But, after the first fortnight, um, oh I’m a bit hazy on how it worked now, but the next, the next fortnight you had another verbal verification and you had to get a percentage of the questions asked, right and then you went on to the next stage. And I well remember, that eventually, we got to where the stage where we had to dismantle an engine, and one of our entry, he always had the top marks, most of us used to struggle through, and get through the minimum marks required to continue. He was always on top and he, and when we came to taking the engine, dismantling the engine, and we were taught how to take it apart and put them all in sections so that you knew when you went to replace it and put them back, he, he was hopeless, but anyway he did manage to get through and eventually at the end, the last fortnight, I was, erm, revision, and so, we revised all that we’d been trained to do and erm, then you had to go and, if I remember rightly, there was all these various parts out on benches and you had to identify them and what they did, and all the rest of it, and I passed out as an AC2, which meant, the majority of us did, but this, this, funny enough, this chap who wasn’t very good at dismantling engines and reassessing them, he passed out as an AC1 [laughs] and he went straight on to train as an instructor. But, I was posted to 115 Squadron [pause]
CB: So, you come to the end of the course and what do they do as a formality in documentation and parade?
FB: Do you mean, I can’t remember having anything, anything to say that you, I can’t remember, I don’t think we had anything to
CB: I was just thinking of when you get posted to a squadron, they want to know you’re competent, and you might do that with a passing out certificate
FB: I can’t recollect having a pass out certificate
CB: Might be in your service record, we’ll have a look. Okay, so you passed out there, there was a marching parade was there, to mark the end of the course?
FB: Er, oh yeh, well of course, so yes, we were [laughs] during the course at Padgate, then you had the parades
CB: Yeh
FB: On the Sunday, you had the parade on Sunday and so forth, and the band, I used to like, we had a pipe band, I used to like marching behind the pipe band rather [laughs] than a brass band or a silver band
CB: So, you are formed up on the parade square, there are separate sections, and the ones who are passing out are supported by the following courses, is that right? And then you get reviewed by a reviewing officer [pause] and then you march past and the reviewing officer takes the salute, is that right?
FB: Oh yes, we had to march past and salute, yes, I think that was [pause] as far as I remember, and that’s all it was
CB: And then, after that, did they give you a bunfight?
FB: No
CB: Nothing, just disperse
FB: No, we just passed out and got on with it
CB: Yeh, how soon did you then report to the squadron, 115?
FB: I came, yes, but I think I came home on seven days, I think it was seven days leave and then [pause]
CB: So, when you
FB: Yes, I had to, I had to report to RAF Witchford [pause] now I had, had a railway pass obviously, and had to go from Bletchley to Cambridge [pause] I can’t remember the next station
CB: Cambridge up to Ely
FB: Ely, that’s right. Oh yes, then we, we picked up, erm, a lorry
CB: What was the rank and status that you had then?
FB: I was AC2, AC2. While I was at Witchford, I had to, for erm, sort of erm, promotion if you call it that. I had to, an interview and was asked various questions on, well, what you knew and what you were capable of, and I passed for that, and I was AC1. I was still AC1 when we left Witchford before Wratting Common, and there again, one of the sergeants after we’d been there, been there a while, I took another exam if you like, and I passed that and became a LAC, and I was an AC for the rest of my service
CB: When you arrived at Witchford, what process did they put you through in linking you with the squadron?
FB: Well, one, obviously gone on parade and I can’t remember, but I was sort of allocated to this group with a, I’ve forgotten the sergeants name now, but erm, so I joined this, I joined this, basically the group, the small group was responsible for two aircraft, you know the pans were sort of, not too far away from one another, based round the airfield, and
CB: The pans are where the aircraft are parked?
FB: Actually stand, yeh, yeh, and as I was a sprog, newly trained, the sergeant, he put me with an older fitter, not much older, but name of Malcolm Buckingham, and we worked together on the same plane, from then right through until the end of the war, but, the sergeant, he was a very, very, very good sergeant, he knew exactly what you were capable of and he wouldn’t let you do anything until he knew you were capable of doing it, and the one of the things that you did have to make sure of when you was pulling the chocks away, to take, that you run backwards and not forward otherwise you [bang noise] you run into the propellers. Well, we did our daily inspections, DI’s, and obviously we did all the checking. If there had been any faults reported, minor faults that we could do, out on the flights, we did, if they were major they used to have to go into the hangars. But, when, as far as the operations was concerned, when, if you, normal working time was erm, eight till five, but if you were on what they called take off, you still worked from eight till five, then you went down to, well to have your meals, but you had to get back on to the air, onto the airfield an hour before take-off [pause] The crew, when the air crews were bought out and left in their different planes, I worked on A4D-Dog and the other one was A4C- Charlie, they were the two planes, but basically what happened, the aircrew came out and obviously they would have a look around, to check that everything was okay, and also inside, and when it was time to start up, one of us used to get up under the undercart, as we used to call it, under the wheels where the [unclear] gas pumps were, and there was two [unclear] gas pumps, there was one for the starboard inner and one for the starboard outer, one for port inner and one for the port outer, and you jumped up and one of you went up there and primed it, the other stayed on the trolley where the batteries were on the trolley, and when the skipper was ready to start up, he used to, well, obviously they were all, all, night operations, so if it was dark we used to get the skipper to just put his Nav lights on and off, so when I used to do the priming and when I used to press the button, and the start all four engines up, and they did the run up, we used to, when we were doing the DI’s in the morning we used to take them up to about three thousand revs a minute and then test the mags, switch each magneto off one at a time, and if there was a revs drop more than one hundred revs, then we had to do a change, a plug change. When they done there, when they done they’re run off, well, we used to take and pull the chocks out and away they went and we used to wait up there until all of them had taken off, and then as far as you were concerned you were finished until the following morning. But, if you were on all night as they called it, then the same procedure happened in as far as I you get up an hour onto the airfield, an hour before take-off and when they’d all gone you were able to go back to your billet or to the NAAFI, you couldn’t obviously, you couldn’t leave the airfield, and then you were told what the ETA was, and you would get on up to the airfield, an hour before they were expected back. I used to say to erm, well you, the, whoever you, whoever you see [unclear] I used to say to them, ‘flash D in morse, or C for Charlie’, then you knew which pan to put them on, and when they came and you put them on, on, on the pan, you used to get the ladder out, and they used to come out and you used to ask them if there was any snags, and if there were any snags, then you went and reported them to the flight office. After they’d gone, you used to go back and put the locking bars in, chocks underneath and shut it up and that was your, then you were finished, then you could go back and you had the following day off
CB: When you talk about locking bars, these are the effectively the clamps that stop the control surfaces,
FB: Stop it, yeh
FB: So, in the wind they wont
FB: That’s right
CB: Flail around
FB: That’s right
CB: Right, okay. Now as an air mechanic, what was your specific role, because everybody mucked in, but actually you had a specific, which was engine was it?
FB: Oh, engines
CB: Yeh
FB: Yes
CB: Right
FB: So, you see there was erm, there was two engine mechanics if you like
CB: Yeh
FB: And, a rigger for air frame, sort of for each, and obviously the, all the ancillary, so the armourers, the electricians and all of those, and of course did their own, their own job [pause]
CB: For each aircraft, so that there would be a Chiefy, he’d be a flight sergeant?
FB: Well
CB: Or what? ’Cos the gang effectively
FB: The gang, it was a sergeant
CB A sergeant, yes
FB: Sometimes there was two sergeants and a corporal, it just all depends how it was, but erm, yes, there was a sergeant in charge of you
CB: Yes
FB: In your little gang
CB: So, in the team, the gang, you had a sergeant, two engine mechanics, a rigger, an electrician?
FB: Well, there was a, yes, an electrician and of course
CB: And the armourer
FB: But when they bought the bombs out
CB: Yes
FB: The armourers, they, they obviously, they did the bombing up
CB: Yeh
FB: Winching up into the bomb bays
CB: So, the bombs came on trolleys?
FB: [inaudible]
CB: How did they get the bombs up into the bomb bay?
FB: Well, they put them, obviously the bomb doors were open
CB: Yep
FB: One of the armourers would go up into the plane and they sort of winched them up, they’d draw them up on
CB: An electric winch?
FB: Yes, draw them up on that, and then when they were secured, erm
CB: Where was the winch operated from?
FB: More often, but it all depends what the target was going to be, where they were going, but generally it was, it could be a load of incendiaries
CB: Yep
FB: And then perhaps a four thousand pounder or an eight thousand pounder, and then they got larger, but that was generally the load. Sometimes it would be thousand pounders, it just all depended on what the target was going to be and obviously the crew would never tell you where they were going, you wouldn’t expect them to, but they might say where they’d been but very, very, very rarely, you could get a rough idea where they may be going or what area, because of the bomb load and the fuel load, because depending on, I think if I remember right, erm, Berlin it would be almost full tanks, if I remember right, I think the Ruhr, depending where it was, sometimes it would be about seventeen fifty gallons, coming er, coming nearer to home it would be fifteen, yeh, fifteen hundred gallons, if I remember when we were [unclear] up for D Day, we were doing two ops. We used to have to get up at four o’clock in the morning er, and get up on the airfield, 1944 that was a really cold winter [laughs] we had to, well, the engines, we didn’t, we weren’t too badly off because we’d put a load of lanolin grease on the leading edges of the props and the erm, main plane, but the poor old riggers they used to have to go and de-ice the Perspex and all the rest of it [laughs] What that consisted of, we engine ones used to have a can of antifreeze, a drum of antifreeze and a stirrup pump, and the airframe, they used to have to go up onto the, onto the, on the main plane obviously, and erm, they used to have to spray the Perspex to clear them, that was quite a job
CB: What did they do? How did they clear them, they didn’t just scrape them did they?
FB: No, it was just a stirrup pump, you see, you spray it
CB: Yes, but what were they spraying? Was that antifreeze as well?
FB: Oh yes, because they got to clear the you know, the cockpit
CB: Yeh
FB: And the mid upper gunner, and all the rest of it. Tail end Charlie he was [laughs] I wouldn’t have wanted to do that job
CB: The rear gunner?
FB: Hmm, no
CB: You mentioned about the leading edges, so on the props and on the leading edges of the main plane
FB: Lanolin grease
CB: Right, yeh, right, so you spread that on with your hands or best with stick, yeh, okay, and that worked, did it?
FB: Oh yes, that worked, yeh, yeh
CB: What about things like the Peto head, you really couldn’t put anything on that could you?
FB: No, no
CB: Okay, so starting, you’ve got a trolley ack
FB: Yeh
CB: How do you go about starting?
FB: Well
CB: So, the trolley ack being the trolley accumulator
FB: Well, that’s plugged in, its, its plugged in, as I say you go up
CB: Into the engine bay, is it?
FB: Hmm
CB: Right
FB: Then, one of you, as I say, went up on the on top of the wheel in other words
CB: Yes
FB: Undercarriage, and there are these [unclear] gas pumps, and when they, the skipper was ready to start up, you used, you used to prime them, er, basically it was more like a choke on a car I would think, but you used to give them, they probably need perhaps about six or eight pumps, each pump, and while you were doing that, of course the, your mate, he was pressing the button to, where it was plugged in, to turn the engines over
CB: What was this stuff that gave the extra urge, it wasn’t an ethanol something, what was the material, what was the erm, fluid that you were pumping in to give it that surge of
FB: Oh, that was, that was petrol
CB: It was just neat petrol?
FB: Hmm
CB: Right
FB: ‘Cos you got your, obviously you got your blowers as we used to call it, it’s at the trunk, that erm, built it up
CB: Yeh
FB: You got your mixture and, away she went
CB: So, what was the engine starting sequence?
FB: Erm, you start the starboard engine, starboard engine, inner engine first
CB: Right, what
FB: Where the hydraulics are, so if that didn’t, obviously if you hadn’t any hydraulics you didn’t have brakes or anything else. And er, [unclear] it all depended on what, on what the pilot wanted to do, but that one was first, then probably it would be the starboard outer, because if you started off on that side, well obviously, you’ve got to go round to the other side to start the others up, so, yeh
CB: So, you moved the trolley ack each time or was there one trolley ack each side?
FB: Well, no, you moved it and plugged it in
CB: Yeh, okay
FB: I nearly always went up on, I nearly always went up on the wheel and did the pumping
CB: Now, this is pretty close to the propellers, so what was the procedure to make sure people didn’t walk into a propeller?
FB: Well actually, when er, when all the engines were running and they were ready to move off, you had to make sure that your chock, it was no good you see, you had the rope
CB: Attached to the chock?
FB: From the, attached to the chock
CB: Just to explain, the chock is holding the wheel
FB: But, the point is this, it was no good if you, where the knot was
CB: Yes
FB: Where it was knotted, it was no good putting the knot and straight through there, because you wouldn’t move them, you could not pull it out, ‘cos normally the wheels would move just a little bit onto the chock you see, so what you had to do, you put your chock and you run your, from here, round the front of the chock and back there, and then when you pulled it, you see, that pulled it out like that, if you did, you couldn’t get it out, if you did, it was a straight pull, it had to go round and pull it out
CB: Right, so, the
FB: And when you did that, as you pulled it, you ran backwards, no good running forwards, you ran backwards and that was it
CB Right, and there’s a chock each side of the wheel?
FB: Oh yeh
CB: And when
FB: There was, just in front of the wheel, but each wheel had the chock obviously
CB: Not just at the front
FB: Yeh
CB: Okay, at what point would the chocks normally, would they have been put in? When would the chocks normally have been put up against the wheel?
FB: Oh well, you put the, when the er, a plane for instance would come back afterwards, you, you put the chocks on straight away
CB: When its landed?
FB: When its landed, yeh
CB: So, the plane is a light at that point and when you start it up its heavy because it’s got the bombs and the fuel on, so that pushes the tyre down onto the chock
FB: Well, just
CB: Making it difficult to pull away
FB: Yes, as I say it was straight pulled, it wouldn’t come
CB: No
FB: You had to do it then and there
CB: Right
FB: Yeh
CB: So, at that point what does the ground crew do as the aircraft starts up to taxiing?
FB: Well, the er, as I say, when er, when er, they started up, done the run up, it was out turn to go off round the perimeter track to the runway, then erm, those of you there, you always used to stop until they’d all gone off
CB: Watch them go?
FB: And er, well, there’s a little bit I’ll tell you about
CB: Okay
FB: Er, later on, erm, what else, as I say, if there were any snags, but you went back to the flight office anyway
CB: Right
FB: When both planes were back, and you went and you reported, and of course the crew had been taken off for debriefing, and, when you, when your two planes are back you were finished, you could go back. You used to go back and have a meal and then go into bed and have the rest of the day off
CB: Yes, I’m just trying to get the sequence here because, to give people an idea of just how it went. So, at take-off, you, they’ve done the run up, checked and tested the engine, run up, chocks away
FB: Yes
CB: And then, what do you do as a ground crew, do you watch them go and then go for meal or how did that work?
FB: Just watch them, yes
CB: ‘Cos the
FB: I think everybody, I was taken all round the circuit
CB: Yes
FB: We always used to stop and watch them go off until they’d all gone. There was one incident [pause] obviously they, when they took off they used to go round and then they used to rendezvous where they had to go before [unclear] rendezvous to go out on their raid, and one night there was a [laughs] an awful crump and er, they erm, there was a four thousand pounder, something had gone wrong and it
CB: A cookie fell out?
FB: It fell out, yeh [laughs] oh dear, well, these things happened. The worst thing that happened, I’ve got it, I marked it there to show you. German night fighters used to, would follow them back. When I was with 115, they shot two of our planes down, because obviously they didn’t always come back together, they’d come at intervals and you stayed there until your two planes had come back. Fortunately, touch wood, old Buck and I, we never lost a plane, but that was exceptional er, I suppose, but this particular night they, you see, what they did when they came back, well, they had to wait their turn to land, and so, obviously they used to do a circuit, and it was on one of these circuits that this plane was coming in to land and er, this night fighter shot it down, they were all killed, they all lost their lives, both crews, they both, but at different intervals, the same night, we lost two
CB: What was the reaction of their individual ground crews to the loss of their aircraft?
FB: well, I don’t really know because I never lost one, but I suppose they’d be, I presume they’d be allocated another, I don’t really know about that
CB: I wondered if it was spoken about when you were in the NAAFI or somewhere, or did people ever talk about it, or did they just keep on?
FB: No, no, they didn’t talk about it, no
CB: Right, now what about accommodation, what did you have in?
FB: We were in nissen huts
CB: Right, how many in a nissen hut?
FB: Oh, what would it be [pause] one, two, three, four [pause] about twelve I think
CB: And how was the nissen hut heated?
FB: Oh, a stove, a coke stove [pause] Ah, [emphasis] we used to have a stove, up in the, in the erm, [pause] in the hut, where we, you know, kept the tools and all the different stuff in there, there was a stove in there, to sort of, keep it warm, and [pause] there is, have this coke, I mean, sort of filled it up, lit it and basically that was [pause] I mean for a lot of the time, for a lot of the morning anyway, erm, you was still working, you know, you were doing your DI’s you see, daily inspection, coal was off and of course with the Lancaster, you had to get up on these gantry’s because there was no, it was different to when I was on Wellingtons, had to, when I got round to [unclear] and Silverstone, I mean you could get on there, used to slide down the back, down the main frame on the Wellington [laughs] we used to get up there, on a Lancaster you couldn’t, oh dear
CB: So
FB: 44, that was a cold winter
CB: So, how did you deal with the cold on the flight line, in other words, out on the dispersal?
FB: Well, you, you see, you had mittens on because you can’t really feel with gloves on, it, you had to keep your fingers sort of [inaudible] [laughs] the weirdest thing was ever, if you had to do a plug change, and if you happened to drop a plug down in the trunk, of course they were v engines, you see, you could drop one down there, and that used to be a dickens of a job to get the blooming thing back out [laughs] to put it in, ah, but, at least they say live and learn, and you did
CB: You talk about a plug change, that’s because you’d get misfire was it or was there a sequence where you changed all the plugs?
FB: Yeh well, if the er, if the, obviously your magneto, it’s like a dynamo, in so far as supplying the spark
CB: Yes
FB: But if er, they dropped back there, then obviously, it’s erm, you wouldn’t need a, it wouldn’t need a, very doubtful it would be the magneto, so it would be a plug or plugs, that weren’t firing properly to do that. We didn’t have a lot of trouble, I mean that old Merlin, it was a lovely engine to work on, no problem at all really
CB: In what way was it good to work on?
FB: Pardon?
CB: In what way was it good to work on?
FB: Well, it was [pause] the construction of it, mind you, everything it was bonded, so, when you, when you took your coverings off to do your, check them, you had to check them, every one of those, and if there was, if there was any bonding broken, then obviously that had to be replaced, you see, it was for erm, obviously for the electricity, for it was a static electricity, you didn’t want anything like that, with the petrol, I mean that was a hundred octane petrol, so that was green and that was pretty horrible [laughs] oh dear
CB: Did anybody get fires on the ground?
FB: Fires?
CB: Engine fires or any kind of?
FB: No, erm, now where was that? [pause] I think that was at Wratting Common. The plane had been, been in the hangers for overhaul or whatever, I don’t know what, and the, they’d obviously had the under propeller off for some reason or other, and when they bought it out and they started it, it come off, flew off, erm but I only, I didn’t actually see it, I heard that it happened, but er, say, that plane A4D-Dog, that’s the one where this crew did a complete tour of ops, actually, that went on to do a hundred and five ops
CB: Did it
FB: But, by the time that stayed behind on, because it was on C-Flight, by that time, er, when we were, 195 was reformed, we had worked on it, Buck and I worked on it and I think they had done, either fifty nine or sixty ops, but that went on, on the history of it, to do one hundred and five, which erm, when, well when the, of course I was at 195 at Wratting Common then, but erm, when the Dutch, when they were in that, after the invasion had started and they were liberated, we went on what they called Manna, which was dropping the food supplies to them. So, we went on that and then after that, when that had finished, we started bringing back the prisoners of war
CB: Operation Exodus
FB: Yes
CB: Okay, let’s just pause there for a moment, you just have a breather
[interview paused]
FB: There’s one thing
CB: These gantries you had to use?
FB: We never had to do was wear a ring
CB: Ah
FB: Because if you wore a ring and you slipped, that would rip your finger off, you see, so, I never wore a ring anyway, I’ve never ever worn a ring in that case, but you never wore a ring. It’s like a lot of things, its common sense, I mean, there are things but obviously you shouldn’t do but if you do, well you suffer by it, really. We used to, well, I mean, oh crikey, I was only eighteen [laughs] eighteen, nineteen years old, I mean, we used to clamber up them no problem at all [pause]
CB: How safe were these gantries you used?
FB: Oh, they, they were safe enough, if I mean er, it was just a matter of climbing up on the, onto and getting on the platform, yeh they were safe enough, you didn’t have, well I didn’t hear of anyone getting injured by falling off them or anything like that
CB: So, on the flight line on the dispersal, you had a team of people we talked about just now, what would make it necessary for the aircraft to go into a hangar?
FB: If they had a major, for instance if there, had been on a raid, and they were badly shot up or anything like that, well, obviously they would go in, into for repair, er, if an engine, well, if anything really, but engines in particular, if there any major fault or [unclear] then you couldn’t do that, that was somethings obviously, you could do minor repairs on the flights but if it was a major repair well it had to go into the hangar because you just wouldn’t have the facilities or anything else to do it
CB: What about engine changes?
FB: One thing you used, well, as far as engine changes were concerned, I never experienced an engine change because as I say, the planes that I worked on we didn’t lose any, that Malcolm Buckingham and I worked on, but erm, I remember, if, if, if they had been out on a raid and they couldn’t get back to their base, [background noise] there was at Woodbridge, there’s two airfields, one was the Americans on and the other one which was what, we used to call them the crash land station, basically it was one plane that couldn’t get back to their main airbase, but they could get down there, and they used to go down there. And, what happened in that er, base, although obviously I never experienced it, but if a plane didn’t get back to, for instance, Witchford or to Wratting Common, if they didn’t get back there then the crew that serviced them they used to go over to service them and put them right and then they flew back to the base
CB: And, did that ground crew take, erm, road transport or did they get flown there?
FB: I think they took road transport. I’m not too sure about that because as I say I never experienced it but that’s what happened
CB: How many times did you have the opportunity of flying, in the aircraft you serviced?
FB: Well, no, if erm, if we are doing an air test you could go up if you wanted to, but it just all depends
CB: Why were air tests conducted, what was the purpose?
FB: When you went on an air test, obviously they would test the engines, so what they used to do, was, switch one off, off at a time and you know, get the reaction of erm, for instance mag drop, things like that. They used to try and test all four, one at a time, and then they would feather them, you know, and of course when you feather them, then of course you un feathered them to start them up again and all that and the old Lanc, that would fly on one engine, but obviously it was forever losing height, but they did these air tests just to see that everything that had been done was working as it should do. I didn’t go on many, but erm
CB: Where would you sit when you went up on an air test?
FB: Well, of course, with the full crew there, you would sit on the floor kind of thing [laughs] that weren’t very comfortable
CB: No, thinking of the
FB: And the poor old, the rear gunner, he was the worse off really because he was so far away from the rest of the crew you see, you’ve got your pilot and then your flight engineer, er, your bomb aimer observer and then of course the wireless operator had got his own little bit and the navigator [pause] [unclear] because er, well it depended on where they were going, but you get eight or nine hours, stuck up in one of those and [pause] no, I don’t think its er [pause] It’s marvellous what they did actually
CB: You said you originally wanted to be flight engineer but once you got on the flight line
FB: I must, I must admit that when I’d done my training and I went out on a and saw what was happening, I thought, well I thank my lucky stars I don’t, of course I was on the volunteer reserves, so if ever they did want a [pause] sort of a flight engineer, I suppose I would have been called up, because the flight engineer, as I say, the flight engineer as far as I can understand, their engine training was similar to what we did as a flight mechanic engines, it was just the extra, erm, you know with the checking the fuel pumps and that, switching the switch in the tanks and er, and I think that they did a little bit of basic flying if the pilot, you know, got injured or killed or anything like that, to take over, and er, but, so no it must have been. You could tell and get quite a good idea of, I mean, no target was easy, I mean there was always a danger there, but you could get a pretty good idea, if they were quite chirpy when they came out it was one of the not so difficult raids they were going on, but if it were Berlin or anything like that or, always they were very quiet which you could understand
CB: Yeh
FB: ‘Cos they not only had to put up with night fighting, there was anti-aircraft guns, must have been horrible
CB: How often did your two planes return with damage?
FB: Er
CB: And what was it?
FB: [pause] Do you know I can’t remember, if they ever did come back with any damage that I worked on [pause] no, I know that was when we were at er, at Wratting Common, about 1944, one night I heard, when, when they started sending these erm, oh, doodlebugs over, but er, they sounded, their engine, it sounded like an old two stroke engine struggling up a hill, [laughs] up a hill, kind of thing, and er, and of course the thing was once the engine cut, they come down, and this particular night, I went to the Nissen huts and there was some windows at the end, but not the end in between sort of thing, and actually saw this old doodlebug going and the engine cut, and it went down and it fell, and it fell just outside of the airfield [laughs] oh dear, it was an experience
CB: What was the most frightening part of your service, which would you say?
FB: Most frightening? [pause] I don’t really know, I do recall one thing that was happening, now when they were winching, winching erm, [unclear] it was a four pounder,
[unknown inaudible]
FB: Four thousand pounder, I think that was when
CB: A cookie
FB: Loading a four thousand pounder up, and it dropped, and we ran, we ran, and then we suddenly realised that if it had gone off, if it had gone off, we wouldn’t have been there, but er, the trouble was with the, if the incendiaries fell, I think they only had to drop about nine inches before they, and they were in long canisters, and there was a sort of bars that when, I suppose, that when the bomb aimer pressed the tip, then I suppose these bars fell away and then they just fell down in a cluster, I don’t know
CB: And er, you saw the, you were there when the crew got in the plane to go
FB: Oh yes
CB: And you were there when they came back, what sort of erm, relationship did you have with your ground crew with them?
FB: Very good, very good, yeh
CB: And so, did they talk to you when they landed?
FB: As I say, they, [unclear] what they, you used to say, ask them if there were any snags, if there were they told you what they were, but erm, they didn’t say, they didn’t say a lot, I mean, they were just waiting for the lorries, or whatever they were using to take them back for debriefing and they would say they were tired and I don’t know what they experienced, you know
CB: Quite
FB: So, but er, other times, I mean, if they, sometimes they would come out, because they weren’t, if I think, I think that what they used to say that happen one day, two raids and then down one, of course they had the leave as well, they didn’t all have the leave at the same time, so they would, they er, say if the erm, pilot was on leave or something, there’d be another pilot take over. Quite often what happened, with a crew, when they come out and then, there was a new crew had been, er, sent to Witchford, the pilot would go as a, I think they call it, a second dicky or something like that, but they used to go out, they were taken out on their first raid
CB: Just the pilot?
FB: To get the idea that and what it was all about
CB: What about the social life on the airfield?
FB: Well, what we used to do if er, [pause] when you, well you see, you used to get up and have your breakfast and then get up back onto the flight, er onto the airfield and do your work, and in the evening you could go to the NAAFI, or down into the village into the pub, which quite often that’s what we did do, and erm, [pause] I can’t remember the other, we had a cinema, I can’t even remember going to the cinema anyway, probably we did, and of course we spent a lot of time in your billet writing letters, you know, home and that kind of thing
CB: Did they run dances?
FB: Erm, [pause] no, not that I’m aware of
CB: Right, so Witchford we’ve talked a lot about, what was the difference, when you went to Wratting Common?
FB: The difference? [emphasis]
CB: Was your accommodation different or the same?
FB: No, no it was still Nissen, still Nissen huts, much about the same as at Witchford, ‘cos erm, 115 of course that was one of the most successful and er, and suffered some of the heaviest losses during the war, but, at Wratting Common, I of course, I was nineteen, 1944, when we moved into, into er, Wratting Common, I can’t remember, I didn’t have all that long at Witchford actually, I’ve forgotten though. It was definitely 1944 when we moved over to Wratting Common anyway
CB: Yes, so, you were at Wratting Common until
FB: The war ended
CB: The war ended, that is to say the war in Europe
FB: Yes
CB: Ended
FB: Yes, yes
CB: Okay, and so
FB: I think we, I think, [pause] I think it was 1946 when we actually disbanded
CB: The squadron disbanded? Yeh
FB: [pause] I’ve got some [background noise] [inaudible]
CB: And so, everybody stayed with the squadron and until the squadron disbanded, is that what you mean?
FB: Yes
CB: Yeh [pause] we are just looking at timings. So, what happened, er, we can look that up later, what happened when they decided to disband? How did that get announced?
FB: Well, as, [laughs] as far as we were concerned, they said we were disbanded and that’s one thing I always regretted because I’d always worked with Malcolm Buckingham and we never exchanged addresses or anything else, meaning we didn’t keep in touch
CB: Did you never?
FB: No
CB: Know what happened to him at all?
FB: No, and when I, when we were on holiday, he came from a little village called Grundisburgh near er, that’s not that far away from Woodbridge, and we went to on holiday to er, Yarmouth or something, well down that way anyway, and I drove round, well, that was us and the two children, I drove round to this little village, and er, I went into the pub and I said does anyone know a gentleman called Malcolm Buckingham, and they said, oh no, never heard of him and that was as near as I got to actually ever finding him. The other one I palled up with, which is on the, on one of those photographs is erm, he was a Scotsman, ‘McKay the Jock McIver,’ and he lived at Thurso, and he used to get an extra days travelling for the distance he had to travel, but if the three of us were off duty at, at you know, we used to go down, generally used to go down the pub and have a pint or two and a sing song and that, ‘cos aircrew used to down in there as well you see. And erm, it was alright in the NAAFI, we used to go, you could go in the NAAFI. If I remember right, sometimes, and I think that was towards the end of the war anyway, if I remember right, they used to have this ‘housey, housey.’ as they used to call it in the old days, bingo, you know and that, but I think mainly we used to just go down the pub and have a pint. [laughs] I was trying to look see [pause]
CB: So, so you had no control over your demob, they just decided when that would be?
FB: Well, you, you had your group you see, I was fifty-five, when I, my group, when I got demobbed
CB: In your grouping, yeh, which was, so you were demobbed on the first of April 1947
B: 1947, yeh
CB: What did you do then?
FB: Well, I came home and erm, you had accrued, erm, what was it? Fifty, I think fifty-six days, fifty-six days leave, er, yeh, and I think owed fifty pounds demob money [pause] it all depends, I think, but erm, fifty-six days leave, I think that was a, er, minimum, I think it probably, if you did more service than that or where ever you’d been, they may, I’m not sure about that, that may possible have been longer, but I think fifty-six was a, sort of a general thing
CB: What did they give you in the way of clothing, when you were demobbed?
FB: Oh yeh, you handed in your suit and you got kitted out with the, well, with shoes, socks, pants, vest, shirt, erm, now I think I’m not sure whether you could have a choice of a suit or these sorts of flannels and a jacket, I can’t remember, what did I have? I know one thing, that when I, when I joined up at Padgate, of course we had to send er, send erm, civilian clothes home, and mine never, mine never ever arrived, they were lost, which I think happened quite often, but er, yeh
CB: So, you got your leave, you come back, then what?
FB: I think I, yeh, I think I had a fourth, two months and then I went back to the United Dairies because they were duty bound, or anyone went back to their old job, or wanted to go back to their old job, I think the companies were duty bound to take them for six months. So, of course, I went back and er, [laughs] Jack Hancock, he said, ‘are you coming back in the garage with me?’ and I said, ‘I’d like to go driving if you’ve got a driving job,’ and that’s what I did. I stayed there until I was thirty four, and that was November nineteen fifty nine, I moved then, the only reason I moved was for more money, and I’d got a brother in law who works at Calvert, and he used to say, ‘you want to get on, you’ll be far better off coming to work for Calvert driving,’ and I said, ‘ah well,’ I said, ‘the problem is you get up on eight wheelers and you’ve [laughs] got to do nights out, and he said, ‘well, that won’t hurt you will it?’ But, anyway, that’s what happens, you started off on the small lorries, on the little old Albion’s
CB: [inaudible]
FB: G wagons, they were about two, what was it? two and a half thousand bricks, and then you went up onto the D, and then a K, then a L, and eventually onto eight wheelers. I had ten years on eight wheelers, I came off, my father in law had, had a stroke and er, and Mum she, she passed away, and he was living with us and, well, they were both living with us for a time, and er, he was getting a bit of a problem at night, they was having a bit of a problem dealing with him in the night, and erm, we’d got the two children of course, so I asked if I could be excused nights out, and they said, no you, that would cause a precedent if we do that, and the only answer to it is if you don’t want to do nights out, is you’ll have to come off eight wheelers, so I said, that’s what I’ll do then, but erm, I went on the stores like, the stores wagon and various jobs around the yard, and erm, when the old chap, when he died, but, see we used to start work at six until half past five, we used to do eleven hours a day, that was Monday to Saturday, and then we went down to five days a week, and erm, and eventually, ‘cos there was no motorways when I started at the Calvert, there, there was that short stretch of M1 that had opened in. I think that was in June nineteen fifty nine, I’m not sure and we never used the M1 anyway, but when they built the M4, and the M5 and the M6, we used all of those, and er, [pause] you had, before, before they were built and opened you had to stop to, wherever you were going, you had to stop on your, the route that you were supposed, for instance, if we were going down to, down into Wales, well, we used to go from Calvert to Oxford, from Oxford we used to go then into Cheltenham, Gloucester, Chepstow and then wherever in Wales it was, of course when they opened the M4, we were able to go from Calvert to Swindon, get on the M4, went down straight there, and so, and of course you used to get, when you were on nights out, you used to get your night out money, well er, when these motorways were opened, what would have been night out journeys, it was still night out journeys as far as the company were concerned, but you could get back almost to, you could get back to Aylesbury or Weston on the Green, depending where, and you could thumb a lift home and get back in the morning or whenever, and you used to get your night out money, well of course the company soon got wise about that, and so what we, there was this particular, this big map put in the driver’s room, and there was Calvert there like that, and then there was a five mile radius, up to hundred miles radius, and so, the farther you went, the more you earned, the more you were paid, and but, a lot of them soon got wise, and they thought if they could get two shorter journeys allocated to them, then they could do two journeys and they’d get twice as much money, you see, but I never bothered, by this time I was about fifty one, fifty two and I said to them, I said, to them one day, I’ve had enough of this cowboy driving and I’m going to find another job. As luck happens, I’m out every night, there was, you were put, the list and where you were going the following day, well, on the Friday, on this particular Friday, there was a notice on the notice board advertising a vacancy for a garage maintenance clerk, and I said to Tom Ridgeway who was the foreman at that time, I said, ‘I’m going to put in for that job Tom,’ ‘well,’ he said, ‘you can put in for it, whether you’ll get it or not I don’t know but you’ll have an interview anyway,’ and anyway I got the job and I went, and went onto the staff and I didn’t earn as much money, er salary weekly, but there were one or two perks and the best one actually, it was a non-contributory pension scheme, so when I, when I finished with them, I came out with a lump sum and a small pension, which I obviously still get, so that did me a lot of good in many ways
CB: But had that pension started when you first joined?
FB: When I first joined you paid in, you had to pay in for a pension
CB: Oh right
FB: You had to pay in for a pension
CB: No, when you became staff
FB: That was sort of one of the perks really, because
CB: Non-contributory, right. So
FB: So, I had, well I had twenty-seven and a half years all told, seventeen as driving you see and ten and a half with the garage maintenance staff
CB: These eight wheelers were difficult to handle without power steering, were they?
FB: Er?
CB: The eight wheelers were difficult to handle without power steering?
FB: Yes, there was no power steering on the ones I drove. I came off the road and they went over to these Volvo’s [unclear] were the ones we, they were good but you had this big old engine by the side of you in the cab you see, and it went thump, thump, thump, thump, thump, but erm, the later ones, by this time I was already off the road, but they, they did have power steering, the old eight wheelers, I used to, I never, I never, really did enjoy going down into Wales especially in the winter time, er, because they were, you know, they were building sort of up on the side of the mountain, I supposed you call it, I don’t know or whatever, but that used to be a job turning round ‘cos what we used to do, you see, you used to go down and the, they’d take, take anywhere they wanted the bricks and you set up and er, with the, before they started with the erm, forklifts and that, er, it was all unloaded or off loaded, and you had seven thousand bricks on an eight wheeler, and so, what they used to call the stick up, which was one, one row in the centre, down, and then over the side, you build it up, and then three [unclear] we used to call them, and so you used to take off half, and then turn round and take the other half off you see, well, when you were on, on the these, it needed a bit of moving, handling [laughs]
CB: I can imagine. Before fork lifts, how did you load, who loaded the trucks in the first place?
FB: Oh, the, they, the night shifts used to do that, they were mainly, mostly they were nearly all Italians, they used to be up at erm, Aylesbury, and then they, they said that er, where the old royal, when you went up to the hill, where the old royal hospital was, the other side of the road there, that was, and they used to say the Itie, erm, Italians, and someone, when I got out of bed they [unclear] can’t hear you [laughs] I don’t know, but yes, and they had a place over, oh, Bedford way, somewhere I think. [pause] It was well organised, it was a, it was a good company to work, they used to, when I came everywhere, they used to say, you keep your nose clean and you’ll be alright [laughs]
CB: Well, the pay was quite good there, wasn’t it?
FB: Oh yeh well, the first erm, when I left the United Dairies, I think I was getting ten pounds a, yeh, ten pounds a week, and the, and the first pay day I had at Calvert, and that wasn’t a full, that wasn’t a full week, and I had erm, fourteen pounds, and as you, and as you worked your way up from the small to the eight wheelers, and course eight wheelers, that was top, top rate of pay, but erm, the last week that I was actually driving, and of course by this time they started this erm, radius miles, that first, that was the last week that I was actually driving, that I earned one hundred pounds for the week, but erm, some of them used to earn that, it all depends, as I say, whatever journey they gave me I did, I didn’t rush around to try and get another journey here and there
CB: Right
FB: What I did was, whatever time it took me I did, and that was it, you know, I said, as I said to my wife, I’ve had enough of this cowboy driving and that would have been used to it
CB: This is London Brick company?
FB: That was London Brick company, but before as you see, they again, that was a well-run company, a well-run company, but when Sir Ronald Stewart retired as chairman, it seemed as it going downhill, I can’t remember who took over from him, but I don’t, and they started with training on all the systems, they had sort of a foreman and, well, had a foreman and a charge hand but then they, then they used to have a manager, and a manager and so on and so forth and all this, and I remember that they, the London Brick company, they put in a bid for it to buy Ibstock, which is Leicestershire, and that was, that was turned down, and not many months later, Hanson, put in a bid for London Brick, and that was turned down, and it was turned down two or three times and they had, they put in another bid and that was the sort of final bid, and there was a deadline when it had only got to be accepted or rejected for good. Now, I don’t know if it was true or not, but there was this er, rumour that went around that 48 hours before the deadline, that Hanson didn’t have enough shares to buy it, but it said, now I don’t know whether it was true or wasn’t true, or not, but they reckoned that one of the directors sold him his shares that gave him enough to get the, to get the owning of, and from then it went downhill, because, although the man’s not alive now, but he was nothing more than an asset stripper. He closed, he closed er, London Brick erm, and New Longville, closed that, at Calvert where they’d started doing this landfill, erm, he retained the, he retained the ground, but he shut, he sold the, and that was two, Shanks and McKeown
CB: The dump, he sold too?
FB: Yeh
CB: Shanks and McKeown
FB: For landfill, for landfill
CB: For landfill, yeh
FB: Yeh, er, then of course, Calvert went, everything [emphasis] is gone, Stewartby which is the main yard, you used to have a stores, where they used to run from the Calvert to Bletchley, well, Newton Longville to take stores or collect stores and that, to Stewartby, that’s gone, apparently Stewartby from what I’ve heard is that erm, the reason why Stewartby closed mainly, was because, like, I mean, always getting complaints, even when I was working, that erm, depending on the wind direction, they get a lot of these erm, fumes and that, even overseas
CB: Yeh, in Scandinavia they were
FB: Scandinavia, yeh
CB: Yeh. When did you retire?
FB: I erm, [pause] nineteen, wait a minute, nineteen eight [pause] I started in fifty nine, so fifty nine, eighty eight, nineteen eighty, nineteen eighty eight, [emphasis] yeh, nineteen eighty eight and when they, when they started erm, closing down, making people redundant and that, well, I had to go to the labour exchange which was in School Lane in Buckingham at that time, I had to report there and that basically was a, they knew, I mean they knew I was, they knew all about it at the labour exchange, but, you had to go, report there to ensure that you, your stamp was made, you know
CB: Yeh
FB: Until you was sixty five, and I went there and wait my turn and they gave you a form and filled it in and said to come back in a fortnight. Well, I went back in a fortnight and they gave me another form and it said, do you want work, have you sort work, what wage do you want, what hours do you want to work? All this and I came home and I said to my wife, I said, ‘I’m going to find myself a little job because,’ I said, I hadn’t received any money in that time, not from there anyway, and so, as luck happens, there was an advert in, about the only time they ever advertised, a little firm, erm, Greens at Wicking, and they made these sort of these wooden er, light fittings
CB: Oh yeh
FB: Clusters and clock cases and things like that, and they were advertising in the advertiser on that Friday, and er, I phoned up and I said, ‘it seems like you want some labour,’ ‘oh yes, can you come over and have a chat?’ and er, so I arranged to go at two o’clock on that Friday, same Friday afternoon, well I got over there, funny enough, one of the, one of the sons, I didn’t tie it up but, I played cricket for, and I was secretary of the club for Thornborough for eighteen years, and Brian Green, he had just started playing cricket, more or less as I was coming towards the end of my cricket career, so, when I got over there, I saw, I went to the office and saw Sally, as it turned out, and she said, ‘oh, I’ll go and find,’ and she found Michael, well, Michael and Tony they were twins, and they were identical twins, but Tony he didn’t, he didn’t work there, he used to go over occasionally, he’d got his own business or something, anyway I went there and he took me into the, into the factory and erm, and they’d got these machines, you know, for cutting up wood and all the rest of it, and I wasn’t very, I wasn’t very impressed with it, not really, and Michael said to me, ‘let’s go over in the office then,’ and over in the office he said, ‘what do you think?’ and I said, ‘no, I don’t think that’s for me, thank you,’ he said, ‘we’ve got a little seven hundred weight van,’ and he said, ‘ we’re looking for someone, we keep getting these youngsters that come in to drive and we can’t trust them, they don’t know whether they’re coming or going, erm, would you consider that?’ and I said, ‘well, I don’t know.’ Anyway, I took it on and they’d got these outworkers, so I used to take stuff out and deliver it and the following day, used to pick it up and take some more out and that kind of thing, and then I used to have to deliver when they sold stuff, I used to, I used to go down to, well I used to go down in Essex quite a few times, Yorkshire, Birmingham, I used to go there Birmingham quite regularly and get stuff, and take it and so it all worked out very well and I, and I got to, by this time, I had my, I was due to have my holidays and I was seventy, and er, now Laura Ashley was one of their main customers and they were also one of the their best, because they were always sure of getting their cheque monthly, where as some of the others, they had to wait for the money, you see, anyway, [laughs] so I went on holiday, and Michael phoned me up on the Sunday that I was due to start back to work on the Monday, and he said, ‘Sid, we’re short of work,’ it was sort of a [unclear] seasonal sort of thing, now I’d been working flat out from about September right round to the May, June time, and then it used to slack off again, and then it used to build up again, in sort of like, Christmas trade they used to call it, so anyway I was due to start back on the Monday, Michael phoned me up on the Sunday afternoon, he said, ‘Sid, we’re short of work,’ he said, ‘we haven’t got much for you,’ but, he said, ‘we’ll give you a ring when we get, you know, when we have got some work,’ and so I thought, that’s a good opportunity to go, quite a lot of work I wanted to get done around here, and I’d got the allotment and all, and all the rest of it, and so I said to Bet, ‘I think, er, I think that, I’ll call it a day,’ so I wrote to them and said that I’d thought I’d put it in writing, and I wrote and said that I’d decided that I’d retire, I was seventy and thanked them for, you know, the work and all the rest of it, and two or three days later, Brian, Brian rang and he said, ‘you sure you’re not going to come back?’ and I said, ‘yes, I’ve decided to pack up,’ he said, ‘we’ve got plenty of work for you now , we’re expecting you back,’ but I didn’t go back
CB: You’d had enough
FB: I’d had enough, I was seventy
CB: Yeh
FB: And I thought, well that’s it
CB: How long have you lived here?
FB: Since the bungalow was built in nineteen seventy-eight
CB: Oh, have you really, yeh
FB: It’s a, these six bungalows, three either side and they actually they are council, er, let for senior citizens or old age pensioners, whatever you call it, and we were living in a four bedroomed house, number twelve up the road, and by this time, Dad had died, my mother and father in law had died, Geoff had, Geoff had gone to Imperial College, London, in the university, and Jill, she was going to Loughborough, and there was us two living in a four bedroomed house, so I wrote to the council and I said, would it be possible to, possible to rehouse us in a smaller, either a two bedroom or possibly a three bedroom house, and what I got back was a letter saying that they weren’t selling bungalows and they weren’t selling four bedroom houses, well [laughs] I didn’t want either, but anyway, they started building these bungalows and my pal who was on the council, he said, ‘I know you want to move, why don’t you put in for one of these bungalows because they said, five of them have gone, but there’s six and they’re supposed to be for local people you see,’ he said, ‘five of them have gone, but there’s one that’s still open, why don’t you apply for it?’ and I did and originally they said I wasn’t old enough, but in the end they did sell it, er, did let it to us, and when the right to buy came, I applied to buy it
CB: Because you’d got the continuity
FB: So, we bought it and that’s it
CB: Yes, that’s good
EB: You alright?
CB: We’re having a rest now, thank you
[interview paused]
FB: The most memorable time?
CB: Your most memorable time, memorable time, in the RAF would you say?
FB: [pause] [laughs] Well, I don’t know [pause] I should possibly think was when that aircrew completed their thirty ops, because that was, when I first got on 115 Squadron, if they managed to do seven, they were doing very well, so I think possibly that would be one of the stand out things that, I mean that. I can’t remember anybody else, not while I was there
CB: So, you were looking after two aircraft, one did thirty but you had a series of others, as the other aircraft
FB: Well, yeh, because, in actual fact, if you [background noise] [pause] that would, that was D-Dog, that was one of the, that was the one that Malcolm Buckingham and I worked on
CB: Yeh, that
FB: And that’s the one that did, the crew did their thirty ops on
CB: Yes
FB: Er, and that went on as I say, to do hundred and five, but er, by the time we left, it had done, I think it was sixty ops, and the rest of them of course, it was done after we left
CB: ‘Cos you got another crew, after thirty?
FB: Yeh
CB: After thirty, thank you, brilliant
FB: This one, that’s up there, that
CB: Your pictures on the wall
FN: That’s, that’s C-Charlie
CB: Yes
FB: C-Charlie, er and they were the two planes, you know, on the two pans as I was explaining. I don’t know how many operations that done, but that down there, what was it? Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, that done thirty, by that time [pause] [background noise]
CB: [inaudible]
EB: 1947
CB: Now, in the war, when you were in the RAF, did you ever have any serious illness and what was it?
FB: I had, I had pneumonia while I was in, at Witchford, I spent er, what did I, a few weeks in Ely, Ely hospital, and I was excused oversea duties for six months, ‘cos I didn’t go overseas anyway, but I was, and the other thing was that, yes, on January the 25th 1947, I had, I’d had an invitation to go to Bet’s sister Margaret’s wedding
EB: Why she wanted to get married
FB: And, I, and I at that point, I was a senior fitter on our flight and I couldn’t get a weekend pass, which as it turned out was just as well, because on the Saturday afternoon, I was sat on top of an old Wellington, doing a plug change [laughs] and I curled up, there was a young national service chap on the other one, I forget his Christian name, but Gaskins he was, a Londoner, and I said to him, we’ll go, we’ll go down into Lincoln and have a little bit of a celebration, [laughs] being as I can’t go over to this wedding. I slid down the main as I, slid down the main frame and as I straightened up, I had this pain across, and the sergeant he said
CB: Across your stomach
FB: Yeh
CB: Yeh
FB: He said, ‘what’s the matter with you?’ I said, ‘I don’t know, I’ve got the cramp or something, I think?’ he said, ‘go on in the hut and stay there until we knock off and go down to tea,’ which is what I did do, and I said to old erm, Gaskins, I gave him my mug and I said, ‘get me a mug of tea, I’m going to get into bed,’ so I went to my hut and lay, and got into bed and he bought me this mug of tea, and I hadn’t got it down many minutes before I felt sick, and I shot out of there and ran into the ablutions and I heaved up, and I kept on, and went back into there every now and again, and kept repeating, repeating all the time, and he says, ‘well we shan’t be going down for a drink tonight, I’ll go across the sick bay and get the orderly to come and see you,’ and he did do, and the orderly said, ‘oh I’d better get the MO,’ he [laughs] tannoyed for the medical officer and they took me over to the sick bay, and he said, ‘oh you’ve got appendicitis,’ so they took me off to [unclear] hospital, and it was snowing, it started snowing you see, it started snowing , anyway, and I got to [unclear] anyway they operated on me and I’ve got an awful scar here, where I had a stitch abscess, and they sent me home er, on, I had a fortnights sick leave but I had to get into Buckingham every, every day to have this dressing changed, that was a bit of a problem, but er, but also, [laughs] when I was discharged to come home, I got down to Bletchley, station, railway station you see, and the old porter he said, ‘no trains to Buckingham until tomorrow morning,’ I said, ‘I know, I know that,’ I said, I’m going to,’ ‘well,’ he said, I don’t know whether you’ll have any luck because,’ he says, ‘we’ve heard that the road is blocked, somewhere along that road,’ and I said, ‘well, the army,’ of course there’s Bletchley Park, that we didn’t know anything about, but there was Bletchley Park, well, they were running from there to Whaddon and also to Lenborough
CB: What, the army trucks?
FB: Yeh, well, with the signals, you see, you know, and they would always stop and pick you up if you wanted it, you know, wanted a lift, and there was just one went past me, and that was before I got anywhere near to the Whaddon turn, and he went straight past me, and I never saw anything else, [background noise] and I walked and from Bletchley, what is it, to Thornborough, it’s about eight miles, I think it is about eight miles, something like that, but when I got round to Singleborough turn, the straight bit there, I could see this shape in the road and it turned out, it was one of the Coop tankers in there, and of course the, where Bet lived at Greatmore it, you needn’t open the gate, you walked straight over ‘cos it was about five foot deep, you see, it was, anyway I got back in, I got back home, I think it was about two or three o’clock in the morning, something like that, and rattled the door and my Dad came [laughs] ‘cor, he said, what’s happened to you?’ I said, ‘well, I’ve walked from Bletchley,’ and so, got into bed, and as I say, every day I had to go into, to have this dressing changed
EB: He walked four miles
CB: Can’t have done him any good to do that?
EB: No
CB: Because this, 1947 was one of the worst winters
FB: It was
CB: In living memory, wasn’t it?
EB: [inaudible]
FB: Well, there was still snow under the hedges in May
CB: Was it, in Rutland we couldn’t get out of the village for seven days
EB: Oh gosh
CB: Amazing
EB: Where was that?
CB: That was in Empingham
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with Sidney Bunce
Creator
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Chris Brockbank
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-11-08
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ABunceFSG161108
PBunceFSG1609
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Pending review
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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.
Description
An account of the resource
Sidney Bunce grew up in Buckinghamshire and worked in a butchers and a dairy. He volunteered for the Royal Air Force aged 18 and trained as a flight mechanic engineer. He served with 115 Squadron at RAF Witchford and at RAF Wratting Common with 195 Squadron. He talks about his daily life as a mechanic until his demobilisation in 1947. After the war he drove for United Dairies and the London Brick company.
Contributor
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Cathie Hewitt
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Cambridgeshire
Temporal Coverage
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1943
1944
Format
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02:01:44 audio recording
115 Squadron
195 Squadron
demobilisation
fitter engine
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
medical officer
military living conditions
military service conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
RAF Witchford
RAF Wratting Common
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/498/8388/PCoultonWA1608.1.jpg
15510534c70ff503e12c0b6afc5bca75
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/498/8388/ACoultonWA161020.2.mp3
cd9c3d503ae278ab9f2db39c0cf651f9
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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Coulton, William Arthur
William Coulton
W A Coulton
Arthur Coulton
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Coulton, WA
Description
An account of the resource
Six items. The collection concerns William Arthur Coulton (b. 1925, 3050209, Royal Air Force). He served as an engine mechanic at RAF Witchford and RAF North Luffenham before being posted overseas to Palestine. Collection includes an oral history interview, some artworks, a wedding photograph and a photograph album.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by William Arthur Coulton and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-20
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.
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is 20th October 2016, and we are in Freemantle Court, near Stoke Mandeville, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire and we’re with William Arthur Coulton who’s going to tell us about his experiences in the RAF on the ground. So Arthur what are the earliest recollections that you got of life?
AC: The earliest – Twyford, at Twyford, the village of Twyford in south Derbyshire. Yes, I – the fourth, three or four – yes – south Derbyshire.
CB: That’s where you lived?
AC: That’s where we lived, we lived in the the holdall [?] of south Derbyshire Twyford had been put into two two houses. Yeah, two residence. Went to school, the village, the little village school, well a matchbox school I went back some years ago to see the place and I was surprised how small the school was. Yes. And we left, we left Twyford. My father worked, a farm worker and he got a job in Ash— Ashford or near Ashford. We went to live up there and he had the misfortune to get gored by a bull and he, he never worked the bulls for four years, and that that finished his farm working, and then he went to work in the foundry of all places. Yes, yes. [Background noise]
CB: And then where did you go from there?
AC: Where where did, where did the – we went to live at Holbrook in Derbyshire. Yes, ‘cause its two Holbrooks you know? One in Lincolnshire, and my parents stayed there for the rest of their lives. And actually I’ve got a young sister still lives in Holbrook and from there I joined the air force.
CB: When when did you leave school?
AC: 14.
CB: At 14?
AC: Yes.
CB: And what did you do then?
AC: When I left school? I went to work for Derby Co-op. Yes, I went as errand boy at Derby Co-op. and I stayed with Derby Co-op until I was 18, joined the air force. Yes.
CB: Why did you join the RAF and not one of the other services?
AC: To be quite honest, you want the honest there?
CB: Yeah.
AC: I didn’t want to be gun fodder. I didn’t want to join the army. I didn’t want to be in the front line. That’s me being honest about it.
CB: That’s good.
AC: Of course, I was in the ATC, so you automatically you got the preference to go in the air force and I enjoyed the air force. I trained as a flight mechanic. I –
CB: Where did you join up?
AC: In 1943.
CB: Where?
AC: At Birmingham. That’s where I went through the details, at Birmingham, and when I joined up from Birmingham we went to – oh, we went to Cardigan [?] and we got issued with our uniform at mob office yes. And then I got – where’d I go then? I got posted to me square bashing at Skegness. When they told me I was going to Skegness, I asked me Sergeant if I had me bucket and spade. He said, ‘You won’t have a chance to use it.’ [Chuckle].
CB: He said it a bit more bluntly than that though?
AC: Pardon?
CB: He said it a bit more bluntly than that.
AC: Yes. Yes yes. Yes he did.
CB: You horrible little man.
AC: Yeah I was a horrible little man.
[Shared laughter]
AC: Yes. I I — do you know Skegness?
CB: Yes.
AC: Imperial Hotel? I know that place very well. That was our mess hall and I know what the cellar was like. I got fatigues down there more than once. [Laughter]. Yes. I was a bad lad, I got caught you see. The policy is that do anything you like as long as you don’t get caught. That’s the —
CB: That’s a cardinal rule?
AC: Pardon?
CB: It’s a cardinal rule.
AC: Yes.
CB: Yes.
AC: Yes. I got caught several times.
CB: Right.
AC: Yeah, I was —
CB: So what did you learn there? When you weren’t misbehaving.
AC: What did I learn? I was trying to find out how I could get away with it. You know to find the loopholes. [Chuckle]. Oh dear. I didn’t do too, too bad. No.
CB: So what did the course, this is a training course, Initial Training Wing, this is the training wing —
AC: Square bashing.
CB: Yeah.
AC: You know, up and down, marching like a lot of silly hooligans. Yes, and what they call the Commando course running around in a woods there with barbed wire, yeah and that, and one of you had to lie on it while the others run over you. That wasn’t very comfortable – you had to take it in turns. Yeah. You lay on barbed wire. Not very nice
CB: No.
AC: Yeah.
CB: What was worse the barbed wire or peoples feet on your back?
AC: I would say people’s feet on ya. Yeah.
CB: Okay, so what else did you do?
AC: Yeah. They put —
CB: They —
AC: They put — and that was at Skegness that was, where we did the training. And then we was what you was going to be, you was sent to them them units. And first of all they sent me to Newcastle-on-Tyne of all places. And I was there on me own, with you know, I didn’t go anyone else. Then I went on my own to Weston Super Mare to Lockheed, you know that?
CB: I do know. But just quickly what did you do at Newcastle-on-Tyne? What was the purpose of that?
AC: Just — just waiting patiently.
CB: A holding unit?
AC: Yes.
CB: Okay.
AC: Yes. Then I went to Lockheed and I did me engineering course there.
CB: How long did that last?
AC Pardon?
CB: How long was the Lockheed course?
AC: Erh. Was it? Was it 16 weeks? I think it was. I’m not certain now and then we went to — was posted and I was posted to to Newmarket. And the engineer — the sergeant said to me, ‘Where you going?’ I said, ‘Romney Marsh [?], Newmarket.’ He said, ‘You’re going to a holiday camp.’ I said, ‘As good as that?’ And it showed me how good it was. [Laughter]. It was it was — You couldn’t beat beat Newmarket. It was lovely.
CB: That was on the racecourse then was it?
AC: On the racecourse, yes.
CB: So, what was so really special about it?
AC: Pardon?
CB: What was really special about it?
AC: Well, you could just say. Freedom. You know you was in the forces but you had a free life like. Yes. And our billet was a Nissan hut in Frank Buttress’[?] paddock, one of his paddocks. There was about 12 Nissan huts in there, and he didn’t mind you going round the stables, looking at the horses. I went round one day and a blinking horse — I — [unclear] all at was it nipped me. I I, well that’s the end of my life with horses. [Chuckle]. Yeah. But I liked Newmarket. That was a good station to be on. I was there 10 months and then they posted me to 115 Squadron at Witchford, Ely and I stayed there right to the end of the war. And I was on A and B aircraft as a flight mechanic.
CB: So you’re a flight mechanic, and A and B were the tasks that you did, so what were those?
AC: A and B was the two aircraft.
CB: Right.
AC: A and B and the number — what you call it — the code number was KO. That was the aircraft, KO. And we went to, when the war ended and I went to North Luffenham. Have you ever been there?
CB: I know, lived there.
AC: Pardon?
CB: I used to live there.
AC: Yes. I went to North Luffenham and I remustered into the MT [?] as a motor motor mechanic. And I stayed there for about four weeks, I think. And I was working on an American claptrap[?] vehicle. And a chap came along out of the distance and waving the papers and said, ‘You’re posted overseas.’ Well I said, ‘If that’s if that’s the case I’m packing up here now then going.’ And I went overseas. I went to Palestine and I was with 32 Squadron Fighter Squadron. Famous 32. Yes, and they had Spitfires but I was in the MT then and I worked in the vehicles, and we went into Jordan on exercises with the army and from there, went back there. Yeah I was demobbed. I got my demob come through while I was at there at Palestine. Was it? No. Sorry no. At North Luffenham that was where I got me notification of demob and I got demobbed. I went to work in the local garage.
CB: Where?
AC: Ely.
CB: In Ely?
AC: Cambridge.
CB: Right.
AC: Yes. And then I did five years in there.
CB: How did you come to do that in Ely when you were in from North Luffenham?
AC: What?
CB: Why did you choose Ely when you were stationed —
AC: I got married.
CB: — at North Luffenham?
AC: I got married. She come from Ely.
CB: Oh right. Sounds a pretty compelling reason.
AC: Yeah, I got a photograph of her there.
CB: Yeah, we’ll have a look.
JS: She’s lovely.
AC: Eh?
CB: We’ll look in a minute. Yeah.
AC: Yeah. I I was stationed at Witchford at Ely. You know the aerodrome. Witchford. That’s how I come to meet the wife and, of course, when I got demobbed, I went I lived in Ely, went to work at the local garage.
CB: Hmm.
AC: And I stayed there till one day a coal merchant who I knew quite well, he was only a bit older than me came in and asked me if I’d go and run a dairy business for him he’d bought. I mean all above all things from a mechanic to a dairy. I said, ‘Yeah I’ll go, Joe. I’ll have a go.’ And I stayed with the milk industry for 33 years and then I retired. Yes, I built up a good business. I amalgamated with another dairy. We we had a good business. We had nearly 6000 customers
CB: Hmm.
AC: We had quite a quite a business and, well, we had 14 men work for us.
CB: Hmm.
AC: Yes but I say we — that was hard work. It is hard working in the dairy trade. Yes.
CB: What’s the hardest thing about working in the dairy trade?
AC: Delivering the milk and satisfying the customers. Yeah you get a lot of dissatisfied people if you was a bit late. They never realised that they could have had extra milk and kept always had a bottle in hand. That’s what — there’s a lot of people like that. Yes.
CB: So you met your wife when you was at Witchford?
AC: I met her at Witchford.
CB: What was was she in the RAF?
AC: She was in the NAAFI.
CB: Oh was she, right.
AC: I was a canteen cowboy.
CB: What was her name?
AC: Hilda Elsie.
CB: Hilda and she was a canteen cowboy.
AC: That’s was that they called them you know. They called —
CB: Not cowgirl?
AC: If you was a NAAFI girl, you was a canteen cowboy. [Laughter] Yes.
CB: And was her tea any good?
AC: Pardon?
CB: Was her tea any good?
AC: Ehhhh. Not too bad. I did know one thing about it. I used to get egg and chips.
CB: Oh.
AC: The chaps used to say, ‘Where’d you get your egg from?’ I said, ‘Hilda brought for me.’ They said, ‘Will she get me one?’ They wouldn’t ask her. [Laughter] ‘Cause her parents got poultry.
CB: Oh.
AC: Yes. So I got egg and chips, I did.
CB: Interesting. So you settled down for the five years in Ely, but actually you continued in that area did you with the – with the milk?
AC: Yes. Oh Yes. Oh yes I continued in that area.
CB: Hm.
AC: But — and the dairy ran —we got progress — we got a bit of land and we build a dairy to — the purpose was to vehicles. And we had — eventually we had all electric vehicles. We had one electric vehicle that could 55 miles, around Cambridge doing 55 miles.
CB: Hm.
AC: Didn’t do —it was never more than 88 miles through the premises, but it got the capacity for 55 miles. Yeah.
CB: So what was the area that you were serving? It was Ely and the villages, was it?
AC: The villages, yes and Ely and surrounding villages. Yes.
CB: To what extent did you use your engineering skills —
AC: Kept the vehicles —
CB: — after the war.
AC: Kept the vehicles going.
CB: As well as running the business.
AC: Yes. Well I had a partners and I used to look after the vehicles. Yeah. I got a dab hand at the electric vehicles. Yes.
CB: Now, going back to the RAF when you went to your training at Locking [?], what did they do to train you from scratch to be an aero—engine mechanic?
AC: Yes. We we had in this big hanger, we had sections set off in bays and there was in our gang there was 15 of us. The the instructor, he was a sergeant who instructed us and he instructed us on engineering and I really really liked it there.
CB: So how many bays would they have in the hanger? Was there a different — did they do a different task in each bay?
AC: Of all the things what we had in the hanger, we had Blackburn Botha did you know about them?
CB: — Yeah. Blackburn Botha. Yeah.
AC: They got two of them. Yes. [unclear] Our job was to strip them and put them back again.
CB: Yeah.
AC: You strip the engine down. Rebuild it and put it back again.
CB: What were those engines? Were they radials? Or were they inline?
AC: Inline. Yes. Yes. Inline.
CB: And what other engines did they have as well.
AC: I I can’t think of what — a Sabre engine.
CB: A Napier Sabre?
AC: Yes. Yes. I can’t think what aircraft that was out of.
CB: That was off the Typhoon.
AC: Was it? I know it was a big engine.
CB: Yeah. 27 litres.
AC: Yeah.
CB: And did you have Merlins there or where was your introduction to the Merlin?
AC: Yeah there, but it was the early Merlin. The Merlin Mark I of all the things to teach us on. Yeah the really early — Christopher. Come from the Boar War I think. Yes.
CB: So, if you had — if there were these bays, you stayed in the bays did you, as a group of 15?
AC: Yes.
CB: And learned all the aspects of engine repair and maintenance. Is that right?
AC: Yes. Yes that’s right. We were instructed on it and you had diagrams and you drew diagrams, and — I can’t think how many was on there. But I but I really enjoyed it. I liked the job.
CB: It was a mixture of hands on and classwork was it?
AC: Yes.
CB: So, did you — you had a notebook that you kept?
AC: What?
CB: You had a notebook in which you progressed —
AC: Oh yes.
CB: — your training.
AC: Yes. I I, though I say it myself I think I was a good mechanic, but was I good? When I went into Civvy Street at the local garage at Ely. The first job the foreman said to me, ‘I want you to rebuild that engine there and put it in a car.’ And it was all in bits. And he’d re — it. So I rebuilt it. I’d never seen it before. It was all in tin boxes in bits. Yes. So I built it. I went [unclear], it went when I put it in the car. Yes.
CB: What was his reaction to that?
AC: Oh, he thought I was all right. Thought I was a good bloke.
CB: Yeah.
AC: Well, there’s there’s about 12 of us mechanics in the garage. Three of them were ex RAF men. Yeah so — we did all right.
CB: And in your training, you had this group with you, so the 15 in the bay, were they — did some of them move along with you or did everybody go to somewhere quite different?
AC: Yes. Two of them — went, when we finished, two of them went with me to Newmarket. One was named Chris Rudge [?] and I can’t think of the other ones name. But but this Chris Rudge [?] had a bad reputation. He — nobody liked him.
CB: No?
AC: Instead of calling you a ‘B’, he called you a ‘Got blood like Rudge.’ That’s what they used to say. Yes.
CB: Right.
AC:Yes.
CB: So he was the one who was disruptive, was he?
AC: Pardon?
CB: He was disruptive influence in the —
AC: Yes.
CB: — in the bay.
AC: Yeah, nobody liked him. No.
CB: And what was you classified as? You were cadets at that stage, what rank?
AC: No, we weren’t classed as cadets. I was a — I was a LAC. Yes I was LAC then and, of course, the flight mate can’t go any more than a LAC until he remusters [unclear]. That was my biggest mistake. I didn’t remuster. See If I had remustered —
CB: Why didn’t you remuster?
AC: I never thought I was — I was young and silly. See I I was 19 and I hadn’t got a clue what – I was young and silly. Yes. I regret it but never mind I learnt more when I went in the garage job. I had a good experience.
CB: What time of the year were you are Locking [?]
AC: Locking? [Pause] Yeah, autumn. Yes, ‘cause I went down Weston—Super—Mare. Had a girlfriend there and we walked round the Winter Gardens. Yeah, and it was autumn. Yes. That brought back memories that does. Cor she was half —
JS: [Laughter]
AC: Memories, eh?
CB: So she wasn’t in the Air Force?
AC: No, she was civvy girl. Civvy girl. Yeah.
CB: So, she showed you all the excitements of Weston-Super-Mare?
AC: Very. Definitely. Weston-Super-Mare there’s not much there.
CB: That you didn’t know about?
AC: Eh?
CB: That you didn’t know about?
AC: No [Laughter]
CB: Particularly, the places that were difficult to find you in?
AC: Yes.
CB: Down the pier?
AC: Pardon?
CB: Along the pier?
AC: How long was I there?
CB No, no the pier.
AC: Oh beer.
CB: Pier pier.
AC: Yes.
CB: And when you travelled, how did you get around from Locking [?] to Weston-Super-Mare? Did you walk, cycle or bus?
AC: [Mumble] From Locking [?] to Weston-Super-Mare it’s only two miles.
CB: Oh right.
AC: You walked. Yes. Yeah. Then you crept in — when you crept into camp you went through the hedge, the hawthorn hedge. That was — there was a gap and you crawled through it. You missed — you missed the guardroom then.
CB: Yeah.
AC: Naughty boys. [Chuckle]
CB: What was the accommodation when you were at Locking [?]?
AC: Pretty warm. Wooden purpose — built buildings. They had wood corridors from the rooms. You never went outside to get a wash, you went down these corridors to the ablutions. Showers. Was — as I say it was pretty warm building. Yeah. Locking, I understand the Fleet Arm have got it now.
CB: And when you went to Newmarket, what were you doing there? Was is it an extension of your training or what?
AC: No, I went there as a fully blown mechanic.
CB: Right. So what were you called then? Your title.
AC: [Mumble] I was LAC. Leading aircraftsman.
CB: But did you were an aircraft mechanic or were you a —
AC: Aircraft mechanic.
CB: And what aircraft were you on there? Was there a squadron that you were —
AC: Spitfires.
CB: Spitfires right.
AC: Lovely old Spitfire. We used — used to love to get in them and warm them up in the mornings. Oh that was the best bit about that. Squadron Leader West was the CO. There was only six Spitfires. Was only a little group of u, but we had a good time until he decided to post me and he posted me to Ely, Witchford —
CB: Yeah.
AC: — on Lancasters, and I always remember I went you went into see the CO and he said to me,: ‘What do you know about Merlins?’ That was it. And I said, ‘Well, I was on Spitfires.’ And he didn’t like that answer. He didn’t like it at all.
CB: ‘Cause he was a bomber man?
AC: Well, the Spitfire has got the same engine, ain’t it?
CB: Yeah.
AC: [Chuckle] He didn’t like it. So,I made an enemy with him first of all.
CB: How well did you adapt to the bomber activity?
AC: Ohh lovely. I had a good crew. I had a good — I was with a good mob. I was with a real good mob. We had a Sergeant [unclear] Wakeman [?] He was a real a real gentleman. He was he was a nice chap [unclear]. We called him [unclear] we didn’t call him Sergeant. So we know how how good he was. But, of course, the Air Force had a better relationship with everybody than they did in the army. Definitely. Yes.
CB: So were you on the flight line or were you in a hanger?
AC: I was on the dispersal ramp side.
CB: Right.
AC: Yeah. That was the best place to be to get the ‘flip-up’. Yes.
CB: So what what would get you the trip up in the aircraft? What what was the —
AC: Where’d we’d go in? Lancasters.
CB: No no. How did you manage to get the flights.
AC: Oh, we’d get one easy as pie.
CB: [Cough] For what reason?
AC: Just just as the crew said, as the pilot said, ‘Can I have trip up with ya?’ He’d say, ‘Get in.’ You weren’t supposed to but you get in.
CB: So why would he be flying at that moment?
AC: Pardon?
CB: Would he be flying for air test or cross country or what?
AC: Air test. Air test or — yeah, what’s it? Air gunners practice in the [unclear]. Yes. Oh, went up several times. Well well the — on dispersal when a Squadron Leader an Australian, Robbie, had — what ya got to do is say, ‘Robbie, can I come up?’ And he said, ‘Jump in.’ [Chuckle] You weren’t supposed to but we used to get in. He’d take one of ya. Two of ya. And then you — I got up to the front as a Flight Engineers seat to get a bit of practice. I thought it were quite nice. As I said, I enjoyed my life in the Air Force. I really enjoyed it.
CB: Yeah
AC: I wasn’t one of these that wanted to go home to mother. No. It it was nice. Yeah.
CB: What sort of routine did you have on the squadron?
AC: Maintenance.
CB: Yeah.
AC: Yeah just maintenance.
CB: But but what time would you get up? And were you on a shift or how did it work?
AC: Yeah it it – there was no such thing as shifts. You was all in a crowd. You know, you got —I think there was about seven of us in our mob. We had to look after two aircraft. Yeah, A and B. [unclear] What was that? And eh, what else was there? I was there I was there till the end of the war at Witchford and A carried a big bomb. You know the big 22000lb.
CB: The Grand Slam.
AC: Pardon?
CB: The Grand Slam.
AC: Yeah, the Grand Slam. That big ‘un. Yes. I carried that —
CB: So that was a modified Lancaster to make it fit?
AC: Oh yes, it it – the bomb bomb doors was differently. They lapped around the bomb.
CB: So who did the modification for that?
AC: [Unclear]
CB: You did it.
AC: No.
CB: On the airfield?
AC: No, I did it — the Air Force did it in the hanger [?]. And that was a pity, I never I never — I should have asked to have gone in the hanger to make it work. I would have learnt more. But, as I say, I was young and silly and having a good time at the dispersals.
CB: So on the dispersal, what were the tasks you had to do in a day?
AC: Main — maintenance on the engine. Yeah, giving a check over and that.
CB: So would you have a ladder for that or a gantry?
AC: A gantry. Yes, yes used to have a gantry. And, course you, you walked over, over the wings and that and you sat [unclear] screwing the tops in. Yeah, wasn’t weren’t supposed to — you were supposed to use the gantry.
CB: But but nobody fell off?
AC: [Chuckle] Well you know [mumble] when you change the engine at the dispersal. They used say ‘Put the fan on and then they’ll think we’re finished.’ That was the propeller.
CB: Yeah
AC: [Chuckle].Yeah.
CB: So, you could do an engine change at dispersal, could you?
AC: Yes, yes. We used to change them there.
CB: What would be the reason for changing an engine?
AC: If it got over heated. Yeah, ‘cause they got over heated and burned the aluminium. The heads, the rocker cover, the nuts be melted — be melted into the aluminium when it got hot.
CB: So what would cause the engine to overheat?
AC: Well, lack of coolant. Yeah.
CB: So, it would be damaged by flak or enemy attack in some way would it.
AC: Oh yes, if it was leaking. Yes.
CB: And what was the coolant on those engines?
AC: Drycol.
CB: Right.
AC: Yes. The bloke who used to be in the hanger working on the Glycol tank. He had to take him into the sick bay and pump him out because he was drinking the stuff. You know it tastes like pear drops.
CB: And it made him high?
AC: Pardon.
CB: And it didn’t do him any good?
AC: Didn’t do him any good. No. Didn’t do him no good, but it tasted nice you see. That was the reason.
CB: So on the flight line, you’re — the aircraft you’re prepare it for an operation.
AC: Yes.
CB: What was the procedure for handing it over to the crew? How did they know that it was working?
AC: Well, they’d be notified by phone that — yes. It was when they expected it. It always come up with the kit. Yeah, I mean I changed one day while they were waiting — waiting to take off, I changed the hydraulic pump on the inboard — the starboard inner while the other engines were running. Yeah, yeah I did [unclear].
CB: So had this engine been running earlier?
AC: Yes.
CB: So it was a bit hot was it?
AC: Oh, yes it was well hot. But as I say I liked my job. I enjoyed my life on it. I used to volunteer to do it.
CB: And what was the link between the ground crew and the aircrew?
AC: Very close. Very close. They was very, very close.
CB: And was there one crew member more than the others or any of the crew members?
AC: All the crewmembers were like — I was on A and B, and they was flown by an Australian Squadron Leader, Robbie. We called him Robbie, and he name was Robertson actually.
CB: Right.
AC: We called him Robbie. And he, he was all right with us. You see the ground staff and the aircrew they had — well a close—knit unit, didn’t they? They they relied on you. Yeah, they were very close to ya. There was no ifs or buts about it.
CB: So you talked about clearance for their aircraft mechanically before it flew, when it came back what sort of debriefing did you have with the crew?
AC: Oh, we didn’t have any debriefing with the crew. All they said was if anything was wrong and that was done and the NCO used to ask us what was on the Flight Engineer and then that’s what we got set into. Yes.
CB: Was the main link between the Flight Engineer and the chief, the crew chief or would it be the other member of the —
AC: The Flight Engineer and the ground staff, he NCO and the ground staff was always very close. Yes, they consulted one another.
CB: And how many times did the aircraft come back damaged?
AC: Oh, I couldn’t tell ya. There was a lot of holes in it at times.
CB: And how did you feel about that?
AC: How did I feel? [Emphasis] I had the job of patching ‘em. You see I was on engines but I helped to do the patching. Riveting of a patch. Oh yes, some aircraft got real patchy. Yeah.
CB: When you say real patchy were there a number of — what sort of damage did the aircraft have?
AC: Well it, it would be shrapnel. Shrapnel holes ‘cause they were jagged. We put — just put a panel of aluminium over them. Yes.
CB: And how did you secure the aluminium plate?
AC: Pardon?
CB: How did you secure the —
AC: Rivet them.
CB: Right.
AC: Yeah, pot rivet them. Yeah the old pot rivets. Yeah. That was that was a regular job that. Yeah.
CB: There was a case in 15 Squadron of a Lancaster coming back without the rear turret because it had been knocked off by a bomb falling from above. Did you see that?
AC: We had the — I dunno whether if you read about the rear gunner what bailed out, well he come from Witchford. He was at Witchford, he was on ‘C’ flight and he bailed out and he shouldn’t have lived. When they got back, they found they got no rear gunner. [Chuckle]. And he was a prisoner of war. [Chuckle]
CB: So what had happened to him then? Why did he get out and how did he do it?
AC: I think he heard the pilot prepare to — you know, to bail out and he only gone to bail out and he didn’t hesitate. He opened the door and went. [Chuckle].
CB: With or without a parachute?
AC: With a parachute, but I’ll you what you looked a little bit sick when you saw the aircraft flying above ya and going home wouldn’t ya? And you was going down into captivity. [Chuckle] Oh dear. It wasn’t very nice.
CB: What other good stories do you remember about being at Witchford and 15 Squadron.
AC: Oh yes. That was one of one of them that — rear gunner bailed out and he shouldn’t have done. We — I was on A and B and they’re good, they do a very good [unclear] and I said Robbie was a pilot on it. Australian. He later went to make a Wing Commander and he was in charge of the Squadron. Yeah Robbie. We called him Robbie, that was something about it weren’t he?
CB: Well you were an ‘Erk’.
AC: Pardon?
CB: You were an ‘Erk’ and he was a —
AC: We called him Robbie —
CB: He was a senior officer.
AC: Yeah. You called Robbie. He didn’t mind. Well that was that the spirit between the aircrew and the ground staff, wasn’t it?. [Background noise]
CB: Absolutely. So that you got A and B aircraft —
AC: Yes.
CB: — the two aircraft, what about the other pilot? What was he like?
AC: Oh well, we had different pilots. It was mostly a Scotsman who used to fly. He was all right, but we did have a South African and he got his South African Air Force uniform. Khaki, and he always flew with his hat over the top of his helmet. Yeah.
CB: [Laughter]
AC: Yeah, yeah he did. His name was Martin. He [unclear] was a Flight Lieutenant then. Flight Lieutenant Martin. Yeah. ‘Course we used to say he was dog biscuits, Martin Dog Biscuits, and we used to collar, collar the blokes when the NAAFI van used to come round. The officers were there and the aircrew used to collar them to pay for their tea. [Chuckle].
CB: How did you divide your time between the two aircraft?
AC: Well when we — if the aircraft had gone off you stayed in the the dispersal hut. You played cards. Gambled.
CB: No, but I mean that you had A and B aircraft, so how did you divide the work between them?
AC: Well you got to which either one it was. You went on, no matter which one. Flight Sergeant told you which aircraft you gotta do and you went on it. There was no difference. All, all I could say was B was a dirty aircraft . Oil leaks. You couldn’t stop the oil leaks. She used to leak oil all over the under cart. Yeah.
CB: So that was one of the inner engines?
AC: Engines yeah. Yeah. You naturally changed it.
CB: Right
AC: Yeah took the engine out. ‘Course the engines always went back to Rolls Royce at Derby.
CB: Oh did they?
AC: All the all the engines used to go back for maintenance. If you took one out that went to Rolls Royce. Yes.
CB: So one that you put in would always be new?
AC: Yes. Yes.
CB: And how long did it take to change an engine?
AC: About — I couldn’t truthfully say. Would I should imagine about four hours. Five hours.
CB: Taking one out and putting one in.
AC: Taking one out and putting all the connections in. Pipes and that. Yes.
CB: And was the engine raised by a lift? Or by a crane or how did it —
AC: We lifted them up by crane. We used to get, you know the, the coals —
CB: Coal cranes.
AC: We used to get him to come along and hook it up and hook it up and that’s how we did it. Just there’s only four bolts holding the engine in.
CB: Oh.
AC: That’s all that holds it in. So that the cradle, the engine’s on a cradle actually and they just pushed it in and put the four bolts in. Then you collected all the wires and hosepipes up, the pipes up. Yeah. Yes.
CB: Now in your quieter times and relaxation what did you do?
AC: Well, let’s say that I used to do a little bit of courting.
CB: Just one girl or more?
AC: Well, one or two but I ended up with one.
CB: Right.
AC: I married her.
CB: Fantastic.
AC: Yes. She a good girl to me. We was married for 52 years.
CB: Were you really?
AC: Yes. Yes she was good. She was the only child.
CB: And how many children did you have?
AC: One.
CB: Just David.
AC: Yes.
CB: Yes.
AC: I told them I’d lost the recipe. [Chuckle] [Shared laughter] Yeah. No, we only had the one.
CB: And they believed you?
AC: Pardon?
CB: And they believed you?
AC: Yeah. [Unclear]
CB: What would you say was the most memorable thing about your service in the Royal Air Force?
AC: Well comradeship was one of the best things, wasn’t it? There was something about during the war where you you was in a group of men and there was all youngsters like you. You know most of them was like all about 25 the oldest. That was a mess life, but it was a good life.
CB: And your accommodation at Locking was a pre—war shed, what did you get at Witchford.
AC: Nissan huts. Nissan huts.
CB: How many people in a Nissan hut?
AC: Twelve.
CB: And how was that heated?
AC: Heating was one of those combustion pot stoves in the middle. You know those cast iron things. You got nothing but fumes. I slept by the window at the end and I used to open the window but the lads didn’t like it, but if they come down and shut it, I used to get up and stop them.
CB: So, everybody suffered from the fumes.
AC: Oh yes, the stink of coke on the fire and the fumes was terrible.
CB: And even though you were all technicians you couldn’t stop the fumes?
AC: No, because they were all combustion stoves, you can’t stop it, can ya?
CB: What —
AC: Stinky things.
CB: What, what was it burning? Coke or coal.
AC: Coke. Yes. ‘Cause we’d run out of coke at one period and we managed to get some coke from the aerodrome from outside Bury St Edmunds. And I was in a gang of boys that went to shovel this coke onto the back of the truck to bring it back. Yeah. What a job.
CB: Did they did they notice that you’d nicked it?
AC: Pardon?
CB: Did they notice that you had nicked it?
AC: Yeah. Oh yes.
CB: [Laughter]
AC: Well we did nick it.
CB: How about the food? How did you feel about that?
AC: Well it just depends what camp you are on. Newmarket was a good, excellent. You couldn’t you couldn’t find fault in Newmarket, but Witchford was cruel. And I think the worse one — the worse one I think was Lockheed. It was — wasn’t anything special. They called themselves cooks but they weren’t anything special. No. Skegness. Oh yes, I forget Skegness. Now that was the worse. Skeggie was the worse food. We was at the Imperial Hotel that was our place and the food there was terrible. Absolutely terrible.
CB: And who were the people doing the cooking there?
AC: They had the people doing it.
CB: Civilians or RAF?
AC: RAF. It was all RAF. Yeah WAAFs cooking it. They’d have a couple of blokes probably and in charge was a Warrant Officer, and yeah that was terrible grub. And when we went to Witchford, we — I ordered — they supplied us, give us kippers for breakfast and they was off. They weren’t right. Everybody was throwing them away, and when the caterer – bloke came round, the officer came round and asked if there were any complaints. We said, ‘These kippers are rotten.’ He said he said, ‘They were in the mess. We complained about them in the officer’s mess.’ [Chuckle]. Oh, they were rotten things. I think the grub at Witchford was the worse one in the Air Force what I had. Yeah, definitely.
CB: So what was it that was so bad about it?
AC: It was the way it was cooked and presented. It was terrible. But the best place at Ouston, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne I was stationed up there. Now that was good. It was a trainer station that’s it and that was that was good there.
CB: So in today’s terms nutrition is very varied. There’s a huge choice. What did you actually have as a staple diet in the war as a ground tradesman?
AC: Well well, there was a potato, cabbage and you didn’t get peas that was a funny thing. See frozen peas came in after the war, didn’t they? So you didn’t get peas. We got cabbage, cauliflower, yes there was parsnips, carrots. I don’t eat parsnips. I think there are horrible things but —
CB: What about meat? What sort of meat did you get?
AC: Meat? I had beef. I reckon while I was in the Middle East we had camel. [Laughter] Yes. That’s what that was. That was stringy like. So, I reckon it was camel. Yeah. I brought back a lot of memories.
CB: Hm. That’s good.
AC: Pardon?
CB: And in your time off on the camp what did you do?
AC: On the camp? Time off?
CB: Yeah.
AC: Well well when you got your time off you didn’t stop off at the camp. You went out. You went out. I mean at Weston-Super-Mare at Lockheed there you’re supposed to book in at. Well we was bad lads you see. We came in late so we came through the hedge. [Chuckle]. Like real lads.
CB: But at Skegness because it was your initial training then you were more disciplined were you?
AC: Oh yes. Oh yes we had to off the street at 9 o’clock at night. Yes. I had the misfortune, I was eating fish and chips in the shop down there at Skeggie and these here two Military RAF police come by, saw me and it’d just gone 9 o’clock. He walked in, he said, ‘You’re not supposed to be out.’ They picked up my fish and chips, they took ‘em and told me to get back to the billet quick. [Chuckle] Rotten devils. I daren’t say nothing, dare I?
CB: It was a pity to waste them wasn’t it?
AC: Yeah, I daren’t say a dickie bird. Well, you see I was a raw recruit at Skeggie.
CB: Yes.
AC: Yes.
CB: So they kept you quite busy there?
AC: Oh yes, definitely. Oh yes. Yes. Marching up and down like a lot of hooligans and they took you on what they called an ‘Air Commando Course’. I could tell you, you had to go across these here three logs. Run across these three logs. Like — well like telegraph posts and they had barbed wire in the bottom of the water. So if you fell in it wouldn’t be very comfortable, would it? And you was with full pack and your rifle. I tell you what I didn’t like that. I run — when I got there I run over that. What they used to do, used to say, ‘Who’s the oldest in the mob?’ And I always remember there was a chap of 32. They sent him round, they said, ‘Right. Run round the [unclear] course.’ And they timed him and he told us we got to do it in that time. We — there was no slacking. If you if you didn’t do it in that time you’re sent round again. Yeah. So it wasn’t a holiday camp. Skegness wasn’t. No.
CB: Back onto the flight lines, so you’re working as an air mechanic, how did you link in with other people with skills like parachute packing, air traffic. Did you link in with people like that?
AC: We never come across the parachute packing and that. We never come across that. We we was more or less on the dispersal. I was just the crew there. You didn’t mix with any others. No. Well, you had —you was occupied. You was fully occupied. Then, of course, when the aircraft took off, you went out went out and got something to eat especially if it was night but you had a chitty and you walked into the messing hall, presented your chit and you got something. It was mostly egg and bacon. So we didn’t do too bad. It wasn’t too bad when it was night duty. It was quite good. Yeah.
CB: And when you did your initial training you had to do a lot of PT, how much exercise did they make you have on the airfields when you were serving there in the front line?
AC: We did get none. The only exercise you got your bike — your pushbike. You were given a pushbike and that was your exercise. Backward and forwards on the bike.
CB: So you got to dispersal on bikes.
AC: Yes. I had a Raleigh. My bike was. Yeah.
CB: How about NAAFI? How much did you use the NAAFI and what was it used for?
AC: The NAAFI? It was canteen, as I said I was a canteen cowboy. [Chuckle]
CB: Sometimes there was more attraction than others.
AC: Yeah, well I married her.
CB: Yeah
AC: I married the girl.
CB: Yeah, good move. So when did you marry?
AC: December the 1st 1945. Yes.
CB: And on that topic, before that you were de-mobbed, so what date were you de-mobbed?
AC: Well me de-mob leave went up to July, so I couldn’t tell ya exactly when I left the Air Force, but my de-mob leave ended in July.
CB: 45? [Loud background noise]
AC: Yes. And I got so fed with being at home I went to the local garage for a job and they set me on straight away. So I I was alright. Quite happy. Yeah.
CB: Right. We’ll stop there for a mo. Thank you very much.
AC: Okay, thank you.
JS: What’s that? [Background noise]
CB: Your wife was in the NAAFI but what about the other WAAFs? How much did airmen link with the WAAFs?
JS: Lots [Chuckle]
AC: Oh terrific. Terrific.
CB: Were there dances on the airfield?
AC: Yes yes. Well those at Newmarket there was a WAAF there ‘cause I hadn’t met the wife yet, and there was a WAAF there and she was a CO’s driver and she was, oh dear, she was a — and after I thought I’m gonna click here. So I so I got to know her well, but she was engaged. [Chuckle] She was engaged to a soldier. Yes.
CB: Soldier? Crikey.
AC: So I thought I was going to make hay but I didn’t. She was she was a nice girl. She came from Ilford.
CB: Oh
AC: That where she come from. Yes.
CB: So, these hangers were quite big and so you could get quite a good liaison behind the hanger in the evening could you?
AC: You could get three Lancs in there.
CB: Right [Laughing]
AC: If you if you — the bloke that drove the tractor knew how to manoeuvre them, you can get three Lancs in. That was quite good weren’t it?
CB: Yeah.
AC: To work on them.
CB: And then in time off, the you’d be behind the hanger.
AC: Yes. No, no I wasn’t one of them. I used to go down, I used to go down to Ely to go down the town. I used to go down with a lad named Maurice and we’d have a look around town and see if there were any girls there that we hadn’t met before. We was hunters. [Chuckle] It was a good laugh, wasn’t it?
CB: Yes, and so clearly, you had some good friendships there. To what extent did you keep in touch with old comrades after the war.
AC: Not, not so much. [Background noise] I had one chap, he came from Northampton I think he was one of the closest but at Ely I had — there there was a chap who’d been in the Air Force at Palestine. He lived at, he lived at Newmarket but he’d come to Ely. Yeah, come to look me up. Yeah, Freddie Claydon. Yes.
CB: So, what were the old times you were thinking about then? Being in Palestine? We haven’t talked about that, so —
AC: Palestine?
CB: What what was the routine there?
AC: Well, I was on the aircrafts. Would it? No. I was in the MT, didn’t I?
CB: Yes.
AC: I was in the MT and we had this here Warrant Officer Smudge Smith. He was — had a mobile office. And it was a metal thing and used to get terrifically hot inside. And Smudge, we used to call him. Warrant Officer. [Chuckle] I’ll tell ya, the Air Force had a good going with the, everybody else. We had an army boy. He he he was a batman to the army liaison officer with the squadron. He couldn’t understand how we got away with so much. He said: ‘I can’t get away like you do with the officers in the army.’ He said, ‘You RAF blokes, you’re not in the forces. You’re having the time of your life.’ We did. After I left square—bashing, I tell you what I never looked back. I didn’t write home to mother and say I wanted to come home. No.
CB: When you remustered what happened to your rank?
AC: Well, well, when I remustered, I was LAC. No, I stayed as a LAC ‘cause I couldn’t get any further until I took another course and I didn’t, that was me mistake. I should have taken took up [unclear] course. That was my mistake. That was the biggest mistake I made.
CB: In the desert in Palestine, were you in the desert or were you in a fairly well cultivated area?
AC: At a RAF station. At an aerodrome.
CB: Yes. Which was that?
AC: Pardon?
CB: Which one?
AC: I was at Ramat David, Ein Shemer, and Kalowinski [?] wasn’t it? Kalowinski. Yeah Ramat David, I rather like that. Ramat David. Yes.
CB: Was that because — why was that? What was special about that?
AC: Well we was on a bit of a hill and the Jews had got a nice vineyard and we used to raid it. We used to go get the grapes [chuckle] at night.
UNKNOWN FEMALE : Hello. Sorry.
CB: Hello. We’ll stop a mo.[Restart] So they’d got all these nice grapes but but the trees —
AC: The bushes.
CB: — the bushes, I mean to say.
AC: Yeah, well you just stand there and pull them off.
CB: So what did they do about that?
AC: Well, they didn’t do nothing ‘cause they couldn’t catch us, could they? We, we took them when they weren’t around. [Chuckle].
CB: What was the airfield, the bases was a well—established airfield, was it?
AC: Ramat David?
CB: Yes.
AC: That was, that was a, that was off the living quarters we weren’t on the living quarters were separate from the airfields. Well they had to be because the Jews used to go down and break glass bottles on the runways at night.
CB: Oh did they? Right.
AC: Right you see, you did your duties, I always got searchlight duty, and I had to maintain this searchlight and you’d whaff the searchlight round and you’d catch them. There they were breaking glass on the runways, yeah.
CB: So what, what —
AC: And we weren’t allowed to shoot them. We had to let them do it and in the morning we had to go and sweep it up. Yeah.
CB: And what was flying from that airfield?
AC: Spitfires and, err what was the American aircraft?
CB: Mustang?
AC: Mustang?
CB: Was it?
AC: Yeah Mustang. Yeah 208 208 Squadron had the Mustangs and 32 Squadron had the Spitfires. Yeah.
CB: So you were dealing with transport, what, what sort of schedule did you operate in a day because it was pretty hot in the middle of the day. So did you start in the —
AC: Yes the middle of the day. 12 o’clock you packed up. You packed up. Then you went back at 6 o’clock at night.
CB: So what time did you start in the morning?
AC: In the morning? 7 o’clock.
CB: And back at six till when?
AC: Yours — 7 o’clock till 12 o’clock but you had about — a break for a meal and then you went back at 6 o’clock at night till 8 o’clock. ‘Cause you didn’t do much — there weren’t much flying at night.
CB: So where — what could you do in you off duty times? Was it quite remote in this place?
AC: In Palestine the off duty time was very very sparse. We used to go down to Jerusalem and Nazareth. Yeah. Nazareth wasn’t too bad. Jerusalem was — Jerusalem was a holiday camp. The Jews used to pop you off when you went up the mountainside. Yeah.
CB: Just shoot you?
AC: Yeah pop at ya. Shoot ya. Shoot at ya. They had they had a crafty idea to go up to Jerusalem, on the bend of the road going up the hill mountain there, they built a pyramid of stones, so you go along the road and you’ve all a sudden you got this pyramid of stones in front of you. Then they they let go at ya. So it — Palestine wasn’t a comfortable place. No.
CB: How many people got hit?
AC: I couldn’t say. But I do — what was it? Was it six? Six airmen got shot at in Nazareth walking walking along the street by the alleyway a burst of gunfire, they got shot at. They got injured. Yeah.
CB: Did any get killed?
AC: No no.
CB: What about the —
AC: I was — pardon?
CB: Go on.
AC: I was there when the Jews blew up the front out of — the what was it called?
CB: The King David Hotel.
AC: King David Hotel. Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
AC: I was there then.
CB: Right.
AC: When they blew the front out.
CB: And what about the Arabs? Were they around or not it that area?
AC: Arabs? A funny thing was we got on well with them. We got well with the Arabs. I mean it was only later on that the Arabs turned because they didn’t get what they wanted. Well I couldn’t blame them. You see when the British forces moved out of Palestine like it was at our camp, Ramat David. The Jews was at the main gate when we was coming — gonna come out. They were waiting to go in and at the other side of the aerodrome there was the Arabs waiting to go on. So they had a fight. Well you know won, don’t ya?
CB: Hm.
AC: The Jews won.
CB: Yeah.
AC: The Arabs hadn’t got hadn’t got the ammunition and the guns like the Jews had. Yeah.
CB: So were you happy to leave or would you like to have stayed on in Palestine?
AC: I was really happy to leave. I was happy to leave. I didn’t think much of the place I can tell ya. No.
CB: Did you go on trips to other places in the area or did you stay in the camp?
AC: Oh yes.Yes, I was in the MT then, and we used to drive out to different places I was in I was near Damascus once, just on the outskirts of Damascus and we went all over the place, over the desert. One day we was off duty and the despatch rider said to be Geordie. He came from Newcastle, he said, ‘Arthur, I get— if I give you another motorbike,’ he said: ‘Shall we go out on the motorbike? In the afternoon, you see.’ So I said, ‘Yeah.’ So he got me an Indian motorbike? American Indian. Have you seen them?
CB: No.
AC: They’re like a Harley Davidson and he had the Harley Davidson, and we went in the desert and we had our revolvers and we were shooting at wild dogs until these wild dogs started to chase us. So we opened up and got out of the way. [Chuckle] It’s an exciting life in the Air Force.
CB: Clearly it was.
AC: I did enjoy it. I wouldn’t have missed it at all. I wouldn’t have missed it.
CB: Just going back to the wartime service at Witchford and Newmarket.
AC: Yes.
CB: Although you weren’t flying, officially, how many hours did you do in total?
AC: What flying?
CB: Hmm.
AC: I never took any recording — any record of it. If they were going up on air test, you say, ‘Can I come?’ and they said, ‘Jump in’ and you just jumped in. You didn’t get no parachute. So —
CB: Oh right.
AC: So you just jumped in. That was it.
CB: So where did you sit on take—off and landing?
AC: I I had the privilege of getting to the front of cockpit ‘cause I wanted to be a Flight Engineer. And I was always to the front with the pilot and the flight engineer all sat at the front there, on a canvas belt what the flight engineer sat on. Yeah.
CB: A number of people became aircrew because they had seen notices on boards in the army quarters and air force stations looking for — requesting people to apply for aircrew, did you never see one of those? What stopped you —
AC: Oh yes, I, I went originally for aircrew. I went originally for it and I passed me medical and I waited but never got called up for it.
CB: Oh. Oh right.
AC: They had too many didn’t they?
CB: They did [pause] ‘cause the losses didn’t continue as high as they thought they would.
AC: Pardon?
CB: The losses — aircrew losses.
AC: Yes.
CB: Diminished. So they didn’t have the demand quite that they had expected.
AC: There was no flying from Lockheed. No, Lockheed was a training camp.
CB: Yes, sure. Right, thank you very much indeed, Arthur.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with William Arthur Coulton
Creator
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Chris Brockbank
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-10-20
Format
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01:14:51 audio recording
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ACoultonWA161020
Conforms To
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Pending review
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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.
Description
An account of the resource
William Coulton was born in Derbyshire and worked as an errand boy for the Co-Op until he joined the Royal Air Force in 1943, aged 18. He trained as a flight mechanic and was posted to 115 Squadron at RAF Witchford where he worked on Lancasters. He was later posted to Palestine with 32 Squadron where he worked on Spitfires. He was demobbed in July 1945 and married his girlfriend Hilda Elsie who he had met serving in the Navy, Army and Air Force Institute. After the war he moved to North Luffenham and worked as a motor mechanic.
Contributor
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Gemma Clapton
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force. Fighter Command
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
Israel
Middle East--Palestine
Israel--ʻEn Shemer
Israel--Ramat Daṿid
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Derbyshire
England--Rutland
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1943
1944
1945
115 Squadron
208 Squadron
32 Squadron
dispersal
fitter engine
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
Lancaster
love and romance
military living conditions
military service conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
RAF Newmarket
RAF North Luffenham
RAF Witchford
service vehicle
Spitfire
tractor
training
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/512/8743/PFranklinJB1616.1.jpg
795421ad1dfce4657298441a0a2fd3a6
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/512/8743/AFranklinJB160331.2.mp3
f6e3050fce261c63a251a84f549d2b34
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
Franklin, John Brown
Jack Brown Franklin
John B Franklin
John Franklin
J B Franklin
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Franklin, JB
Description
An account of the resource
15 items. An oral history interview with John "Jack" Brown Franklin (1921 - 2018 1484256 Royal Air Force)and fourteen photographs of people and aircraft. He served in the Liverpool Home Guard before enlisting in the Air Force. He served as ground crew with 109 Squadron between late 1942 and 1944 before being posted to Burma with 28 Squadron in 1945.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by XXX and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-03-31
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.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
BW: This is Brian Wright interviewing mechanic John Brown Franklin of 109 and 28 squadrons RAF at his home in Walton, Liverpool on Thursday 31st March 2016 and the time is 1.45. Also, with me is his nephew Neil Hayes and if you would like to start us off please Jack. You’ve asked me to call you Jack as -
JBF: Yes that’s right. Yeah.
BW: That’s how you’re referred to.
JBF: Yeah.
BW: Would you give us your service number and date of birth please?
JBF: Yes. Ok. Service number is 1484256. Date of birth 28 6 1921.
BW: And have you always lived in Liverpool?
JBF: Yes.
BW: And do you, you mentioned you had, I think, a brother. Do you have brothers and sisters or did you have brothers and sisters?
JBF: I’ve got a brother and sister. My brother was world famous as a ballet dancer.
BW: What was his name?
JBF: Frederick Franklin. And if you want to get his history I believe it’s all on the –
NH: All over the web.
JBF: In the computer. And here’s Neil with his CBE presented by the queen to him at Buckingham palace.
BW: Right.
JBF: And unfortunately -
BW: Wow.
JBF: He died just a couple of years ago aged ninety eight.
BW: And whereabouts in Liverpool were you living at the time?
JBF: Oh at birth. Over a café on the corner of Wavertree Road and Durning Road. We were all three born over the café and my father ran it with his mother and it lasted ‘til about 1923 and then we went to live higher up Wavertree Road in Janet Street and then about ten years after that, it would be about 1933 we moved to Gordon Drive, Pilch Lane, Huyton and that’s where I married from and lived here. I’ve lived here since 1957.
BW: Wow.
JBF: We bought the house then with my wife Dorothea.
BW: And so what was your home life like? Was it -
JBF: Well it was great. We were, they were musical people. My mother was very musical and my sister and they were in to all sorts of shows like the Maid of the Mountains and The Chocolate Soldier and Rosemarie. That kind of show. They loved it. And when my brother decided he wanted to be on the stage they were over the moon simply because he wanted to be on stage and so -
BW: And did he get a scholarship for his dancing or anything like that?
JBF: Oh no what he did was he went with the Jackson Boys to, his first job was he joined the Jackson Boys, a troupe of people dancing and they finished up in Paris at the, I think it was the Casino de Paris and he was there ‘til the Germans, the war started in ‘39 and they were either threatening to overrun France or they had actually started but my mother lost touch and was worried stiff and then the next thing we heard about him was that he was in Holland with the company, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo run by a fellow called Leonide Massine. He’s also a world famous performer if you care to go through the, and the next minute we heard he was in America so of course he was delighted that he’d got out of it ‘cause there was no way he would ever have made a servicemen of any kind. He was just, he was a piano player, played the piano, singing and dancing you know. One of the times he was playing the piano and Miss [Stangette?] whom you no doubt have never heard of, she used to sit on the piano and she was the toast of Paris and she used to come out in this café, Casino de Paris or whatever it was, a nightclub and do the singing while Fred played. My sister was also a pianist so we –
BW: And were you musical yourself?
JBF: Oh yes. I, I was the only one that didn’t get the lessons because the money ran out. My father had a stroke. My father was a veteran of the Boer war complete with medal.
BW: And you’ve got his medal here.
JBF: And -
BW: Which has got to be a rare item in itself.
JBF: Yes well its solid silver, unlike the tin ones we got from the last war.
BW: Yeah.
JBF: With bars and -
BW: Yeah.
JBF: And he was shot off his horse somewhere in South Africa and he said the worst thing about it was the two hundred mile trip in a cart, [bullock?] cart to get to the boat to come home. Well he came home and survived and they invalided him out of the army in 1900 and he was never called up for the ‘14 war. He was unfit for further service and that’s, and he had a stroke about, what, 1931 sometime in the early 30s. I never knew him as a man really. He was, like all Victorians he was here and you were over there, you know. That’s just how it was. He was a nice guy you know, it just -
BW: Yeah. More of a father figure.
JBF: A father figure.
BW: A strict father figure in a sense.
JBF: Exactly. Yeah. Mother did all the slogging, you know. Kept us all together.
BW: And what was school like for you?
JBF: Oh a bit disastrous because I just didn’t get on somehow or other. I just didn’t get on. I left at sixteen and a half and I was really contemplating. I thought well I’d better do something about it so I just started to do the school certificate rerun at night school and the war started.
BW: And what subjects were you studying in your certificate at night school?
JBF: I got credits in history, English, and geography and I failed in chemistry and math er French and chemistry. That was it. And as a matter of interest I had my French book stolen for the last nine months before the exam and so there was no way I was going to pass it anyway you know. I just. Anyway I got out of school. Got this job with paper merchants LS Dixon and Co Limited. Very old fashioned, very conservative Liverpool Company.
BW: And what were you doing in the paper merchants?
JBF: Clerking. Booking orders, arranging for the orders to get out to the warehouse, seeing that they were all packed up properly and delivered to whoever, you know.
BW: And so presumably you had this job for about year eighteen months.
JBF: That’s right.
BW: Until war broke out.
JBF: Well, the story about the war thing is sitting opposite us was a veteran of the war. He said, ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘It’ll be over by Christmas,’ you know. It was exactly the same as the pre-war people. It will be over by Christmas and ‘course it wasn’t and then it got around to Dunkirk you know when the three hundred and thirty three thousand were being picked up in France and Eric, sitting opposite me, Eric [McKim?] he said, ‘You know, Jack. We should do something about it really. I know we’re underage.’ We was, I was eighteen I think or something like that and we went to the police station in Derby Lane and signed on and then from Derby Lane I got the call to report to the abattoir in Prescot Road and I was given that.
BW: And this is a card that says you’re joining the Local Defence Volunteers.
JBF: That’s right, yes.
BW: G division.
JBF: Yeah
BW: Dated 13th of June 1940. So this is right after the evacuation of Dunkirk. Right at the height of -
JBF: Well it was Dunkirk that, Dunkirk was the end of May.
BW: Yeah.
JBF: 1940 and we finished up in this abattoir with that and we had instructions when the church bells landed er sounded you know we were told to destroy our identity you know, and so we joined the Home Guard and, or the LDV as it was. We had neither uniforms nor rifles or anything you know and we used to do marching about and guard and such like and the one terrifying moment in the, as an LDV was that the church bells had rung. A corporal came around, 2 o’clock in the morning, ‘Jack,’ he said, ‘It’s on,’ so we get up to the orphanage and we’re stood in two lines at the back of the orphanage facing Speke in front of trenches full of water that we’d dug, you know in the 1914 style.
BW: Yeah. Zigzag.
JBF: And everybody was mystified but we were all looking from Speke for the parachutists you know and we were there for a couple of hours and then suddenly, you know, we, it all vanished. The whole thing fell apart. There was nothing. Nobody landed. And we, we’d been given twenty four hours rations which was hard tack and corned beef. Well we ate those in about half an hour. Just sat around and ate it all. By 3 o’clock we’d eaten the day’s rations you know and that’s how the, it’s perfectly right, I’m Pike in the Dad’s Army because I was that age and everybody else who carefully avoided guard duties and all the nasty bits were bank managers or foremen and something else or assistant managers in bread shops or whatever it was, you know and Mr Mainwaring is a dead ringer for the CO you know.
BW: Of your unit.
JBF: Ex, in the, ex in, he was a bank manager you know and he got the atmosphere you know. It was typical and that went on for fifteen months until I was called up and then finally I got the call up papers and joined the RAF on the 15th of September 1941.
BW: And did you see, during your time as an LDV volunteer did you see any raids over Liverpool because -
JBF: Oh yes.
BW: There were quite a few raids by the Luftwaffe on the -
JBF: That’s a separate chapter. We were formed by the company which was in town, Cable Street, into parties of three and we did night duty on the premises during the blitz and the most graphic one of the blitz was we were playing table tennis as something to do while it was all going crash bang wallop ‘cause we were near the docks and they were really and then this hell of an explosion. It shook the place absolutely, we thought and we were in the cellar so we managed, we decided we’d better go around and see everything was intact. Nothing. So we went outside. Went up Thomas Street into South John Street and at the junction of North John Street and Lord Street was a huge pile of debris, masonry and out of it was sticking arms and legs and so we went up like this, you know the real -
BW: Yeah. Sort of -
JBF: John Wayne, sort, you know.
BW: Covering your eyes. Yeah.
JBF: And on the, on the traffic light was a sailor trying to knock out the lights with a brick so we get up there looking and thinking oh my God what are we going to see and they were all tailors dummies. There wasn’t a person in it. The shops around that area were tailors shops and the bomb had hit Church House, blown that to pieces and the blast had blown all these dummies out of the shop windows and somehow or other they all arrived together in the middle. So we got over that. That was the most graphic of the, and then the next one was during the May we had, I don’t know if you know about the blitz but Liverpool, before Hitler invaded Russia he blitzed Liverpool as a good start to stopping the shipping in the May. The May blitz it’s called and that week we had a floating land mine drift over the house and blew up on the Swanside estate. Blew all those houses up and the blast took the windows out of the back of our house and holes in the roof, hole in the roof and all the celings had holes in where the draft had came down but the most awful thing was the soot because we all had chimneys and everywhere was covered in soot you know so on the Sunday my mother and I we started clearing up and I said, ‘I’ve got to go to work,’ you know so I got the bike out and we started down for the, for the town and I got to [Clatton] Street and the place was covered in glass. I thought well this is the end of the bike if I ride so I picked the bike up, put it on my shoulder and walked down to Lewis’ which was just a hollow wreck. There was nothing visible at all. It had been on fire and they’d put it out and there was just and they ground that down to Boots on the corner, round the corner and I got as far as the bottom of Lord Street, Whitechapel and Paradise Street and there was a tape across so I got to there and the strange thing was where what we could see of Cable Street which was right at the back of Lord Street you could see daylight you know. I thought well that’s funny, it doesn’t look too good so I said to the man, ‘My job’s around the corner.’ He said, ‘No it isn’t,’ he said, ‘It’s finished. You can’t go around there.’ And two four storey buildings that was the office, the warehouse, the factory and the second warehouse were about this high. It had just burned. The whole thing had gone because it was a paper warehouse. Couldn’t be better, you know, once, and it was fire that, on that particular blitz.
BW: Raised the building to about two foot high.
JBF: It was just about two foot high and I was standing there dumb. I thought, ‘Well ok the house has gone up now the jobs gone up. What do we do now for an encore?’ Sort of thing. And I got a tap on the shoulder. I looked around and it was the manager Mr Lloyd. He said, ‘John,’ he said, ‘We’re all around at the Allied Paper.’ So I hot footed it around to the Allied Paper in Hood Street and the entire office collection was sitting there looking at each other you know. So they didn’t know what to, ‘cause there was not even a place to go to. The place had vanished. Literally. Four storey buildings just vanished and Mr Packer was the export manager, he said, ‘Well John, if you need something to do come with me and we’ll see what’s happened to the shipping.’ So I was delighted, so, ‘Certainly Mr Packer.’ So off we set down to the pier head and we went around people like James Dowie, Gracie Beasley the whole line, that kind of thing, JT Fletcher’s and made enquiries to find out what was missing and what wasn’t you know and we made a list of everything because he had cargo on boats you know. He used to do business with the West Indies and the unfortunate thing for him was that Mr Woodley who was about, there was no pension scheme in this particular company and Mr Woodley the export manager was about seventy three and he was still coming to work because there was no pension and he got knocked down and killed in the blackout so that was the end of the, of the export information so they just had to start from scratch you know ‘cause even Sid Woodley had disappeared, you know, and then there was, I can’t really remember because it was the in-between but we ended up in the banana rooms in Fitzpatrick’s in Queens Square. That’s where I left to join the air force. The Banana Rooms, of course there were no bananas coming in during the war and there were just these big spaces and they started the firm from that that the lucky thing was they had a government quota for paper and that didn’t alter despite all that had gone on so they started with the quota that they had and they stocked these Banana Rooms with paper and started to carry on the business and the other intriguing thing was the books had been in the cellar in Cable Street and they were in fireproof safes which was great except they were cooked. They weren’t burned. They were just cooked. So the senior members of the accounts department were transported every day to Mr Dixon’s house on the Wirral and they each had an egg, an egg slice you know and they would lift each page up and turn it over and find out how much ‘cause the books were handwritten. It was just antediluvian but it was part of the course.
NH: The time. Yeah.
JBF: Antediluvian, you know, everything was by hand. We wrote orders in books by hand. The books were sent to the forwarding man and he’d organise the stuff you know and finally I got my call up papers and Mr Cook said, ‘Ok,’ he says, ‘Well as things stand, Jack,’ he said, ‘Your job will be open when you come back,’ and that’s exactly how it was. The job was open when I came back five years later.
BW: And during the time and this was all through 1940. The bombing raids and things.
JBF: Up to September the 15th 1941.
BW: Did you happen to see anything of the Battle of Britain? I know that was concentrated over the south east but there were raids and intercepts from squadrons up here. Did you see anything of that?
JBF: In Liverpool during the lunch hour when we were out there was a couple of times when German aircraft were over and everybody was out looking at them you know and there was a bit of fighting as far as I can remember but I don’t think there was too much this end.
BW: No.
JBF: It was the blitz for Liverpool. That was the thing.
BW: And were you on duty during the night time and sort of working during the day?
JBF: Oh yes.
BW: Did you alternate your civilian job with your LDV duties?
JBF: The big plus factor was that after your night’s duty you went in to Brown’s, the café in Cable Street, and had a bacon and egg breakfast and then you went home you know from the day ‘cause there, there wasn’t really that much happening at that stage of the war. Everybody was non-plussed. Nobody knew whatever was happening. You know. It hadn’t settled down to anything. And -
BW: And what drew you to join the RAF? Did you apply to join or
JBF: Well –
BW: Were you offered a choice of which service?
JBF: When I went for the call up interview I said, ‘Well I’d like to join the RAF.’ They said, ‘What would you like to be?’ So I quickly said, ‘Oh I’d like to be a mechanic,’ you know. They said, ‘’Ok.’ Then the next minute I was sent to, what’s the local RAF place there?
BW: Woodvale.
NH: Woodvale.
JBF: No. Not Woodvale. Closer.
NH: Closer?
JBF: Yeah. Where, where were the Yanks locally?
NH: Oh Burton Wood.
BW: Yeah.
JBF: Burton Wood. It was in that area as far as I can remember and sat an exam.
BW: There was a recruiting centre or an RAF station at Padgate. Does that, that was near Warrington.
JBF: Well it might have been.
BW: Sort of Burton Wood area.
NH: Yeah.
BW: Ok.
JBF: I went in the Warrington area.
BW: Yeah.
JBF: And took, and sat an exam and I passed that and so I was down to be a mechanic.
BW: And when you say mechanic were there different types of mechanic that you could apply to be? Did you have a choice in that or were you directed simply as -
JBF: I’ve no idea. I didn’t even know what a mechanic was -
BW: Right.
JBF: I just said I’d like to be a mechanic because if I played with anything it was with Meccano before the war and I think I had some sort of mechanical ability you know and so I thought well I’m going to be an office for the rest of my life. I’d just like to do something different never realising I’d be doing it for the next five years but there you are.
BW: Did, did the thought of being aircrew ever appeal to you at all?
JBF: Yeah. I volunteered for aircrew and got halfway through the medical until the eyesight test and that was the end of that.
BW: What would you have liked to have done as a member of aircrew? What do you -
JBF: Well -
BW: Think your preference would have been?
JBF: In the talk I was at Wyton at the time and the flight engineers were in vogue at the time. I thought well with the basic knowledge I’ve already got I think I could have passed the rest of it to become a flight engineer so when they asked me at the medical lark I said, ‘Flight engineer.’
BW: Ok. And instead once, once they’d done the assessment and found your eyesight wasn’t up to scratch you were then posted to another base for -
JBF: No.
BW: Mechanical training.
JBF: I just went back to being where I was in Wyton.
BW: I see. So while you were still working as a mechanic you then volunteered for aircrew.
JBF: That’s right. For aircrew yes.
BW: They said you couldn’t be selected for aircrew and you returned to your trade.
JBF: I went back to the trades and being a mechanic. Yeah.
BW: And what squadron were you at there?
JBF: At Wyton it was 109.
BW: And you say this was a Pathfinder squadron.
JBF: Yeah. This was a Pathfinder squadron, yeah. The sister squadron was 83 squadron. They were Lancasters.
BW: And they were on the same base were they?
JBF: Same base yeah.
BW: And –
JBF: We were there for about nine months at Wyton and it was at Wyton that the first Oboe raid by Mosquitoes took place which was my squadron and my aircraft was the first aircraft to do something with the Oboe. The pilot was Squadron Leader Bufton and the navigator was, I think it was a Flight Lieutenant Ifould, an Australian.
BW: So this was Squadron Leader Buckton. Is that -
JBF: Bufton. B U F yeah.
BW: B U F T O N.
JBF: They’re famous in the air force because he had a brother also in the air force and he had a son er another brother rather, a sergeant in the mechanical line.
BW: And his navigator was a flight lieutenant.
JBF: Ifould. I F O U L D.
BW: And so servicing this particular aircraft do you remember anything specific about it? Possibly even the registration or the -
JBF: Well it was -
BW: Code.
JBF: DK33, I think it’s four. The three three’s right but the fours and it was -
BW: Ok.
JBF: D-Donald.
BW: D-Donald.
JBF: Yeah it was D Donald. It was changed to L-Leather later on but it was D-Donald when it was flying when it flew to this, I found out later it was a power station in Holland right on the edge of the German border and that was the first time, I can confirm all this, these books, I’m in these books and pictures you know. This is Tim, you know, he just, ‘Look dad,’ he said, ‘I’ve seen this,’ so -
BW: And did you know Squadron Leader Bufton and Flight Lieutenant Ifould very well? Did they stay with that aircraft for -
JBF: Oh yeah they stayed for -
BW: For a period?
JBF: Quite some time. I mean Bufton became a group captain. I’m sure Ifould did because they were, they were dyed in the wool, I think, pre-war airmen if you know what I mean. They were really the real McCoy you know. This is how the air force won the Battle of Britain. With people like them really because they knew what they were doing.
BW: And I’m assuming that they had already done a tour on bombers prior to becoming -
JBF: They must.
BW: A Pathfinder.
JBF: I should say so. The squadron from Wyton came from Boscombe Down were all the experiments were done.
BW: And what kind of guys were they. These, these two?
JBF: Very nice. Very nice men. Excellent blokes.
BW: Did you have a good rapport with them?
JBF: All the time yes.
BW: And so this remained your aircraft, D Donald for –
JBF: If you want -
BW: Some months.
JBF: If you want a little anecdote with it being the very first raid with Oboe it was the very first Oboe raid for 109 Mosquitos and they decided that nothing should happen to the aircraft so we, they did the MFTs, they did the flying and then they carried the tractors, you know, hooked up the tractors and put the three of them in a hangar. This is, it’s dark at this stage and they’re busy doing and I’m on one wing and I’m bawling, ‘You’re too close. You’re too close,’ and the next minute we’d cracked the [?] on this wing. Pandemonium and, ‘Who’s,’ I said, ‘Look I’ve been bawling my head off.’ And the corporal who was doing the manoeuvring were all too excited to listen, you know. Anyway, it was superficial and in no time they’d got it put right but the interesting thing about this particular time was that the squadron was paraded in a hangar and addressed by the CO and he just simply said, ‘You are engaged in a very special operation and if I hear the word Oboe mentioned in any pub around this district,’ he said, ‘Your feet won’t touch the ground.’ And out of nowhere we were surrounded by plain clothes which I suppose were detectives and everybody was suitably terrified of course and I didn’t mention Oboe till about 1960 [laughs]. There was three types of bomb aiming equipment. There was Oboe, Gee and H2S and they were, they followed on, you know and I think by the time we got too Little Staughton we were in to the H2S or Gee.
BW: And did you work on these bits of kit or were you -
JBF: No. All the -
BW: You still on the airframe?
JBF: All the, the advanced kit, it was Canadians, they all, it was a Canadian unit. They were all Canadians. They all got drunk together, they went out together. It was just like that you know. They were told not to speak to anybody and they were all nice guys it’s just they’d been frightened like us, you know.
BW: So you never worked on these sets but you knew they were on the aircraft.
JBF: Oh yes. We, what we used to do, they did the NFT.
BW: What’s the NFT?
JBF: Night Flying Test. The -
BW: Right.
JBF: In the afternoon. We’d fill them up with oil, petrol and coolant and look at the engines. The big problem with the mark 4 Mosquito was because they were flying a lot higher than the bombers, thirty, twenty eight, thirty thousand feet they were prone to oil leaks so we got quite adept. What we used to do was they’d say that, a bit of a mess coming down and you’d see it everywhere and so they used to take the cowlings off and start the engine up and we’d all, before they started the engines up we’d crawl up the back of the aircraft and hang on and look in to the engine and see if we could spot the oil leaks because there was a million nuts there you know and quite, we did spot -
BW: And so were you, were you on top of the wing at this point?
JBF: You were on top of the wing with about, what, a foot off, well three foot off the propeller.
BW: I was going to say ‘cause you’re having to look over in to the cowling and the blade is spinning.
JBF: The blades are going around full pelt ‘cause they went up high they were at full throttle you know but it worked. It was primitive but there was no other way. The thing was leaking but when they got up that high and with the thing going and we just thought we used to see dribbles coming down. The carburettor was on the back and we used to see dribbles coming down and then we’d work it back. Well it was those nuts and Stan, the corporal, Corporal Wright when it stopped he’d, I said, ‘We’ll check this section,’ and he did do and they were loose you know. We got quite good at that really.
BW: And these, this is clearly in the days before any sort of protective safety equipment and goggles.
JBF: Oh no there’s -
BW: Ear defenders and things.
JBF: Well to give you an idea, when they, have you ever been close to a Mosquito? It’s quite tall you know.
BW: I’ve been to one in a museum, yes, but -
JBF: It’s quite, the end -
NH: Not with engines running [laughs]
JBF: The, we had ladders to get on the back, you know. Well of course within no time the ladders had disappeared because we’d no fuel in the huts so everybody chopped up the ladders and we used to use, when they, as you know you get in a Mosquito in the centre underneath and there’s a metal stair thing.
BW: Yeah.
JBF: Well we used to use those to get on the back and my souvenir was this finger.
BW: And this is on your left hand.
JBF: Yeah. There’s a stich here and a stich there, a stich there and a stich there because -
BW: On your little finger.
JBF: It was wet and being tall you know I was able to go it. I mean Handley, he was about five foot three, couldn’t even get near the thing you know ‘cause I could reach and put the ladder on and it was wet and the ladder slipped and my hand went around the engine nacelle and there’s, I went to the Chiefy, you know, Lendrum and he said, ‘You’d better go and get that fixed,’ so I went to the sick bay and they said, ‘Oh yes,’ he said, ‘Yes.’ They cleaned it up and I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was that, you know. And they said, ‘Oh yes. We need a few stitches. Right. Stand by.’ So when I’d got over that he said, ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘Two hours excused duties for bawling.
BW: And so they’d done the stitching in your hands without anaesthetic.
JBF: Well I did two hours excused duties. Well I didn’t do.
BW: That was it.
JBF: I went back to the unit and said to the chief, I said, ‘Sorry I’m on excused duties.’ ‘Oh, well, just before you go have a look at this’ [laughs]. So -
NH: Oh dear. Yeah
JBF: That was that.
BW: And the Mosquito clearly used Merlin engines. Do you know what -
JBF: That’s right. Merlin 20s.
BW: And how did you rate those?
JBF: Oh they were smashing. I never worked on anything else other than the, in Burma we had Hurricane, Hurricane 2Cs cannon and they were Merlin engines and then when they converted after the war to Spit 9s they were a very posh but we had to have training for these they were so posh. You know the latest Merlin engine that was in the Spitfire 9 which was of course was five years after the original Spitfires and we just, we knew how to fill them up with the oil and coolant and so on -
BW: And did you specialise in engine maintenance or were you working on the airframe of the Mosquito as well?
JBF: Oh no the air frame was a rigger called Alan Fraser, the rigger. Each aircraft had a fitter and a rigger as we were called. The airframe was a man who’d been trained as an air frame mechanic and I was on the engines as the engine mechanic.
BW: And so who was the air frame mechanic?
JBF: Alan. Alan Fraser.
BW: He was the rigger.
JBF: The rigger. That’s right.
BW: And is that the same.
JBF: That’s right.
BW: Same name as an air frame engineer.
JBF: Air frame mechanic, it was the rigger.
BW: Ok.
JBF: Yeah.
BW: And you had a corporal in charge of the team.
JBF: Yeah.
BW: Stan Wright.
JBF: Stan Wright was the corporal.
BW: And did you mention an LAC Handley?
JBF: Oh he was my pal in Burma.
BW: Ok so he was -
JBF: LAC Handley.
BW: Not part of this particular -
JBF: Yeah.
BW: Team.
JBF: He wasn’t part of this set up.
BW: And your chief tech, is that right, was, who was your chief tech -
JBF: Oh Chiefy Lendrum.
BW: Lendrum.
JBF: Yeah. Lendrum was the -
BW: Is that one, one word L E N D R U M.
JBF: I think so yeah.
NH: It wasn’t Len Drum.
JBF: He was the flight sergeant, you know. He was in charge. In fact I think without, off the record as you might say he was responsible for the ladders. [laughs]
BW: He was the one, he was the one who took them away to use as firewood.
JBF: And they were all, we’d burned them all. I mean there was quite, it wasn’t hilarious, you were working until you, you know feel asleep sort of thing and it was a real band of blokes you know. It was, I think that’s really what won the war was the fact that everybody just got stuck in. Churchill was marvellous. And everybody got stuck in, you know. I don’t think Hitler could have realised what he’d awakened in the British when he was busy refusing Chamberlain’s piece of paper, you know. He didn’t realise exactly because Goering said, ‘Oh you know we’ll subjugate the British. The air force will do this,’ that and the other you know and of course he didn’t. Battle of Britain. And they turned to Russia.
BW: And so just thinking about the maintenance unit or the mechanics involved on the base here.
JBF: Yeah.
BW: So there’s, there’s the two guys there’s yourself and the rigger responsible for the aircraft and a corporal. Was he over more than one aircraft or just -
JBF: No. Just the one.
BW: Ok. So there was the three of you assigned to the one aircraft.
JBF: That’s right.
BW: And the chief tech presumably looked after -
JBF: He was over the flight.
BW: The whole lot.
JBF: A flight yeah.
BW: Ok.
JBF: Yeah. The six aircraft.
BW: Did you know the other crews at all? The other flying -
JBF: Well we knew them but –
BW: Crews on the Mossies?
JBF: We stuck together really, you know. Yes we knew all of them really, by name but -
BW: And you you didn’t have cause to work on any of the other aircraft. Say if one riggers went down.
JBF: Oh sometimes. It depends. One of the features of the Rolls Royce engine was I think it was to do with the carburettor and there was this cup and it used to accumulate water so what we had to do was we had to take off the locking wire, unscrew the cup, drain the water out, put the cup back and put the locking wire on and the finished article had to be supervised by the corporal, you know, that you’d actually done what you were supposed to do and -
BW: And the paperwork that they use nowadays certainly was a form 700. Was that still in place then?
JBF: Yes. Form 700. Yeah.
BW: So that’s been right the way through the service.
JBF: That you signed to say that, yes, you’d done the -
BW: And you obviously knew the crew well in terms of the ground crew who you worked with. Did you socialise together and live together in the barracks?
JBF: We lived together in the barracks. The ground crew. Yes. We didn’t socialise, and it was discouraged, any of the air crew. The air crew were under strict instructions to say nothing when they got out of the aeroplane and in the five years the only time two aircrew ever got out and said something was when they were steaming along at three or four hundred miles an hour in a Mosquito and an aircraft went around them like this.
BW: In a circular motion.
JBF: And they got out of the Mosquito, ‘We’ve seen it. We’ve seen it.’ We said, ‘What?’ And it was the first type of German jet fighter.
NH: Yeah.
JBF: And it was doing five hundred miles an hour or something and it just went around them while they were busy coming home or whatever they were doing, you know.
BW: And so the aircrew never talked to the ground crew.
JBF: Never.
BW: About the mission that they’d done.
JBF: Oh no. No. You didn’t get anything off them. No.
BW: But they must presumably have told you about anything to you like oil problems in the engine.
JBF: Oh yes.
BW: Or anything they’d seen.
JBF: There was a report you see. What used to happen was the air crew would come in and they’d get out the aircraft. Then they’d go and see the adjutant or whoever was in charge. They had to write a report on the raid and a report on the kite and that was relayed through Chiefy Lendrum to Stan Wright and Stan Wright would get it and say, ‘There appears to be a leak on this,’ and, ‘That’s not happening,’ or, you know. They were very reliable aircraft I must say. The only fault with them when the first Mosquitos came the cowling section of the construction hadn’t been talking to the body and so the cowling went up past the intake on the front so when you were getting, you could get it off but you couldn’t get it back in, you know so they very quickly instead of having the cowling to go that way they just had it below the intake because the two intakes are either side of the cockpit and the problem with that was they were having birds in them as they were flying. They used to get birds wedged in these.
BW: So they had regular bird strikes. Is what you’re saying?
JBF: Oh regular, bird strikes were fairly common.
BW: And did that happen during the raid or normal flying testing or was it mainly around the airfield?
JBF: Oh it was around the airfield. I don’t think it was in -
BW: No.
JBF: While they were bombing, you know.
BW: Yeah.
JBF: ‘Cause they went up at least, I think it was, twenty eight thousand feet and the Lancasters were all getting shot down and they were about what about, what, twenty six, twenty four thousand feet. What happened to the Mosquitoes was they’d come back with tiny little holes in and it was the, where the anti-aircraft shell had exploded as they were wooden they took everything. Nothing bounced off and when the chippies came, if there were holes they used to get to this and look through and see the other hole where it had gone straight through, you know. The marvellous thing about the Mossie was despite it being wood it was almost indestructible. It was marvellous, you know. Just a marvellous aircraft.
BW: Because it could take so much battle damage -
JBF: Yeah.
BW: Without being lost if you like. It wasn’t going to -
JBF: That’s right, without it being. What, the chippies had this technique if it was a biggish hole they’d cut a kind of the top layer of the plywood or whatever it was off and fit.
BW: Yes.
JBF: A new piece of plywood in and put the tape, you know, around and that would and do it all up with the dope and it would, you wouldn’t know it was there, you know.
BW: So they’d sort of cut a square patch out around the -
JBF: Cut a square patch out around the hole, yeah.
BW: Around the hole and -
JBF: Yeah.
BW: Replace that.
JBF: And if it was small enough they’d just cover it over and do the same thing. They wouldn’t take any wood out. They’d just cover it over.
BW: And the air crew found that quite satisfactory.
JBF: Oh yes.
BW: There were no difference in handling or anything like that?
JBF: It didn’t detract from the performances.
BW: So, I guess the most complex part of the Mosquito for you was actually the engine that you were working on.
JBF: That’s right. Yeah.
BW: You found them pretty reliable.
JBF: Oh yes. Yeah.
BW: Did you find them easy to work on or were they particularly complex in their own right?
JBF: Oh no once we’d learned the basics, funnily, the lucky thing for me was at Cosford we trained on Merlin engines and so when I was posted to a Merlin, I was first of all posted to an air gunners school with Blenheims and I’d never seen a radial engine because there were no radial engines in, we’d worked on Merlins you know. So I got out of there, I didn’t like it. I put in for a posting which is how I got to Wyton and the big thing about South Wales was the rugby. I was playing rugby for the station because it’s, you know it’s a, you know a big rugby area you know, miles away from the war. It was an air gunners school and the air gunners were carefully separated from the crew, the ground crew, and they were trained and passed out with all the pomp and ceremony and they went on to whichever squadron the were allocated to and lasted about ten minutes, you know, because the technique of downing a Lancaster was to get after the guns to start with so there was the one sticking out of the front, nothing underneath and the upper. The -
BW: Mid upper gunner.
JBF: W/Op AG you know, so the Germans shot underneath behind the tail so that the fellow, nobody could get at them, straight into the cockpit. I mean people go on about the Lancaster. How marvellous it was. It was a death trap and these books will illustrate how because the number, you know they lost fifty or sixty thousand men and they were sitting ducks once a night fighter, and they would never dream of, where you see on all the films where they’re all coming down this way they just went underneath and it was the same with the Flying Fortress. They had to stop flying daylight raids despite all the under guns. They had, they had a fella sitting in a thing with guns underneath. It didn’t matter. The first one that lost his lives was the gunner and then it was a sitting duck. They could do what they liked. I believe one German ace shot a hundred and seventy three Flying Fortresses down. Just one bloke.
BW: The sister squadron on the base you mentioned was 83 squadron.
JBF: That’s right, yeah.
BW: So did you hear back from ground crews and, and talk in the barracks let’s say or the mess about what was happening on their side.
JBF: No. Nothing. They was billeted in separate, 109 was billeted here, say. The other side of the aerodrome was 83.
BW: So completely separate squadrons
JBF: Completely.
BW: With own messes.
JBF: Yes. Well, with us being, they were Pathfinder bombers and it was secret at that stage, this Oboe thing so they wanted the least person that knew you know and they had you suitably terrified. You felt you had private men, you know under the bed sort of thing. As kids, we were only kids. I mean I was about twenty two or something, Twenty three.
BW: Thinking back then to repairing a Merlin what would you say was the most complex thing to repair? What was the most difficult -
JBF: Well -
BW: Sort of repair or work you had to do on it?
JBF: We didn’t do repairs. What happened was they went in after a number of hours for scheduled maintenance and they got the plugs changed and the oil completely changed and the coolant and they did tests on the engine itself to see that it was still workable because they were work horses you know, they was. I mean we never ever had an engine change in the Mosquito. I don’t ever remember one having to go in for an engine change. They all went in for repairs because of damage or wear or whatever. But just a marvellous piece of equipment, you know.
BW: And when they were brought back or once you’d finished the repair did you have to do engine run ups to verify that it was working alright?
JBF: Oh every day, part of the night, you had to run, you had to DI the engine to see it was, you know, add the coolant in and the oil and all the rest of it. Then it had a test run on the ground. The engines were test run on the ground and to start off only the corporal did the testing and then finally we did that, I did, you know I’d been there a couple of years finally and we did the test runs if they were on leave or anything. So you get to, you’ve got to run, a Mosquito is quite, you know, terrifying to start with. The corporal had someone sitting with you and that.
BW: And so this was done on, on a test bed presumably on -
JBF: No. No. Just where it was in the grass.
BW: Ok.
JBF: They didn’t go anywhere.
BW: Ok. And -
JBF: It was part of the night flying test to run the aircraft before it went up.
BW: And although you mentioned previously that when you were looking for a leak you got on the top of the wing to look in.
JBF: On top of the wing, yeah.
BW: Did you have to do the same once you’d repaired, once you’d serviced the engine?
JBF: It was only for oil leaks.
BW: Ok.
JBF: If they came back and mentioned any kind of leak we used to do this on the back of the aircraft and look in just to see if we could see, you know.
BW: Did you ever get to go in the cockpit to start the engines?
JBF: Yes. I’ve actually flown in a Mosquito. Wing Commander Green was going up for an NFT and Stan Wright fixed it for me to go with him and the problem was at twenty thousand feet there was a juddering. It was very slight, he said, but at twenty thousand feet down and it started to do this you know and it turned out a mixture problem. Something was going wrong at that particular height with the mixture and they fixed it up and it was ok. I only did the, I had one trip in a Mosquito.
BW: How long was that? How long did it last?
JBF: Well, basically the NFT about half an hour, three quarters of an hour.
BW: And what, what did you experience during a flight? What was it like?
JBF: Well I was just gobsmacked. I was absolutely, you know, like this, sort of thing.
BW: And he didn’t, did he let you have a go at the controls or not?
JBF: Oh no. No. They wouldn’t let you do anything. God. Strewth. That would have been it.
BW: But you got to sit next to the pilot while he’s –
JBF: You’ve got to, well the -
BW: Was doing the test.
JBF: The navigator’s here and the pilot’s here you know and –
BW: Yeah.
JBF: The throttles were in between.
BW: It was exhilarating I’m assuming.
JBF: Oh absolutely. Yeah. I was, I felt, you know, Group Captain Franklin, here we go, you know. Real Mr Mainwaring job you know. There’s one, I don’t know whether you want any story out of it but there was one graphic story that, that happened. I think it was at Marham and I was on the main plane waiting for the bowser to fill up and suddenly there were screams underneath the aircraft, ‘Help. Help.’ So I got off the main plane and got down and the armourer had primed a five hundred pound bomb and then he couldn’t hook it in so he was standing there so I got the bomb on my back and slowly, I was, you know strong in those days and I lifted it up.
BW: So you crouched underneath it, took the weight on your back.
JBF: I took the weight on my back and while he hooked it in. He said, ‘We’re alright now.’ I said, ‘Well we’re not being blown up at least,’ and the aftermath was I think the op was over because they were filling, we used to have to fill them up immediately they came back you know in case and Stan Wright came to me. He said, ‘You know, Jack,’ he said ‘Were you on the starboard wing?’ I said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘I got this scream from underneath and I went down and helped the armourer. We managed to get over the problem.’ When I came out everybody had vanished and the aircraft as far as we could make out had been to France or Germany and back with no petrol caps on the right side. So, he said, ‘You know,’ he said, ‘This is a court martial offence.’ I said, ‘Hang on.’ So I thought about it. So I got on the bike, went, cycled around into the hangar, all the lights were on and there were Mossies being maintained you know so I couldn’t see anybody so I climbed up on the back of this Mosquito, took off the two petrol caps, and the tops, put them in my jacket and got down. Nobody, didn’t see me so I, so I went to Stan. I said, ‘You’re alright, Stan. You won’t be court martialled.’ I said, ‘Here they are.’ [laughs] Gave him the two tops and the petrol. He was absolutely, you know, he was gobsmacked [caught the phrase locally?] and so hurriedly because the people that would have been up for the trouble were the mechanic that was on the other side of the Mosquito ‘cause he’d signed the 700 to say it was full and how the aircraft got to Germany and back with no petrol caps on we never knew and nobody else did because they didn’t know they were off.
BW: And the air crew normally do checks before they -
JBF: Oh yes.
BW: Take off as well.
JBF: Well they start the engines up and all that you know you had to. The method of starting was you had the trolley acc and you primed the engine. There was a little flap on the side and you primed the engine and then you give the signal up to the bloke on the trolley acc, he presses the -
BW: Thumbs up.
JBF: Electrics and it starts up, you know and he, if there was any worry it was when we hadn’t enough ground crew to go around. You had to do the two engines so you had to prime the one on the port side shall we say and then you had to come and prime the one on the starboard side and then you give the, and fortunately despite you know, I think it’s the quality of the workmanship really because we never ever had a failure. You know. Overheating. They both started each time even when there was only one man doing it because we’d no people to do it.
BW: And in all weathers too.
JBF: Oh well it was, you know, Norfolk in the winter is quite something else. The thing they used to do when it was a long raid we knew it was a long raid because they’d come out with urns of cocoa and corned beef sandwiches about that thick.
BW: About two inch thick.
JBF: And you could get, there was an unlimited supply. You could do, if you felt like running around a lot as we were during the night and so we got stuck into these. You know it was fine. Didn’t mind. The, really you have to be the age we were at. Anybody else, it must have been, you know if you were thirty five or forty or whatever it was it must have been awful, just, and with a family you know. Well one corporal developed shingles and it was the family. He was on the phone to the wife and the kid had measles or whatever it was you know and he was beside himself. I was exactly -
BW: And yet -
JBF: The right age for the war. It couldn’t have been better.
NH: Yeah.
BW: And as a single man you were quite happily sharing a barracks with your mates.
JBF: Oh yes. I hadn’t got a girlfriend. I was just a single man, you know. In fact, one Christmas I gave up my leave for one of the married men who had kids you know. Which was nothing heroic. It was just common, you know.
BW: Did, did you feel that your efforts were appreciated by the crews and the -
JBF: Oh yeah.
BW: Officers on the base?
JBF: Oh everybody. It was a together thing. I mean working that close and their lives were involved. It was a very close knit, all the squadrons were the same. A very close knit unit. There was no Captain Mainwaring standing around, you know. I mean there was no saluting.
BW: Really.
JBF: You just got on with it and first names, you know they called you.
BW: So -
JBF: You always called them whatever they were like squadron leader, you know, Bufton and you gave them their rank but we were just Jack and Alan and Stan.
BW: Were there any, you mentioned an error in someone leaving petrol caps off? Were there any incidents that you knew of elsewhere in the squadron perhaps?
JBF: Well -
BW: Where there was something that had been missed that resulted, for example, in an accident or the loss of an aircraft.
JBF: Oh the only thing that we watched from start to finish was U-Uncle and two lads, they could have been more than twenty five, navigator and the pilot, you know and they were very excited. It was their first trip and we got them in and watched them and they took off and went straight, straight in.
BW: So the nose pitched up and they went straight down.
JBF: They went straight down and burned to death, the two of them. Big explosion. Bang. And I said that, there was this old sergeant and I said, he said they probably didn’t lock the throttles. They were that excited about getting up because they had to do a lot of homework in while they were in the aircraft to find out what they were going to do, you know. They just went straight in.
BW: And that was close to or over the base.
JBF: Well we just watched the whole thing. Yeah. And the ,our aircraft finally, when I say our aircraft this DK number 334 I think it was or 335 it crash landed and it was that old the aircrew hated it because it was absolutely on its tips you know. Did a hundred and eleven ops and it landed and the undercarriage went up into the -
NH: The wing.
JBF: Into the engine nacelle and just they weren’t hurt and that was it. They took us around and we were photographed, the three of us Alan, Stan and myself in front of this wreck.
BW: So moving on from Wyton and Marham.
JBF: Yes.
BW: You mentioned that later in your service you transferred to 28 squadron.
JBF: Yeah.
BW: So what happened in the period between -
JBF: Little Staughton -
BW: This would be -
JBF: Was the next thing after Marham.
BW: And did you request a transfer to another squadron?
JBF: What happened was I put in for overseas and said I’d serve anywhere because I I thought, well, realised, that we would never go anywhere else. We were, the war was well on from D Day. They were going into Germany, the armies, France and there was less, and it was rather backing up troops rather than bombing anywhere so I put in for overseas and said I’d serve anywhere and that’s how I came to go to 28 squadron. Next minute I was on a troop ship and then I was in North Western India at a place called Ranchi.
BW: How do you spell that?
JBF: I joined 28 squadron.
BW: How do you spell Ranchi?
JBF: R A N C H I.
BW: And this was in North West India.
JBF: North West India. Yeah.
BW: And so the attraction of going was really because you felt there wasn’t going to be that much more -
JBF: I was -
BW: To do on the squadron.
JBF: The age I was. Twenty four you know.
BW: And you fancied the opportunity of going abroad.
JBF: At least, I thought, yeah. The next minute the CO said, ‘Don’t unpack your kit you’re going to Burma.’ So I thought well this will be a change. So we gave in our blue, all the winter clothing and put in a kit bag and the marvellous thing was when it came back to us in Malaya it was intact for those two years. So with 28 squadron they were on rest and then they suddenly said, ‘We’re off. We’re starting off,’ and we went to Burma by road and rail and we got on the train. It went right up into the North West provinces of India you know, up to, by rail a change to the narrow gauge railway, Assam. That’s it. All that through I think it’s around the top of what is now Bangladesh you know and you go well India’s what you might call semi-primitive to absolutely basics. When you get up there the Naga tribesmen are still in the outfits, you know. I thought gee whiz if these fellas were in the Olympics they’d win everything. Their leg muscles were like this because they were hill men. Apparently, the English had civilised them and they were no longer head hunters. But they chased the Japanese. But what used to happen was you’d be standing there and they’d come down from the mountain and do what we called the shopping which was trying to get food, I think was the main thing. Then on the way back they had conical baskets which they put their provisions in and they each held the bottom of the conical basket and then they started a rhythm of steps and they went straight up the mountain like that. None of this we’ll climb here and all the movement was about fifteen of them all holding on. Nothing was out of place. Nothing. Must have been doing it all their lives. It was great.
BW: Just out of interest how did you get shipped out to India? Did you fly out there or were you -
JBF: No. It was the Cameronia.
BW: Troop shipped.
NH: Tell them about your Suez Canal.
BW: Well the Suez Canal was -
NH: I’ll make some tea while you -
JBF: The reason I’ve told it is on the boxes of dates before the war you always had an Arab pulling two camels and I’m just lounging on the side of the Cameronia and suddenly an Arab pulling two camels appeared on the side of the Suez Canal. So I’ve seen it. You know. Right off the box. So, we, we finally landed in Bombay. Worli was the transit camp and then we were on the trains going to our different placements.
BW: And this is Worli.
JBF: Worli that’s the transit camp outside Bombay.
BW: How do you spell Worli?
JBF: I should imagine it’s something like W R O R L and L I somewhere on the end of it. And the thing to watch out for on the Indian trains are the hookers because they are going that slow when they go up hill the hookers jump on to the train with hooks and hook all the equipment out of the windows which are always open and Handley, my pal gets out in his underwear with just shorts and he gets out with an officer in a dressing gown.
NH: All the gear had gone.
JBF: We’d lost it all with the hookers. And well a real introduction to India, on the floor on the station was this old man covered in flies. He was just covered in flies and I said to one of the Anglos, I said, ‘Well what’s that?’ He said, ‘He’s just dying.’ And that, that sums India up for me you know. That was it. Another time I saw a man, he was quite a big man, he was on a piece of corrugated and four men were holding him you know and I said, ‘He looks dead.’ ‘He is dead. They’re just carting him off. He’s just died.’ It was just like Fu Manchu you know. Flares and this one had been. And we finally we were taken by truck to Burma and it was along the Manipur Road and then it’s, it’s a flat road in between mountains where Kohima and Imphal where they did the fighting and then the road goes like this and suddenly it turns right and starts to go up called The Chocolate Staircase when the monsoon was on because it was, and we were in these trucks, you know, and just went up one side and the other side and these trucks were just and Tamu, that was the first airstrip. Jungle. It was thick jungle you know. Thick jungle airstrip and the first casualty of 28 squadron happened at Tamu. One of the, flight lieutenant [Hewlis?] an Australian, he’d forgotten, they said, to lock, you had to, because the trees, it didn’t taper off the airstrip it came straight up so you had to bounce along the runway and suddenly do this.
BW: Lurch in to the air.
JBF: Well his undercarriage caught on the trees, tipped him over and he was hanging upside down burned to death. You know. And we just, that was the first introduction. Watching him burn to death in Tamu.
BW: And 28 squadron, what did they fly? Were they [?]
JBF: Hurricane 2Cs they were. Clapped out Hurricanes that, I mean, by that stage of the war the government, I should imagine was penniless and you name it and they hadn’t the wherewithal to replace them and it was a reconnaissance unit and the issue, the side sort of activity, shall we say, was shooting up the Japanese on the ground and that’s where we lost most of the aircraft because they were, the Japanese were very good shots and they used to shoot them down when they were doing the ground strafing and we were in the jungle from January, February and we went down the Kobor Valley in a truck which was thick jungle full of malaria and you name it and one thing we learned at that particular, you can’t pee out of a moving truck. It was in a convoy so he couldn’t stop so we each went to the back of the, we had a competition, we each went to the, got off our toolbox, went to the back, hanged up, everything organised and nothing came out and everybody was the same. You can’t pee out of a moving truck.
BW: And what time of the war was this? This was after -
JBF: This was -
BW: D Day wasn’t it so was it late ‘44 when you transferred out there?
JBF: This was ’44. Yeah.
BW: Going in to early ‘45
JBF: Well forty, it was the end of ‘44 ’45.
BW: So this was after the Battle of Kohima when you’d gone through the -
JBF: Oh that was all.
BW: Towns yeah, yeah.
JBF: Oh all that would have been the ‘43 yes. All those, oh yes that was absolutely, the people that did that they should have been, what was left of them, they should be pensioned for life. They were fighting, they were fighting over a tennis court in one of the places.
BW: And so you say 28 squadron was a reconnaissance squadron.
JBF: That’s it. Reconnaissance and two cannon.
BW: Yeah.
JBF: That why they’re called 2Cs, two cannon, heavy, heavy machine gun, you know. What is it? Five?
BW: Twenty millimetre.
JBF: That’s it. Yeah. Twenty five millimetre. Quite heavy shells you know and when we got down to this Kalaymyo and it was just bush and we didn’t see an aircraft because the war was moving that quick. The next thing we were, by truck to a place called [Yau] which was an airstrip in the paddy fields.
NH: Do you want another cup Brian?
BW: Yes please. Thank you, Neil. And this is further into Burma.
JBF: This is further into Northern Burma. Tamu’s up here and you come across like this to Mandalay. Well we went down the Kobor Valley and across to [Yau?] and [Yau?] we went to Sadong.
BW: Thank you.
JBF: Sadong was the airstrip outside Mandalay. The Japanese were still in Mandalay and this is where we lost the aircraft. The aircrew. We lost two or three aircrew here because the Japanese could shoot them as they come over the fort. They were in the fort, you know. They lost them there.
BW: And even that was just down to small arms fire.
JBF: I think it was small arms, I never saw ackack guns or even, we heard all the row that was going on but I don’t ever recollect, I think it was small arms fire. The Japanese rifle is 256 the, the calibre. You know, ours are 303. Their rifles were 256. Smaller bullets but just as lethal but of course they’re all five foot three so carrying something lighter was part of the course for them. So we were in Sadong and we were there quite some time and they used to have the mule trains going up to supply the troops. Like Sadong’s here and Mandalay is there and thirteen miles I think was the difference and they came one day and said, ‘You’re not going to bed. You’re going to fly down to Meiktila.’ And so we didn’t go to bed that particular night, struck the tents, got in the Dakotas. All the Dakotas had no doors on. If you want to be frightened go on a Dakota with no doors. And we landed in Meiktila and they hadn’t cleaned up the airstrip. All the Japanese they’d killed were everywhere which was the first time really I’d seen what you might call a battlefield and well we just got stuck in from there with the aeroplanes.
BW: You mentioned that you’d struck tents.
JBF: Oh yes.
BW: Were all your accommodation presumably out in the Far East was in tents was it?
JBF: While the campaigning was on it was tents. You had a piece of coconut matting with two sort of slide holes and through that went two pieces of bamboo. Now I pinched two full sets of runway grating. I’d call them nails. They were pieces of metal and they were driven into the ground so that when it was the monsoon they had the metal over and the aircraft didn’t sink so I got hold of four -
BW: Pierced steel planking.
JBF: Of these and I drove those in the ground put the bamboo on, tied on and my bed was off ‘cause you couldn’t, they wouldn’t let you sleep on the ground because there were scorpions, you know. All the stuff that’s there. Scorpion. If you left your tent flap open you couldn’t get in because of the bugs. Somebody did to see what would happen and it was an absolute carpet of every conceivable type of flying bug you’ve ever heard of. So we never did that again.
NH: No.
JBF: We got down to Meiktila. It all went very well and we knew the war was going well because the Arakan forces who had taken Meiktila our, our army was General Slim coming this way. The Yanks were on the outside coming that way and the Indian army was coming this way along the Arakan and it was the –
BW: The opposite end.
JBF: Arakan that had captured Meiktila and so we got on to Meiktila and, you know, set up and they were doing everything as usual. It was exactly the same. Seven hundred. Oil, so on and then see them off, bring them in and run them and so on. Keep them -
BW: So even though you were working on different aircraft you were still working on the same engine to all -
JBF: That’s right.
BW: Intents and purposes.
JBF: Merlin 20s. That’s why I was posted to the Hurricane squadron, because it was home from home. We knew what to do and could do it right away.
BW: Even in those adverse conditions and presumably not as well supplied.
JBF: Well -
BW: Did you, did you have trouble with supplies?
JBF: Well we had nothing to eat. That was the trouble with supplies. But I mean hens eggs in Burmese is [ju ug?] [koplar?] is cloths. So you had a pair of underpants and you’d go [ju ug] like that [koplar] and so you’d get the hens egg and they’d get the underpants. So the net result it -
BW: So you’d trade.
JBF: We had nothing to wear either. [laughs]
BW: So you traded your under -
JBF: Not that it mattered ‘cause you never had a shirt on anyway. It was just a pair of shorts, socks and boots you know that’s the and with your boots you had to knock your boots out every day because the scorpions loved, it must have been the smell of your feet, they loved getting in the boots so we had to be, and tool boxes. If you, when you opened your toolbox the first thing to do is wait and see if anything moves. Then you’d know there was something in there that shouldn’t be in there you know. So we’re getting on with it and I think the most distressing part of Meiktila was a trench full of Japanese who’d been, they’d used the flame thrower on them. There was about anywhere between fifty and a hundred Japanese who’d been fried.
BW: All in a trench.
JBF: All in the trench. ‘Cause they, they were facing either this way or that way and the flame thrower had come this way and just fried the lot.
BW: And was this at the edge of an airstrip or near the airstrip -
JBF: Yeah. It was Meiktila airstrip.
BW: Where you were working.
JBF: There were shell holes with Japanese in. The first time we saw, there was one Japanese well over six feet. He was dead of course, in the shell hole. It was the first time I’d seen a big, they were all about this big but, anyway -
BW: And this, this was obviously all after the battle but you never came into a closer contact with the Japanese at any time.
JBF: No. Only as prisoners, not as - the next thing that happened with Meiktila he said, ‘Nine of you are being flown into the [Tongu] Box.’ Well I was picked as one of the nine so we were flown into the [Tongu] Box and I know when it was simply because we, over the radio that we heard that the Germans had packed up so it’s got to be the 8th of May. And we were in the [Tongu] Box and the laugh about that was we’d got two tents, we only had two tents. There was nine of us and suddenly the ants started, up and they had a procession going in no time. There was millions you know. Ants, you name it. They’ve got it. They were going up the guide ropes up to the top right up to the fourteen foot EPI down the other side so we thought we’ll have a bit of fun here so we got the lighted taper thing and we started chasing the ants off the, the next minute they was, your feet, being bitten and the fighter ants were biting, they were all over us, on the feet, biting. Some bad. So we’re in this in this Box thing and I could see the sergeant was getting a bit frustrated you know. The aeroplanes didn’t appear by the way. It was monsoon so they couldn’t land and take off anyway. The Dakotas had a job doing it and he said, ‘Right. We’re going to make a dash for Rangoon.’ So we thought ok, you know, ‘Rangoon. Great.’ So, so he got two West African trucks and we started off and it got to about 11 o’clock in the morning and we stopped and made a brew up. Put it on the tree and we got the fire going and the stuff out, the tea out and everything and as we were doing all this and thoroughly enjoying it out of the jungle came a patrol of British. So we just sort of, ‘Hello.’ He said, ‘What the f’ing are you,’ you know, he said, ‘Don’t you know where you are?’ We said, ‘Yes. We’re on route to Rangoon.’ He said, ‘Of course you are.’ The place was full of Japanese. He said, ‘Get the hell out of it now.’ So we never even got a cup of tea. It was like the keystone cops. The two trucks and drove off and we kept driving and it got, you know it goes dark at 6 o’clock at night there so we’d got to half past five, quarter to six and even the sergeant was getting a bit worried you know. Finally we hit an army emplacement. I don’t know how we managed to do it but they must, the sergeant must have known and he said, ‘Thank God for that,’ so we drove and he asked the officer could we bunk in for the night so we got on the floor there and at least we were surrounded by the military, you know. And so we started off the next morning and finally around about midday, 2 o’clock or something we arrived in Rangoon and they were living in a bombed out hospital at the time. The squadron. There were no buildings. Everywhere was flat, you know and the only question that was asked was, ‘Where the ‘FH’ have you been?’ They thought we’d already died. And so we arrived there and I think the most graphic thing that happened to me then, we still had Hurricanes and they used to do the cooking fires in front of this building that had no roof, no windows, no doors, nothing but at least it was, you were on the flat and it was not, it wasn’t raining you know. Marvellous and a jeep, a jeep drew up. The adjutant and two sergeants, ‘Who’s Franklin?’ So I said, ‘I am.’ ‘Get in.’ So no breakfast. Get in with the cup and the plate, you know. Driven to the flight and there’s a Hurricane standing there and the CO said, ‘Right,’ he said, ‘Start that machine.’ So I knew it was tricky because the, it wasn’t one where you just, they press the trolley acc and you had to do clever stuff with the accelerator. You know.
NH: Throttle. Yeah.
JBF: And so I got in and just eased it and it was making funny [ch ch ch], the engine you know and then I just eased it on ‘cause I’d done it before, it wasn’t and it started and I did the, you had to go up to two thousand seven hundred revs to test the engine and then you test the magnetos. You switch one off and it works and you switch the other off and it works so I went through the procedures, came down and got out. So I was utterly relieved. You know, at least the thing had worked and this, Blackie his name was, he was the sergeant. He said, ‘Do you know,’ he said, ‘You’ve just made me look the biggest f’ing fool in Burma.’ I said, ‘How’s that?’ He said. ‘I’ve been half an hour trying to get this thing started. You come down and it starts first time.’ First time. So I was driven back. They said, ‘Get out.’ Back to the squadron. No breakfast. That’s the only thing that happened to me out of that lot.
BW: So much for their thanks. And within a few weeks or months the squadron transferred to Spitfire 9s you said.
JBF: That’s right. What happened was from Rangoon we were suddenly changed over to Spit 9s it was. The Hurricanes, by the way the aircraft were just thrown in the bushes. Hurricane aircraft I mean. You know. When you went to dig a hole for the lavatory you went behind one of these because at least you had some sort of privacy. They were just there upended and that’s the other joke about Burma is that there were no toilets of course and when you had to go you had to go so the first, to start with you think oh that’s a nice piece of grass, at least it looked like and everybody in the Japanese army had already been there before. It was black. You were waist deep in it you know. That was one of the Burma experiences that you can forget about. That and the bread full of ants. I thought they were currants to start with. I thought that’s unusual, you know currant bread for breakfast and you handled, it was all ants, dead bodies of ants, they couldn’t get them out of the flour so they cooked them.
NH: Oh right.
JBF: And finally we went, the most graphic thing that happened in Rangoon was we were sitting there and the adjutant came through and he just looked at the four of us and he said, ‘The war’s over.’ [long pause] Seventy years late.
[machine pause]
JBF: And I said, ‘Where are we going?’ He said, ‘You’re going to Malaya,’ So, it was a terrible camp. It was a transit camp and we got in these kites and suddenly the kite I was in developed engine trouble and so we locked in to Siam and we spent oh at least three weeks, four weeks in Siam, at the, waiting for replacements or whatever it was you know and then we were flown in and became garrison squadron on Penang island. That was the next RAF station.
BW: So this is obviously -
JBF: This is after the war now.
BW: August. August ’45, September ’45.
JBF: This is ‘45, yeah -
BW: Were you getting news of being demobbed at anytime?
JBF: Oh nothing. What happened was we were, we were supposed to be, it was an army pre-war barracks beautifully built. Nothing, nothing there. The Malayans had pinched everything you know which was what happened to the cockpit covers. They came down with the new aircraft and all the cockpit covers disappeared overnight. So these Chinese detectives appeared out the woodwork you know and all the kids in the surrounding villages had got new clothes which was our cockpits covers [laughs]. And so we were there six months on rest and then we were transported by train along with thirty million cockroaches. The cockroaches are everywhere on the trains and the way to get them out is not to have a light so there’s no lights and you hear this [tapping noise] and the place is covered in cockroaches about so big. Cockroaches. So once they got the petrol mix and the lights they all went back and hung underneath. Fantastic. Even the loo which was a hole in the ground you know, shoulder to shoulder around the hole where you’re supposed to form are cockroaches waiting.
BW: Strange.
JBF: And we went down to Kuala Lumpur and we were in tents and it was, the thing was there was no aeroplanes and then some aeroplanes arrived and then they started educational vocational courses. We thought we’ve got to be on one of these, you know, sort of thing.
BW: This was preparing you for civilian life presumably.
JBF: This was, yeah. I had, I had an interview and I said, ‘Well I left a job and the man promised me I’d have it when I came back,’ So I didn’t need, really need the interview I felt. And there was a football team and I played in that. And things went on and suddenly the demob, the demob numbers started appearing. Well I was number forty and just one day right out of the blue six years, five years later you know they said, ‘Your number’s up.’ Forty. So within a week I was on the train going to Singapore and stayed at that, what is it, Changi is it?
NH: Changi. The airport. Yeah. Well and the Japanese camp of course.
BW: [I was there?] last year.
NH: Yeah.
JBF: And we handed the weapons in to the armoury. All Japanese. Japanese took the weapons.
BW: That must have felt quite strange.
JBF: Well it was ridiculous you know. Well it was ordered but what I’ve forgotten, I’ve just remember was the armistice in Rangoon. The rumour went around that the Japanese were coming for the armistice for Southern Asia. That bit. So they, a Japanese, they got a Japanese bunker and whereas when they captured Singapore they had all the military, the troops lined the Streets and the Japanese commander standing up in a motor car commanding, you know. All the poor squaddies were just stood there you know. We did, they had officers on the runway but everybody, it was like a football crowd so we all crowded around. I tell you what it’s like. General MacArthur on the boat where he accepts the surrender of Japan. It was like that, like a football. Well I sidled around the side and they had a desk a bit bigger than this and two of our generals were standing there and the aircraft, they were like Dakotas only much smaller pulled up and into this compound thing and this general said, ‘Do we salute?’ He said, ‘We don’t f’ing well salute them.’ So they pulled the, and there was the Japanese generals, the Japanese in full evening dress. They climbed out, marched over to the table and they just nodded and pointed to the trucks and they were put in trucks for Rangoon for the surrender and that was the surrender in Rangoon. It was just like a football match.
NH: Yeah.
JBF: There was no ceremony at all. It just -
BW: And that was it.
JBF: As it was, you know.
NH: Yeah.
JBF: Then finally the final news was the boats arrived so of course we couldn’t wait so that’s the only time I saw Raffles Hotel was in the truck going past to the troop ship.
BW: I was there myself in November.
JBF: And came home to Liverpool.
NH: What? You docked in Liverpool.
JBF: Docked in Liverpool.
NH: Marvellous. Yeah.
JBF: Then we got on the train and went to [Worley?].
NH: Back to the beginning.
JBF: Just outside Blackpool and were demobbed from there and so we had the kitbag with your uniform in and bits and pieces. You were in your RAF and your, the bag was your civilian, you know. They kitted me out with a suit, a shirt, a tie, socks, underpants, vest and shoes and it came in a series of boxes it seemed to me, just holding. We were all the same, holding up these boxes and then they just said, ‘Ok, your train’s arrived,’ and we got on the train to Liverpool and I caught the tram home.
NH: They found shoes to fit you did they?
JBF: Yeah. Got, got to Gordon Drive. Nobody’s in. Nobody in the house so [Winn Roth?] called over, ‘Jack,’ she said, ‘Come in for a cup of tea.’ So I sat in there until my sister came back from work and when I got in the house was full of mice because nobody had lived in it you see and all the scratches were on the sideboard and the various places. The meat safe thing. So I started and I caught mice every night for seven days and the technique was we, we, we had a ewbank cleaner and we chased them out of the dining room and I realised they all went in this ewbank cleaner. Every time. No change. So I said to my sister, ‘Fill up the sink.’ So she fills the sink up and takes the bowl out. I lift up the ewbank cleaner and depress and of course the doors open and out drop the mice. I killed eight in one night. The final night. So that was the trick. You know you see these pictures where there’s a party and -
NH: Yeah. That’s right. Yeah.
JBF: All the relatives. I never even got a party. My mother was in America seeing my brother.
BW: Who must have been in a show in America presumably.
JBF: Oh well he was –
NH: He was touring with his -
JBF: At that stage -
BW: Right.
JBF: He was with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and they, Agnes de Mille, you know the, what is she? A sister of de Mille himself you know.
BW: Cecil B.
JBF: You know.
NH: Yeah.
JBF: She was a choreographer and she choreographed Rodeo, was the name of the ballet and my brother was the champion roper in Rodeo and that was, and it was, well it was you know he was famous and it wasn’t in England.
NH: He was famous over there.
BW: Quite a showman.
JBF: Yeah.
NH: Never over here but he was in America, you know. Well known in the ballet world.
JBF: Yes. So basically I think and oh just one nice touch. I hadn’t been paid. Nobody had been paid you know all the way through from India I can’t remember. We got nothing in India.
NH: I suppose you couldn’t do anything with it anyway.
JBF: And these cheques started to appear. I thought, the five years I’ve worked so I didn’t go to work. I didn’t tell them. So the cheque came through and I said to my pal Tom, who was also demobbed, I said, ‘What do you think?’ He said, ‘Let’s go to London. Just to see what it’s like.’ So we get the cheque and off we go to London. He was the same. And it went on ‘til the week before Christmas when the cheques stopped. I said, ‘I’ve got to go to work Tom,’ I said. ‘There’s no more cheques.’ So I started work about the 15th of December that year having had off September, October, November and part of December. I thought well that’s all the leave.
NH: Yeah. That’s it. Well you’d earned it hadn’t you by that stage?
BW: And were you able to go back to the job that you’d been -
JBF: Oh yes I went back.
BW: Left.
JBF: I was the last in ‘cause I was, I was the last out the youngest and I was the last in and they’d taken, I went back to the Banana Rooms but they’d already taken a building in Sir Thomas Street and built and extension to it so we went back to reasonable offices and started to build up the business from that moment and that’s how it was. I finally retired forty seven years from Dixons.
BW: So you stayed at the same firm -
JBF: Yeah.
BW: For forty seven years.
JBF: Yeah. Well what did I know? I was twenty six you know. I had to learn to play tennis and badminton and in fact be normal. It was something I’d never experienced you know actually coming home at night and sitting down to a meal. We thought it was wonderful, Tom and I, you know. Marvellous.
BW: And subsequent to that there have been in recent years a bit more prominence and commemoration given to Bomber Command.
JBF: There has been hasn’t there? Yes.
BW: How do you feel about that?
JBF: ‘Cause they, well you’ve only got to read those books to know the price paid by the people who actually did it. When they say there’s fifty five, fifty seven thousand aircrew killed in those books that I’ve got.
NH: They’re on the chair there.
JBF: They’re talking about. There they are. Seven or eight Lancasters disappearing in the night. That was fifty six blokes. And it was every night. It wasn’t just [next?] and then there’s a month’s delay. I mean the Mosquitos, we lost about three. One received a direct hit of an anti-aircraft shell and blew up and the others were just shot down. But the rest of them, I mean, our kite did a hundred and eleven ops –
NH: Yeah good.
BW: Not with the same crew though presumably -
JBF: Oh no we had all kinds of crews.
BW: Just thinking back to your time in the Far East did you get to know the pilots on the squadron, 28 squadron at all well?
JBF: Oh yes very much so. They were very, one pilot wouldn’t let you touch his aircraft. He used to, Eddie Hunter was a Canadian. He said, it was my turn to DI his kite he said, ‘Look Lofty,’ he says, ‘I know about aircraft.’ he says, ‘I’ll do the necessary,’ and he filled up the, I filled up the juice and he checked the engine and did the oil and the coolant and that and he got shot down that day. What happened was he, from his, they used to go in twos you know. The second man, the report was, Eddie went down strafing the Japanese and as he was coming up he hit a tree, just caught the tree coming up and he crashed and killed him.
BW: Just clarify a couple of expressions if you don’t mind. DI what does that stand for?
JBF: Daily inspection.
BW: Daily inspection.
JBF: Each aircraft has a daily inspection and it was very important because it’s always after a raid, you know or a flying test or whatever and you have to sign the form 700 to say it’s, your bit’s ok.
BW: And trolley acc. That’s a trolley accumulator is that right?
JBF: Accumulator. There’s twenty four volt is it?
NH: Yeah. It’s like a –
BW: Yeah.
JBF: And they’re on two wheels.
NH: Generator thing isn’t it that they charge the engine with instead of having a starter motor.
JBF: Plug it into the aeroplane.
BW: Yeah.
JBF: You’ve primed with the pump, there’s a little hatch and you open that. Prime and screw up and then press the trolley acc. It starts. And the Merlin 20 was like that all the time.
BW: How did you rate the Spit 9s that you worked on?
JBF: Sorry?
BW: How did you rate the Spitfire 9s that you worked on?
JBF: Well they were very interesting. Not that we knew anything about them but there was nobody to tell you anything. They were just dumped on us you know and we just sort of –
BW: Were they Merlins 66s in the 9 mark 9.
JBF: They were much, they were engines we’d never seen or we knew where the oil was and we knew where the coolant was but the rest of it was just totally different.
BW: Did you feel that they were more reliable then the Mark 20 engines?
JBF: Oh yes. Well it was the, what you might call the essence of all the experience because the Lancasters had, you know, starting with Spitfires, Lancasters, Mosquitos all had Merlins in.
NH: So yeah.
JBF: I mean they were all, the Merlins underpinned the whole shooting match you know.
NH: Right. Yeah.
BW: And you still found the 66s to be pretty reliable.
JBF: Oh yes. Yeah.
BW: And they had a supercharger on them.
JBF: Yeah.
BW: Didn’t they?
JBF: That’s right yeah.
BW: Did you know much about those or work on those?
JBF: Oh no. They were just stood there you know. One thing I haven’t mention was watching a B17 fly into the ground if that’s of any interest. Is it? At Little Staughton which was very close to a lot of American bases I was DI’ing this kite and I looked up and I saw this aircraft low flying. I thought God strewth and they did a lot of low flying and it kept on flying and then it dipped and I just watched it coming towards me and it dipped into the ground and suddenly everything started to fly off it and it finished about eighty yards from me. It finally disintegrated and blew up and I’m mesmerised. You can’t, I don’t know what it is, you can’t run away and then I heard a voice, ‘Lofty’ he said, ‘Come here,’ he said, ‘Get under this,’ and so we hid under a Mosquito with six hundred and forty gallons of petrol [laughs] and we’re under the engine, you know, because it was the most protection but what I remember of the, of that was one of the cylinders complete, when the explosion of the engine it blew the cylinders out and you recognise it mid-air, ‘Oh yes there’s the’, and it just came out and dropped just short of where the Mosquito we were under you know.
BW: And so you watched this bomber coming towards you -
JBF: Yeah just watched it and -
BW: Disintegrate as it hit the ground.
JBF: Into the ground. Nothing. Not one of those.
BW: Yeah not going straight in. Going in at a sharp angle.
JBF: There was nobody in it. It was on glide, you know. It was on pilot. The Yanks came around, ‘Oh is this where it fell?’ You know.
NH: Autopilot.
JBF: All our aircraft were full of holes but -.
BW: So they must presumably have baled out.
JBF: They’d baled out. Yeah.
BW: And left it to fly on.
JBF: Well I wouldn’t say it was common baling out but we could look in, we watched the Liberator on fire in the air and suddenly five or six of the crew jumped out in parachutes and you know it was all part of the course if you know what I mean. It wasn’t, and the flying bomb was the same, we were walking into, at Staughton walking into the cookhouse, 4 o’clock in the morning. We’d done the op. It was all buttoned up and ready and there was an erk leaning on the side of the door smoking a cigarette. He said, ‘Do you want to see a flying bomb?’ So we said, ‘Ok,’ you know so he said, ‘Just turn around and watch that,’ and there was a light and a putt putt putt putt putt putt putt and then suddenly it stopped. The only flying bomb I saw was just that one.
BW: So thinking back to your experience of Bomber Command and looking back at it how do you feel the service has been commemorated? Is it, it is getting better or -
JBF: I was disappointed to start with because I did hear that somehow or other Bomber Command was pegged out, you know. Pushed around the back because it wasn’t right bombing Germans you know. Bombing civilians and all that. And I was delighted to see that they’d got this commemoration up to the air crew in London and of course Eric Brown, my cousin, he was killed and my friend Eric [McKim?], he was killed. Both aircrew. Both on these.
NH: Missions.
BW: And so from the Green Park Memorial to the Centre that’s going to be at Canwick Hill did you get to the unveiling of the Memorial -
JBF: Oh no.
BW: Last year.
JBF: I’ve never been in any kind of Association like, you know, old comrades and all that. I’ve been to two or three reunions but you were only friends in that, once you’ve, you were all looking at each other. Perfect strangers.
NH: Yeah.
JBF: You know, solicitors were looking at accountants and accountants were looking at clerks and clerks were looking at petrol attendants or –
NH: Yeah.
JBF: Garages.
NH: Had nothing in common by then did you?
JBF: I remember two.
NH: Who was the guy that you, there was the fella with a ‘tache wasn’t there that sort of set himself up as a, as a leading light in that thing and you said he was, you knew him anyway, there was a guy that sort of ran it or tried to get -
JBF: Oh yes. Yeah. Well -
NH: That organised the reunions.
JBF: Organised the reunions. Yeah, well.
NH: Who was that fella?
JBF: To be honest except for Handley and Dom and Clive and Bill Gill, that was our little gang, and we all went to the reunions, we went to two reunions but there was nothing in common.
BW: Right.
JBF: We had nothing in common. Pat Handley was a big lorry driver on the motorways. Dom worked in a garage. I don’t know what Clive did. And I went back to office work.
BW: Yeah.
JBF: And the friendship was just at the time you know. In Meiktila for instance Handley had the brilliant idea. Japanese built the bunkers for their aircraft and of course there’s a trench around where they got the air to make the bunker so Handley has this brilliant idea he won’t bother with pegs and that he’ll just put the tent over one of these bunkers which is great except for the monsoon started. He’s standing in two foot of water and instead of rushing to help him we all died laughing, you know.
NH: Yeah.
BW: And so you’ve yet to see the memorial spire to Bomber Command crew at Canwick Hill at Lincoln where -
JBF: Is it really?
BW: So you’ve yet to go and see that.
JBF: Do I?
NH: Well he can’t get around much these days.
BW: Yeah.
NH: That’s the problem.
BW: Yeah.
NH: He’s not very mobile.
BW: Yeah.
NH: Are you? So you -
JBF: Oh no. I’m housebound you know.
BW: Yeah.
JBF: I can’t go out.
NH: Yeah.
BW: Yeah.
NH: He gets to his art.
BW: That’s a shame.
NH: He painted all these.
BW: These pictures on the wall.
NH: Yeah.
JBF: There’s, there’s -
BW: [?]
JBF: The one that’s see the latest underneath that see that one.
BW: Yeah.
JBF: Of the skyscrapers, right at the bottom, beside the little girl.
BW: Yes. This one.
JBF: That’s, Tim’s got that one. That was the last one I painted.
NH: So that’s, that’s as far as he gets these days.
JBF: You know they’re sort of this size.
BW: They’re wonderful paintings.
NH: Yeah.
BW: Ok.
NH: They’re his.
BW: Ok. I think that is all the questions that I have for you Jack unless there is anything else that you want to add.
NH: The only other thing is you mentioned my mum. Didn’t you used to meet up? She was at Bletchley and you used to meet up.
JBF: She was at Bletchley Park and I was at Little Staughton and we arranged to meet and I used to go to Bedford I think it was, catch the train and we’d meet. She’d bring a WAAF friend and invariably we went to the pictures and I never ever saw the film. I fell asleep immediately because I’d come off duty to get there so I’d got myself washed and dressed and in my best blue and out and we used to go to the pictures and I never saw a film because I just fell asleep.
NH: Did you ever know what she was doing at Bletchley? I mean.
JBF: No. I only knew what she was doing about 1960.
NH: You knew she was there though.
JBF: Yeah.
NH: Yeah.
JBF: It was very very -
NH: Oh absolutely.
JBF: Yeah.
NH: That’s right.
JBF: It was like the Oboe. The start was very, you know.
BW: And they were told not to speak about it and many of them didn’t for you know sixty years -
JBF: Well 1960.
BW: Let alone thirty.
JBF: The first time I even mentioned the word you know. I don’t even like to say it now to be honest.
BW: Different times.
NH: Absolutely.
BW: Right. Ok. I think that is everything for the interview so on behalf of the Bomber Command Centre thank you very much your time Jack. It’s been a pleasure.
JBF: Here’s the, do you want to have a look at some of the pictures?
BW: I’ll have a look at some of the -
JBF: Let’s see what’s in here.
BW: Items.
NH: So what is this centre?
BW: It’s going to be a digital archive for the audio and any documents that -
NH: Yeah.
BW: People hand over.
JBF: That’s the kind of terrain in Burma.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Jack Brown Franklin
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Brian 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
2016-03-31
Format
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01:51:22 Audio recording
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AFranklinJB160331
PFranklinJB1616
Conforms To
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Pending review
Pending OH summary
Description
An account of the resource
Jack Brown Franklin grew up in Liverpool and worked in a paper merchants. He discusses Liverpool being bombed and his service in the Local Defence Volunteers. He joined the Air Force in 1941 and trained as an engine mechanic. He served with 109 Squadron, Pathfinders before being posted to 28 Squadron in Burma.
Contributor
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Julie Williams
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Civilian
Spatial Coverage
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Burma
Great Britain
Burma--Meiktila
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Liverpool
England--Norfolk
England--Lancashire
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940
1941
109 Squadron
bombing
civil defence
crash
demobilisation
fitter engine
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
home front
Home Guard
Hurricane
Lancaster
military living conditions
military service conditions
Mosquito
Oboe
Pathfinders
perception of bombing war
RAF Little Staughton
RAF Marham
RAF Wyton
Spitfire
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/513/8744/AGoldstrawBJ160827.2.mp3
8eaf418c74d7ce5c9c773b6e4cd64067
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
Goldstraw, John Basil
John B Goldstraw
J B Goldstraw
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Goldstraw, BJ
Description
An account of the resource
Two oral history interviews with Basil Goldstraw (1925 - 2023). He served as a fitter with 75 Squadron at RAF Mepal, before being posted to Singapore.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-08-27
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
DB. I am interviewing Basil John Goldstraw at his home a Haywards Heath on the 27th of August 2016 at 1600. Em Basil I would like you to tell me a little about your experiences before, during and after the war.
BG. Can I just say, you got, when you said legally you have got to use your first, John, legally everything comes to me either JB, sometimes it comes Basil, the people who know, sometimes it comes Mr John. I got one this morning Mr John Goldstraw, which I don’t like. I have always known, everybody knows me as Basil, they cut it short Bas you see and that’s how I sign myself to my friends and Glen and everybody like that you see or sometimes I just say Basil. So it is just that it doesn’t sound right to say it the wrong way round. I am being picky on the one thing that.
DG. Talking today to John Basil known as Bas or Basil Goldstraw at his home in Haywards Heath on the 27th of August 2016 at 1600. Basil as you like to be know best, would you like to tell me about your experiences during the war, before, during and after?
BG. Yep; I was put out leaving me finger on it won’t I.
DB. Here you go.
BG. So that is working now? Right, em having always had an interest in the Air Force eh when war broke out I decided that A I didn’t want to be a Sailor, I didn’t want to be a foot slogger. So I thought the best thing I could do was follow partly an ambition and I went to Dover Street in Manchester at the age of seventeen and volunteered and was accepted for the RAF. My call up papers, my first place of residence was George Street in Edinburgh, rather remember this well because a lad from my home town was due to join up the day after me and his Mum came round to see me and said could he join, could he come along as company? I remember, we got into Edinburgh, we caught a tram, he was a bit slow and I remember him chasing down eh the street, following the tram until we managed to scramble him back on board.[laugh] From George Street the following morning we were trained to Arbroath and our residence was the Old Jute Mills in Arbroath. This is where the basic training took place eh and well remembered because it was an enormous building. Eh a bit like one of the Cotton Mills with everything moved out and there were probably a hundred, a hundred and twenty people living in there. Just as an aside I remember my Mum saying to me, make sure your clothes are aired and anybody who was at the Jute Mills at Arbroath will remember the difficulty we had getting our clothes dry. Every morning we had to put our, fold our blankets, fold our biscuits, put the blankets round the biscuits and do like everybody else had to do, towel and irons for inspection, hiding our laundry out of the sight of the NCO. In the evening we could hang the clothes out and the only way you could really get them dry and this applied to everybody not just me, was to fold your laundry between the sheets and sleep on it overnight and they got reasonably dry, eh it was quite cold but we survived and I can’t remember how long we stayed there but the next port of call for me was Blackpool and 3 S of TT at Squires Gate. Being in Blackpool we were stationed in Civvy Billets and I well remember the lady we stayed with, her name was Bardsley, Mrs Bardsley and a very nice person. There were three of us shared the one bedroom eh, the chap who joined with me from my home town he was one of the inmates, and another chap was Len Kennedy who we became great friends. He actually when the course finished he was posted to a Halifax Squadron in eh Pocklington. The lad from Loxton his name was Perkins eh he became ill so we parted company there from the eh, [unclear] training eh. I am a little bit, can’t remember actually to what happened but I done the Fitters Course and from there I was eh posted to Mepal, 75 NZ Squadron. Eh whilst I had been on the Fitters Course or after the Fitters Course I did volunteer for Aircrew and was accepted. Whilst at Meeple I had to go into sick quarters and then was transferred to the RAF Hospital in Ely from which they done a good job. When I came out the Surgeon said young man you are not going to fly anywhere. Always puzzled me why they didn’t regrade me medically and they I never did, they never did find out really what was the matter. It was only until after the war I think about 1953 or 56 this was diagnosed at St Marys Hospital in Manchester. The time spent at Mepal, I suppose was like anywhere else there were good days and bad days. Eh I was attached all the time there to the RNI Section eh, where we were doing engine, prop changes, modifications, servicing or whatever was required. I always remember two of us had done some work, I think it was on one of the outer engines and, and the rule of thumb was if there was four groups, if there was eh four; what should I say. Remembering that there used to be two groups, eh two people on each engine, I remember that we had finished and the rule of thumb was the last Crew to finish had to see to the engine test run up. See it off on its Air Test and sign the form 700 or 701 I can’t remember which it was before they could go. We were allowed because we were finished we were allowed the rest of the day of which was late afternoon and two of us went for a swim in the Old Bedford Canal at Mepal. As we were swimming the old plane that we had worked on flew over and we had no qualms at all. When we got back into the Mess in the evening, one of them said “eh I think you are in trouble,” so we said “why” they said “well as she came into land eh, the engine went wild, one engine went wild” I think it was the starboard outer “she was too late to do anything so she swerved off the runway, ripped, ripped the undercarriage off and was a mess.” Just on the side it wasn’t our engine for which we were pleased. The outcome was a clevis pin had fallen out of the throttle control and eh left it so they couldn’t control coming in, in the last minute. Poor old bloke, normally controls are examined or they like you, they like a Senior NCO to do that work or check it. People were allowed to do it, the poor old bloke who had eh, done the work ended up on a Court Marshall and I think he disappeared for a fortnight. We used to get the eh Fortresses and Liberators and that flying fairly low over and coming, they used to come back. When our lads were on daylights they used to come back in what we describe as a gaggle whereas the Forts would come back, what was left of them in a Formation. On one of these occasions eh our Squadron was about to land in circuit and the Fortress came in. Eh the Control Box virtually through everything at this Fortress to stop him landing but he seen Mother Earth and he wanted to get down to it and he crash landed luckily without any explosions or fire on the grass on runway near the top towards Sutton. Yeah eh a story that illuminated, if that is the right word from that, we had an MU on the, the airfield and they used to do Majors and Category work. The story is eh, the Americans were still, they were entertained, I don’t know if it was the following morning by the Officers Mess and I think probably a discussion regarding low flying had taken. The story is that morning one of the eh Pilots of 75 eh, was taking a plane up on air test and from what the story goes the American Pilot and his Observer and perhaps others went with them to see how the Lanc flied and everything else. Eh and out over the Wash, the Bedford Canals he came back with a bit of tree branches hanging from one of the engines, I think it was starboard inner and of course it had landed, he had been flying low and it went straight back into the MU for repairs. I don’t know the validity of that but it was a story that went around for quite a while. Again memories coming back, we had, had an intruder come in one night eh, and drop Butterfly Bombs, anti-personnel bombs all over the place we were out of action the following day until the Bomb Disposal people had been and we had no air defence at that time but eh twin browning mounted on a stalk were obtained from somewhere and quite a number of Ground Crew had to go down to Waterbeach for training eh, on these, on this equipment for future Air Defence. Luckily for everybody Gerry never came back again. The next instance that comes to mind is that the Ops, at the latter end of the war Ops were delayed then eventually I think they were cancelled. And eh some of the bomb load were delayed actions. And in the night, I think the idea was to get an early morning start and in the night a terrific explosion occurred somewhere up on A or B Flights one of the Lancaster’s, one of the delayed action must have gone off and we lost quite a few eh planes either through shrapnel damage and one or two just disappeared. Again we were out of action until some more arrived. We have on the, on the Squadron, on the Airfield we had a eh group of Instrumentalists, they were known as the “75’ers.” I don’t remember them playing on actually the Airfield but they used to play at Chatteris if they were not on duty Em, on, I don’t know Fridays, Saturdays night. It was always difficult knowing how to get there because there was no bus service, you had to cadge a lift or cycle. Em, sometimes, sometimes if you got a lift you couldn’t get one back because the chap giving you the lift had got other interests at that time of night. It may sound silly but we had a good relationship with the Police, so you could go into the Station on arriving in Chatteris and say to the Sergeant in the Police Station, little Police Station there, “have you got a bed for the night Sarge.?” And if he was not busy he would say “right ho lads.” And you would stay there overnight, catch the workman’s bus in the morning, eh put two bob in the box, in the box for the eh, Police. Catch the bus, the bus that dropped you of somewhere where you could get into the Airfield without the eh SPs noticing you. As long as you were there for eight o’clock in the morning nobody seemed to worry too much. But it was quite regular that one could do that, it sounds silly you couldn’t do it now. Eh but eh we were friendly and of course the band the billet that I was in we used to play a lot of eh cards, some people gambled, I didn’t but we used to play, can’t remember the card game, it was fifteen two, fifteen four so you could perhaps remember that. Eh we had the eh Officer of the day came down to inspect and there was no list, official list on the back of the door for who were inhabited the bill, the eh hut but there was a list there with our, Crib that was the name of it, I have just remembered our crib tournaments that we used to run in the billet. The NCO in charge said “well Sir the, the crib notices is on and everybody of note is on the crib notice, so we got away with that one. Eh I remember with the Seventy Fivers Band, Arthur Swift he used to play fiddle, Johnnie Kimber he used to play sax, Len Mitchell use to play drums and there was one other that I can’t remember. When maximum effort was on em and I am not sure wither we had twenty four or twenty six planes eh we had long hours at times, I remember working all day and then in the evening we worked through the night, I remember that well because I changed a prop. And when we rung it up it had, had battle damage on it an had been repaired eh and when we rung it up the thing vibrated. This was the latter end of the night we were working, so that was a big panic on to get the trestles on again and change the prop, we had to do it to make sure it was balanced. Eh but some days were long and some days as I said extended through to the following morning. When at the latter end of the war eh the Squadron was moved to Spilsby, if I remember right 424 Squadron came in to eh Mepal and 75 were I think preparing for Tiger Force and then going home, they were going to be equipped with Lincolns. Em; we then some personnel were moved, I was one of them to Upwood and then from Upwood there was then one or two people, I was one of them selected for Overseas again for Tiger Force. We were flown out in an old York via Malta, Albania, Karachi and for a while at Calcutta at Ballygunge for about for about six weeks and then from there eh a Dakota down to Mingaladong, Butterworth, eh and eventually into Singapore from where I was demobbed. We came home by a Dutch liner as they called it the Umbernauld and Barnabelt[?] if anybody came home on that they were lucky to get home and the boat itself became the Moortown[?] and burnt out in the Med in, in fifties or sixties so it should have been burnt out before we got on it. These days one listens to our lack of equipment and poor equipment. Eh, nothing seems to have changed since I was in the Services eh my tool kit eh that I was issued with and other people consisted of a few assorted spanners, a hard faced hammer and screwdriver and pair of pliers. Eh so as I say as regards equipment I don’t think much has changed today. After the war when I was demobbed, I am trying to think, just going back to tools, one of the items that I always seemed to get to on a maintenance was a, because we was handed strips of hard paper with the tasks we had to perform on an engine. And one had to sign for everything that one did so that, that piece, that slip of paper went into the log book which carried your name. Eh there was a small boost aneroid on the port side of the Lanc. Eh and a little dome on there was held on by three ba screws and nuts. I always remember nobody had a three bar spanner so one had to manipulate a pair of pliers and hope it worked because one had to take the aneroid out and clean the eh the slide valve. Em I was in March one day an there was an iron mongers in there, I slipped in and said “have you got a three ba spanner by any chance?” They are the sort of things, mag spanners and that was very useful, in actual fact I have still got it in my tool box. Memories, good Lord, thus saying I got demobbed I think it was near Preston I can’t remember the name of it but that doesn’t matter eh, and of course went back to work for the local authority which we were a borough with our own gas, sewage works and eventually I became in charge of all the maintenance not only on the eh plant, on the vehicles but also on the sewage works equipment and the water works. Having; I had special and separate overalls at the time and separate wellingtons dependant on wither it was a sewage works or the water works that I was attending. Rather laughable but really Health and Safety hadn’t really got in properly then. Eh I quite, it was interesting, I quite interesting and I stayed there until 1968 when I moved down into the Sussex Area again with an other author, authority and in the meantime I,I had become a Member of the Road Transport Engineers, Institute of Road Transport Engineers and one or two other things. So I retired I think in 1980,83 or 86 that, beyond me to remember so I have had quite a good wholesome retirement for which I am very grateful. I suppose one interesting point would be that I was always in R and I, chap named Flight Sergeant Sadler we had always been, he was an Australian he had an MID up and we always referred to him as Bondy Sadler very rarely did you say Flight to him. He was that type of bloke that eh accepted the fact that he was like everybody else, that he were human. Eh with the Flight people we had A, B and C Flight we never really encountered them. It was not an anti-social thing it was just the way that they were on the Flights, they would, they would probably have eh a Rigger, an Engine Fitter and possibly and Electrician and Armourer to each, to each Lanc eh and eh they spent their life generally eh maintaining, repairing the same plane until unfortunately that plane perhaps became lost in action and eh they knew the Aircrew much more than we in, well we didn’t actually in RNI we didn’t actually get in contact with the Aircrew. Our, our, ours was a Lancaster repaired if it went out on air test, came back, the next one was virtually waiting to be attended to so em, eh we were not anti-social say. Luckily a lot of people who were on R and I eh we, we, we sort of associated with particularly in our hut. Just memory that.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Basil Goldstraw
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Denise Boneham
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
2016-08-27
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AGoldstrawBJ160827
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Description
An account of the resource
Basil Goldstraw was classed as medically unfit for aircrew and following training as a fitter, he was posted to 75 Squadron at RAF Mepal. He discusses aspects of his work as a fitter, being bombed, and life on and off the station. He was posted to Singapore as part of Tiger Force and worked as an Engineer with local authorities after the war.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Hugh Donnelly
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
Singapore
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Chatteris
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1945
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
00:28:39 audio recording
75 Squadron
B-17
bombing
crash
entertainment
fitter engine
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
Lancaster
military living conditions
military service conditions
RAF Mepal
Tiger force
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/521/8754/PMabeyBC1605.1.jpg
f01941cf3417c6042787116b14d105cc
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Title
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Mabey, Bernard Charles
B C Mabey
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IBCC Digital Archive
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Mabey, BC
Description
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Nine items. An oral history interview with Leading Aircraftsman Bernard Mabey (b. 1925, 3008464 Royal Air Force), his dog tags, some service material, and two photographs. He served as an air frame mechanic at the Heavy Conversion Unit at RAF Marston Moor.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Bernard Charles Mabey and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
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2016-11-28
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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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CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is Monday the 28th of November 2016 and we’re in Southend talking to Bernard Mabey and he operated in the engineering activities in the RAF. What are your earliest recollections of life Bernard?
BM: I was born in Canning Town in a small terraced house. My father was an electrician and I went to primary school in Canning Town until the age of, from the age of five until eleven and then I won a scholarship to a Central School in Forest Gate at the age of eleven and then that was 1936. And of course when war was declared my school, that Central School had been evacuated to Ipswich, just outside Ipswich. I went with them for, I was only with them a couple of months at Ipswich. In fact I was at Ipswich when war was declared so obviously we were evacuated before war started. And I had a sister who was also evacuated to Oxford so, and I had a brother. I was in a family of three. My brother who was working in London. The government decided that then all the evacuees our parents had to pay a contribution towards their keep. So my father, and all I was doing, I wasn’t being educated all I was doing was digging up the grass areas around this primary school in Nacton which is just outside Ipswich and my father said, ‘You’re no point in digging, or staying up there digging. You can come home and get a job.’ So on my fourteenth birthday I went up to London [coughs] up to London, to Snow Hill at Holborn which was a big like unemployment centre and I got a job in a small commercial artists’ as an office boy. I didn’t like it so then I got the job myself with a firm of estate agents and surveyors in Plaistow. This would be in the new year. That would be 1940, early 1940 at, I think, fifteen shillings a week and I stayed with them ‘til I got called up at the age of eighteen. The firm already had one person called up and what they were doing they were paying all the time they were in the forces, half wage. Well my salary when I got called up was about two pounds a week. So I was on a pound a week from the firm. It was a guarantee that you had a job to come back to. I went to Cardington to get uniform and that photograph up there of all the crowd is when we were got our uniform. And from there after about what four or five days we were shipped up to Skegness to do our square bashing for eight weeks and we were parked in all the empty hotels along the seafront and we used to use the old canteen that was at Butlins empire down the far corner for our food. And that was not a very pleasant time. It was in the winter. There was no heating on in these hotels. There was nothing on the floor. It was just bare floorboards and you used to wake up in the morning, my bed was along the bay window and you wake up in the morning your blankets were damp from the dew coming off from the sea ‘cause, you know, you could see it just out the window. And, but after eight weeks I was extremely fit because I used to, when I was at school, going back to that time I did box for the school. I became a member of West Ham Boxing Club and I boxed in the Great Britain Schoolboy Championships.
Other: Oh.
BM: But I was only what, about, oh under six stone. I was a very small lad. But apparently they thought I was good because I was fast and West Ham were a very good boxing club. One of the best in the country. Anyway, after passing out at Skegness I had, I was posted then to training down at Locking for air frame mechanic. If you were going on engines you would go to Cosford. If you were going on air frames you would go to Locking and that’s where we went and that was, but going back to what you were saying earlier the reason I chose to go in to the air force was because A) I had joined the Air Training Corps in 1941 because we’d moved out of London then down to Laindon because of the bombing. I mean people don’t realised I don’t think that when they started the Blitz it went on for about, oh, certainly longer than a month. Every night. You used to come home from work and my mother would have tea ready. We would eat that and by eight o’clock we were down in the shelter because by five past eight the sirens would certainly go and it was, you could more or less bank on it coming like that and it wouldn’t go all clear ‘til 3 o’clock in the morning.
CB: Fifty seven days continuous.
BM: Oh yes. And that went on, as I say, for well over a month. I think it went on for more like two months. And I was reading in an article since then that West Ham which, that was in the borough of West Ham lost twenty five percent of their housing stock during the blitz and when you consider that most of their housing stock were terraced houses, and small terraced houses it was quite a lot of damage done and, well during my time working there before I got called up. I worked for this firm of estate agents and there were people getting called up as well and so the rent collectors was not a reserved occupation and so they said, ‘Right. As part of your training Mabey you will do two days a week rent collecting. Which you look after the property and you collect the rents.’ So consequently you’re cycling around on a push bike around the East End of London and, with a satchel and you finish a day with about a hundred pounds in rents but all that few years up to the age of eighteen I never got troubled once, you know. Honesty then was quite prominent. But you saw the tragedy of a lot of women that were left alone with kids ‘cause their husbands had been called up and it was pretty gruesome because a lot of them couldn’t pay their rent and they just vanished overnight. And some of the properties vanished overnight as well because you would go around there the next morning you’d find a big hole. That was just part of my education I suppose because my schooling had finished at the age of fourteen and so when I go into the air force my brother already was in the air force. He was nearly, what, two years older than me. He wanted to be air crew but he was turned down because he was colour blind but I still followed him and I also went for air crew but I was similarly colour blind as well [laughs]. So he finished up a flight mechanic on engines and I finished up, it was not my choice, they just tell you, I finished up flight mechanic on air frames and that was it. And they taught me that down at Locking as I say. I think it was about an eighteen week course. It was after that you’d, then you could look upon the possibility of getting seven days leave. So you’d gone six months plus with no leave at all. And my posting was to Marston Moor, Yorkshire which was very enlightening because bearing in mind that at Skegness discipline was very very strict. To stand in front of a corporal you had to stand to attention. You didn’t speak until you were spoken to. And if you stood in front of a sergeant you felt you were seeing God and that carried on to some degree when you were doing your training at Locking because they were all corporals and sergeants, the instructors. So then you get your kit bag and all your gear and you go up to a squadron in, on Marston Moor which was a wartime ‘drome constructed with nothing of the niceties that you saw at say, ultimately I saw at Waddington anyway. But I remember there you got up to York Station and on York Station there was a shed that you report to and they would say, ‘Where are you were posted to?’ And they would have transport available for you to ship you up to Marston Moor. Go to Marston Moor, go in to the orderly room, hand over the papers, ‘Oh yes, you’ll be, you want to see Sergeant Edie.’ Oh yeah. So I walked over to the hangar and I see a chap there and I say, ‘Can you tell me where Sergeant Edie is?’ ‘Yeah he’s up there on the trestle working on that Halifax.’ So he then just turned around to him, ‘Harry. Someone to see you.’ So he got down from the trestle and I walked up to him. Of course immediately stood to attention and, ‘Sergeant. My name is Mabey.’ And he looked at me. He said, ‘What are you standing like that for? Cut that out.’ He said. ‘That doesn’t happen,’ he said, ‘And my name is not sergeant. It’s Harry.’ And that was suddenly from as I say living in a disciplined atmosphere to get to that and of course when you go to work they give you a bike in, at Marston Moor because the runway was built, a few office buildings, a control tower and things around it and a couple of hangars but accommodation was in nissen huts scattered around and I was in one of four nissen huts on the Wetherby to York Road. Side of the road. Public road. People going by. And there was, you were all and that was accommodated something over a hundred people and no toilets. No washing facilities. You got a stand by tap outside if you wanted water and you’ve got a bike. So you worked out that if you want to go to the toilet there’s the block over there but if you also want to go and have breakfast there’s a block over there and if you’ve got to go to the hangar there’s a block over there so you’ve got the bike and if you got up a bit late in the morning you’d got a choice. What do you want to do most of all? Then you finished up you wouldn’t have breakfast because you knew the NAAFI van would come around about half past nine, 10 o’clock and you’d get a cup of tea and a cake. And that’s what it was like. But you’re going to the canteen of a night time and you’d pull out a couple of slices of bread and a mug of tea which you would put on the stove and toast the bread and warm the tea. So you would ‘cause there were no other comforts. I mean I can say that I never ever had sheets until the last three months of my four years in the air force. All we had was blankets. No pillow cases. Just a bare straw field biscuit. You had three of those and three blankets and you’d sleep on one blanket and have two wrapped around you together with your great coat when it got cold. And on top of that clothes rationing had been going on in the country for a couple of years so pyjamas were a no-no. You couldn’t afford to use clothing coupons to buy pyjamas when you were at home and so consequently when you get in to the air force you ain’t got pyjamas so you just go to bed in your pants and freeze and it was, but the question of wearing a collar and tie never existed. You wore your battle dress with a sweater which you got from the Red Cross. A white sweater and you got white socks from the Red Cross. You know, thick socks which you wore with your wellington boots with the tops turned down and this is where you worked with overalls because the aircraft were always parked out on the dispersal points which were like circles of concrete sprung off the perimeter track. The only time they were in the hangars was when they were going through a minor inspection or a major inspection. Daily inspections, they would be done out in the open. And the daily inspections were the chap on the engines would just run the engines. If the crew had made any complaints about that was not right, that was not right all you did was a daily inspection on the air frame which consist of you’d check the tyres and there used to be a few splits in the tyres. You’d go and get a gun with a rubber handle you know to insert a patch into the tyre but then the next day you’d look at that. It’s been up and it’s landed and that’s gone, come out again. It was very, I wouldn’t say it was poor but the patches didn’t work and it was just like a liquid rubber that you pressed into it. And of course all the controls on those aircraft are in cables. They’re not like electronics now. And all along the fuselage inside you’d got all the cables. Like cables going from the cockpit to the rudder or the elevators and you’d just get hold of the turn buckles and you’d just have to check all those and tighten them all up and then it was ready to go again as far as the, as far as the air frame was concerned unless there was any dents or holes in them. Then you’d have to put a patch on them and that was it. And I lasted there right through ‘til D-Day. VE day because I remember on VE day we had some new chaps had come in from Chittagong. India. They’d been out there servicing aircraft that were dealing with Burma and places like that and they’d been out in the sun too long because they were potty. They’d just announced, you know, VE day. We weren’t allowed to come home and these were just running around the huts banging out the windows with a broom and things like that you know. But there was no celebration on camp really. We just carried on. Some of them said, ‘We’re going home,’ but we weren’t really allowed to. Whether they ever did I don’t know, but and then after that I was sent to, on a fitter’s course, a short fitter’s course to turn me into what they called a Group 1 Trade, Mechanics Group 2. You can get to LAC and you get no higher. That’s you finished. But if you go on to a fitter’s course that’s a higher grade, more money and you can go up to, oh, warrant officer if necessary. And the reason being that when they assembled the Tiger Force in Waddington, this is where they were going to be based, they wanted highly trained mechanics and fitters. They had more training and more competence so, and that’s when I was shipped after that down to Waddington and the Yellow Fever inoculation. But we didn’t have much work to do because it was the people who was doing all the work were the pilots doing training, landing, cross country runs you know and that sort of thing and so we got, I think oh, seven days embarkation leave. I got that about three times. In fact people at home were saying, ‘What the hell are you doing home again?’ And we were there as I say right until VJ Day and so they then asked for volunteers and they didn’t get any to take part in a Victory Parade so the group captain said, ‘Well just take two hundred men out of that lot.’ They had nothing else for us to do and so we were shipped down to Kensington Gardens. And then after that, yes they, my posting came through and I went to [Witney] which was just outside Cambridge and it was Group Headquarters. Lovely ‘drome, you know. Very modern like Waddington was but I was posted to work in the station workshop standing at a bench making modifications for Lancasters and so on. You know, small brackets that had to be modified and so on. Doing that from nine ‘til five with collar and tie on, looking very smart. I remember one day I came out of there and I started walking and someone then shouted at me and I stopped. He said, ‘Airman, you didn’t salute me.’ I said, ‘No. I didn’t see you Sir.’ ‘Oh. He said, ‘What are you doing here?’ I said, ‘I work in the station workshop.’ ‘I see. Well you get a haircut. You need, badly need a haircut. You get a haircut and report to my office tomorrow morning.’ And I thought to myself well if that’s the sort of life so I put in a request and I think they thought they were doing me a favour because living in Laindon a posting to Cambridge is, you know, fairly easy. You could hitch hike home. So they said right if he doesn’t like it there we’ll send him somewhere and they sent me down to Somerset. And I was then servicing, it was a servicing echelon that I was on repairing or servicing Avro Yorks because after the war Avro Yorks were used by Montgomery, Field Marshal Smuts, his was there and they come in for a service and they were lovely aircraft to work on because you would walk all over them. Outside and inside. No problem. Very big. And there I was being a fitter on air frames and I was in charge of a small group of chaps. So one day a new Avro York arrived from the makers, Lancasters and so we had to do what they called an acceptance inspection and, ok. I looked over it inside and outside and the only thing I could find wrong with it was the fact that the undercarriage when it was parked you had what they called a jury strut. That is a metal pole that is framed between the spar of the main plane and also the leg of the undercart and there wasn’t one there. So, so I put it on my report and then the chap who was responsible for the engines he started running them up and well the chocks were there. Everything was all alright. He was running the engines over well they’d also done another modification inside the cockpit. There’s a blower switch. Don’t ask me what. It’s really hot air and cold blower for the engines. Now what that does I do not know but it was not my, more or less part of my employment so that was the engine bloke and there was the undercarriage lever. They’d switched them around for some unknown reason. So this bloke was running the engines and when he thought to select the hot and cold air he pulled the lever but unfortunately that was the undercarriage and so consequently you’ve got a lovely new Avro York. No camouflage on it, you know. It had come straight from out of the manufacturers. It slowly as we stood and watched it slowly go forward. The chocks held it back, the undercart had folded and then the props were going around. They started churning up the tarmac and then it stopped. Well you know where you get, I think the best way to describe it is a cottage loaf which has a bit with the crease in the middle like that whereas the fuselage was like that. Like that. That’s just simply how it went. Collapsed through the middle from the weight and then the circus began. The sergeant came out of the shed, did his nut, went running off to someone. And then a warrant officer came out. He did his nut. Went off to someone. Engineering officer, the flight lieutenant, ‘Oh that was terrible.’ And then the squadron leader came and of course then it finished up with the group captain came out and the person responsible for the engines who was, he was put under close arrest poor so and so. And we had very little work to do then so that’s when I got posted down to Membury which had a lodging, to join a lodging squadron. Still a squadron of Bomber Command but they were lodging on Transport Command territory and that was at Membury which is just outside Newbury. Now that was a terrible hole. In fact after a few weeks it was examined by the Air Ministry and they condemned it. Unfit. And so we were then transferred away from Membury which was a good thing because on the last couple of nights we were at Membury, I remember this quite clearly there were a few what I call rebels in the, in the camp as it were and we went in to Lambourn. The racing area you know to see what was in the nightlife. Having a night of drinks before we moved off. There wasn’t much doing except we came across a hall where they had a do going on and a couple of them went up to the door, knocked on the, ‘Could we come in?’ It was the local hunt ball. Now, you know [laughs] they don’t look kindly on yobs and they still, these ones persisted. I wasn’t looking for trouble so I came away but apparently, and I only learned this the next morning when we were getting ready to go off to our new station, they were allowed in but they were whisked straight through the hall into the back room where they were calmly knocked about in no uncertain way and they looked rough the next day. Bruised and cut because they had dared to, you know more or less visit the local hunt ball. But and then we went up to Netheravon and Netheravon that was a squadron there of Dakotas. The same squadron we had from Membury. We moved them across. And that was rather amusing. I mean bearing in mind I’d got back in to the squadron habit of being, not wearing a collar and tie, just wearing your sweater again and battle dress. So we flew in our aircraft, air crew were, carried us obviously you know. We went as passengers with our personal belongings and all our equipment went by road on truck and that’s how we moved out of Membury and arrived at Netheravon. Now, Netheravon had a complete boundary to it so in other words you had a gate, had a sentry and what have you but when we got there bearing in mind it was also headquarters for Transport Command. One of the units there. So we went straight in to the NAAFI to have a drink and you could see all the way around the NAAFI that the office staff there, the WAAFs all looking smart and elegant and drinking their nice cups of tea and suddenly about thirty or forty yobs come in looking not very smart, not very tidy and all they did was go to the beer tent and start supping beer. Then we had someone who could play the piano and that was it. We transformed the place but, and I was there for what, about nine months, twelve months, and I finished up there. I got demobbed from there. They sent me up but it was the best years of my life in the air force because I was an LAC then, fitter trade and I used to play a bit of cricket and I played for the local, our own squadron and ok they could do with more members so the station picked me to play as well and then part of the Group they picked me to play so I used to go in to the hangar on a Monday morning during the cricket season and the flight lieutenant engineering officer turned around to me and he said, ‘We’ll do the jobs rota. Well now, maybe. How many days cricket are you playing this week?’ I said, ‘Well sir, I’ve got a match on Wednesday, another one on Friday and I’m playing on Sunday.’ ‘Oh. So do you mind if we can fit you into work in between those days?’ [laughs] But that was the only time when I really enjoyed the company because you know the captain of the cricket team in most stations is invariably one squadron leader or a wing commander. Someone you never, you’d rarely get a chance to speak to and all the other are flight lieutenants, flying officers, several sergeants and that’s it. If you get a couple of airmen in it you’re lucky and so they make a lot of fuss of you and I got on extremely well with them, you know. We got to the Group final at cricket and we played at Abingdon in the Group final and it was drizzling with rain and we went out to field in the first innings and we had a, in our team we had a fast bowler who was a Middlesex colt. So a pretty good player and he started bowling with a new ball on a wet wicket, a damp wicket and it finished and I was filled in the slips. And of course this, this batsman he just clipped it slightly, came straight at me. Went right through my hands and hit me there, split it open. I went down on a bit of a muddy, you know, damp pitch in my whites, blood all over the place and then the rain came and so the match was abandoned. But we finished up, we re-played it at Kodak. You know Kodak the camera ground? They had a factory at Harrow just outside London and a big sports ground which large companies did and we played on that, the replay. I know it must have been around about the August time because that was the last match I played and they looked upon it as my demobilisation party. We stopped off in a pub just outside Harrow from the coach. All of us went in there and got really sloshed [laughs]. Now, I think most probably that is my, well the only other thing I can remember then is going up to Preston to get my demobilisation pack. And what I remember clearly then is getting on a bus outside the depot at Preston to go to the station wearing my uniform as usual but with a Trilby hat [laughs]. And that’s where, and of course I got eight weeks demobilisation which meant I was being paid up till almost the end of October which rounded off just about the four years. But my firm had been paying me a pound a week so I then went back to them and renewed my working life with them. But I was fortunate in some respects because at Netheravon they had a forces preliminary exam and I took, well I attended to classes of an evening and I passed it and in fact it’s on the book there. I passed that which enabled me to bypass my professional examination which I later took after I went back into civilian life. The preliminary examination. It was like the equivalent to what you used to call matriculation. So when I later started studying after I got back in to civilian life as a surveyor I didn’t have to go through the preliminary exam. I went straight in for my intermediate exam and then final. So I put it to good use and of course I was lucky enough to qualify and that would be in ’48/49. ’49. And I wanted to earn more money ‘cause there was the only way I got to qualify really was by working, oh what, four nights a week. Evening classes every night and then I got qualified. Bearing in mind my education had finished at the age of fourteen you know that was an achievement to get something but I couldn’t have got anything else otherwise and so, but the firm was still old fashioned and I said, ‘Well I was thinking about getting married,’ you know and he said, ‘Well maybe, you know when you’re married come and see me and we’ll increase your wage.’ I said, ‘Well I’ll never get married on that basis.’ So I joined, I did the horrendous thing, I joined a Ford Motor Company in their property department. In other words I broke out from being in practice but I became their property manager after a few years and from there my career rocketed, you know. I became in demand. I was head hunted twice and I finished up as a managing director of, well the share capital of the company was a million pounds fully paid up share capital and we were making, and I started that company for them. That’s what I was head hunted for. So I had a very very good life then but of course my wife became rather ill and so in the, what, in the early eighties I had a decision to make. Should I give up my job and take care of my wife or just carry on and let me wife, no. So I gave up my job and I was very gratified because my wife then lived for another twenty years. So, you know, that was the right thing to do. That’s, I never regretted it. It would most probably have killed me if I’d have carried on myself. So, you know, it was a very fast life ‘cause I was building, I became a specialist in development of industrial estates. Because, when you bear in mind that before the war factories were put up where the families of the owners decided it would be convenient. The planning laws were very limited. So consequently then war came and every factory in this country was expanded but in a what, a ship shape ad hoc situation and they were not very well designed and a lot of them got knocked out and consequently when war finished this country needed a base to prosper and that base was the development of industrial estates where you’d got a large industrial area where you put factories on it. They did it out to a little point where you could build warehouses on industrial estates but you could not put factories without permission from the Board of Trade and the Board of Trade wanted you to go where they thought unemployment was. In other word up north, Scotland, Liverpool, those sorts of places. So consequently we started persevering with buying large existing factories and modifying them to units. We worked on this principal that if you’d gone with a large factory, I mean I’m talking about factories of three hundred, four hundred thousand square feet and there were factories of that kind scattered around the country. If you’d have gone to the planners with a scheme to, you know, segregate them all in to smaller units say ten thousand feet, something like that, you’d never have got permission. They would never have granted it. So what we did, in other words we designed how we were going to cut that large building up into units and show what modifications had to be done to the elevations but not disclose the fact that the internal layout was going to be reduced to many units. So consequently then we could offer factories to people where they wanted them and that’s where, because you know in those days you couldn’t finance. Most factories that were built before the war they were built out of a loan from the bank and things like that. Whereas really they finished up under the scheme I had going with institutions, hedging funds and insurance groups and it worked very profitably. In fact I would say that I’ve been involved in building factories in most of the major towns in this country. I mean I’ve travelled a lot around this country. But it was a good life. You know. Anyway, I may have left out a lot.
CB: Where, where did you meet your wife?
BM: I met my wife in, very simply, my mum bless her. She used to be a dress maker and when we moved down to Laindon, when we came out of London and moved down to Laindon because our house had been in London had got badly damaged she used to make dresses and my late wife came to her through a friend of hers and my mum used to make dresses for her. Then when I got demobbed she was very friendly with my mother and she often used to come around there and I’d be sent out the room while these ladies started measuring herself and so on and so forth. I said I wanted to stay but they wouldn’t let me [laughs] and we got friendly and that was it.
CB: She was from, she was from the local area.
BM: Oh yes. She lived in Laindon. She’d lived in Laindon since before the war.
CB: What did she know about the RAF?
BM: She wouldn’t know. In fact she felt rather bitter about the RAF because she’d lost her husband and it took me quite a time, I mean we got married in ‘52 and if I tell you that the, although we went abroad on holidays we didn’t go by plane until the 70s. She didn’t like, didn’t want to fly. She had an aversion against flying and the way I got around it was we went for a weekend over to the Channel Islands. I said we’d do a short trip like that. We flew from Southend to Jersey and gradually weened her off it. But she wasn’t, she wasn’t very keen on the air force because she wasn’t treated very badly but she wasn’t treated very well I don’t think.
CB: So what happened to her husband?
BM: Well, he, he was buried in Belgium and –
CB: What was he flying?
BM: A Lanc. He was coming back from a trip, an operation over the Ruhr Valley and he was flying over Belgium back and they got shot down and all the crew were destroyed. But other than just the odd letter, the initial letter of, from the commanding officer she never had any conversation with RAF after that. You know, she went out there once I think before, this would be the ‘40s and saw the grave but she was, I suppose, in some respects, to put it very crudely she was almost abandoned you know, because in those times, I don’t know whether you’ve heard this before, it’s quite possible that there were squadrons that were used to take the brunt. Do what you’d call the bread and butter jobs and you know all the new, new boys coming out of qualifying as pilots would most probably be shipped down to those stations. They become almost like cannon fodder and if they were any good they would be shipped then across to 9 squadron or 617 squadron or a couple of other top squadrons.
CB: So what squadron was he?
BM: He was in 100 squadron.
CB: And how many operations had he done?
BM: Ten. He was on his tenth one when he got shot down.
CB: And when was that?
BM: That would be 1943.
CB: What was your wife’s name?
BM: His name?
CB: Your wife’s name.
BM: Armon. Her maiden name was Jee. J double E. But her married was Armon. A R M O N.
CB: Now you were in London during the war when the bombing was taking place.
BM: Yes.
CB: So, what was your first experience of bombing?
BM: First experience. It was on the Saturday that the Blitz really started and that Saturday I was going from, I’d taken a bus from Canning Town up to Stepney going to a cinema. I think it’s still up there on Commercial Road at Stepney, the Roxy, to see a film. I got as far as Poplar and the bus stopped because the siren had gone up and we were all offloaded off the bus and this was by a pub at Bedet Road in Bow and they had a surface air shelter there and we all herded in to that and first time then you looked up and the sky was full of black spots which were the aircraft all flying in formation and then they started dropping their bombs. There were a bit of hysterics coming from some of the females in this shelter and we were stuck there I know until about oh five, five, 6 o’clock. Eventually the all clear was given and we were allowed back out and I can remember walking down because the main road through Canning Town, we lived in a road that was right off the main road and I remember walking down that road about oh 6 o’clock and I could see my mother stood at the gate looking to see whether I was coming or not. And that’s what I, that’s the first memory I have of –
CB: And how close were the bombs dropping to where you were?
BM: Well they were dropping all around the place, you know. Not, not close enough to cause any damage to anyone around them but Stepney was just around the back of Limehouse where all the East India Docks were which is where they were attacking all the time. And it was quite, I suppose, continuous was about the best way to describe it. There was, you know, quite a lot of noise and so on and so forth.
CB: So the raids started at what sort of time?
BM: That would have been round about oh 2 o’clock I would think.
CB: In the, in the daytime.
BM: In the afternoon. Yeah.
CB: In the afternoon. Right. Ok.
BM: Yeah.
CB: And then on future days?
BM: On what?
CB: On the days after that?
BM: On the days after that never, not much during the day. It was always then around about 8 o’clock at night till 3 o’clock in the morning and that was continuous and of course then and when I moved to Laindon I still had to stay on duty because even, although I was only in my teens we were all on the rota to do fire watching. Although there was an air raid warden in that area our offices were in a parade of shops either side the road and so consequently we, they all had to provide two or three people every night to do fire watching.
CB: So would you explain what is fire watching and how did that work?
BM: Well fire watching was merely that you would, if they were dropping any incendiary bombs.
CB: Where would you be situated?
BM: You’d be situated in the office but when the warning went up you would then go to the front door and you would stand in the front porch and if there was any incidents take place then you would be, have to deal with them and get the fire brigade if necessary if it became too big or deal with it yourself.
CB: So your job was partly to summon help.
BM: Yeah.
CB: To deal with the fires.
BM: Yes. You were only there to be the eyes. To bring in the air raid wardens ‘cause there was always wardens about.
CB: So in the raids then, how much damage did you see and –
BM: You wouldn’t see, see much in the area I was at to be honest. I saw more of it when I went out during the day working.
CB: Yeah.
BM: But fortunately the parade of shops either side the road didn’t get damaged at all.
CB: So when you were out working your job was to collect the rents.
BM: Yeah.
CB: And just how did you do that and what were the reactions of the people?
BM: Well, when you say how did you do it? You’re just knocking on doors and each house knew which day they would be paying the rent. Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, something like that and they knew the time you were going to be there and consequently if you were going down one particular road you would hit the first door. Knock that and they would come to the door and within a few minutes you would see them all appearing all the way along and you just go through them, you know. But I never ever came up against people that were afraid of the future. They were quite, you know, loyal and quite brilliant in their attitude you know. They didn’t fear the bombing. They just thought it part of life. It’s quite amazing really.
CB: Families were quite close to each other in those day so –
[Phone ringing]
CB: Oh we’ll just stop for a mo.
[Recording paused]
BM: Yeah. Well their reaction was quite superb. You didn’t, they didn’t walk around in fear. They didn’t. They felt that as far as they were concerned you know, they, they couldn’t lose. It was quite amazing their attitude and these were all in poor, what you would call poor living accommodation. They were terraced houses. I think the rents used to be something like around about eight, nine shillings a week. So no cheap money. And they led a poor life. Most of their husbands were all called up.
CB: So the fact that husbands had been called up and were in the forces had what sort of effect on their ability to pay?
BM: It had a tremendous effect because a lot of them were really on the bone of their whatsits, you know. They just couldn’t afford to pay and some didn’t pay.
CB: What did you do when they didn’t pay?
BM: Well if you could find them. We always used to say they’d emigrated to Canvey Island. That’s where. Because they used to. I mean I can recall many cases that people who were owing the landlord. Some of them about thirty or forty pounds which in those days was a lot of money.
CB: Huge.
BM: And they just couldn’t afford to pay it and so what they did they just vanished overnight and you could never find them. It gets wroted off. Because I think they used to get an allowance from the military but that was poor compared to what they really needed. They had hard times and that was why, what used to amaze me, they were having a hard time but they still had a smile on their face. You know they were quite jolly.
CB: So you were living in Laindon which was slightly out of town but in their situation a number of them were finding that their houses had been demolished.
BM: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: What was happening then?
BM: Well they, [pause] I suppose, I don’t know, they really, they could always get repairs because during the war there was a government department, War Damage Commission which we used to have to apply to for repairing costs and ok you would get an immediate payment to cover for tarpaulins to go over the roof and also to put up windows. Cover windows. And then you would have to put forward a request for further monies when you had to do the permanent repairs which you didn’t rush to do because no sooner you’d done any further repairs they’d all be damaged again. So you know it was, in fact, that was there was more work. The collecting of the rents was limited to, say, what three hours a week. The work was getting the temporary repairs done to the property in that week. You’d have to sit down and work out with a contractor. You had a local builder that you’d employ to do these temporary repairs and so in other words you know it was all part of one’s training that you were looking after not only the collection of the rents but the management of the actual property. Because all those properties were most probably privately owned by family trusts and people like that or local businessmen.
CB: Now when you joined the RAF you came across a number of people from completely different parts of the country. How did your relationships develop?
BM: In Yorkshire, I found the people around Yorkshire were wonderful people. You know you would go out of a night time to a pub in a little village, villages like Spofforth. Used to go to Harrogate, Spofforth, Knaresborough and Boroughbridge and they would make a fuss of you. ‘You don’t want to go back to camp yet. Come back with us and ham and eggs. Have supper.’ Now, I’m saying this, I don’t want to upset you but you never had the same conviviality in Lincolnshire. You used to walk into a pub in Lincoln, they wouldn’t take no notice of you. You know. Used to call them a miserable lot of so and so’s. [laughs]. Now don’t get upset.
CB: I’m devastated.
BM: Are you from Lincolnshire?
CB: Rutland.
BM: Pardon?
CB: Rutland.
BM: Rutland. Oh well.
CB: Better place.
BM: Better. Yes. No Lincolnshire was recognised. We all used to say this and yet it’s strange because last year my eldest son on his computer he saw that a large hotel in Lincoln was offering a good deal. Luxurious hotel. Took up his lady friend. They went up there for three or four days and he said they had a wonderful time. I said, ‘Well that’s not my experience of Lincolnshire. Of Lincoln.’
CB: Lincoln town or other places?
BM: Lincoln town.
CB: Why did you think that was?
BM: I don’t know. I don’t know. I didn’t go into Lincoln town very much because Waddington was such a well built and organised station as it were and you know you could get all the comforts you want in their NAAFI and so on and so forth and rarely did we go out.
CB: No.
BM: And certainly when I was at Skegness we never did go out. Well I say we never. I did on one occasion because on the seafront in Skegness there was a little sort of Esplanade café come dance floor and we were allowed out ‘til about 9 o’clock at night so I thought well I’d go over there. I used to do a lot of dancing before I got called up so, but I didn’t realise that there you had hobnailed boots didn’t you? During your training.
CB: Sure.
BM: And of course I went in to that place and asked a young lady to dance in hobnailed boots and I was very popular.
CB: Particularly when you trod on her toe.
BM: Precisely. So that was the only time I went out in Skegness. Yeah.
CB: And did you ever, did you get relationships with people that lasted throughout the war?
BM: No. No.
CB: You didn’t have a best friend of any kind who started with you?
BM: No. No.
CB: You played the, played the market.
BM: No, I didn’t, [pause] I got friendly with some of the females during my stint in Yorkshire but it didn’t develop into anything that really, no. Not of any consequence.
CB: Right.
BM: Never continued writing to them after I left or anything like that. When I left I left. You know.
CB: All the stations had WAAFs.
BM: Yeah.
CB: In their own area so how did the, how did you link together there in the NAAFI and –
BM: Well.
CB: In the messes?
BM: In the NAAFI they used to, you know we used to be friendly but if you had a dance they always used to go to the air crew. They were the air crew following you know. They wouldn’t dance with the likes of an LAC.
CB: Of the erks. Yes.
BM: I’m afraid to say that was a fact.
CB: Yeah.
BM: But no. The air crew used to come in. I was at a dance, on New Year’s Eve we’d have a dance and they’d take up all the birds. But er –
CB: Quite upsetting really.
BM: Yeah. [Laughs] although some of them used to work with me.
CB: Yes.
BM: You know they were –
CB: Did they?
BM: Some of them used to be flight mechanics. Certainly a lot of them on the electrical side of the trade. Wireless and so on. The cleaner jobs. But not on the dirty jobs.
CB: So out on the flight line what were you doing there?
BM: Pardon?
CB: Out on the flight line on dispersal what was your task and how did the, a day go?
BM: Well. The day. You used to [pause] you’d be always doing, check your aircraft and when it was all very clear, ok. You would be just tidying around your dispersal point. Make sure that the concrete area was clearly defined so that when they, they would go and fly into it, not fly but they would motor into it.
CB: Taxi into it.
BM: Yeah. Taxi into it. And then they would of course turn.
CB: Yeah.
BM: And you would guide them on that turn and so you would make sure that area was clear and ok. You would then go up to the dispersal hut and stay in there until they came back.
CB: So how many planes did you have a responsibility for?
BM: Well you’d only have responsibility for about two.
CB: Right.
BM: There was enough to go around from that point where we were.
CB: And you were in a section responsible for the two aircraft so what were the component parts of the people? You were dealing with what aspect specifically?
BM: What? Of the aircraft?
CB: Yes.
BM: Well I’d be responsible for the hydraulics like on the undercarriage. The oleo legs that used to, well the ones that go up and down inside the casing. The tyres. The wheels and the tail plane mechanics and also the ailerons and all the controls and that would be it.
CB: And the hydraulics were fed from one of the engines. Which was that?
BM: Well the brakes were operated pneumatically but the hydraulics were operated as you say from the engines.
CB: So there was a power take off from one of the engines on the starboard side was it? The starboard inner.
BM: I can’t remember. I can’t remember on that one.
CB: What other trades were there operating at the dispersal?
BM: There would be engines. And there would be wireless and there would be electrics but the, the munitions people they always used to load up. They’d come out with their trolley and put what armaments they had to put on in the guns and so on and the bombs. And that was it. That’s [pause] there was nothing else from that point of view and then as I say you would just sit and wait.
CB: So the aircraft would be prepared for use. Who was the senior person in your section?
BM: It would be a corporal. He would be, he would be the one that would sign up the air worthiness and so on.
CB: And he would provide that documentation to whom?
BM: He would see, he would show that to the pilot when he came out. In other words the pilots used to. People used to say did you have much contact? As an AC2, AC1 no. No contact at all. Even as a LAC no contact because the aircrew used to get there, go to their briefing.
CB: Yeah.
BM: And they’d come out to the dispersal point in their car, in their coach and they would just get out. You’d be standing there not far away but as far as they was concerned the coach would come up close to the entrance of the aircraft. They’d get out, into the aircraft and off. And ok the only people they would see would be the corporal or the sergeant. Whoever it was responsible that everything was all alright.
CB: Yeah. Did the flight engineer get involved in the signing off of the aircraft?
BM: The flight engineers I don’t believe really started operating until about 1945.
CB: No. They were there with the big aircraft. So there was a flight engineer in all the four engined aircraft. So your Lancaster, Lancasters had flight engineers and I was just curious to know whether they liaised with the ground crew.
BM: Well I was on Halifaxes.
CB: Halifaxes first.
BM: And I can’t remember ever seeing a flight engineer on a Halifax.
CB: They were always there. Yeah.
BM: In what year?
CB: Well from ’43. So the twin engined planes didn’t have flight engineers but –
BM: No. I accept that.
CB: Every four engine aircraft had a flight engineer.
BM: No but it was a concept that didn’t come out to till later.
CB: Yeah. So when –
BM: I’ve got a feeling they didn’t come out ‘til about ’44.
CB: When the, when the aircraft landed –
BM: Yeah.
CB: Then what happened? Were you all there to receive it as soon as it arrived?
BM: Well we we were in the flight hut.
CB: Flight office. Yeah.
BM: Which was up by the, and we would just go over to the dispersal point and then we would soon pick it up on the perimeter track and flag it in.
CB: Right.
BM: And that was it.
CB: Yeah.
BM: The crew would get out in to the coach and off and we would just then close it all up. Put the chocks down and so on and so forth.
CB: So the aircraft would always have the potential for developing faults.
BM: Oh yeah.
CB: So who would do the communication of that and to whom?
BM: Well the pilot used to if there was any faults on it the pilot would give that in his report.
CB: Right.
BM: To the sergeant.
CB: Ok.
BM: And ok they would decide whether then it was a major or a minor.
CB: Yeah.
BM: If it was a minor ok we would deal with it around on the dispersal point.
CB: Sure.
BM: If it was a major one it could go in to the hangar.
CB: Yeah. And what about damage? How often were your aircraft damaged?
BM: They got damaged but not very much. Not to that degree.
CB: What sort of damage did they come back with?
BM: Some of them came back with ammunition holes in it which you would do a little patch on it and things like that.
CB: How was the patch administered? Was it a fabric or was it a metal?
BM: No. Metal.
CB: So how was it attached?
BM: Attached with rivets. Used to use the pop rivet gun. Cut a piece of metal. It was very, I wouldn’t say shambolic but it was just to do it very quickly. You would cut a piece of metal to cover the area and then you would drill the four corners, pop rivet it and then go around later all the way through. You know, get rivets.
CB: Yeah.
BM: Quite.
CB: So you’d secure it first.
BM: Oh yeah.
CB: And then you put the extra rivets.
BM: Extra rivets in in between.
CB: Now what about painting afterwards? How did you do that?
BM: Well be able to just put a bit of a drop of paint on it but they didn’t worry too much about that. Some of those aircraft they looked horrible with the, with the paint job. I mean, you know, you just had some paint and you just brushed it, brushed it on.
CB: But it always had paint would it?
BM: Oh yeah.
CB: Because aluminium’s shiny.
BM: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: What would you say was your most abiding memory of your time in the RAF?
BM: I suppose that when I was at Netheravon the aircraft then had to be, they were all camouflaged, had to be stripped back to their bare metal again. What you would call peacetime and that was a so and so of a job because you had to put paint stripper. And getting it all off by hand it was not very pleasant.
CB: How long did that take?
BM: Pardon?
CB: How long did that take?
BM: Oh we had, what, a squadron of about twelve aircraft and it took quite a time.
CB: What were the planes?
BM: Dakotas.
CB: Right. So this is at the end of the war.
BM: Yeah.
CB: So they were taking the, because they war had ended they were taking the camouflage off were they?
BM: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: And then what were they applying?
BM: Nothing.
CB: Right. So just aluminium.
BM: Just the bare aluminium and also at the same time we were fitting seats in to them. Like tubular seats. There was one other job that when I was at Marston Moor I had a petrol leak on one of the Halifaxes and I had to take out the petrol tank which was located in the wings and you’ve got to get up on a trestle to more or less get them and they are all, they were not rivets. There’s a sort of a square panel that is screwed into the main plane, main wing and they’re like cheese headed screws and then every, about oh half an inch apart all the way around and in those days you didn’t have [rapid?] screwdrivers and so me being an AC2 at the bottom of the ladder that was your job Mabey. Get that all off. So you’d spend ages getting every screw off, dropped the flap and then disconnect the tank and before you completely disconnected there was always some aircraft fuel still inside. You’d have to load that into a fifty gallon drum, the surplus and then you could drop the tank and when you dropped the tank you put a new one in and then go back again all good. The only advantage was that you knew then you had some cleaning material to clean your uniform because we used to clean our uniforms in aircraft fuel and then lay them out in the wings to dry and –
Other: Goodness.
CB: So you had a particular aroma that not everybody appreciated.
BM: I agree. Yes. That was most probably.
CB: They smelled you coming,
BM: [Laughs] That was most probably one of the worst periods of my life. Yeah.
CB: Now the fuel tank. That’s because it had had battle damage in it was it?
BM: Some were. Some were not but it was for one I particularly remember. It had, it hadn’t had battle damage it was just, it had become worn.
CB: Oh.
BM: And it had to be replaced.
CB: Now dealing with that was very dangerous so how, because of the potential for a spark so how was that handled with the screwdrivers and everything?
BM: Well it was, you just didn’t, you know I agree on reflection most probably it was a fire hazard but you didn’t consider it. You know, you just had to get that tank out because it needed, it needed to be replaced.
CB: I wondered if there were special procedures.
BM: No.
CB: For safety. Because the plane could be lost.
BM: Yeah.
CB: Never mind the AC plonk.
BM: Yeah. I don’t think there, most probably could have been but I can’t recall them quite frankly.
CB: Oh. After the war did you consider joining any associations? Squadron or RAFA. British Legion.
BM: Well. I joined RAFA when I was still in the air force at Netheravon. They came to you and this would be in 1947 because I used to wear the RAFA badge on my battle dress although that was not legal but I did join them. But when I ultimately got demobbed belonging to an Association regarding the air force was not foremost in my mind you know. I mean the point is that I had other things to think about then. In fact the strange thing is I only started, I had to go into hospital about, oh this would be about four years ago and in the next bed next to me was the chairman of the local branch of the RAFA Southend. And we started talking and spoke about the air force and he said to me, you know, ‘Why aren’t you a member?’ I said, ‘Haven’t had time. I’ve been busy.’ You know. I had a hectic life. ‘Well,’ he said, you know, ‘You should join. We could do with more members.’ And I did join and then my wife passed away and I became rather active but then the committee decided rather, in my book, foolishly that some of them were going to resign and meant that then the branch had to be closed. And the branch was closed.
CB: What sort of people were there? What backgrounds in the RAF were the people who were -?
BM: I could never find out. I could never find out because they were rather stand-offish a little. I could never really get to know them quite well. Not to that degree in those few years and they were, I don’t know. Most of them came from what we called Leigh area and they, I always talk about them that they were people who have curtains around their dustbins. You most probably get them in many towns and they and so consequently they seemed to prefer abandoning the concept of an RAF association and turning it in to a luncheon club and I didn’t. I said no. And I’ve been proved right because the silly fools, my membership was transferred to Basildon, right. Basildon now I know are doing exactly what Southend have done. They’ve got about five members that are active. That’s all. So really what should have happened is that, and there’s another branch that’s going to go exactly the same at Thurrock so you’ve got three branches there because the membership is falling, you know, we’re getting older. And so consequently what they should have done is said well look we’ve got when we still had about twenty five members attending meetings on a monthly basis. Keep Southend. Transfer Thurrock and Basildon into Southend. You’ve got your younger committee members and you’ll keep going and now they are going to finish off without any branch in this area at all. Rather foolish. But because some of them felt that well they didn’t want to carry on in their capacity as chairman because their wives were not in good health or something like that. I can understand it up to a point but don’t take the drastic action.
CB: No.
BM: And they did and so now they’ve got nothing.
CB: Did you get the impression that some of, that more of them were air crew or ground crew or what?
BM: Oh well with the RAF Association especially in Southend there was an aircrew branch of it.
CB: Oh.
BM: And they, they used to have their own little meetings.
CB: Oh [laughs]. Right.
BM: And you know, one particular chap I used to talk to who was in the Aircrew Association and the strange thing is, of my age, when he finished his training as a pilot they liked him as an instructor so they sent him out to Canada to finish his career in Canada teaching. So as far as he was concerned he’d been across the pond. He hadn’t seen any of the war at all.
CB: No.
BM: And to me it seemed a tragedy that they even split them because the aircrew in total should have still mixed with the others and that was confirmed at where we went the other day. I can’t think of its name now.
CB: What? At Aces High in Wendover.
BM: Yeah. At Wendover. I mean on that table there were two squadron leaders, one wing commander and a warrant officer.
CB: Yes.
BM: And also me.
CB: Yeah.
BM: A leading aircraft man. And they just treated me handsomely.
CB: They did.
BM: Oh yes. They had no side of it at all and this is the way it should have been.
CB: Yes.
BM: Ok. When you get in front of them in uniform you stand to attention.
CB: Of course.
BM: You recog, but you’re not doing that for the individual. You are doing that for the uniform and that was a little thing but they shouldn’t, they shouldn’t cause any segregation at all because –
CB: Right.
BM: It’s strange because I went to one particular meeting and there was a chap there. He came up to me and he started talking. He was an ex-major in the army and he said this, it was the, oh [pause] it was a special club that they’d formed that did the Normandy landings and he said, ‘You should join.’ I said, ‘Join? I didn’t take part in the Normandy landings.’ ‘What do you mean you didn’t take part? You said you were in uniform didn’t you?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I had a couple of cookhouse blokes working for me. You could say they didn’t take part in the Normandy landings. No. I know they didn’t but we couldn’t have done it without their, them cooking our meals and we wouldn’t have done the Normandy landings without the air force as a back-up. Everyone in the forces at that particular time must have made some form of contribution towards that Normandy invasion.’ And this is was it’s all about isn’t it? They try and segregate it and well they always looked upon you, some of those air crew, a few in civilian life look upon you with an air of superior quality which is wrong. But –
CB: Hurtful.
BM: Well in business ok. As far as I was concerned you know I was top of the list so they, they didn’t worry me.
CB: No.
BM: Simple as that.
CB: I think we’d better take a pause. Thank you.
[Recording paused]
CB: So after the war you returned to civilian life in 1947.
BM: Yeah.
CB: From then onwards what was your perception of the general public’s attitude towards people who’d been in the RAF?
BM: They didn’t, on reflection of what I’ve seen lately I realise now that their reception was not as good as it should have been. We all just carried on and as far as I was concerned I don’t think I ever was approached from the time I got demobbed at ’47 you know because there was still a certain creeping in, an air of resentment that there had been a few people that had dodged their responsibilities either through religious grounds or other things and, or reserved occupation and I saw that particularly when I went to Ford Motor Company because I used to be in a specialised department so consequently I had access to a lot of places because I used to have to go to them. And I can remember on occasions when you would meet superintendents who were responsible for the production of cars in quite a large area and they would be an ignorant pig. And you’d think to yourself, well mister, I’m sorry I wouldn’t even employ you to stick stamps on an envelope but because they’d been in a reserved occupation they had a clear field to be promoted. Not because they’d earned it but there was no one else to fill the position and so consequently you had a a backlog like that there and they didn’t want to talk to you about what you’d done in the air force because they hadn’t done it themselves. So they didn’t. They had nothing to discuss. And that was the same in a lot of cases so I mean I can remember in fact the first when I got back the couple of conscientious objectors they’d risen within that small private company quite well because they used to read the bible every lunchtime. They’ sit in the office reading the bible whereas you would go and eat a sandwich they would read the bible but they couldn’t be touched. But they certainly took promotion when it was offered to them and I know, I know of one particular case where people when they went for their medical they pleaded on certain occasions. They got away with it. One particular prominent chap who lives in Southend he did anyway. He was in the medical when I went for the medical because I came to Southend to get my medical and he told me, he said, ‘I had a motor bike accident six months ago. I’m going to tell them I keep on getting headaches,’ and this is what he did and he was classified grade 3. Yeah. And so all the time I used to see him in Laindon when I used to come home on leave there was he you know running around in a flash car and everything else. I know. So the air force and the same with the army, same with the navy those who served they didn’t get the treatment that they should have got I don’t think.
CB: The recognition.
BM: Yeah. And [pause] but now and the strange thing is the recognition you get now is overwhelming. I mean, you know, I’ve only done two book signings and it’s opened my eyes. I didn’t realise the sincerity that goes in it. I mean people just don’t want you to sign their book. All they want to do is say hello, thank you and shake your hand. That’s more important to them than your signature which astonishes me. I didn’t, because that sort of feeling didn’t exist when you first got demobbed. Anyway. [laughs].
CB: Thanks.
[Recording paused]
CB: Victory Parade.
BM: Pardon?
CB: For the Victory Parade.
BM: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
BM: And we had Lee Enfield 303 you know. We were carrying that around. And it’s a twenty mile area, route that we’d taken. We’d got up to Tottenham Court Road and we’d just turned into Oxford Street and we had the air force band in front of us and they played the Dambusters March and that was set alight all the people almost and the cheers and the applause was absolutely overwhelming. I’ll remember that till I pop off you know. It was really, it put a lump in your throat and especially in Oxford Street. It’s all these buildings with windows above them and there were people at the windows and they were throwing coins.
CB: Were they?
BM: And bars and chocolate. The bloke next to me got hit by a bar of chocolate of all things you know. And this, this was happening there. You couldn’t stop to pick the stuff up.
CB: No.
BM: You had to just had to carry on walking.
CB: Amazing.
BM: And then of course with all processions they do stop for a little while to more or less they get a bit of a backlog don’t they?
CB: Yeah. Yeah.
BM: And then you’re amongst it all and you’re more or less really –
CB: Yeah.
BM: Visibly making a fuss of you.
CB: Yes. The unleashed appreciation.
BM: Yeah. But –
CB: Extraordinary. Very touching actually.
BM: That was touching and but that is soon forgotten you know.
CB: Right. We’re stopping now.
[Recording paused]
CB: Raids. We’ve talked about civilians Bernard but what about RAF and military people’s reactions to the raids?
[Pause]
Other: Do you mean the raids that took place over Germany?
CB: No. The British. The German raids on Britain I meant to say. So where you were stationed.
BM: Well er as I say some of them it was –
CB: So at Locking for instance. At Locking.
BM: At Locking it was a novelty to them. Others who had experienced it in their own town I mean like they’d had, you’d had Coventry, you had Liverpool, you had Southampton and Plymouth. They’d all had a going over.
Other: The Midlands. The Black Country.
BM: Yeah.
Other: Where I came from.
BM: Yeah. They had some. Well they were attacking there. In some respects they were attacking the, I mean in the Midlands it was where a lot of the machinery.
Other: Where all the manufacturing took place.
BM: All the manufacturers. So therefore it was in some respects a legitimate target.
Other: Yes.
BM: But London wasn’t.
Other: No. That was aimed at the population.
BM: Yeah.
Other: To break the will of the population.
BM: So, and Plymouth I suppose it had naval history but not to that degree. And Southampton also but they were really docks areas. That’s what they seemed to want to go for.
CB: Yeah.
BM: And it didn’t –
CB: But particularly in your experience actually in the RAF you mentioned Locking so –
BM: Yeah.
CB: What? When there were raids in in the Bristol area.
BM: Well they, yeah. Well they didn’t –
CB: What was the reaction of the people in Locking?
BM: Well they were a bit afraid that the war was coming too close to them to some degree whereas others just seemed to think well it was a novelty idea because it wasn’t a consistent attack. It was just a spasmodic attack here and there. I mean the major towns where they hit in this, like you say, Liverpool, Coventry, the Midlands area, London they were continuous attacks for a period of time and they were solely, I don’t think they were other than to destroy the population.
CB: The will of the people.
BM: Yeah. They weren’t after the, ok that was their excuse they were going for targets but it didn’t bother them you know but –
CB: You mentioned other some of your fellow RAF people’s reaction at Locking.
BM: Yeah. Well they just became hysterical because it was something they’d never experienced and they were frightened and they were spoken very sharply by some of the non-commissioned officers in the, in the whats-the-name. In the shelters. As they said you know, ‘You’re a disgrace. Control yourself.’
CB: Oh you’re talking about actually in the shelter?
BM: Oh yes. Yes.
CB: The air raid shelter.
BM: Some of them like I say were hysterical and in tears. They were frightened. Simple as that. Because they had not experienced it but others you know who had experienced it it didn’t bother them. In fact they looked at it logically and said you know they’re not going to attack us they’re attacking over there. But this is life isn’t it?
CB: Yeah. Now you got leave every six months but you would get forty eight hour passes.
BM: Yeah.
CB: How far were you able to go and what happened to you then?
BM: Well in forty eight hour passes I came home. Mainly because I knew I would get warmly welcomed by my parents because my brother was overseas. I think he was over there for about oh three or four years.
CB: Where was he stationed?
BM: He was stationed in Egypt then Sicily, Italy, Yugoslavia, Palestine. You know, he had a pretty rough time of it but of course he was on Fighter Command so therefore that was where the fighters were operating.
CB: Yeah.
BM: I mean bombers could operate from this country to go places.
CB: So you were shift work effectively. Was, did you work on a seven day or a five day week?
BM: We worked normally on a five day week but there was an occasion when they suddenly decided that they would work on a shift principal. In other words you worked something like around about ten days on right the way through and this was some clown from the air ministry had come down and set this up when I was at Marston Moor. And so in other words we then, you worked say for about ten days and you would have about three days off. And ok some of those time is spent catching up on the sleep you’ve lost and I’ll always remember on this particular occasion when this system was brought in I had not slept during the period I should have been off. So I went on duty and we were sat in the dispersal hut. The aircraft had gone off. This was about oh about 9 o’clock at night and I was tired. It was a cold night and there was a nice big fire in the centre of this you know and I just nodded off to sleep didn’t I? And they tried to wake me when the aircraft came back and I wasn’t having any [laughs] and the sergeant was not very pleased. Yeah. By the time I did eventually come round the aircraft had landed, been parked up and that was it and I’d done nothing. But the only good thing about that scheme it was, it was a way to keep the aircraft, giving them more flying time but it didn’t work and really the only good thing about it was that you could in other words once you’d seen the aircraft off say at about 8 o’clock at night 12 o’clock you’d go into the canteen and you could get your meal.
CB: Yeah.
BM: And invariably it used to be steak and chips.
CB: Did it?
BM: Yeah. Oh they’d give you a good meal for that. That time in the morning. And that was the only good thing about it but on that particular occasion I even missed my meal as well. Yeah. But it wasn’t very successful because during the day you were expected to catch up sleep. Well in a nissen hut with about thirty blokes a few of you still trying to get some sleep was hopeless.
CB: Now technically you were part of a squadron were you?
BM: Yeah.
CB: What was that squadron number?
BM: It was a conversion unit, Heavy Conversion Unit.
CB: Ok. Sixteen –
BM: 1652 HCU
CB: Right. Heavy Conversion Unit.
BM: Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
BM: And they used to do, during the day, cross country, circuits and bumps, circuits and landings and then when they were needed they used to go on operations as well to make up the numbers. That’s the way it worked. This was just their training with heavy aircraft. In other words they’d done all their, they’d got their pilot’s licence wings working on twin engined aircraft but before they let them loose on a Lanc or a Halifaxe they had to do a couple of weeks.
CB: Yeah. So these were all Halifaxes.
BM: Yeah. Yeah. ‘Cause the Halifaxes were not looked upon as superior as the Lanc because the Lanc could fly faster. The Lanc could fly higher. Halifaxes used to fly at around about a hundred and eighty at around about oh ten thousand feet whereas a Lanc would go a bit faster than that and they could fly at twelve, fifteen thousand feet. Higher if necessary.
CB: How reliable were the aircraft?
BM: I would say I never had much experience, if any at all, where the aircraft reliability was put to question. You know, they say that the Stirling was crap. That was a bad aircraft. But I didn’t work on a Stirling. I nearly did. I got posted down to Stoney Cross at Southampton when I was, when I finished at Waddington. And I went all the way down there, kit bag all my gear and they said, ‘Well you’re about three weeks too late. Your squadron moved out to Italy three weeks ago.’ And that was a squadron of Stirlings. And so I was stuck at Stoney Cross in the middle of the New Forest whilst the Air Ministry sorted out where they would then put me. [laughs]. But that was –
CB: When did you go to Waddington and how long were you there?
BM: I went to Waddington it was most probably, VE day. A couple of weeks after VE day I should imagine. And Waddington I left soon after the Victory Parade in London.
CB: Because you were part of the Tiger Force.
BM: Yeah.
CB: Yeah. Good. Thank you.
[Recording paused]
CB: So at the end of the war Ron, you’d think, a number of people thought that at the end of hostilities then everybody could leave.
BM: Yeah.
CB: But actually it was spread out. Why was that?
BM: It was spread out I think for economic reasons because they didn’t want to flood the market with labour so much and secondly they devised a scheme which gave you a demob number which was calculated on the age, your age and your years of service. So if like me you were called up at the age of eighteen and you’d only done, what, about four years my demob number was 57. I always remember that as Heinz [laughs].
CB: Yeah.
BM: And that was, and when 57, in other words you were all given a number, what your demob number and that would then give an indication when you were going to be demobbed and you used to watch. Ok they’re working on 45 at the moment so it’s weeks before you got yours and I think it was just a question off pushing too many people on to the job market too soon. That’s the only reason I could see for it.
Other: But weren’t people tempted to desert when the war ended and just get home as quickly as they could?
CB: Good point.
BM: It’s strange you should say that because it never occurred to me. In fact when I was at Waddington we were under instructions that when VJ day was declared, you know, you do not go out of camp and we were still on duty but some of the chaps and I can recall at least three or four possibly said, ‘To hell with them’. You know. The war’s over now. And they simply went home that weekend.
Other: Yeah.
BM: Now whether they ever got caught at it I don’t know but they certainly went off and they hitchhiked because I remember one particular chap, he wanted to get to London. You know, ‘I’m getting there. That’s it.’ So there was that attitude among some but to me it never occurred because as far as I was concerned you know it was the wrong thing to do. You’re still under orders. You know.
CB: Yeah.
BM: It’s the same after the war was finished you would wonder why anyone would still, especially I had a job ready to go back to. Why can’t you let me go? Well I’m going to go myself then. What are you going to do? Well they had the power to court martial you and they had the power to punish you. So it never really entered my head you know.
Other: I suppose you’d got in to a frame of mind.
BM: Yeah.
Other: Where you accepted orders.
BM: Yeah.
Other: You know, you’d been in the forces for four years.
BM: This is it.
Other: And what you do is accept orders.
BM: That’s right. Yeah.
Others: Yeah. It’s interesting isn’t it?
BM: It is. Because the way, the way especially nowadays I mean the younger element today are much more belligerent and I can imagine them saying, ‘Well, you know, I’m off. That’s me. The war’s finished. I’m done. I’ve done my bit.’ But it’s not like that is it? Really.
Other: No.
BM: It er –
Other: But these days’ people don’t have a sense of duty like they used to. The population at large seventy year ago, eighty years ago.
BM: Yeah.
Other: Generally people had a sense of duty and a sense of public responsibility.
BM: Yeah.
Other: These days’ people don’t have that.
BM: No. No.
Other: They don’t have a sense of duty. It’s, it’s an old fashioned concept unfortunately.
BM: Well I was brought up by a rather Victorian father. You know. He was strict. It didn’t do me any harm though. But er –
CB: But that was only thirty years after the end of the Victorian era.
BM: Yeah.
CB: So it’s not surprising that that was the attitude is it?
BM: Yeah.
CB: Right.
[Recording paused]
BM: The night before there was a dance on again tonight and –
CB: This is the Knaresborough Caravan Park.
BM: A few birds around.
CB: Yeah.
BM: Yeah.
CB: Keep going.
BM: And anyway we went around on our bikes and we picked up these birds in this dance and of course two of us took these two birds back. They’d come from Leeds. Their parents owned a caravan and that was there and we went back to the caravan with these girls. Left our bikes parked outside, inside the caravan. I was a bit backward in those sort of activities because I’d led rather a sheltered life in London with Victorian parents so I didn’t really do anything I should be ashamed of. I put it to you as carefully as that but anyway we fell asleep. Woke up around about 5 o’clock and of course we were on duty at 8 o’clock. At Marston Moor. And so we just said, ‘We’re off,’ you know and we got out this caravan to walk across the fields with these [unclear] there was a bloody farmer who owned the caravan park. ‘Hey,’ he said, [unclear?]. ‘Cheerio.’ On the bike, down the hill out of Knaresborough fast got back to camp in time. Yeah. Quite a narrow squeak that was but –
CB: If he’d have had a pitchfork it would have been uncomfortable.
BM: But then the other thing is that I got friendly with a family in Spofforth in Yorkshire and the daughter’s twenty first birthday. So of course in the village of Spofforth they had the village hall for this twenty first birthday party and we went over there and we knew the parents but I’d been, you know, going casually around with the daughter, the other daughter who happened to be a married woman incidentally but it was all good and clean. So anyway they said, ‘Well, will you look after the bar in the hall? Would you do that?’ ‘Yes. That’s alright.’ So I got behind this bar in this village hall and there were people coming in and, ‘Yes. I’ll have one with you.’ And of course as they had a drink I was having one was well. So by midnight we were well and truly sloshed and of course the villagers use the hall with their own accoutrements as it were so therefore they had to clear the village hall after all the festivities had taken place and I can remember pushing a wheelbarrow up the main street in Spofforth with all these glasses and food and leftovers on and it was as we were pushing it along well and well and truly sloshed it was dropping off as we went. Tinkling away there. Yeah. They were happy days though really.
Other: Well you remember the good bits.
BM: Oh yeah. Yeah we were.
Other: You remember the good bits.
BM: As I say we had some. When I finished in the air force and I started having to come down to reality that you know I had had very little education. I had to think about what I was going to do with my life and I started studying and I started working. As I say evening classes four nights a week. I could still find time to play cricket and play football in the season and I used to think, I don’t know, we moaned all the time. I was four years in the air force but on reflection I’d had four good years and you miss it. In other words, you know, it occurred to me why didn’t I sign on? I would have been immediately made a corporal and a corporal fitter then you’re on the ranks of promotion and what have you so you do reflect. I mean people moan about it but you do reflect. When you look at it in reality you didn’t do so bad.
Other: Well the thing that you did was you went in and you made the most of it and ended up with a proper trade.
BM: Yeah.
Other: A lot of people did National Service and did nothing.
BM: Yeah.
Other: They wasted two years of their lives.
BM: Yeah.
Other: Did nothing at all but at least you actually learned a trade and got a lot of valuable knowledge and experience and enjoyed yourself more as a consequence really.
BM: Yeah.
CB: The, you mentioned married women.
BM: Yeah.
CB: Now the reality of course is that there were plenty of people who were married whose husband, the women’s husbands were at the war.
BM: Yeah.
CB: So how did this work? It was quite innocuous sort of thing but were they at the dances? And how did this work?
BM: Oh it used to. I’m talking about this lady at Spofforth. Her husband was in the Middle East and as far as I was concerned we used to go dancing. We used to drink and we used to play, they had that, in this pub where we used to go to they had the, the skittles.
Other: Oh I know.
BM: In other words, you know, ok, as far as I was concerned the only intimacy, if you like that took place was I kissed her and that was it. Didn’t go any further. And that’s that may have been I don’t know a bit naïve of me but I was most probably a bit naïve at that sort of thing and you know I was never a womaniser to that degree. In fact to be very, extremely personal is the fact that my late wife was the only woman I’ve ever slept with. So it’s as simple as that. I used to have a fling with these ladies but it only was kissing and that was it. So I didn’t do any harm.
CB: All honour was satisfied.
BM: Pardon?
CB: All honour was satisfied.
BM: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
BM: I mean I remember going, and this would be at, at Locking, there was a corporal WAAF there and went to a dance and she was a good dancer and I danced with her. So therefore all the time I was there when there was a dance on she was there. She was available to be a partner on the dance floor but directly I got her outside, ‘Hey. I’m a married woman. Off you go.’ It was as simple as that. And ok nowadays this attitude is completely different but in those days it wasn’t.
Other: Yeah the worlds a changed place.
BM: Well, you know, you could, ok you were told even by your chief medical officer when you were first called up they showed you various pictures of the problems if you get any sort of disease and so on through sexual activity and so therefore you just kept clear of it and in those days you didn’t have the protection that these youngsters have today and that is a problem.
CB: Right.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with Bernard Charles Mabey
Creator
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Chris Brockbank
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-11-28
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AMabeyBC161128
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Pending review
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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.
Description
An account of the resource
Bernard Mabey was born in London and experienced the Blitz at first hand. He was a member of the Air Training Corps in 1941 before volunteering for the RAF. He trained as an air frame mechanic at RAF Locking. His first posting was RAF Marston Moor which was a Heavy Conversion Unit. He was surprised by the change in approach to discipline between training and his first posting. He describes aspects of repairing aircraft. He enjoyed playing cricket for the station. After the war he became an industrial property developer.
Contributor
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Julie Williams
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Yorkshire
England--Wiltshire
England--London
Temporal Coverage
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1940
1941
1943
1945
1947
Format
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02:05:19 audio recording
bombing
C-47
civil defence
demobilisation
dispersal
entertainment
faith
firefighting
fitter airframe
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
Halifax
Heavy Conversion Unit
military discipline
military living conditions
military service conditions
Navy, Army and Air Force Institute
perimeter track
RAF Locking
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Netheravon
RAF Waddington
sanitation
sport
Tiger force
training
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/542/8782/AHardingV150520.2.mp3
73090ff7946ff4451cdd82def306eea2
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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Harding, Victor
Victor Thomas Harding
V T Harding
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Harding, V
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Leading Aircraftsman Victor Harding (1234463, Royal Air Force). He served as an airframe fitter.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2015-05-20
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.
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
CB: This interview is being conducted for the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is Claire Bennett; the interviewee is Mr Victor Harding. The interview is taking place at Mr Harding’s home in Queen’s Court, Retford, on the 20th of May 2015. Well Vic, would you like to tell us the date and place of your birth?
VH: Er, 05-03-22. We was in Middlesex.
CB: And can you remember your early childhood?
VH: Yes because I was born outta wedlock, and my mother sent me down to a home in Kent, to, to join the forces.
CB: And you stayed in a – you were in a –
VH: I stayed in a home – what you call a home for little [unclear], my daughter knows it ‘cause she took me there. And I was there ‘till I was nineteen ‘till I volunteered, joined the Air Force.
CB: And do you remember much about it? What are your memories of it?
VH: What the home?
CB: Yes.
VH: It was marvellous. It was run by ex-military people and they’re very very good to you. Plenty of discipline and everything, oh yeah. And when I was eighteen, that’s when I volunteered to join the Air Force then.
CB: What –
Other: You learnt, you learnt a trade in the home, didn’t you?
VH: Pardon?
Other: You learnt a trade in the home.
VH: Oh yes, in the – they, after you finish your schooling age, they had different trades there. They had the printing department, a cobblers, carpentry, tailoring department, trades to learn when you’ve finished doing your schooling.
CB: And you went in for –
VH: Tailoring. Because the war broke out, and then I volunteered for the Air Force.
CB: What made you choose the Air Force in particular?
VH: I don’t know really [laughs]. I just fancied it, you know. And they asked me if I wanted to be aircrew or ground staff, so I thought ‘I haven’t got the brains to be aircrew’ so I volunteered to be in the ground staff to maintain the air craft.
CB: You were mechanically minded?
VH: I was flying mechanic air frame lot of the time. Everything by the engines, yeah,
CB: Would you have liked to have flown?
VH: I would have done if I had brains, yeah. [Both laugh]
CB: But nobody said you didn’t have any brains, this is what you perceived. [VH laughing]
VH: Well, I didn’t think I would be qualified for it enough sort of thing.
CB: So where did you start your training? Where did you join up?
VH: I went to Blackpool, and I done my – I can’t remember whether it was six months training at Kirkham for a flight mechanics course. When I passed out, I was sent to Cottesmore to Operational Training Unit.
CB: And what was your training, you know, like? Did you enjoy it?
VH: I did, really enjoyed it.
CB: How did you get to the, the training place? Was it on the train?
VH: No the Air Force took me there, you know. I went to Cottesmore –
CB: Yes.
VH: And I was on old Southampton’s [?]. All the old stuff sort of thing ‘till I was qualified, and then when I was paid, I was put onto Bomber Command then.
CB: But, you would get your posting wouldn’t you, and then you’d have to get to your posting destination –
VH: That’s it, yeah they –
CB: Did you, did you go on the trains during the war?
VH: Pardon?
CB: Did you go the trains during the war?
VH: Trains?
CB: Mm.
VH: No.
CB: No?
VH: No, never went on trains.
CB: So how did you get around? Did the –
VH: The Air Force took me around, you know.
CB: Right.
VH: To different stations, yes.
CB: Right. So, so you’d, a group of you would go perhaps and they’d take you to the stations?
VH: Yeah.
CB: And what was your, you know, your time training? You know, what kind of accommodation did you have?
VH: Well, sometimes I was in Nissan huts, sometimes I was in buildings, you know. All depends where you were stationed sort of thing.
CB: Where was, where do you think your best station was? You enjoyed the most?
VH: Oh, best place was at Lakenheath. It was a brick building, but when the Yanks came and saw it they took it over. So we were putting Nissan huts [laughs].
CB: Well the Nissan huts I think were pretty sparse weren’t they?
VH: Yeah.
CB: And cold, is that your –
VH: That’s it, yeah.
CB: Is that how you remember them, or?
VH: Yeah.
CB: Am I wrong?
VH: That’s it [laughs].
CB: So you went – so your first main posting –
VH: My first posting was at Cottesmore.
CB: Right, and what planes would you be on?
VH: I was on the Anton’s, Oxfords, and just the, all the things to tinkle about with, you know. ‘Till I was posted on Bomber Command.
CB: And the planes, were they easy to maintain, or?
VH: Yeah, they were quite easy really.
CB: You learnt quickly?
VH: Yeah I did, yeah.
CB: Was it good training?
VH: Oh yes, I had six months training at Kirkham.
CB: And what were you –
VH: I was flight mechanic air frames on everything bar the engines.
CB: Right, so you would main – so what would that entail? So, tell me about, you know, all the details of it.
VH: Well, you looked after the runners and the balance and everything, you know.
CB: Right. And then you entered Bomber Command.
VH: That’s it, yeah.
CB: So your first, first job would be, or your first posting rather, would be –
VH: Ah [pause]. Cottesmore was the first one I went to with Operational Training Unit.
CB: Yes.
VH: Yeah.
CB: On OTU?
VH: Yeah.
CB: And, where did you go to after that?
VH: I went to quite a few stations. I went to Bardney for a while, Woodhall Spa, er, Lakenheath, Marham, all different stations you know. With all different squadrons that I went with.
CB: Yes, and what was your work there? Same sort of thing?
VH: Flight mechanic airframe. I done that everything bar the engines.
CB: What planes were you working on?
VH: I worked on Wellingtons, Mosquitos, Lancasters, Hamdy Hamptons [?].
CB: Did you ever go for a flight in these, any of these?
VH: Oh yes. So when they used to do something to the airframe or engines, you used to, we used to go up with them for an air test [emphasis]. Yeah.
CB: So you did you go for any long [emphasis] trips in them?
VH: Not really long trips, no. First I went I think was Peterhead, when we went up there to refuel them.
CB: And did you enjoy the flight? Do you think – did you –
VH: Well I love flying.
CB: Did you regret not going for aircrew?
VH: I don’t, no [laughs]. I think I would have enjoyed it, you know, but I might not be here today [both laugh].
CB: So where was your accommodation, say at Bardney? Where was – were you still in the Nissan huts?
VH: No, I think I was in buildings there, I think, I’m sure it was.
CB: Was it, were you, did you have accommodation with a family. Were you –
VH: No didn’t have it with no family.
CB: It was in an Air Force –
VH: Air Force quarters, yeah.
CB: Air Force quarters.
VH: Yeah.
CB: And what did you do, where did you go for relaxation in Bardney? Do you remember?
VH: Not really. Used to go out with the lads, you know, and have a drink and a smoke [laughs].
CB: Pubs? [VH laughs]. Dare I suggest? Do you remember Bardney at all?
VH: Not a lot, no.
CB: So your, was your life mainly in the, on the camp basically?
VH: It was on the camp, yes.
CB: So, the planes – explain to me how it works. So what would be your typical day?
VH: Well you go out on the dispersal plane [?]. The aircraft was there and you had to test the rudders, the elevators, the wings and everything. Then you had to test your hydraulics, make sure they are working and everything.
CB: And then you’d –
VH: Then you had to sign a form, Form 700, detailing what you had done and everything, and the pilot used to say ‘okay, I know that you’ve checked it.’
CB: And what planes would these be? Would these be –
VH: I used to be on Lancasters, Mosquitos, Hamdy Hamptons [?], Wellingtons –
CB: And what – but what about Bardney? Was it – what was it at Bardney?
VH: Bardney?
CB: Mm.
VH: I think I was on Lancasters there.
CB: Mm.
VH: Yeah.
CB: What did you think about the Lancaster as a plane?
VH: Marvellous aircraft, lovely.
CB: Did you think, you know , when you first saw it, overwhelming really? Like the size of it.
VH: Well, the size of it yeah [emphasis]. I mean, the wheels were bigger than me [both laugh].
CB: But was it a case of just, you know, getting on with the job as it were?
VH: Well it – true, yeah. I enjoyed the job, I did really.
CB: What was the food like that you had there?
VH: Very good there.
CB: And can you remember –
VH: And I met some very nice people, you know. Ground staff and aircrew and everybody and, I got on well with everybody.
CB: So you enjoyed your time there?
VH: I did [emphasis]. If I hadn’t got married I think I would have kept in the Air Force [both laugh].
CB: When did you meet your wife?
VH: In forty, forty-six, yeah.
CB: So after the war?
VH: No, just before I finished the war, yeah.
CB: Oh right. So you – I mean, good food in Bardney –
VH: Oh I had good food all the time I was in the Air Force, I can’t complain.
CB: Well, ‘cause there was rationing on wasn’t there?
VH: Pardon?
CB: Rationing on.
VH: Oh yeah, but we weren’t rationed [laughs].
CB: No?
VH: No.
CB: So you just had your normal food then?
VH: Yes, well, our food was lovely. Very good.
CB: Did you have a bike to go around on, or?
VH: I used to have a bike yeah, ‘cause when I was at Woodhall Spa I used to bike to Boston most nights, you know, if I wasn’t on duty and things.
CB: Right. So, ‘cause these, these airfields were spread out, weren’t they?
VH: Yeah.
CB: A lot of them. And you needed a bike.
VH: Oh yeah.
CB: So you were dealing with Lancasters, and where did you go after Bardney? Can you remember?
VH: No I went to that many. I went to Theddlethorpe [?], Bardney, Lakenheath, quite a few all local. All round Lincolnshire way, you know, most of them.
CB: Mm.
VH: The first I went away was at Marham in Norfolk.
CB: Yes?
VH: Mm.
CB: And what did you make of that? Did you –
VH: Marham?
CB: Mm.
VH: Quite a nice place. That’s where I had my first squadron of Mosquitos there.
CB: Right.
VH: Mm.
CB: So you worked on the Mosquitos there?
VH: Oh yes. I liked them I did [both laugh].
CB: The wooden wonder. [?]
VH: We had the first squadron of Mosquitos and first day we got there at Marham the Germans came along and dropped flares. I thought ‘oh there we’ve had it.’ But we got away with it [laughs].
CB: Is that the first time you’d had any –
VH: We had Mosquitos, yeah.
CB: Is this the first time you’d seen enemy action as it were, dropping bombs?
VH: Well it was, dropping flares over the place yeah. We thought ‘we’re in for it’ that night but we got away with it [both laugh].
CB: Oh dear. And do you remember anybody in particular, you know, friends?
VH: In the Air Force?
CB: Yeah, friends.
VH: Oh yes. Guy Gibson.
CB: If we’re – erm yes, that was at Woodhall Spa.
VH: Yeah.
CB: Did you work with him, or on – well, you were on 627 Squadron.
VH: Yeah. I was with Guy Gibson, I worked with Richard Attenborough, Group Captain Cheshire.
CB: Yes.
VH: Mm.
CB: So at Woodhall Spa, which is – did you finish at Woodhall Spa? Was that your last one before the end of the war?
VH: I think it was. I’m sure it was, yeah.
CB: And you were on 627 Squadron there –
VH: Yeah.
CB: Is that right? Were you, you were with other squadrons. 149 did you say?
VH: Yes, I was, yeah 149 Royal Canadian Air Force –
CB: You worked with the Canadians?
VH: Yeah, and [pause] a Jamaican squadron, I don’t know whether it was 139, I can’t remember what that was but whatever squadron it was I got on well with all of them. Canadian and the Jamaica squadron.
CB: Excellent. So at Woodhall Spa, how did you get there? Did you, did the Air Force take you there?
VH: Air Force. Wherever it was the Air Force took you.
CB: ‘Cause I think –
VH: Transport, you know.
CB: Right, ‘cause I think most people arrived at the station didn’t they?
VH: Yeah.
CB: And then they’d be picked up.
VH: Well I did. One time I was posted to, er, where was it, Oakington was it? Yeah, and I got a transport ticket to Oakham, yeah, I got the wrong place [both laugh]. I don’t think, I made a blunder [?].
CB: Well it can’t have been easy travelling around in the war.
VH: Oh yeah.
CB: You know, on the trains or whatever.
VH: Well it’s true.
CB: So you arrived at Woodhall Spa, and, on Mosqutios?
VH: Yeah.
CB: Did, where did you live at Woodhall Spa? Were you on –
VH: In billets.
CB: Again, what is –
VH: Woodhall Spa.
CB: - what is now Thorpe Camp? Was that where you were?
VH: Where?
Other: Thorpe Camp. You know where they’ve got the museum and that.
VH: Oh yeah.
CB: That’s where you were?
VH: Yeah.
Other: Yeah.
CB: What did you make of it, or what did you –
VH: Of Woodhall Spa?
CB: Yes.
VH: I loved it. Nice place.
CB: Did you go into the town very often?
VH: Yeah, I used to walk to Tatteshall and places like that which was nearby.
CB: Did you, you know, how did you relax there at Woodhall Spa? Would the, would the ground crew ever, you know, mix with the aircrew?
VH: Oh yes, quite often, yeah. I had a good mate there, Canadian chap, and I can always remember one night in the – he sat awake, the crew generally get together chatting before they go on a raid, and he was a rear gunner, and he was chatting [?] that night and I went over to him and I says ‘what’s wrong George?’ And he says ‘we’re not coming back tonight,’ I says ‘well don’t talk stupid.’ They didn’t.
CB: Wow.
VH: He had that premonition they weren’t coming back.
CB: Did you ever –
VH: That did upset me, you know, that did.
CB: Did you get that a lot, or was that just one you remember? Do you, you know –
VH: Ooh no, I remember quite a few who didn’t get back.
CB: Mm. But then, did they –
VH: Waited for them, but they never returned.
CB: Did they had the premonition though before they went?
VH: Yeah, one or two did.
CB: And how did you feel about that? It –
CB: Well I felt awful really. When you’re waiting for them and they don’t return, you know, really hits you.
CB: Mm. What was the atmosphere at, in the, on the airfield?
VH: Oh, it was very good really, yeah we all got on well together. The ground staff and the aircrew, you know.
CB: And you would, as you say, you would relax together, and –
VH: Oh yes, I mean, if you had no raids on and everything you’d go out and have a drink with the lads and the aircrew, you know.
CB: Do you remember the, where you would go in Woodhall Spa?
VH: No, I can’t remember, you’re going back –
CB: I think, I think it was the Mucky Duck, wasn’t it?
VH: Oh that, I was gonna say the Mucky Duck! [Other speaks in background but is unclear what is said. VH replies but this is also unclear.]
CB: Yeah, I think that was quite popular there wasn’t it?
VH: It was, yeah [both laugh]. Then I used to cycle sometimes into Boston.
CB: Yes. So you’d cycle into Boston did you say?
VH: Yeah, cycle into Boston, yeah.
CB: Right, that’s a fair way.
VH: Well, it was really, but –
CB: And, on your own, or with your friends?
VH: Yes, with a girl from there.
CB: Oh right [both laugh]. And what would you do in Boston? What did you think of Boston?
VH: I liked Boston I did. Boston Stump and all that. It’s quite changed from what it used to be, but it, I thought it was a lovely place at the time.
CB: And what did you do, where did you go?
VH: Go for a drink [laughs].
CB: Did you go to the glider drome? I think that was a popular place. No? Perhaps for the aircrew.
VH: Was it Withamgate [?]?
CB: Yeah.
VH: We used to go round there, and the Boston Stump and all round that way, hmm.
CB: So you enjoyed that?
VH: I did [laughs].
CB: And what would, ‘cause – there was some famous station commanders, well not, commanding officers at Woodhall Spa. Do you remember Cheshire?
VH: Group Captain Cheshire, yeah.
CB: What do you make –
VH: Guy Gibson.
CB: What did you make of Cheshire? What did you think of him?
VH: I got on well with all of them, yeah.
CB: Can you remember –
VH: They were quite good to us, they were really good to all the ground staff really, you know, ‘cause they relied on us sort of thing to look after them, didn’t they? [Unclear, both laugh].
CB: Indeed they did [VH laughs]. Especially I think, erm, Leonard Cheshire, he was particularly fond of his –
VH: Yeah. Cheshire [unclear] at one time didn’t they?
CB: Yes. And he would come and talk to you at, you know, when you were mending the aircraft?
VH: Yes, I mean, when there was no raids on or anything and things were easier, we used to go out and have a drink with them sort of thing, you know, they were just like talking to anybody. Except when you’re on the parade ground it had to be ‘sir’ sort of thing, you know.
CB: Did you do much parade ground?
VH: Pardon dear?
CB: Were you on the parade ground very much? Did it, was that part of your life?
VH: Playground?
CB: The parade ground.
VH: Oh, we didn’t do a lot on the parade ground, no, because it was mostly time on the, looking after the aircraft, you know.
CB: So you missed some of that out?
VH: Yes, oh yeah, we didn’t have a lot to do on the parade ground really.
CB: What was the discipline like?
VH: Pardon?
CB: What was the –
VH: Discipline? Discipline was quite good, strict, you know. See, see, discipline didn’t really bother me because being in a home was run by all ex-army people, I was disciplined there. I had to march to school and everything, you know. So going in the Air Force, it didn’t really hit me.
CB: So your time in the, the children’s home –
VH: Made me more or less fit for the Air Force really.
CB: So you look back on those as happy days, and –
VH: They were, yeah. That home was very good. ‘Cause my daughter took me up there few years back didn’t you, and it’s not the same place now, it’s been taken over by retirement people, and when they knew I was one of the boys who had been there, ooh they shook my hand didn’t they [CB laughs] made quite a fuss of me.
CB: Were there girls there as well or was it just boys?
VH: No, just boys, yeah.
CB: And you made some good friends there?
VH: Yes I made some good friends there, yeah.
CB: Did you manage to keep in touch with them afterwards?
VH: One or two of them, but when I went with my daughter last time, and I saw one or two of the names in the church who’d been, passed away, and killed and that during the war. That really upset me.
CB: Hmm. So at Woodhall Spa, another CO was Tate. Did you, did you come across Willy Tate very much?
VH: Pardon?
CB: Willy Tate, he was –
VH: Willy Tate? I can’t remember dear.
CB: No.
VH: No. You meet that many people you know, you can’t remember all their names, sorta thing.
CB: No, no of course not.
VH: No.
CB: So tell me what you remember of Guy Gibson.
VH: I found him very very good. Very good to the ground staff. I think he was a bit trick [?] with the aircrew, but to the ground staff he was magnificent.
CB: Well, that’s wonderful. So, you got, did you have a relationship with him? Did he you know help you, or come and chat?
VH: Not really no. Just ‘how are you sir’ and ‘your aircraft’s ready’ and that sorta thing you know.
CB: When the planes came back from their raids, and they were –
VH: That was lovely seeing them come back [laughs].
CB: Yes.
VH: But when you’re waiting, and yours don’t come back you think ‘oh, has it crash landed somewhere’ or ‘has it landed at another airdrome?’ And eventually you hear it hadn’t come back. It really upset you.
CB: Hmm. And then it would be your job to, to mend them. And get them back right?
VH: Yeah.
CB: Hmm. So were there any events that you can remember at Woodhall Spa? You know, things like, I don’t know, collisions, or, you know –
VH: There been one or two crash landings. I seen crash landings, yeah.
CB: What did you – can you remember how you would –
VH: We didn’t do nothing to it, the air, er, the fire engines and everything used to go out to them.
Other: But you remember the – when they were training for the Dambusters don’t you?
VH: Pardon?
Other: When they training for the Dambusters.
VH Oh yeah, when they training for the Dambusters. We wondering what was happening because they was training for about two or three months before they actually done it, and they come over and did what we called hedge-hopping, just come over the hedge, just miss us, you know, and you think ‘what’s going on?’ [CB laughs]. And they kept it a secret right ‘till the night they went. When they came out that night they said ‘this is it,’ so we said, ‘what,’ ‘what we’ve been training for you know when we come back’ [CB and VH laugh].
CB: So they were –
VH: Very secretive, it was.
CB: Yes.
VH: But when they came back they said ‘we done it’ [laughs].
CB: Right [both laugh]. So was – that was at Scampton, were you at Scampton at all?
VH: No that was at, er, Woodhall Spa [emphasis].
CB: Right.
VH: I never went to Scampton. Only went there for my medals didn’t I? That’s all.
CB: Mm. So you – how do you remember your wartime career?
VH: Yes I can do, yeah.
CB: And you, how do you remember it, with –
VH: Well I think it was quite good really because the – I was disobedient at home so going to the Air Force, that was more or less the same, sorta life, sort of thing.
CB: Mm. So [pause] the – I think some of what the personnel, the aircrew at Woodhall Spa, they were, they were known for their pranks, some of them. And I suppose the low flying would have been one of them.
VH: It was, yeah.
CB: Did you have any, many air raids there?
VH: No not really, no.
CB: So you, the Germans didn’t attack you –
VH: No.
CB: At Woodhall Spa? It was [unclear]
VH: No, no, they came over when we were at Marham, Norfolk, when we had the first squadron of Mosquitos. I thought ‘this is it,’ flares came down but as soon as the gun fire opened up they went [both laugh].
CB: So do you remember any time – the time that Guy Gibson took off on the night he was killed? Do you remember anything about that?
VH: Er, he just came out, and he just said ‘I’m gonna take this aircraft’ and that’s it. Just didn’t come back.
CB: No, he was with Warwick –
VH: Mosquitos.
CB: Yes, because he wasn’t too familiar with them, was he?
VH: No.
CB: So –
VH: It could have been that you see.
CB: Yeah. Was he – do you remember what his manner was like, how he –
VH: He was – I found him quite good myself.
CB: But he wanted to get back flying, didn’t he? Do you remember anything about that particular night, as to how he was?
VH: No, he came out that night and says ‘do you mind if I take the, this Mosquito?’ and I said ‘no sir,’ and he just got in it and went.
CB: And what did you feel when he didn’t come back?
VH: Well I felt awful really, you know. I wondered what, if he really knew in his own heart whether he was going to do anything. You don’t know what’s in their mind, do you really?
CB: No, no you don’t. But you, you just thought it was just another, another plane that hadn’t come back.
VH: Yeah.
CB: You didn’t –
VH: That’s true.
CB: Did you know straight away that – I mean he could have landed somewhere else. When did you find out that –
VH: Ah, we didn’t find out for [pause] two, two, three hours after. They must have rung round to see if he’d landed anywhere else, but, he hadn’t, so.
CB: No.
VH: I think over the hills was it, in Kent I think, where he actually crashed, I think.
CB: He crashed in Holland.
VH: Yeah, oh was it Holland?
CB: Yeah.
VH: I knew it was somewhere –
CB: Yeah, coming back from an operation. So, you, you remember it with fondness, the –
VH: Pardon?
CB: You remember it with fondness, your time in Bomber Command –
Other: Fondness, you enjoyed it.
VH: Oh I, I enjoyed all my life [?], I loved Bomber Command.
CB: So –
VH: And everyone I worked with. We all seemed to be like a family, sort of thing, you know, we worked ever so well together, the ground staff and the air crew did.
CB: And you went to Lakenheath. Were the Americans there at Lakenheath when you were there?
VH: Pardon?
CB: Were the Americans at Lakenheath, when you were there?
VH: Was I –
CB: Was the –
Other: Were the Americans there? Were the Americans there?
VH: Americans? Oh yeah, they took over because it was a nice place, you see [CB laughs]. Better than where they were! It was all big buildings and they took over and we were put in Nissan huts! [Both laugh].
CB: What did you make of them? Did you, did you get on well with them?
VH: Well we, yeah they were alright [both laugh].
CB: Did you have better food when they were around?
VH: Oh yes, definitely yes. They got the best off [both laugh].
CB: And where were you? Were you in billets again at Lakenheath?
VH: Yeah.
CB: So erm, did you ever have to, you know, live in, with a family or anything like that, or were you always in billets?
VH: Er, in billets or Nissan huts, you know.
CB: Yes.
VH: Yeah.
CB: So, you’re coming towards the end of the war. How did you feel, you know, we’ve just had VE day. How did you feel? You know, was it a relief, or were you, how did you feel?
VH: Well, I don’t know really. I don’t know whether I was [unclear] in the Air Force, but I’d just got married before I came out, you see so –
CB: Right, so where did you meet your wife?
VH: In Nottingham.
CB: At a dance, or?
VH: Pardon?
CB: Was it at a dance? A dance?
VH: Dance?
Other: Where did you meet Mum?
VH: Oh, I was having a drink [both laugh].
CB: And you obviously looked, saw her, and, you know, liked each other. So how long was it before you got married?
VH: Only about six months I think. Yeah, wasn’t long [both laugh]. And I got lovely daughters and a lovely son, he’s passed away bless him, about three year ago innit?
Other: Hmm.
CB: And did you –
VH: I had two lovely children, they certainly looked after me, they still do [both laugh], don’t you chick? Somebody does.
CB: Do you remember getting married, and the rationing?
VH: Oh yes. I had a double wedding. That’s my wife up there.
CB: Oh, that’s lovely. Where did you get married?
VH: Hyson Green, yeah.
CB: Well, she looks very nice with her dress on. So, the rationing didn’t bother you very much?
VH: No. Said ‘are you gonna get married the usual?’ and I says ‘no.’ [Both laugh.]
CB: And where did you live after you were married?
VH: Nottingham, yeah.
CB: And when did the war – was the war finished by then?
VH: Oh yeah, it had finished, yeah.
CB: So you, you came out of the Air Force in –
VH: Out of the Air Force in 1946.
Other: You made your suit though didn’t you?
VH: Hmm.
Other: You made your suit.
VH: Yeah I made my suit.
CB: Oh wow! You made your own wedding suit, that’s –
VH: Yeah because, in that home where, that I was telling you about, there was all different trades, and I went in the tailoring department. I done four years at, four years apprenticeship before I joined the Air Force, so I made my wedding suit.
CB: You kept the skills going [both laugh]. So what did you do when you came out of the RAF?
VH: Er [pause], I went to the co-op [?], I was only there one day, and then, I went to Boots then and I was there for thirty year.
CB: Worked in Boots the chemists?
VH: Yeah.
CB: Oh, what did you do there?
VH: Making medicines and everything [unclear from Other].
CB: Oh.
VH: And then when they stopped making their own medicines, I went on security, and stuff like that.
CB: So you were there for a long time. In Nottingham all the time?
VH: Oh yes –
CB: You settled there.
VH: Never left Nottingham did I? I was at Boots thirty year I was at Boots.
CB: Did you keep in touch in your, you know, your friends and your comrades in the Air Force?
VH: No, no, never kept in touch with any of them.
CB: Although you had good relationships with them all? You didn’t feel –
VH: But we didn’t, we didn’t keep in touch with each other no.
CB: So, your thirty years, what did you – [unclear] didn’t work in those days did they, do your wife, your wife, didn’t work?
VH: My wife? Yeah she was working, yeah.
CB: Did she work?
VH: What was mum now?
Other: Machinist.
VH: Oh, machinist, that’s it [both laugh].
CB: And then you had your children.
VH: Yeah, two lovely children. And my grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, they’re all marvellous to me they are.
CB: What did you feel about how Bomber Command was treated after the war?
VH: In which way?
CB: Well, when Churchill made his speech, he didn’t, after the war, he didn’t mention Bomber Command.
VH: I know.
CB: Because of all the bombing, and –
VH: Yeah.
CB: How did you feel about that? And you’ve only just had your clasp that you’re entitled to. How did you feel, after the war, and how you were –
VH: I don’t think they treated them as they should have been treated, myself, because they’d done a marvellous job.
CB: And you – you’ve gone down, have you seen the memorial in London? Have you gone –
VH: No I haven’t, no.
CB: But you – have you gone back to any of your stations that you’ve been at, because –
Other: We’ve been to Conningsby, we’ve been to a few with you, I’ve taken you to a few haven’t I?
VH: Yeah.
Other: Woodhall Spa we’ve been to.
VH: Yeah.
Other: We’ve been to Scampton now but –
VH: Been to Scampton –
Other: [unclear] did you?
VH: Hmm.
CB: So you, you went back to Scampton recently, I think, when was that?
VH: Yes, er, that was when I had my [papers shuffling].
CB: Your medal. Your medal.
VH: In that book there. [Papers shuffling, pause].
CB: I think, er [pause] ah. And what did you [pause], how did you hear about this, did they get in touch with you?
VH: No, when I moved to here, to Retford, I lost my medals, so I wrote up to administrative ends [?] explained who I was, when I started and when I, when I got demobbed, and they dealt and sent them back, er, sent me a new lot.
CB: And how did you get to go to Scampton? Did they write to you?
Other: A gentleman from Scampton in the RAF came to us here, and said could they present them to him.
CB: Oh. So what did you feel about that?
VH: It was great, wasn’t it?
Other: It was lovely.
VH: All the family went, it was lovely.
Other: It was a very special day, yeah.
VH: Yeah.
CB: They made a fuss of you?
VH: Yeah [laughs].
CB: Well that’s a lovely, lovely thing to remember, isn’t it.
VH: It is, yeah.
Other: And they also presented medals to these gentlemen, they’d just come back from Afghanistan.
CB: It’s lovely. [Pause]. Right Vic, so –
VH: I went, I went out to get the aircraft ready, prepared because there was a raid on, when the crew came out, I was just sitting there, and I’d got this terrible pain, you know, they says ‘come on we want to go,’ and I says ‘I can’t get out!’ So they lifted me out, and they rushed me to Kings Lynn hospital, I got my appendix [laughs].
CB: Do you remember the hospital you were in?
VH: Er [slight pause], no, er, it was Kings Lynn, but I can’t think of the name of the hospital.
CB: And how long were you in there?
VH: I was only in there a couple of week, if that.
CB: It’s quite a long time these days [both laugh]. And then it says you were transferred to Addenbrookes.
VH: Yeah, yeah I had something wrong with my thumb –
CB: Right.
VH: And the Air Force made a mess of it, so I ended up in Addenbrookes to have me nail took off.
CB: So what do you remember about being in hospital?
VH: Not a lot really, well, when I came out I got a fortnight’s holiday, er, was a camp.
CB: What was the food like?
VH: Good [emphasis, both laugh].
CB: So you, they sorted out your appendix problem –
VH: Oh yes.
CB: And then you, you went back. So it was, [pause], that’s some sort of home, admitted to Stowe, erm, I can’t quite read that. Was it just some sort of home that just was like a convalescent home was it?
VH: Yeah.
CB: And you were in there for a little while.
VH: Hmm yeah, two weeks I think [chuckles].
CB: So they certainly looked after the –
VH: They certainly looked after you, yeah.
CB: [Pause]. So you’ve lived in Retford for, how long now?
VH: Ten years now, innit chick? My daughter got me over here so she can look after me [laughs], don’t you chick.
CB: Do you get involved in any Bomber Command, you know, reunions, or?
VH: Oh no –
Other: You’ve started to now.
VH: Started going to a bit now, haven’t we, yeah. Scampton. We’ve been to one or two dos there haven’t we?
Other: Mm.
VH: Where was it that we went the other week?
Other: Woodhall Spa.
VH: Oh yeah we went to Woodhall Spa the other week, at a reunion day.
Other: Scampton last week, and a Lancaster came over.
VH: Yeah [laughs]. The Red Arrows were there, giving a display weren’t they. Lovely.
CB: Well I think, think that’s about it Vic, that’s been very, very interesting.
VH: Thank you very much.
CB: Thank you.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with Victor Harding
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Clare Bennett
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2015-05-20
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Sound
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AHardingV150520
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Pending review
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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.
Description
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An oral history interview with Leading Aircraftsman Victor Harding.
Language
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eng
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
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00:38:26 audio recording
149 Squadron
627 Squadron
Cheshire, Geoffrey Leonard (1917-1992)
fitter airframe
flight mechanic
Gibson, Guy Penrose (1918-1944)
ground crew
Lancaster
military living conditions
Mosquito
Nissen hut
RAF Bardney
RAF Cottesmore
RAF Kirkham
RAF Marham
RAF Woodhall Spa
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/286/8788/PKirbyH1511.2.jpg
f2f26de792cac70f6b6c69e353b3a563
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/286/8788/AKirbyH150710.1.mp3
415d0a343bc572167309ea13248509d0
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Title
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Kirby, Harold
Harold V A Kirby
H V A Kirby
Harold Kirby
H Kirby
Description
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Nine items. Two oral history interviews with Warrant Officer Harold Kirby (1923 - 2022, 1637087 Royal Air Force), his log book, photographs and documents. He flew operations as a flight engineer with 467, 97 and 156 Squadrons.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2015-07-10
2015-09-21
2016-06-11
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.
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Kirby, H
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Warrant Officer Harold Kirby 1637087 was born in Kilbourne, Loncon in 1923, his job after leaving school was in the accounting department at London Electric Supplies. He initially tried to volunteer for the RAF but failed the medical, at that time. He was subsequently drafted in 1942. Skill training started with training as a Flight Mechanic, but during this was asked to volunteer to rain as a Flight Engineer. His first posting was as an Aircraft Fitter at No.460 Squadron, RAF Binbrook, although only for 6 months.
After Flight Engineer training at St Athan and then training on the Short Stirling and then the Lancaster with 1661 Heavy Conversion Unit at RAF Winthorpe, the first solo flight for the crew, the port landing gear would not lock, during the landing the gear collapsed, although there were no injuries.
First operational unit was No.467 Squadron at RAF Waddington a mainly Australian Squadron, the crew were here for July and August 1944, One operation 3/4th August 1944, to the V1 storage site at Trossy Saint Maximin had another bomber flying above their aircraft and dropping their bombs, one going through the wing, narrowly missing vital structures, this resulted in a gear up landing, due to hydraulic loss, but again there were no injuries resulting.
He was then posted along with the crew to No 97 Squadron, based at RAF Coningsby a pathfinder squadron, tasked to mark the targets for other aircraft,
In total two tours were completed before the end of the European war, after finishing as a Flight Engineer, Harold trained as a RADAR mechanic, before leaving the RAF.
Andy St.Denis
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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NM: So, this is a recording from Harold Kirby in Pinner, my name is Nigel Moore doing the interview, and this interview is taking place on July the 10th at Mr Kirby’s home in Pinner. So, Mr Kirby, thanks for doing this, and can you tell me something about your life growing up and life before the RAF?
HK: Yes, I’m, I was born in Kilburn, and my parents moved out to Kingsbury when I was eight years old, and I went to Kingsbury County School there. At the time we moved, 1931, it was all countrified there and we had to walk across fields to Burnt Oak to, for shopping, but soon got built up. So that was my early days, and then I got married after the war and lived in Kingsbury for a while until we moved out to Pinner in 1960, that’s right.
NM: So, what about your upbringing and childhood and pre-service life as a youth?
HK: I was not very outgoing at the time, but I had a special friend, Tony, who was more outgoing and he involved me in lots of activities, but I can’t say that I did very much exciting at those days, although we did used to cycle ‘round quite a lot, both of us. So, that was, up to the war, really. [Pause] and, certainly –
NM: Okay. How did you come to join the RAF?
HK: Ah, well, I, my two school friends and myself wanted to fly with the RAF, they were accepted but I was turned down on medical grounds, they became navigators and went off, and then I was called up in, ah, August 1942, and was first, after the initial square-bashing, went to, was posted to Halton, to train as a flight mechanic, one of the first inputs of conscripts to be trained at Halton, yeah. Well, after I’d passed out as a flight mechanic, I had sufficient marks to go straight on to do a fitter’s airframe course, also at Halton, and during the time there, I, we were asked if we would volunteer to become flight engineers, they were getting a bit short, which I did, passed the medical that time, and, but initially, I was posted as a fitter to 460 Squadron, which was at Binbrook, although initially, we and three others went to place called Brayton and found that the 460 Squadron had moved to Binbrook two weeks earlier [slight laugh] but eventually, we were taken there over, stayed there overnight and then taken to Binbrook, and I was there for a bit, six months, mainly repairing aircraft, until I got a call to go to the Saint Athan to train as a flight engineer. I, after I’d passed out from there, I was posted to heavy conversion unit at [pause] Winthorpe and I was, I crewed up with an otherwise all-Australian crew, and one thing that happened there was – this was on Stirlings – on the first pilot’s [pause] flight by himself without an instructor, we couldn’t get the wheels down, and it was my job to wind them down, which I did successfully, but the port undercarriage wouldn’t lock, so we were asked to fly to Woodbridge, you heard of it? It was placed where they had especially long, long runways and also facilities for dealing with crashed aircraft. Well, we duly got, would crashed, Woodbridge, crashed, ah, landed, but the port undercarriage gave way and we spun ‘round, no-one was hurt, and the instructor came down immediately and made my pilot fly back. Other than that, that, everything was okay, and we went to the Lancaster flying school, and eventually landed up at 467 Squadron, which was then at Wadd – Waddington. The, ah, yes, on the first operation, we were coming back, and the rear gunner suddenly shouted ‘Corkscrew!’, and the pilot immediately took action, dived, and a twin-engined aircraft overtook us and flew off in the distance, we didn’t see it again, but he initially, he shot at us, and a bullet went through the rear gunner’s turret and his clothing and cut off his heating supply and he was very aggrieved about that because it got a bit cold! [slight laugh] Anyway, we got back safely. Then, on the [pause] yes, the eleventh operation, it was a daylight one at Trossy Saint Maximin, the, it was a storage site for V1s, and we had done the bombing round and the mid upper shouted, ‘There’s a Lanc above us just opened his bomb doors!’ Before we could do anything, we heard two thumps, one was louder than the other, and a bomb went through the port wing, took away the undercarriage and the – shut off the engine, so I, well, I, I had to keep a look-out because the, I’m sure the wing was mov – waving more than it should do, anyway, we, with three engines, we got left behind. At one stage, this was over France, the rear gunner said ‘There’s two single-engined aircraft approaching from the starboard quarter,’ he said to the upper gunner, ‘I’ll take the first, you take the second,’ but seconds later, which seemed hours, he said, ‘It’s alright, they’re Spitfires,’ [slight laugh] and one of them escorted us back to the coast and we decided, or at least the pilot decided, to land at Wittering, which, at that time, had a grass runway, and we’d landed there and he got told off for making a big groove in their run – runway. So, but that was the, really, the main thing that happened there. Then, on the sixteenth operation, or after the sixteenth operation, we were posted to 97 Squadron, the Pathfinder Squadron. After the war, I had some correspondence from a pilot’s son, this was well after the war, and in it was a cutting from a newspaper which a pilot had a long [?] talk with a reporter, and he said then, whether it was true or not, that he actually volunteered to become Pathfinders because of the increase in pay, but I don’t know if that’s true or not, but all the crew joined him and we went on to the 97 Squadron, but nothing really much happened there, we were quite successful in getting back what with [?] the time, and in the end we managed forty-four operations altogether. [Pause] Well, after the war finished, we were sent on end-of-tour leave because we’d practically finished the second tour, and, but the rest of the crew were all recalled before I was, to go off back to Australia, so I never really had a chance to say a proper goodbye, but after that [unclear], they were, we were given opportunities to choose what we wanted to do; I chose a radar mechanic’s course because it was a nice long one and sounded interesting, that was at Yatesbury, and I eventually completed the course, was posted to West Ruislip, where I was put in an office and didn’t any, do any radar mechanicking! [laughs] And, but I was fortunate that I was able to live out, live at home, ‘cause my parents at Kingsbury, and commuted until I got my demob, which was six weeks or so later, I’m not sure of the actual date, and so, that is my war service.
NM: Okay, can I take you back to your days in Halton?
HK: Yes.
NM: Tell me a little bit about your days training as a fitter.
HK: Well, we were lost in [?], up the hill on one side of the main road, and every morning, we walked down, or marched down, to the, the workshops on the other side of the main road. That, that was about all, except that there was one amusing instance; because there, there were no youngsters there at the time, they had some drums which they thought could be used, and they asked for volunteers to train as, as drummers to help us down the march. It, they got instructions, that went off quite reasonably until the instructor thought, the, the bandmaster or whoever it was, thought we could practise by ourselves. Now, one of the chaps was actually a drummer in a small group, and he decided to invent a, a rhythm, which wasn’t the one that we were taught, and it went – oh, how did it go? Anyway, it was the first time that we did it, we, it was a conga rhythm [laughs], I think it’s the first and only time that a squad’s been conga’d down to the workshops! [laughs] But, apart from that, Halton was quite reasonably enjoyable.
NM: And was it while you were at Halton, or was it while you were at Binbrook on 460 Squadron, that you volunteered to become a flight engineer?
HK: It was while we were at Halton we were asked if we would volunteer, yes.
NM: So you first of all went off to Binbrook on 460 Squadron?
HK: Hmm?
NM: You first of all went to 460 Squadron?
HK: 460 Squadron, yeah.
NM: At Binbrook. Tell me a little bit about, about Binbrook.
HK: Well, then again, it was for, fortunately a, a peacetime station, so we were quite comfortably billeted. Well, that, that, of course, was an Australian squadron as well, so I, I did quite well in knowing the Australians. Each morning, went to the hangars and carried out any repairs and inspections that were necessary, quite enjoyed that, really. Yes, there was a sergeant there, Australian sergeant, apparently he was colour blind, and he, he was telling me that initially, he, he was asked to put camouflage on an aircraft, and when his instructor saw it, he said ‘If you could see that as I could see it, you’d have a fit!’ [Laughs] Yeah, but that, that, sorry, he was quite, quite a good chap [unclear], but –
NM: So, you went from Binbrook to Saint Athans to train -
HK: That’s right, yes.
NM: As a flight engineer.
HK: That’s right.
NM: Describe your training.
HK: I, actually, initially, there are few of us, instead of given instructions on a Lancaster, we were started to give us instructions on a York aircraft, but I think it was decided that that sort of job would be given to people who’d already been flying, so we then transferred and did the rest of the course on, on Lancasters. It was [pause] well, was quite enjoyable, I can’t say that there were any real troubles there. [Pause] I’m sorry, I –
NM: That’s fine, that’s okay.
HK: Unless there’s something specific, it’s difficult to remember.
NM: Right, okay, no, that’s absolutely fine, that’s fine. And you, how long did you spend in Saint Athan training, and what type of year was it, and time of year?
HK: It was in December, it would have been ’43, and we were there ‘til about May, I think, in ’44, and then we went to, as I said, to train, initially on Stirlings, before going onto Lancasters and then the squadron.
NM: So you crewed up at the OCU at Winthorpe, did you say?
HK: Yes.
NM: How did the crewing up process go? How did you end up with the crew that you ended up with?
HK: Well, it was just the usual way, and, in the RAF, from, we were in a large hall, and Bill Ryan, the, came up to me and said, would I like to join his crew? And he came, well, then, he introduced, introduced me to the rest, and we got on quite well.
NM: So you were the last to join the crew, were you?
HK: Yes.
NM: And were they an all-Australian crew?
HK: All-Australian, yeah.
NM: And you were the only Englishman there?
HK: That’s right, yes.
NM: So, why do you think he asked you? Why do you think he asked you?
HK: I have no idea! [laughs] Perhaps I was the last one, I don’t know, but we got on quite well, actually. I was the youngest, Bill Ryan was twenty-eight, I think. [Pause] The [pause] bomb aimer came from Queensland, he was about thirty-three, wireless operator was not much older than I was, I, I did have pictures of them [sound of leafing through pages].
NM: We can come onto that afterwards, if you want.
HK: Afterwards, yeah. [leafing sounds continue] Give some names.
NM: Let’s go through their names on the record and we can look at the photographs after the interview.
HK: Yeah, right.
NM: So, you go through the names.
HK: Hmm, yes.
NM: Talk, go through the names and describe the names.
HK: Yes, well, there was Bill Ryan, Les Sabine, the navigator, he came from New South Wales, as did Johnny Nichols, the wireless operator, and Jim McPhee was bomb aimer, Norm Johnstone, the mid upper gunner, and myself, and then there was Jim Newing, but we always called him Bert so we didn’t get mixed up with Jim McPhee, the bomb aimer, he was the rear gunner, he came from Perth in western Australia, and, although I lost touch with the crew after the war, some fifty years later, I and my wife went to Perth, and I looked up the telephone directory, there was H.W. Newing, which was his name, and the telephone, and I rang up on the off chance and said ‘Have you ever been to England?’ and he said ‘Yes, who’s speaking?’ I said ‘Harold Kirby’ and he immediately said ‘Oh, our flight engineer!’ [Slight laugh] And he was able to come to the hotel and we had quite a long chat, unfortunately, we had to go off the following day, but by then, I had his address and telephone number, and we went back to Perth all summer, few years later, and he came and took us to meet his wife and have lunch, and so, that, that was very nice. Unfortunately, he’s passed away.
NM: Okay, sad to hear that. So, you went to Lancaster flying school, you say, after you, your?
HK: Yes, at Syerston, that was.
NM: That was, okay, at Syerston. And how long were you there for?
HK: Oh, just a matter of a week or so, I think. I don’t, I can’t remember that.
NM: So, you then joined 467 Squadron at Waddington?
HK: That’s right.
NM: Tell me about squadron life in 467, what was that like?
HK: What was that like? I think I was glad I’d been to 460 Squadron and got used to a lot of the Australians, so it didn’t come as a bit of a shock, but [pause] apart from those two instances that I mentioned, I think we were quite fortunate, getting away unscathed.
NM: So, can you describe general operations, then, on 467 at Waddington?
HK: Well, I, the pilot and navigator, this before an operation, they had a, an initial briefing, and then after that, the rest of the crew joined them to have a general briefing. We were – then we all had to get ready for going off, we had a, a meal beforehand. Coming back, we were debriefed, and contrary to, contrary to what other, I’ve read about other squadrons, we never got rum or anything like that, we just got coffee, and then we went to bed and waited for the next operation. I do remember that, on one occasion, I slept for about eighteen hours non-stop, virtually, that was after two or three night operations on the trot.
NM: So, when you found you were being posted to Pathfinders at –
HK: Yes.
NM: - Coningsby, at 97 Squadron, what was your feeling?
HK: Really, nothing much, we, I didn’t know much about them, and I just wanted to keep with the rest of the crew, suppose.
NM: So, was – how did Coningsby and the Pathfinders differ from a main force station at Waddington and 467?
HK: I can’t say that it was terribly different, different. We were quite fortunate in, again, that, as Waddington was, and Binbrook beforehand and then Coningsby, they were all peacetime stations and we were very comfortably housed, not like some squadrons who had to cope with a lot of mud [slight laugh]! Oh, yes, at Coningsby, we had to be capable of taking over some of the other tasks, such as, I was asked to keep the aircraft on the straight and level for a while, presumably in case the pilot couldn’t hold it, which, that was what I did, although the rear gunner said it was more like a switchback than straight and level [slight laugh]! Then I had to learn the Morse code and do some gunnery practice, and also bomb aiming, so that, that was quite a change. In fact, towards the end of the war, the normal bomb aimer went and helped the navigator with the screens that they had then, and I did the bomb aiming, so it, that was a change. [Pause] Can’t say that there’s much more to add.
NM: So the extra training that you had, then, for, for flying training for straight and level flying and for gunnery and Morse code and bomb aiming, what, how did those extra training comes about?
HK: I remember the bomb, bomb aiming, there was a sort of a, a map that sort of moved on the floor and we were practising sort of with the bomb sights, and then also, in, there was a bombing range at Wainfleet in the Wash, I think I did a, a few goes at that, and then as far as gunnery, we dropped a flare in the water and I was in the nose turret and had a go and see if I could shoot that, and so [pause] I do remember once, I think this was at, at Waddington, for some reason, the brakes failed as we were taxiing ‘round, and the pilot was able to steer by controlling the engines. The normal practice when you start off is to keep the brakes on and push the throttle forward to get maximum speed, power, and then suddenly take the brakes off and shoot off. Well, this time, we had no time to do that, we got slowly to the take-off point and got the green lights and pushed the throttles forward and, fortunately [laughs], took off okay! And then, again, we thought we’d go back to Woodbridge, which we did, and I repaired the brakes and we got back to base. [Pause]
NM: What did you feel about the different roles that you were asked to play, then, between flight engineer and gunnery and bomb aiming?
HK: Well, I quite enjoyed it, the change, yes.
NM: So your crew, altogether, did forty-four operations?
HK: Yes.
NM: And you all stayed together for the whole time?
HK: No, all except the mid upper gunner and the wireless operator, they decided they wouldn’t go on to the second tour, and so we had spare chaps to do that, but I can’t really remember much about them.
NM: How did the crew feel about losing two stalwarts and getting two replacements?
HK: Well, don’t think we were terribly happy, but that was, you know, if they didn’t want to go on, well, that was it. I preferred to carry on rather than go to a training squadron because that could be a bit dicey sometimes.
NM: What would you say about life in Bomber Command overall?
HK: Overall, I had quite a good time, really. [Pause] No, I don’t think I would have chosen anything else, I was quite happy with what I was doing. Bit dicey at times, but that was it.
NM: Do you keep, keep in touch at all with, or – you’ve spoken about the rear gunner you’ve met in Australia, do you keep in touch with squadron associations, reunions?
HK: Oh, I, I kept up with the squadron association, and Path – not, yes, Pathfinder Association, while it was still in force, and then I belonged to the Aircrew Association, we had monthly meetings, and –
NM: Were they locally here?
HK: That was at, that’s at Hemel Hempstead, but there’s another ex-Pathfinder who flew in Mosquitos who lived in Hatch End, and we take it in turns to drive to Hemel, but we were quite fortunate, really, because a lot of the branches had to close because lack of members, but as it’s open to post-war fliers as well, we’ve got quite a few in, in our association, and they help to keep the thing going, in fact, I think all the, apart from one, are post-war fliers, or the, I’m trying to say, the people that control, the – sorry, I, I get mixed up with words sometimes [laughs]! Yeah, but anyway, we keep going.
NM: Okay, that’s fair [?]. How do you think Bomber Command has been treated since the war?
HK: Not very well; in fact, I think in the end, we were quite happy to get the memorial. [Pause] Lot of work has been done to get it organised.
NM: Okay, shall we call it a day there?
HK: Hmm?
NM: Shall we finish the interview there? Are you happy with that, or was there anything else you’d like to talk about with your time in Bomber Command?
HK: I think I’ve covered most things. [Pause] I was telling you about my two friends that joined up before I did, both got shot down, one unfortunately on the Nuremburg raid, and the other one, who was on Stirlings, got shot down over France but parachuted to safety and was looked after by the French until he was – the Americans came. But, so, I was quite fortunate, really.
NM: So, did you find out about your friend’s loss during the war, or was it after the, only after the war, did you find?
HK: It was during the war, yes, I kept in touch with my particular school friend’s mother or parents and heard when he’d got shot down; they didn’t know what had happened to him at the time, of course, yes. [Pause] So I did keep up with that school friend after he’d come back from – to England. One peculiar thing happened was, at the time before he got shot down, he, he’d sent me a picture of him and a bomb aimer, his bomb aimer, and I was showing this to my crew, and my bomb aimer said ‘I know that chap, we’ve been doing training together in Canada!’ But he stayed on to do some training others and so he, he didn’t come, get to this country until well after my school friend’s bomb aimer had come here, but both the bomb aimer and my friend were the only two that managed to get out of the aircraft when it was shot.
NM: And you finished up doing a radar mechanic’s course?
HK: Yes.
NM: After the war.
HK: Ah, yes.
NM: Tell me a little bit about that.
HK: Well, that was quite enjoyable, learning how the radar worked, and after the war, instead of going back – well, I did go back for a while to my original job, which was in an accounts department, in an accounts department in an electric supplier, I decided I wanted to do something a bit more technical, and the GEC at the time were advertising for people for their laboratories, and I went along and got a job in their patents department, and trained – well, I did evening classes, got BSc, then went on to do the patent agent’s exams and stayed there until I retired, retired in ’83 but went on and did five more years part-time, until they moved the whole place to Chelmsford, I decided that was enough [slight laugh].
NM: And you’ve been retired ever since?
HK: Hmm?
NM: You’ve been retired ever since?
HK: Yes.
NM: Okay, I think that’s probably a very good note to finish on.
HK: [Laughs] Yes!
[Recording beeps: interview paused and restarted]
NM: Just continuing the interview with Mr Kirby.
HK: Yes, there were a couple of instances which I remember now, not actually connected with the enemy, but we were due to fly to Munich to bomb something at Munich, and we had to, we were rooted over the Alps in moonlight, which was a beautiful sight to see, and then another occasion, we flew to one of the eastern countries, oh, I could tell you exactly where it is [sound of leafing through pages], and we had to fly over Sweden at the time, and, yes. No, I can’t [pause as HK continues leafing through pages] Ah, Politz. Yes, I had to fly over Sweden, which was quite exciting ‘cause it was all lit up, they did shoot, but we were told that not to worry, they weren’t going to shoot at us. [Laughs] But those are just two instances I happen to remember.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Interview with Harold Kirby. One
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Nigel Moore
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
2015-07-10
Format
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00:42:44 audio recording
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Sound
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
AKirbyH150710, PKirbyH1511
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
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
Description
An account of the resource
Harold Kirby joined up the Royal Air Force encouraged by two friends, but ended up training as a flight mechanic at RAF Halton on medical grounds. Harold became them airframe fitter, volunteered as a flight engineer, passed the physical but was then posted as a fitter at RAF Binbrook for six months with 460 Squadron. He was then at RAF Saint Athan to train as a flight engineer, then to RAF Winthorpe Heavy Conversion Unit with an all-Australian aircrew. Harold recollects a crash landing at RAF Woodbridge, followed by attending Lancaster Finishing School at RAF Syerston. He was then posted to 467 Squadron at RAF Waddington. Discusses bombing operations over France V-1 weapons sites, a bomb falling through a wing, and crash landing at RAF Wittering. Harold was eventually posted to 97 Pathfinder Squadron at RAF Coningsby, owing to his array of skills and multiple qualifications. Discusses post war training as radar mechanic, employment at the General Electric Company and reunions with his Australian aircrew.
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
France
Germany
Great Britain
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Lincolnshire
Wales--Vale of Glamorgan
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
Language
A language of the resource
eng
460 Squadron
467 Squadron
8 Group
97 Squadron
aircrew
bomb struck
bombing
crash
crewing up
fitter airframe
flight engineer
flight mechanic
forced landing
ground crew
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
mechanics airframe
military ethos
military living conditions
military service conditions
Pathfinders
pilot
RAF Binbrook
RAF Coningsby
RAF Halton
RAF St Athan
RAF Syerston
RAF Waddington
RAF Wainfleet
RAF Winthorpe
RAF Wittering
RAF Woodbridge
recruitment
Stirling
training
V-1
V-weapon
York
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Title
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Miller, Peter
P Miller
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Miller, P
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Flight Lieutenant Peter Miller (3008496 Royal Air Force). He served as an air gunner and gunnery leader with 12 Squadron.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Date
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2015-06-06
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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.
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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PM: You, you want my name or rank?
MJ: Yeah.
MM: Name and rank. Um I’m Peter, I’m [laughs] I’m nearly as bad as you. I’m recording this for Peter Miller, who is my husband, for the International Bomber Command Centre on the 1st June 20 -
MJ: ‘15.
MM: ‘15. We’re at Wragby in Lincolnshire.
PM: When I was called up. Is that alright?
MM: Ahum.
PM: 25th of the 11th ‘43. Went to Cardington. I was only there for a week getting kitted out and such. Was sent to Skegness, my home town, to do a couple of months foot drill. I was billeted about half a mile from home. So, when in the town I was the person sent by cycle on errands. Afterwards was posted to Halton on a flight mechanics course on which I was made AC1. Leaving Halton on the 29th of the 5th ‘44 I went to Digby, Lincolnshire, 527 squadron. Enjoyed time off, such, it was a Canadian station at the time. Then being posted to Bircham Newton, Norfolk, 695 squadron who were drogue towing. After a short while there I was sent to Blackpool in November classed as a PDC from which we went to Liverpool to get a boat. A Dutch ship called the [oanvan oldabarnevoort?] which after, after a late start we caught the convoy and going down the Med at Christmas Eve sailing past Gib onto Aden, then to Ceylon to drop some, some, some people off and then back up to Bombay to a transit camp. From Bombay we went to a place called Cawnpore [Kanpur]. That was our destination - 322 MU. Spending two and a half years in Cawnpore [Kanpur], returning from Bombay on the SS Somalia landing in Liverpool for being demobbed at a transit camp just outside Blackpool early July ’47. That’s, that’s my service career.
MM: What did you think to India?
PM: It was air, do you want the aircraft I worked on?
MJ: Oh yeah. I mean, well, that’s a, that’s a nice round off way of putting things how they are but yeah where, what, what, what did you do in Bombay because it seems a long way to be having an aircraft. I mean if you -
PM: It seems like a long way to what?
MJ: It seems to be a long way to go and play with aircraft so I just wondered what you had to do there.
PM: We were servicing them.
MJ: Yeah.
PM: Um Liberators.
MM: It was a big camp wasn’t it, Peter?
PM: A very big camp. Worked on Liberators to start with. About -
MM: Did you enjoy India?
PM: About five months.
MM: Did you enjoy India?
PM: Well yes. It was alright.
MJ: I suppose it was a good place to get a suntan.
PM: Yeah. Yeah but mainly. I had almost two and a half years on Dakotas.
MJ: So you mainly worked on Dakotas.
PM: Yeah, air frames.
MJ: Air frame.
PM: Air frame fitter.
MJ: Was it, was it very busy being in India fitting or was it -
PM: We were busy.
MJ: Quiet?
PM: Of course we used to service them from all over South East Asia Command.
MJ: So, so when people think that you were um in India probably having a quieter time than most you probably, you weren’t were you? You ‘cause
PM: Oh no, we weren’t living it up.
MJ: No. I mean that’s what people would think. I mean
PM: Yeah.
MJ: That’s what I’m saying. A lot of people don’t associate India with the RAF do they?
PM: Yeah. We weren’t living it up.
MJ: No. So, so how did you, I imagine it was very hot over there was it? Or -
PM: Very hot.
MJ: So -
MM: And you went up in the hills didn’t you on your leave -
PM: Pardon?
MM: You enjoyed going up into the hills didn’t you? On leave.
PM: We used to get on, we used to get our normal leave but also we had a, we used to go on hill parties, a month, probably fifty or sixty used to go by train to the foothills and then up by wagons to the place we spent the, spent the leave, the holiday. I had my twenty first birthday in Darjeeling.
MJ: That must have been interesting.
PM: Yeah. It was alright [laughs]. But the other places were, were very fair. They used to take us as far as they could by train, Then we had to go on, on wagons further up.
MJ: Did -
PM: We used to go by train to Darjeeling. Pre, pre, pre-war I think the moneyed folks had taken Darjeeling over and they weren’t all that keen on us blokes out there going to Darjeeling but er we made them happy.
MJ: Did um -
PM: But that’s a lovely spot that.
MJ: So even though the work was hard it was quite a nice place to be.
PM: Yeah. But, but regarding, regarding the weather it, it was very hot. During the hot season we used to go to work in the morning. There for seven and we used to work while one and after 1 o’clock the time was our own.
MJ: It was too hot to work?
PM: Yeah.
MJ: So, so, so in a way you were working nights really?
PM: [laughs] But we were we’ve had everything done I think. There was, it was a very big camp. There was three villages on the camp.
MJ: Was, was it more than just RAF then?
PM: Pardon?
MJ: Was it more than just RAF?
PM: Just RAF.
MJ: So -
PM: Yeah.
MM: There were locals. The villagers were locals.
PM: Local villagers. They were on, on the side -
MJ: Side.
MM: Doing your washing for you.
PM: Well they used to, they were our bearers and things were alright until the war finished.
MJ: What happened then?
PM: Until the Jap war finished. And then Pakistan and India were having a go at one another.
MJ: So you got stuck in the middle.
PM: Well more or less. We wanted to get home. They held, well, we believed they held our demob up for a while.
MJ: Why because of the conflict between the two -
PM: Well, in case there was going to be. Nothing happened. We got on the boat and came home.
MJ: So that, that was a better deal than you thought.
PM: Yeah. One of the biggest laughs we got was when we got to Liverpool on the way home. We were getting off the boat and a jet went over. Never seen a jet.
MJ: No.
PM: Only heard about them. You should have heard the cheer that went up.
MJ: That must have been, so you were probably one of the first people to see a jet flying.
PM: Yeah. In Liverpool.
MJ: You don’t -
PM: Vampire.
MM: Yeah.
[Tape paused].
PM: The cold season out there -
MJ: Yeah.
PM: Is about like this.
MJ: So it’s like having summer in the winter is it?
PM: Yeah.
MJ: So did you, you got warm -
PM: The, the snag is um these blokes that’s been in, in the desert and that, they reckon it goes stone cold at night. Not India. The sun, the sun sets and that’s it. Nothing else. Then the sun comes up and it’s daylight again and you’re getting warmer.
MJ: Yeah. So did you find you had to do more work in the winter per se or, or is it ‘cause, ‘cause the engine, or did you have to sort of -
PM: Yeah, in the, in the cold season we’d probably work another hour a day.
MJ: That, that doesn’t sound a lot but I imagine in those sorts of heats everything buckles including yourself does it?
PM: Yeah.
MJ: I mean, did, did you have to bring in, how did you get everything to where you were ‘cause you were saying you didn’t have any transport as such.
PM: When, when the war finished we, we were, they were sending in um Liberators to our place for scrap. We had a colossal scrapheap there. They were sending these Liberators there because - I don’t want it recorded because -
MJ: No it’s alright.
PM: Yeah well what we heard was that the Yanks wouldn’t take them back as returned lease-lend.
MJ: Well I mean that -
PM: And we just had to get rid of them but we weren’t allowed to sell them. That’s, that’s all we heard. They were wheeling them down to salvage and there was about seventy or eighty Libs there when I got posted home but on other places there was more Libs.
MJ: So I mean -
PM: And they just started destroying them. Took anything that, everything that was any use off the Libs and then, I can’t remember which station it was but there was one station in India was, had started to destroy the Libs. I, I don’t know what, well anybody that was in the RAF on aircraft would say it’s easier to build one then take one to bits. They um they took all instruments that were of any use out.
MJ: Right.
PM: Dinghies, first aid, everything like that. Armoury. All that out and then they took them onto the scrap, down to the scrapyard and drained all the oil out, out the engines and started the engines up and ran them flat out until they went bang.
MJ: So that they couldn’t be used again.
PM: No use whatsoever.
MJ: You know if -
PM: And then they recommended that what you did was have a, have a wagon or tractor fastened to the front of them and drive the tail unit up against a wall or something like that to break them up. Anything that’s riveted you see you can’t get it to bits by, by just undoing it.
MJ: It was built to last so -
PM: But that’s, that’s how it was but there was, there was about seventy at Cawnpore [Kanpur] when I came home that, that hadn’t been touched. Well, I say hadn’t been touched they’d been stripped but hadn’t been damaged.
MJ: I don’t think that was just yourself. I’ve heard things go, you know, because it’s hard to trans. Do you think it was hard to transport the stuff back? I -
MM: Distance.
MJ: You think -
PM: But the –
MJ: I would have thought it would be the pure economics of getting something, it was more expensive to -
PM: If the Yanks had taken them back they could have flown them back.
MJ: Do you think so?
PM: Yeah. I’m sure. They flew them there they could have flown them back.
MJ: Did, did any of the, anything else get left behind? Was it just the planes? Just, everyone leaves everything behind or did you bring most of it back?
PM: Well I don’t know what happened to them at Cawnpore [Kanpur] because they were still there when I left but there was a reunion at Cawnpore [Kanpur]. I was going on it but I got a new [motor?] and I couldn’t go and er the chaps said that the Indian air force wouldn’t let them anywhere near the salvage.
MJ: They wouldn’t let them anywhere near salvage. Well I’m surprised it’s still there.
PM: Yeah. They wouldn’t let them anywhere near salvage.
MM: But you used to go swimming didn’t you? You had a pool.
PM: Oh we’d go swimming. There was a swimming pool on the camp.
MM: A swimming pool and that. You enjoyed that.
MJ:: More than I can do.
MM: I can’t swim.
MJ: Yeah.
MM: So I mean there was some good times wasn’t there?
PM: Oh yes we had some good times.
MM: Good times. Friends. Lots of laughs.
PM: Off the camp mainly, the good times.
MM: Used to go down to one of the places nearby didn’t you? Villages, towns whatever you called it.
PM: Oh we used to go in, in to Cawnpore [Kanpur] itself.
MM: Yeah.
PM: The city
MJ: Well you say it’s a city. Was it sort of like -
MM: How big?
MJ: Was it a big place or –
PM: Oh it was a big place -
MJ: ‘Cause I mean -
PM: The city was. Yeah. The actual RAF camp was called, oh God - Chakeri.
MJ: Oh right. I thought -
PM: It was about four mile out of Cawnpore [Kanpur] but Cawnpore [Kanpur] was a city and we used to call the camp Cawnpore [Kanpur]. It was always Cawnpore [Kanpur].
MJ: Um maybe -
PM: Where were you stationed? Cawnpore [Kanpur].
MM: But you used to have meals didn’t you, in the city, when you went out?
PM: You what?
MM: You used to go for meals didn’t you? In the city went out -
PM: Oh could do. Yeah. Go in to the city. But we were only allowed in one part of the city. They um it was out of bounds to us.
MJ: It’s er so -
PM: It was, it was our military that put it out of bounds to us. They wouldn’t, wouldn’t let us in the -
So it wasn’t inflicted. It wasn’t, you weren’t put out of bounds by the city itself. It was the hierarchy of the military itself.
PM: Yeah. Yeah.
MJ: Saying you couldn’t go to certain parts.
PM: That’s it. Yeah.
MJ: Ah and did you, could you go out of uniform or did you have to be in uniform?
PM: We was, we were out of uniform most of the time. I mean when we used to go to work in a morning, 7 o’clock in the morning, you’d have a, a pair of shorts on, socks and shoes, bush hat and sunglasses and we used to go to work like that and at 1 o’clock when we, when we finished work we used to walk, we didn’t march back or anything. We used to walk back in groups, probably call at the swimming pool on the way back, used to go back and have lunch and then just loaf about.
MJ: Well I imagine it’s, it’s too hot to do anything else at that time. I mean -
PM: It was a funny old time.
MJ: Yeah I can agree with you there. You –
[Tape paused]
MM: Yeah.
PM: About the same height as I am now.
MM: Six foot.
PM: Weighed seven and a half stone.
MM: Rather slim.
PM: I got a demob suit and I kept my best blue. And I came home. The demob suit was slightly too big for me. ‘You’ll grow out of it’, that was that you see, which I did. Within, within a month my blue didn’t fit me. I didn’t care ‘cause I chucked it away and my demob suit was dead tight. I had to collect all the, all the family clothing coupons together and go and get measured for a suit, ‘Make it plenty big enough’ and I stopped growing then [laughs]. So I got one suit big and the other, other two too small.
MJ: So most people stopped growing and you took that many years to grow-
MM: His mother’s cooking that was. Put the weight on you. [laughs] Didn’t it?
PM: Yeah.
MM: Your mum’s cooking -
PM: Yeah.
MM: Yeah. Built you up again.
PM: My mother was in the first war.
MM: First World War.
PM: In the RAF. In Germany.
MJ: [That’s what?]
PM: Yeah. In the Royal Flying Corp.
MM: As it was then. Yeah.
MJ: So you inherited the job did you?
MM: Must have done.
PM: Yeah.
PM: When, when you were on about servicing, servicing aircraft we had to be there, we were in the hangars for 7 o’clock in the morning but if there were any aircraft either stuck outside or in the hangar that were going out you checked the tyre pressures before the sun got on them because you never know what the tire pressure would be after about an hour in the sun out there.
MM: And of course they couldn’t fly them till they’d got your little signature could they?
PM: Hmmn?
MM: You couldn’t fly them till they got your little signature.
PM: Oh no couldn’t. Well I was one of a team. I was the air frame rigger um on a Liberator four engines so there’d be four engine fitters, instruments, wires um guns and turrets all had to be checked and signed for before the pilot could have it.
MJ: How long did that take?
PM: Hmmn?
MJ: How long did that take?
PM: Well I mean if the aircraft was, was, was alright, if it had come out of the hangar after, after a major service it would be taken out on a test flight. One of each trade would go up with him if it was a bomber. Go up with him and you’d fly around and everything was alright. Come back. You’d check up again. Then before it flew again tomorrow it had to be serviced because between flights inspections on RAF aircraft if it, if an aircraft came, came up from London and landed on your airport there would be a between flights inspection before it could go again.
MJ: Oh I didn’t know that.
PM: Yeah.
MJ: How often did that happen?
PM: Hmmn?
MJ: Did that happen regularly?
PM: That was it. Between flights inspection. And being, being a rigger, that’s what I was, they were the last to sign the 700. The 700 was the aircraft manual and every, everybody that was concerned with anything on the aircraft had to sign and the rigger was the last one to sign because he was responsible for um the petrol cap being loose. Nothing, nothing to do with him normally. The um the blokes driving the petrol bowsers used to tighten them up but it was, it was his aircraft and he had to do something about it. So he used to tighten, tighten it up and any, any little panel that was loose he’d secure the panels and that before he signs and until he signed they couldn’t go anywhere.
MJ: Did you have a team of riggers or was it just you per plane?
PM: What?
MJ: Was it just you on one plane or did you have a few?
PM: Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah.
MJ: So -
PM: Didn’t, didn’t do a half a dozen planes. Just, just the one plane.
MJ: Yeah but did you work as a rigger on your own or did you have someone helping you?
PM: Was, was
MM: Was there more than one rigger on each plane?
PM: No. Only one rigger.
MM: Ahum.
PM: Yeah.
MJ: So that’s a lot of rivets.
MM: Ahum check them [laughs].
PM: Yeah well the aircraft, the framework of the aircraft and everything in general was alright. It was day to day um events um tyres and things like that. Brakes slipping. All those sort of things.
MJ: Do you think you had more trouble because it was hotter there than most would have?
PM: Of course being a rigger brakes were my job as well. [laughs]
MM: You said when you went to Halton it was a case of half of them for engines half of them for airframes wasn’t it?
PM: Yeah.
MM: So it just depends which side of the room you were on [laughs] you were telling me.
PM: [laughs] Yeah.
MM: You had some fun down there at Halton didn’t you?
PM: You what?
MM: Had some fun at Halton.
PM: Halton. Yeah. It was um water shortage. Halton camp is on a hill. The hill, the hill is that far and high that there’s two parade grounds on the hill.
MJ: Two?
PM: Two parade grounds on the hill. You go through the gates, you go up and, oh from here to the bridge there’s the bottom of the parade ground and it goes back into the hills and you carry, you carry on up the hill there and about, about another twenty, thirty foot up there’s another parade ground. It was a hell of a camp Halton was. It was a, um what’s it -
MM: Training?
PM: Oh God.
MM: Officer’s training do you say?
PM: No.
MM: No.
PM: Weren’t officers. They -
MM: Cadets.
PM: When you join, you join the RAF you -
MM: Cadets?
PM: You was a member. I was a member of the air force but I was only a sort of a temporary member but I, I, I didn’t sign on for ten years or owt like that but all the regulars they, they were right under the thumb. By hell they were.
MJ: So you think it was different for you. Was it ‘cause you -
PM: Yeah.
MJ: Because you were sort of part time if you like.
PM: Yeah.
MJ: For a better word.
PM: I liked Halton. It was a nice camp.
MM: Taught you how to shoot there didn’t there?
PM: Hmmn?
MM: Taught you how to shoot there didn’t they?
PM: Yeah.
MJ: This is um -
MM: One poor chap. Everybody dashed because -
PM: We had two, we had two Jewish lads -
MJ: Yeah.
PM: By God they were dim [laughs] and er they, they, they were on a, on a rigger’s course but everything, everything went wrong with them. On one day we had um rifle training so went up on the, up on the bus up the hill and there was um the targets. Perhaps six or seven targets.
MJ: Right.
PM: And a wall, a wall just below them and behind, behind the wall there was a trench so the blokes, blokes up there looking after, looking after the targets they were, they were safe and you had ten rounds and you just, you had your ten rounds and you got in front of one of, one of the targets and that and you’d been told how to fire them and everything. The corporal would shout, ‘Fire.’ And then down there on the range there used to be a flag on a pole come out and he used to stick on to the target where, where the bullet had gone through, if it had gone through. Well these two Jewish lads they couldn’t even hit the target never mind [laughs] and there was everybody else had to get off and let them pick their own target and everything. Our corporal was on the phone to them down there and, ‘Right. Fire. Take your time.’ Bang. Flag went like that. Bang. Next time it went [beuuuu]. Phone rang. Corporal said, ‘What’s the matter?’ He said, ‘He hit my mate.’ He’d, he’d hit his tin hat. Hit his tin hat. This bullet and had gone off his tin hat.
MJ: So he was safe though?
PM: Yeah.
MM: Most of them.
PM: And then we had hand grenades. There was, there was this wall. All sandbanks and that and over the other side of the wall about there, there was a, there was a hole and behind this wall there was another wall and everybody used to get behind that wall and the corporal used to bring one bloke around and show him, show him everything, make sure he, he was holding the grenade right, then he used to toss it over to go in the hole. Everybody else was doing alright and this one he dropped the grenade the other side just on the top and it rolled down so the corporal grabbed hold of this bloke, pushed him down and more or less sat on him. Bang. ‘That was close wasn’t it?’ the corporal said. And, and, we, we went up into the, up the hills. Sten guns. They were deadly you know. If you dropped a sten gun it’d bounce about all over the place till it emptied and [laughs] there was two corporals that had never, never met these two. ‘Watch them. We know what we’re doing.’ Corporals, ‘Alright.’ Showed them how to go on and everything. Give these two a sten gun each, got them to load them, ‘Don’t do anything. We’ll have you one at a time so you come with me.’ So he fired. Nowhere near the target or anything like that but he got shot of the, the ammo. The second one went, spun around, he says to the corporal, ‘It won’t fire’ pointing it at the corporal. [laughs] God. He said, ‘Stand still. Let go of the trigger. Put it down.’ If there hadn’t been anybody else around he would have clouted him around the side of the earhole with the sten. Anyway, they got rid of them. I don’t know where they went to but they were no good as, no good on engines or airframes or anything like that. They were completely useless, the pair of them.
MM: They were only young though you see weren’t they? Eighteen and a half.
PM: Yeah they’d only be just over eighteen.
MM: That’s what I mean. Today –
PM: Yeah.
MM: They’re at school aren’t they?
MJ: Yeah. So it’s surprising you’re here.
MM: Yeah.
PM: Yeah.
MM: Then he come back to Digby, Lincolnshire.
PM: Eh?
MM: You enjoyed Digby in Lincolnshire didn’t you?
PM: Yeah.
MM: No calamities there?
PM: No. Come back to Digby.
MM: You used to go in to Lincoln didn’t you?
PM: Yeah. Used to go in to Lincoln.
MM: On time off.
PM: It was a Canadian station. Everything underground.
MJ: Underground?
PM: Eh?
MM: Underground.
MJ: Everything underground?
PM: Everything was built underground. It was a radio and radar station. We didn’t, we didn’t know that when we were stationed there but, but they used to work underground.
MJ: That’s -
PM: At Digby. It was good station. It was a Canadian station.
MJ: Was that better than the RAF ones?
PM: Well, they were better supplied than what we were.
MM: Food was good [laughs] Yeah.
PM: Yeah a lot better supplied.
[Tape paused]
PM: We were all, all air frame fitters and one of the station aircraft, we got two Dakotas belonging to the station. One had gone to Lahore.
MJ: Right.
PM: From our place and um next morning they were refuelling it and the chap drove the petrol bowser with the dipstick sticking out and tore the underside of the wing. Well that was it you see. He didn’t just tear the surface of the wing he, he buckled the main spar. So we, we had several Dakotas there that would probably never fly again and using them as spares and got hold of, got hold of my mate we did and get a, get a mainplane from, from salvage. Give him, give him all the gen on this one aircraft, ‘Go and, go and check if it’s alright.’ So he come back he said, ‘Yeah it’s alright.’ He said ‘Right. The three of you,’ he says, ‘You Miller’ and what his name, ‘Go and fetch it off.’ And we took, we took the crane down with us and we got the, got the trestles and everything and the jacks underneath it’s wing and we disconnected the wing and took it away completely from the engines you see. You’ve got the two engines there and a centre section between them and the fuselage but beyond the engines that’s the outer so we got that and we got a Queen Mary. You know the Queen Mary’s, we used? The um -
MJ: Ahum?
PM: The long, the long low loaders. Very wide, ten foot wide, that the RAF used to drive around you’ve seen them there their low loaders haven’t you? They’re called the Queen Mary’s. They’re ten, ten foot wide and during the war if, if you had to take anything with, with a Queen Mary through, through a town you had a police escort and they’d take you the best way through the town because of, because of the width of the vehicle. And we loaded this, loaded this mainplane and all the gear we wanted and everything and we cleared off to Lahore. The three of us. It took us three days to get there. Close on four hundred mile.
MJ: What were the -
PM: Well the roads in India were just like the roads down to the villages here and we got there and this Warrant Officer [Pryor?] said, ‘Goodness I’m pleased to see you lot.’ He said, ‘Get on with it.’ So we took, took this mainplane off and they carted it off to salvage there and um they got all the gear there, got all the gear and everything but they wouldn’t let them touch it.
MJ: Why was that?
PM: So we, we had to do it you see. The plane belonged to us so we, we, we got the mainplane off and everything, put the other one up got it all, all bolted in. Everything. Control cables, electrics, everything and got hold of Taf Bevan, ‘Right. Fly it.’
MJ: How long did that take you?
PM: Hmmn?
MJ: How long did that take you?
PM: Well three days overall. ‘Fly it.’ He says, ‘Alright. Sign.’ So we signed for it and everything. The warrant officer, the err engineering officer at whatsit, he said, ‘You’ve done a very good job you blokes have.’ The CO was there as well. At Lahore. He was, he was there as well. He said, ‘It looks very, very nice,’ he says. He said, ‘I’ll get on to,’ Oh I don’t know the name of our CO. He said, ‘I’ll get on to him and tell him what a good job you’ve done.’ And we went up with Taf and he, he said, ‘Nothing wrong with this. It’s alright.’ Taf Bevan, he was a bloody Welshman. We never did find out his name. His first name. Never. And he was a warrant officer. He wouldn’t, he wouldn’t take a commission. He just wanted to stay non-commissioned.
MJ: Did he say why?
PM: Warrant officer.
MJ: Yeah. Did he say why he didn’t want to take a commission?
PM: He said, ‘I don’t want to be with that crowd stuck in the officer’s mess and that. Better off in the sergeant’s mess.’ He said, ‘I’m away next morning.’ We said, ‘You’re bloody well not without us mate’ and we transferred the um the Queen Mary to Lahore and climbed in the Dak with him and flew home. Thirty minutes. [laughs]
[Tape paused]
PM: Now can’t you? Between you?
MJ: I think so. You should be able to.
PM: You just, you know, well why not do that?
MJ: Did you -
PM: What about that? [Oh bought]
MJ: Yeah. People don’t think that so that’s why your lifestyle is different to todays because people don’t realise what you did. I mean so -
MM: Things have changed so much haven’t they? So much.
PM: I know we were on a test flight one day with Taf and um Taf used to let us take control for a while. He used to sit there but he knew what was happening and everything and one of the blokes he said, ‘Do you want it Taf?’ Taf says, ‘No.’ He says, ‘Just carry on.’ He got it lined up. It was about three mile out from the end of the runway. ‘Go on. You’re alright.’ He said, ‘Shall I land it?’ ‘No you bloody well won’t land it’ [laughs] He said, ‘I’d be the laughing stock of the bloody sergeant’s mess. Come out.’
MJ: Yeah.
PM: We used to, on a Dakota there’s a cockpit and there’s a cabin and it’s the full length of the aircraft near enough. You go in, you go in the double doors.
MJ: Right.
PM: And you go up to the, to another door and that that’s the control. There’s navigator, radio operator, two pilots and we used to, about three, four of us used to get up near the door and Taf would be sat there you know, nodding away there to himself and that. ‘Right. Now.’ And we’d run to the other end to the tail end [laughs]. ‘Come up here you lot.’
MM: He knew what you was doing?
PM: We, we’d run to the tail end.
MM: Yeah and made it, realised.
PM: [Climb?]
MM: Yeah.
MM: Realised what you were. You had a laugh at East Kirkby didn’t you?
PM: Yeah.
MM: They were doing a Dakota up at East Kirkby.
PM: Yeah. They were.
MM: You went out to, to have look and you said to the lads there, ‘Can I have a look inside it.’ I think you managed to get in it didn’t you?
PM: Yeah.
MM: And anyway you said to them.
PM: ‘Do you know anything about them?’ I said, ‘Yeah a little bit. I used to be on them in the air force way back.’ ‘Bloody hell. When?’ I said, ‘Oh I came out in ‘47.’ ‘God, I weren’t even bloody well born then.’
MM: Made you feel very, very old didn’t it duck [laughs] yeah.
PM: They were a lovely aircraft to work on. Dakota is. No trouble whatsoever.
MJ: Didn’t bite back.
PM: Hmmn?
MJ: Didn’t bite back.
MM: No. [laughs]
PM: They were no trouble at all. Used to fly around with the doors off.
MJ: Why?
PM: You see there’s, there was a passenger door and a cargo door on them.
MJ: Yeah.
PM: Take one or the other or both doors off. It didn’t half whistle and that inside the aircraft.
MM: Was there any reason to take the doors off though?
PM: No. No.
MM: No.
PM: You either take it off before you fly or when you land. You don’t take it off while you’re flying.
MM: No, presume not.
MJ: Was there any reason why you took them off when you flew? Or was it just because they were in the way?
PM: The doors come inwards. Not outwards.
MJ: So -
MM: What reasons did you take them off for?
PM: Eh?
MM: What reason did you take them off for?
PM: Well.
MM: Can you remember?
PM: No particular reason.
MM: Oh. Good job it wasn’t raining.
PM: During the war, on the Dakotas, along the top of the fuselage there was little windows about that size, along. So that when they were carrying troops they could open one of those windows and fire at any aircraft that was attacking them.
MM: Ahum.
PM: If they were carrying troops.
MJ: Really?
PM: Yeah. Yeah, I’m not kidding.
MM: Never heard of it.
MJ: I wouldn’t have thought of that one.
PM: I’m not kidding. Liberators, you know, you used to get in and out through the bomb, bomb bay. Get in and out through the bomb bay. The bomb doors, the bottom of the Lib is only about that far off the ground and the bomb doors go up like that and there’s a cat walk right through. The cat walk goes to, to the rear where there’s a mid-upper gunner and two, two [waist] gunners. One each side. And a rear gunner.
MJ: So you always had -
PM: And if, if you go forward up a couple of steps you get on to the flight deck where the crew, the air crew go. You, if they’re flying around and they opened the bomb doors there isn’t a bloody soul would dare go across that cat walk. From the back to the front or the front to the back. There’s not a soul would dare go. It’s, it’s perfectly safe, there’s no, no danger whatsoever and there’s plenty to hold on to. Hold on to all the bomb racks.
MJ: But no one would do it.
PM: Nobody would go in. No one would do it.
[Tape paused]
MJ: So what was this about Fred then?
PM: He, he used to go out first thing in a morning, he’d go to bed at night about nine, but first thing in the morning, probably 5 o’clock he’d cross to the cookhouse to get his porridge before they put sugar in it. Yeah. He wanted salt in his you see. Yeah. Well he was always messing about with, with animals and that and he went out one morning for a walk and there was a narrow path, trees at each side and that. He was approaching this corner when around the corner there come this panther. He says, ‘It stopped and I stopped, of course.’ He said, and its tail was going like that. He said, ‘And we stood there for about three quarters of an hour. Seemed like it.’ He said, ‘And I thought if that bloody thing comes at me there’s a tree just behind me. I can leap behind hopefully.’ He said, ‘I daren’t look around.’ He said, ‘I was weighing all this up’ he said and all of a sudden the panther put the foot down on the ground, spun around and shot off back the way it came,’ he said, ‘ And I shot off the way I came.’ He said, ‘We were about twenty five miles apart in ten minutes.’ He, he was, he was always doing something like that. Always messing about with, with animals. There was an empty cookhouse and he went and there was a wild cat in the bloody cookhouse. ‘I’ll have that.’ He went in there. This wildcat was flying around the walls. He said it was going that fast it was on the walls. He said, ‘I didn’t know what to do with it,’ he said, but the windows, the windows were all shut except one. He said it took a flying leap at that and crashed straight through the glass and everything and away it went. He said it went out, missed, missed the veranda and everything and landed out in the middle of the road. [laughs] He said, ‘I wasn’t frightened of it.’ [laughs]
MM: And who slept on a snake? One of you lads found a snake under his mattress.
PM: Yeah. Yeah. Rum lad that.
MM: Who was that? Who found a snake under his mattress?
PM: Oh er who was it? One of the other lads. Fred said, ‘I’ll get that out for you.’ He outed it. ‘Cause you see if you found a snake out there you had to find the other bugger. Nearly always travelled in pairs.
MJ: Do they?
PM: Ahum we had a, we had a snake in our billet one night. We got it and finished it off and we were looking around for its mate. Couldn’t find its mate anywhere so that was it. Wasn’t going under the mossie nets. Next morning this bloke got up and er there was this snake laid, laid in there. It had been crushed. He’d crushed it. You see the beds out there were wood. They were just a wooden frame and then there was like string across and then what they called a dhurry. It was like, just like an [asbestos] sheet the size of your bed. When you went anywhere you know on guard at night or something like that you took whatever you wanted in your dhurry. Got it all wrapped up in the dhurry. Then you had your mossie net and your mossie net was you had four, four bamboo canes that used to go inside the legs across the back of the bed like that and your mossie net went on the top and your mossie net was shaped, was shaped just like, just like a box. The box was down, the box was that way up and the things, the sides of the net came down you see and these, these four bamboo canes they went up behind, behind the leg and up the inside of the nets so it was all sprung out. That was how your mossie nets went. There were times when we’ve taken the mossie nets down and inverted them and then put the bed inside, inside it.
MM: But this snake that you was talking about.
PM: It was an open top.
MM: This snake you was talking about was underneath this here mattress thing wasn’t it?
PM: Underneath the dhurry.
MM: Yeah.
PM: Yeah.
MM: I didn’t realise he’d been sleeping on it all night.
PM: No. No.
MM: No. Oh horrible things.
PM: Well it was dead anyway. Fred says, ‘Poor little bugger. You’ve been laid on it all night.’
MJ: I’d like to thank Mr Miller on behalf of the International Bomber Command project on the 1st of January no oh June 2015 for his interview and, and for myself I’d like to thank him. My name’s Michael Jeffery and this is the end of the interview.
MM: My name is Mavis Miller, recording this for the International Bomber Command Centre on the 1st of June 2015. We live at Horncastle Road, Wragby, Lincolnshire. Yeah. I was at Minting, school at Minting, during the war. We lived about four miles from Bardney aerodrome so we saw a lot of the RAF lads and the WAAFs who used to come to the Sebastopol at Minting. My father also worked at the Bardney aerodrome so we were involved quite a bit. He always used to come home very distressed when, at times, the bombers would come back with the air force lad’s uniforms having to be burned because they were blood stained. Another small happening during the war was I was with my friends down Hungerham Lane about a half a mile from my home when we saw two of our fighters firing at this German fighter and it was brought down at Baumber, again only about three or four fields away from where we were. Unfortunately, no one got out the plane. We were told that it went up in flames. The farm workers couldn’t get anywhere near it but I was pleased to get home that night safe and sound. I think that’s about the end of my experiences.
MJ: On behalf of the International Bomber Command Historical Unit I’d like to thank Mrs Miller for her stories of when she was a child and on the June the 1st 2015 I’d like to end the interview.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with Peter Miller
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Mick Jeffery
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2015-06-01
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AMillerP150601
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Pending revision of OH transcription
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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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eng
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
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01:02:55 audio recording
Description
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Peter was called up in November 1943 and after basic training was sent to RAF Halton to be trained as a flight mechanic. Whilst there he had several dangerous incidents during small arms training.
Initially posted to 527 Squadron, which was Canadian, at RAF Digby and then to 695 squadron at RAF Bircham Newton working on drogue towing aircraft.
Posted overseas, he arrived at RAF Chakeri near Kampur where he worked on servicing B-24 and C-47 aircraft for South East Asia Command. He recalls that as an airframe mechanic he had to sign the Form 700 certifying that all the other trades had carried out their servicing correctly.
The local town was largely off-limits and only certain parts were allowed to be visited. The weather was very hot and in the summer hill parties were sent to the hills to escape the heat. Peter spent his 21st birthday at Darjeeling. When hostilities ceased the spent its time dismantling and scrapping B-24s aircraft. Whilst India was partitioned, Peter's demobilisation was postponed in case of tensions between India and Pakistan.
After two and a half years he was sent home via Liverpool, where he saw his first jet, and was demobilised in July 1947.
Temporal Coverage
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1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
1947-07
1943-11
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Norfolk
India
India--Kānpur
India--Darjeeling
Pakistan
Contributor
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Terry Holmes
B-24
C-47
fitter airframe
flight mechanic
fuelling
ground crew
petrol bowser
RAF Bircham Newton
RAF Chakeri
RAF Digby
RAF Halton
service vehicle
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/619/8888/PPageTJ1606.1.jpg
b148aa18f4800cd0fb0c18a9acf80a81
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/619/8888/APageTJ160702.2.mp3
c8fe4cbafca04e08890102b6ebcd50da
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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Page, Thomas James
T J Page
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Page, TJ
Description
An account of the resource
Fifteen items. An oral history interview with Squadron Leader Thomas Page DFM (1922 - 2017, 922297, 183427 Royal Air Force), his log book, two autobiographies and photographs. He flew operations as a flight engineer with 49 Squadron.
The collection was The collection was loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Thomas Page and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
Date
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2016-07-02
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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CB: So hang on –,
TP: Why the hell didn’t I bring those things? In the drawer, in the ‒
CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is the 2ndof July 2016. I’m in Hythe with Thomas Page DFM who’s going to tell us his story of his twenty-eight years in the Royal Air Force. So, what are your earliest recollections Thomas? Of life ‒
TP: Oh, of life? Not just the RAF?
CB: No, and then into the RAF.
TP: [Sigh]. My earliest recollections are of living with my mother and my grandparents just outside of Coulswood (?) beside Manston Airfield in the 1920s to the 19 ‒, which date? Which date did we move to ‒, I was ‒, I was nine years old, I was born in ’22, at nine years old we moved from St Peters at Broadstairs where I started school. My father then went to work for his uncle on a farm at Chislet. When I left school at ‒, oh at the age of thirteen I went to a village school, a church school, at Chilset. At the age of thirteen went to a new central school called Sturry Central School um, not very far, at Sturry, which is west of Canterbury, not very far from Canterbury, and I became the first school captain, boys captain of the school, and equally so a girl from Chislet School became the first girls school captain. Anyway, that was at thirteen, but by fourteen I had to leave like we did in those days and then I just went to work on a farm with my father and his uncle. That was up until the age of ‒, oh dear, in 1936. The farm had to be sold because uncle got too old and auntie got too old and we went to work on a farm at Westwell, which is about five miles from Ashford on the west side. And as time went on 1940 came my ambition rose to the fore and one day I got fed up with what I was doing, I just got on my bicycle and cycled to Canterbury to the recruiting office. That would be in April, April 1940, and then I had to wait until 19th of July when I had to report to RAF Uxbridge. I can remember having to travel from Chislet from Marshside, which is the area, on my own, through London to RAF Uxbridge. I’d never been into London, never been on a tube train. Anyway, I remember going through the barbed wire gate entrance saying, ‘Reporting for duty,’ and soon I was joined by the others that were reporting for duty on that day. That was on the Monday and the first words the CO said was, ’You do not walk across that square. It’s hallowed ground.’ Fair enough. We were kitted up and attested on the Tuesday and on the Wednesday the whole intake of airmen, having been kitted out, went by tube train to Morecambe in Lancashire to be trained as flight mechanics A. The course finished at the end of 1940 and I was passed out as an AC2 and I went to ‒, I was posted to number 257 Hurricane Fighter Squadron, whose CO was Squadron Leader Stanford Tuck of the Battle of Britain, and there I was on the airfield with the aircraft, turning them round, filling them up, doing repairs, doing the daily inspections, but that only lasted three months ‘cause off I went to Gloucester for another course to become a fitter. Er ‒, 1942, and then I was on 71 MU based at Slough, close to the Hawker factory, and there I was involved with mostly moving and collecting of aircraft between units and stations and picking up crashes, both German and our own, for salvage and, as I say, 1942 came and then there was this notice on orders, fitters required to volunteer to help fly the four-engine jobs and, having seen that Stirling on the ground at Manston where I was repairing an aircraft, I volunteered. I just wanted to fly. That was April 1943. A little bit before that we went to RAF Swinderby, not Swinderby, that was further up, just outside Newark in Nottinghamshire, Winthorpe [emphasis], Winthorpe where we were crewed up. The new um ‒. They wanted an air gunner and a flight engineer to join a Wellington Squadron, a Wellington crew that had just finished OTU training, and they pushed us all in a big room and said, ‘Sort out who you want to fly with,’ which we did and then we started off with flying Manchesters, training in Manchesters, four wall [?] things and then onto Lancasters until it was time we were considered proficient to go to a bomber squadron in, as you saw in that photograph, in 1943. I finished at 49 Squadron in April ’44. Er ‒, I was sent, I was commissioned and I went to RAF St Athan in South Wales to train flight engineers on the ground side. Yeah, I was commissioned at the end of my tour, that would be beginning of ’44, that’s right, I was commissioned and went down to St Athan and then it wasn’t until 1947 that I went to 44 Squadron Lincolns for a two-year peace time flying tour.
CB: I’m just going back a bit. When you volunteered for air crew where did they send you to be trained for being a flight engineer?
TP: [Sigh]
CB: Did they send you to St Athan then?
TP: Yes, I went to St Athan to learn all about the Lancaster inside and out and then of course from there to join the Wimpy crew at um ‒.
CB: So they’d done their OTU?
TP: They did their OUT somewhere down in the south, yeah.
CB: Yeah, so you crewed up and that was at the Heavy Conversion Unit?
TP: We crewed up and the first aircraft we flew as a crew, or trained as a crew first of all, was a Manchester because they were keeping the Lancs for bombing ops and the Manchester hadn’t been ‒, wasn’t good enough.
CB: No.
TP: Kept having certain engine failure ‘cause they were trying out a different type of H-type engine. Anyway, we finished flying training in April and that’s when we went to 49 Squadron.
CB: So how many ops did you do?
TP: Thirty.
CB: Right, OK and what were the most memorable of those ops?
TP: The first one [laugh].
CB? Oh, right, what was that?
TP: Well, we set off to go to Italy. The target was Spetzia, the docks at Spetzia in the north-west of Italy [laugh]. When the time for the target came up, normally you could see a raid from see from miles away especially at altitude but there was no sign of a raid anywhere. We suddenly realised we were lost, we found ourselves still over the sea, over the sea, and then they realised we were over the Mediterranean, we’d ‒, and I said to the skipper, I said, ‘If we don’t turn for base now, we return to base, we won’t get back there ‘cause I haven’t got enough fuel.’ So we turned to come back and after a series of changes in course we eventually came back out over the French coast, all alone, we flew alone across Europe on our own. Anyway, we were short of fuel when coming back. On the south coast and we just plonked down on the first airfield we saw because when we landed we could see the bottom of the tanks. What had happened on subsequent inspection was the main compass was thirty degrees out so every time the navigator made a course it kept going off to the right so instead of going towards the north of Italy we were going down into the Med. I think I saw, as we turned, I think I saw Sardinia and Corsica. Anyway, as I said I told the skipper, ‘If we go back the same way we’ll never get there. If we don’t turn now.’ So we dropped the cookie in the sea and after a series of various courses I think we went up around Paris at one stage before we managed to get to the coast, back to the coast. And, as I say, coming across the Channel they couldn’t be sure where they were and I was saying, ‘We’re short of fuel.’ But we did find the south coast of England. Misty it was when we called up Darkie for our positions and permission to land. There was no sign at all, nothing, they’d all shut down, so we took a chance, found the first airfield we could see and went straight in, when er ‒
CB: Where was that?
TP: At Dunsfold and when we looked in the petrol tanks we could see the bottom of the petrol tanks. All we had was what was in the back of the tanks when the tail was down. Well that was a salutary effect. Obviously the compass hadn’t been swung properly. Anyway, where’s the log book?
CB: It’s in the back of the car.
TP: The printed one or my log book?
CB: The printed one. You’ve got the other one here, have you?
TP: I think I saw it.
CB: I’ll stop this just for a moment. So that was your first op. What other memorable ops were there?
TP: I don’t know how many ops we did but very shortly, very early on we did a mining trip to the Frisian Islands. Er ‒, we lost twenty-two aircraft that night off the Frisian Islands. We were down at five hundred feet in cloud, couldn’t see a thing, but as with mines you have to record their position, where they’re dropped, so we had to drop them in the sea and come back to base. Yeah, then well, of course, the rest you will see, one after the other, mostly in the Ruhr, Essen, Dusseldorf, Nuremburg, Hamburg. Oh we set Hamburg alight. I was on the two big ones.
CB: You were on the two big ones then, were you?
TP: Yeah we really set Hamburg alight.
CB: That was the first night we used window.
TP: Oh right. So you were you unopposed?
TP: And we could hear the German people saying the aircraft are multiplying themselves [laugh]. Well, then as you’ll see from the log book there was a series was mostly into the Ruhr. I did two more, two more trips. One, two, two more trips to Italy.
CB: Now, going to Italy, normally it meant going through the Alps. How did you get on with that?
TP: The first time was very clear and we got over ‘cause we were at twenty thousand feet or more but the second time we ran into cloud and storms over the Alps and we were down to about seventeen hundred ‒, seventeen thousand feet and it was a bit dicey to say the least. Er ‒, we got iced up, ice on the wings, St Elmo’s fire on the windscreen [laugh] but other than that it was fairly straightforward.
CB: And what was the target then?
TP: Target then was ‒, what was those two big towns?
CB: Well, Turin and Milan.
TP: Turin was one of them.
CB: Was Milan the other?
TP: Pardon?
CB: Milan? Milan?
TP: Yes.
CB: And then the port La Spezia?
TP: Yeah, up on the north-east corner of Italy.
CB: North-west, yeah.
TP: The others went off very well indeed. There was no trouble there although some aircraft were lost and some aircraft landed in North Africa.
CB: Did the Italians put up night fighters?
TP: We never saw any ‘cause we never got there. Oh, you mean the two that we did get to there?
CB: Yes.
TP: We never saw any.
CB: No, and what about their flak? Was there a lot of flak?
TP: I can’t remember much flak at all, no.
CB: And on your raids against Germany, your ops against Germany?
TP: Pardon?
CB: On the ops against Germany what about the flak and fighters there?
TP: Well, the first time we went to the Ruhr, I think it was Essen, you’ll see it in the log book. I remember miles away you could see the target all lit up, ring of searchlights full of flak, searchlights. And I said, I gasped on the intercom, I said, ‘How the hell do we get through there?’ No one answered, each had his own thoughts. But anyway, we were soon amongst the ‒, in the target area, you would see aircraft catching fire, being shot down, you pressed on, smelling the cordite of the bursting shells around you, um ‒, we never saw much in the way of fighters that the gunners could shoot at, once or twice I think they did. Um ‒, in fact we were very lucky, the worst flak was the one up to the target ‘cause you had to fly straight and level and you waited for the bomb aimer to say, ‘Bomb’s gone,’ and I knew they’d gone because I could feel the flex, the floor of the cock pit would flex when they realised the bombs. We always had a cookie, a four thousand pounder, and about four or five or six five hundred pounders.
CB: Yeah, and how much flak did you collect on the way?
TP: We didn’t, the only time we collected flak was from the British Navy just off the coast of Cromer on the way home when we were about three thousand feet with the navigation lights on. That was awful. The wireless operator got filled with shrapnel and he was ill, invalided out. Um ‒, when it happened I was standing in the flight engineer’s position ‘cause I had to move about quite a bit and I saw flak going past me [unclear] going past me and the skipper called for reports and the navigator came up and said, ‘Ralph’s been hit.’ So I went back past the navigator, looked at Ralph, got the First Aid. He ‒, the wireless operator had his hand on his desk (you know the position of the wireless operator in the Lanc), he’d got a hole through his hand which was the worst one, and he got flak up his backside, up his back, and he was ‒. I put a tourniquet on his wrist to stop it and every so often I said to the navigator, ‘Keep an eye on him,’ ‘cause I had to go back to what I was doing. Every now and again I’d go back and release the tourniquet. And when we got back at ‒, this time we were flying from Dunelm Lodge ‘cause Fiskerton runway at one point was being resurfaced and it was pouring with rain and on the downward leg I tried to put the undercarriage down and it didn’t come down [laugh]. Fortunately, the emergency system, the air system did work and we landed. But Ralph got out of his seat and walked to the ambulance. God knows, we went to see him in Maudsley Hospital but never saw him again. The rear gunner disappeared of course ‘cause he got shot up, shaken up, on a flight where we returned early. We were over the North Sea, and I’d lost an engine, the starboard inner engine, lost the flame covers and exhaust stubs off the starboard inner and flame was working its way over the leading edge of the wing. Not only was it dangerous, it was also a beacon to night fighters and we were over the North Sea. Shut the engine down so then returned to base. We dropped the cookie in the North Sea and when we got back to base ‒. I don’t know if you’ve been to the airfield at Fiskerton?
CB: I haven’t no.
TP: They put us down on the short runway to save the long runway for all the other returning aircraft to save them from being diverted. Anyway, I got the undercarriage down, made the approach and there was a cross-wind and we floated [emphasis] and so it was a little while before we touched down and after a while the pilot said, ‘Brace, I’m gonna go off the end of the runway.’ Which we did, off the end of the runway, the undercarriage collapsed. Nothing happened, no fire, nothing like that. I remember getting the hatch off the top off the roof and diving straight out and running like mad. They all did. But fortunately nothing happened.
CB: It didn’t go up?
TP: No, nothing. Didn’t burn or anything and fortunately no bombs went off. That’s when the rear gunner got shaken up ‘cause being at the back end of the Lancaster he probably caught the main shock. He was invalided out. And then you’ll see how we went on. Look, target after target after target, mostly in the Ruhr. We went to Berlin two or three times, flew to Berlin with Wing Commander Adams, the CO, towards the end of my tour when ‒, ‘cause Jock Wallace had finished his thirty in October and we all had to fly as spares with other crew. When he left you see I ‒, in October, I stayed on as flight engineer leader until about ’44, ’44 that was when I was commissioned and then sent to St Athan. You interested in anything after the war?
CB: Well, I am. Just back on ‒, what was your role in the aircraft?
TP: Flight engineer. I was virtually second pilot.
CB: What did you actually do?
TP: Well if you think of it ‒
CB: From take-off.
TP: Pardon?
CB: So from take-off you do the throttles.
TP: I would select the fuel, air conditions, oxygen, see that all the engines were running perfectly and then, when the time came, apart from starting the engines, you know, um ‒. When you think of it the pilot just had his control tower and his rudders and his instruments in front of him, I was left to do everything else, speed of the engines, the air speed, the oxygen, everything. The petrol controls were down to the right, you had bunches of instruments to tell you how much fuel you got, what pressures there was, what coolant pressures were, looking after the oxygen supply, everything that the pilot couldn’t do.
CB: Yeah.
TP: So you could say you did everything the pilot could do but you never flew the aircraft.
CB: So just taking off you’re doing the throttle?
TP: Taking off the pilot would turn onto the runway, he’d line up by using the outer engines and once we were straight and level he’d say, ‘Full power,’ and I’d push the throttles right to the grate. We’d done our pre-flight check, of course, before and once we were safely airborne he’d say, ‘Undercarriage,’ and I’d lift the undercarriage up. Later on I’d bring the flaps up and then we’d settle down to whatver air speed he wanted er ‒, and then we were off.
CB: So what flap did you set for take-off?
TP: Fifteen degrees.
CB: And the tanks were managed by you, the fuel, so what tanks did you start with?
TP: We always started with the inner boards, the in boards, and as soon as you were airborne you went over to number twos, and as soon as number twos getting low enough you went into number threes into number two and then you emptied number two and then did the remainder on the number ones.
CB: Right, so the number three is out towards, is beyond the engine?
TP: Yes.
CB: Right on the wing tip?
TP: You had number three tank, you had one, two and three on both sides. It had lesser amount of fuel. That was emptied into number two when there was sufficient space in number two that had been used up.
CB: So the sequence of fuel flow was through tank number one because they were linked directly to that. So number two tank ran into number one, did it?
TP: No, you ran on number two.
CB: Oh you did?
TP: Until they ran out and then you went back on to number three, the inward boards, number ones, yeah.
CB: Right, so when you’re in the air what are you doing then? You’re airborne and got to cruising height.
TP: Every twenty minutes I was making a log.
CB: Right.
TP: Of engine interpreters. Pressures, everything, er ‒, and that was it, seeing everything’s alright.
CB: And so what revs were you taking off at?
TP: Three thousand per engine.
CB: And you’d pull it back after how long before you ‒? And at what level?
TP: Until we were safely airborne. We had an override. Normal engine speeds were three thousand plus twelve but we had an override. We’d put the boost up to fourteen, if not more, and then when you were safely airborne you’d take out the override and continue climbing at twenty-eight fifty, twenty-eight fifty. You never moved the throttles once you were airborne. You had your throttles fully open. You controlled your speed on the engine speed on the revs so you were there, you saw he’d ‒, the pilot had got the speed that he wanted.
CB: OK. What about the pitch on the propellers?
TP: [Sigh]
CB: So did you take off in fine pitch?
TP: Yeah, always in fine pitch, yes.
CB: Then what?
TP: And then you’d come back to whatever airspeed you wanted.
CB: And you’d change to course pitch for cruising, would you?
TP: Pardon?
CB: Did you change to course for cruising?
TP: It was automatic.
CB: Automatic.
TP: It was [uncear] and airscrews, yeah. Once you’d set your throttles fully forward you just controlled your airspeed by the revelations, revolutions [emphasis] of each engine.
CB: So you had to shut down the starboard inner?
TP: Yeah.
CB: When you got hit by the Navy ship, what’s the process for doing that?
TP: Turn off the fuel cocks to start with, turn off the ignition, just let it run down, feather the airscrew, that is feather the blades so that they’re straight on to the airflow and that was it. See that your fuel was turned off. We had a cross feed if we needed it on the mainplane [?] where you could transfer from one side to another. Fortunately I never had to do that.
CB: So with the sorties coming to an end ‒
TP: Pardon?
CB: With the sorties coming to an end, what did you do then?
CB: We’d join the circuit and you’d get a number to land and you’d follow one another round until it was your turn to land and you were given permission to land. At the end of the airfield I’d put the undercarriage down, the flaps down to fifteen degrees, we’d go round to the down-wind position, I’d put the undercarriage down, I’d adjust the webs er ‒, and the rest was up to the pilot. He then ‒, that was only then that he’d have his hands on the throttle for the actual landing.
TP: He’d do that himself?
TP: Yes.
CB: Because that was a sensitive task.
TP: That was a sensitive task yes.
CB: So here we are with one engine out, which upsets the trim of the aircraft.
TP: We’ve got trimming controls here. Trimming controls for the [unclear] and trimming controls for the rudder.
CB: Right and you’re doing that with the pilot or ‒?
TP: He would do that because he’d know what the feel of the controls was like.
CB: He had the feel on the stick.
TP: To make things easy on his controls.
CB: Right, OK, so he’s doing that, then you land so then what? So you’d taxi on all engines?
TP: Taxi on the two outer engines to the dispersal point and then you’d go through the routine of shitting your engines down.
CB: So what’s the routine for shutting down your engines?
TP: Oh, can I remember now? Obviously we put them into fine pitch, close the throttles, turn the fuel off, turn the ignition off and they went down.
CB: Right, so do you now hand over as the flight engineer, with everything shut down, do you hand over to the Chiefie?
TP: Oh always see the Chiefie. The ground Chiefie?
CB: Yes.
TP: Yes and tell him anything ‒, we always saw the ground Chiefie before we took off and the pilot would sign the log book, the aircraft log book, taking responsibility for the aircraft and then of course anything that we noticed wanted doing when we came back we’d see Chiefie and the ground crew, and then we were off to the briefing room.
CB: So with the Chiefie, what was the relationship between the crew and the ground crew?
TP: Only the pilot and me went to Chiefie for that sort of ‒, as part of our duties, the others just piled into their appropriate positions.
CB: So now you’re at the de-brief, so how did the de-brief run?
TP: [Sigh] Sit round a table asking what you’d seen or telling what you’d seen.
CB: This is with the intelligence officer?
TP: With the intelligence. I was thinking about the ground Chiefie.
CB: Ground Chiefie, OK yeah.
TP: We saw the ground Chiefie to say if there was anything wrong and anything ‘cause they’d take it over to service it, the aircraft, and of course it’s quite a way to the briefing room.
CB: Yes.
TP: The briefing room was in a little ‒, I went back there years later and it was being used ‒, there were donkeys in it. It was being used as a stable. I don’t know what it had been used for before, before we used it as a briefing room, de-briefing room. Mind you there was a big Nissan hut we used as the briefing room and then we had a hangar, or a tin hut, for a locker room. We had the inevitable bacon and egg sandwich before we took off in the evenings and when we came back, if we came back.
CB: What did you take with you to eat when you were flying?
TP: We were given a packet of sandwiches and a tin of orange juice and a bar of chocolate. Yep, I carried a small tool kit. Why? I don’t know, I suppose that was if we landed away somewhere. Um ‒, navigator of course had his charts and maps and instruments. Wireless operator had his codes.
CB: So in the crews, were you sitting in your seat behind the pilot or on the folding seat at the side?
TP: The folding seat at the side.
CB: So you could monitor the instruments?
TP: Oh yes but more often than not I was standing up, only now and again could I sit down.
CB: Yeah.
TP: It was a seat that folded down and hooked up to the side. Er ‒, I just had to keep an eye on the air speed and the revelations, and the boost pressures, oxygen supply, air supply, in fact do everything other than what the pilot had to do to fly the plane.
CB: So you did your thirty ops. How did you all feel having completed thirty ops?
TP: Well, it was different because the crew had previously flown Wimpys, doing their operational training as a crew of five, they even did one windows raid over Germany before they came to the Heavy Conversion Unit where we were crewed up with myself and another mid-upper gunner and, of course, we finished at different times. Once the pilot had done his thirty because he did two or three ops the second Dickie with an experienced pilot before he took his own crew. So Jock finished in October and I had four more to do, so I was kept on as the flight engineer leader, and it took me round to April 1944 for me to do the four extras or extra four with the other crews.
CB: Is that because there weren’t spaces with the other crews?
TP: That was because the others were short, short of a flight engineer, for some reason or other.
CB: Yes.
TP: Or it was a made up crew with the CO, something like that. One of my flights to Berlin was with Wing Commander Adams. He was an air attaché, apparently, and he’d been sitting at a desk late on and he’d volunteered for air crew. He said he couldn’t bear the thought of what I was and not volunteering or not getting onto an operational squadron. He was a fine fellow, Wing Commander Adams.
CB: Did he complete the war?
TP: As far as I know. He didn’t do a full tour of course.
CB: No.
TP: But he commanded a squadron. He was still there when I left it.
CB: So there was a point where the crew, because of the pilot Jock finishing early, there was a point when all the crew effectively dispersed.
TP: That’s right.
CB: So what was the feeling then?
TP: [Sigh] Sadness in a way because you’d flown together, you’d been through it all, you’d lived together, you were in the same tin-hutted barrack room.
CB: The Nissan hut.
TP: Nissan hut, yeah, you went out to Lincoln all the time together, you went round all the pubs together, not that I drank much, but you got to know one another quite well and then to suddenly find it’s no more, you’re out on your own, but that was life. It happened to a lot of crew members very often. When we went to the RAF [?] course we had to have a spare in the wireless operator’s position after the Ralph got hit we had to have a different man in the rear turret because Taffy, Taffy [unclear] got injured. So you couldn’t really ‒
CB: That disrupted the family.
TP: Pardon?
CB: That [emphasis] disrupted the family really. What was it like then for you working with other crews on a temporary basis? How did you fit in there?
TP: It just fell into place. I mean, you knew what you had to do and that was it.
CB: But there was no social link with that because it was a one-off.
TP: There was no social, no.
CB: So now you’ve finished your thirty and you went to St Athan as an instructor?
TP: I was commissioned at the end of my thirty and I went to St Athan to train flight engineers.
CB: What was that like?
TP: It was very good. You were teaching them all about the Lancaster. [Laugh]. Every now and again, there was a MU Maintenance Unit on the other side of the airfield where they were doing repairs, you know, on the Lancasters, and every now and then you’d get a telephone call, ‘We need a flight engineer to go with the pilot.’
CB: For the test flights.
TP: Not necessarily a test flight but to and from the factory, to take aircraft to and from the factory.
CB: Oh right.
TP: Yeah, that was great fun, just the two of you in the aircraft flying low over Wiltshire, the Malvern Hills, I’ll always remember that and then from there I went on, as I say, in peacetime in 44.
CB: So now you’re in peacetime and a new squadron, what’s the feeling of the crew then?
TP: You didn’t have a crew as such, although crews did tend to stick together. I became the squadron adjutant and the CO’s flight engineer so it was only when the Co wanted to fly I flew as his engineer. At other times I flew as and when required.
CB: What was the Lincoln like compared to the Lancaster?
TP: It was a wonderful aircraft in many ways. It was a larger Lancaster. We liked it. We went as a squadron on a goodwill trip to southern Rhodesia to show the Rhodesians, to say ‘Thank you,’ to the Rhodesians who’d flown on the squadron during the war. It was named the 44 Rhodesian Squadron.
CB: So it was more powerful, more manoeuvrable, what was it like?
TP: More powerful, bigger engines, bigger in size as well, yes, heavier. The only time we went and did practice bombing stuff was to ‒, in peacetime, was to the U-boat pens in Heligoland. It was mostly just training.
CB: What were you dropping?
TP: I think they had some kind of armour-piercing bomb that they had tried out.
CB: Was it a big one?
TP: We didn’t have any big ones, no cookies, or anything like that.
CB: No but was it a tall-boy, which was the ‒,
TP: I never flew with a tall-boy.
CB: Right.
TP: I know people who did.
CB: But this was a different type of anti-submarine pen bomb?
TP: Yes, that was later, yes. I served in Germany after the war, I served with a Wing Commander who flew one of the tall-boy aircraft and bombed the Bielefeld viaduct in [unclear] and crashed.
CB: That was a Grand Slam.
TP: Grand Slam yes but other than that the peacetime flying with 44 was absolute wizard.
CB: So you finished your tour on 44 then what did you do? Were you a flying officer then?
TP: I was doing my tour with 44 as is was in peacetime you get sent away on different courses and at some stages I was sent away on intelligence courses, PR courses, photographic intelligence courses, and so then from there, from 44 squadron I was posted via 3 Group Headquarters for three months in Intelligence, of course with the squadron leader, and then I was moved to Headquarters Bomber Command in the Intelligence Section of the ‒, 1,2,3,4 of us. I was then responsible for target information for exercises and they used to collect information as to what to use, what place in England to use as targets, and I’d work ‒, I’d work during the operation down in the ops room, which was quite a thing when I come to think of it. This was where Butcher Harris used to control me from.
CB: Yeah.
TP: Anyway me, then being a commissioned officer in the secretarial branch, I had to do an accounting course, so off to an accounting course to Hereford, and my first accounting post was at Bridgnorth in Shropshire and there I was collecting money from the bank, paying, doing airmen’s paper wage, and then became a flight lieutenant and I was then in charge of airmen’s pay at Padgate in Lancashire and then still as a flight lieutenant I was posted overseas to be an accounting officer at RAF Mauripur just outside Karachi in Pakistan. That was quite a job. I had to pay not only the three hundred-odd airmen of the unit (it was a staging post) I had to pay the airmen and officers that had been seconded to the Pakistan Air Force and also those RAF personnel that were seconded to the embassy in Karachi and I remember my first visit to the embassy, only to find out that the Wing Commander that had been my Wing Commander as intelligence officer at Headquarters Bomber Command, was there as the group captain air attaché [laugh]. Is someone at the door, did I see the door move?
CB: It’s just ‒
TP: Not to worry [laugh].
CB: Small world.
TP: Anyway, that was a two year posting and it was pretty hot, bouts of dysentery, fortunately it was close to the coast and we had a lido down at the coast and we could go and swim and stay the night. But the conditions around Karachi was horrendous. It was just after the partition of India and Pakistan, where they segregated the Indians, the Hindus on the east side and the Muslims on the west side, and the squalor of the camps was awful. I had a ‒, I had a Pakistani batman, Ashworth, he was very good, do your kit, your dhobi every day because you used to sweat a lot because of the heat. It was just a flat barren airfield.
CB: This is Pakistan as an independent country?
TP: Pakistan Air Force place, they were flying there.
CB: What did they fly?
TP: They were flying Harvards. They were the sort of things training’s for [laugh] and the admin officer on the unit was a pilot, he was a pilot, and at that time pilots were required to keep in flying practice so what he used to do was borrow a Pakistani aircraft, a Harvard, and I used to go with him and I learnt to fly Harvards. Oh, I had fun flying a Harvard with him until I sent in the bills to headquarters and then they stopped the flying [laugh], yeah.
CB: Yeah, amazing.
TP: I had fun flying Harvards.
CB: So back from Pakistan, where did you go then?
TP: I’d been out of the country two years. By then I was courting my second wife, bless her heart. Where do you think they posted me after three ‒, three months at an administrative course in Norfolk?
CB: Orkneys?
TP: Bircham Newton.
CB: Oh right.
TP: I was sent to the Isle of Man.
CB: Yes.
TP: Way out of England again to train officers [laugh].
CB: Quite a journey.
TP: Oh dear, and then as time went on I was promoted to the squadron leader, quite out of the blue, and told to report to the AOC of Maintenance Command. Hello, hello, come in.
Other: Sorry.
TP: Ah, can I have a cup of tea for my guest please? He’s a very important guest this man. The AOC, Maintenance Command, he says, ‘Page,’ he says, ‘I want you to take over a squadron of administrative personnel to support an airfield construction branch controlled by a wing commander and a squadron leader to the Isle of Kilda in the middle of the Atlantic.’ Oh how much time? Altogether I was out of England for five years. Bless poor Cecilia. Cecilia bless her, trained as a state registered nurse whilst I was away. Anyway, after that, after I’d finished that, believe it or not, I was appointed Senior Accounting Officer at Uxbridge, at Uxbridge, the station where I’d joined up. Imagine my feelings walking through the gate. Eighteen years before I’d walked through that gate to join up and now I was to be the Senior Accounting Officer in charge of all the finances. That was good, that was good anyway. At one stage I got a duty, a royal duty in St Pauls Cathedral, when the Queen was there, I was there as an usher. [Background noises].
CB: Thank you very much.
Other: Sorry, I spilled a bit, think I filled it up too much.
CB: Thank you love.
TP: And the squadron, the station got up a concert party and I got involved in that and we put on a Christmas show in St Clement Danes Church [laugh]. So what happened after Uxbridge? Three years in the Ministry of Defence, in the Personnel Department, and occasionally I was required to do duty overnight and weekends as duty Personnel Officer in case there was any flap on. And then I lived out at Watford at the time and commuted into London every day because you had to find your own accommodation. The three years passed very pleasantly and then again I was posted overseas, Germany for three years. I went as Senior Accounting Officer at Wildenrath in Germany just over the Dutch border. There, believe it or not, I had five hundred Germans on my payroll, plus all the RAF side of it. I was responsible for pay and conditions and court martial and everything to do with personnel B2, B3, B4 and that lasted three years and that was very enjoyable. It was.
CB: Cecilia was with you then?
TP: Pardon?
CB: Cecilia was with you then.
TP: No, she wasn’t. She was still in England. She was still at ‒. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes.
CB: Paying all these Germans and British people.
TP: I mean, going to places I’d been out to bomb, Gelsenkirchen. I was close up to the Ruhr you see. It was funny really. At one stage a collection of officers, Army and Navy, went on a goodwill tour to the Bürgermeister at Hamburg and we were in the Bürgermeister’s office. He’d got great big maps on the wall, a great picture of Hamburg as it was and Hamburg ‒, no, was it? As it had been built, Hamburg as it had been rebuilt and Hamburg as it was when we knocked it down. I was stood at the back of the blooming crowd of officers were listening to this story. I thought, ‘My God, I helped knock it down.’ [Laugh].
CB: Amazing.
TP: Oh dear, oh dear. Beautiful thing was I had a fortnight’s leave every ‒, each year, so Cecilia came out and the first time I hired a caravan because I had a car with a towing bar ‘cause I was doing a lot of gliding stuff and I picked her up at Ostend and we got in the caravan and we towed all the way down into Austria, stopping here and there. We parked in Salzburg. Oh what a lovely city is Salzburg. We had a wonderful fortnight’s holiday. The following year on the fortnight we just got in the car and drove where the car would take us and that too was wonderful. We went down to Bavaria and Switzerland and Austria and it was really wonderful. I learnt a lot. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We both did of course. Then what happened after that? I got a home posting, OC Personnel at RAF Swinderby in Lincolnshire, as the OC Personnel and then by then time was getting on and I got a letter from the Air Ministry saying there was no more promotion unless I was promoted to wing commander and I thought I can’t go on like this, Cecilia and I had been separated too much and too long, ‘I think I’ll take my retirement,’ and at that time, I don’t make a lot of this because ‒, oh yes, I was in my office one morning and the telephone rang. He said, ‘This is the bank manager. Have you any personnel coming out of the service who would like a job in a bank? I’m setting up a new bank in Lincoln.’ I said, ‘I’ll have a look at my records Sir and see if I’ve got anybody.’ Next day I thought of this and I’d just got this letter from the Ministry saying there was no more promotion unless ‒. I rang him back the next day and said, ‘I’m interested but,’ I said, ’You’ll have to wait six months for me.’ He said, ‘I’m prepared to do that.’ And so, much to my dismay and regret, I had to leave the service and join the bank in Lincoln. Mind you it was very helpful in the following years ‘cause I got two pensions, RAF pension, bank pension, old age pension. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it hadn’t been for that. I can afford to pay for this now.
CB: That’s really good, isn’t it? Look, this is getting cold so
TP: I’ll just have a drink of tea.
CB: I’ll just stop for a minute.
TP: I hadn’t realised we’d run into tea-time. I was a founder member of the Gliding and Soaring Association and at one stage when I was at the Ministry of Defence I was the Treasurer.
CB: That was based at Bicester, wasn’t it?
TP: The first aero-tow. You’re talking about aero-towing.
CB: I used to do that, yep.
TP: I was running the ‒, I’d been on a couple of er ‒, gliding courses with ‒, at the gliding school and I was running the Cosford Gliding Club and we had a two-seater Sedbergh and as we were close within thirty miles of the Long Mynd in Shropshire we thought we’d get more flying on the ridge so we trailed the two-seater Sedbergh up to the Longmynd and parked it there but couldn’t get the airmen there. Transport, nobody had any transport. It was awfully difficult to get them to the Mynd so it wasn’t viable, so we pressed on at Cosford. I suddenly realised it was wind wasted so I thought we must bring it back to Cosford from the Long Mynd which is about thirty miles away so I thought, ‘How do I do that? How do I get it back?’ ‘Ah,’ I said, ’The only way to get it back is by aero-tow.’ Well, I’d never done an aero-tow. I’d read up the books, you know, and I got in touch with a tug pilot at Harden in Cheshire and I asked Tony about it and he said, ‘Yes, on a suitable day,’ he says, ‘I’ll take you there and we’ll bring it back.’ We flew up to the Long Mynd which wasn’t an airfield as such.
CB: No.
TP: There was a ground engineer there on permanent duty with him and there was one another. Anyway, we managed to get the Sedbergh out of the hangar, rigged it, put a bag of sand in the second pilot’s seat, positioned oneself back from the hedge [?] and all was ready. Off we went. First aero-tow. It was rough. It was [emphasis] rough but anyway soon settled down and soon find your position and then a very pleasant aero-tow for about thirty miles back to Cosford. That’s the first aero-tow I’d ever done.
CB: Amazing.
TP: Nobody taught me.
CB: No.
TP: And then we put it to good use at Cosford. And then I was moved from Bridgnorth to Padgate which was quite a way away from Cosford. I couldn’t get there and so I joined the Derbyshire and Lancashire Gliding Club at Camp Hill. Now that was wonderful. Wave flights up to six, seven thousand feet, smooth air, hands off the controls almost. Lovely. But then of course you didn’t prolong the flight because you only had an hour because there were a lot of other people wanting to have a turn. It was lovely civilian gliding club. At one stage, when was it? When I was at Bomber Command I crewed for two RAF pilots who were flying an Olympia in this championship, the 1953 Championships, and oh what was his name? Anyway, he finished up as a wing commander at Cranwell. We picked him up once. He landed from Camp Hill at Skegness, as far as you could go before being over the sea, and when we found him, when we as a crew we had an RAF MT [?] driver in an RAF vehicle, and when we found him the Olympia was de-rigged and standing up by the side of a pub. The pilot was inside with the local policeman drinking. Oh he trailed all the way back. Next time it was my turn. Er ‒, was it my turn? I can’t remember which way round it was now. I know I flew there two years running. In the meantime I joined the Lancashire, Lancashire and Sheffield. Sheffield, what County was there?
CB: Derby.
TP: Anyway ‒.
CB: Oh Sheffield, Yorkshire.
TP: Yeah, anyway, I joined the civilian’s club and I managed to do my thirty miles from Camp Hill to Lindholme in an Olympia. But one of my best flights was later on from the RAF Centre at Bicester, um, I did a hundred mile Gull flight from Bicester to Swanton Morley.
CB: I know it, yeah.
TP: In one of the more super jobs. Coming back on the Sunday morning, this was the Sunday, coming back the Sunday morning through Cambridge a wheel came off the trailer. Fortunately there was a gliding club at Waterbeach and so we got in touch with them and they lent us a trailer and in the streets of Cambridge we unloaded it from one to the other and I got in touch with Marshall’s Airfield, the engineering works, if they’d collect the trailer and repair it, and it was late Sunday afternoon when I arrived back at Bicester. It was quite a weekend that was. I’m talking too much.
CB: It’s alright. That’s really good. I’m going to stop you because your supper’s getting cold. Thank you very much Thomas. That’s been really useful.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Interview with Thomas James Page
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Chris Brockbank
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-07-02
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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APageTJ160702
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
01:07:38 audio recording
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
England--Lincoln
Wales--Vale of Glamorgan
Germany
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
Germany--Hamburg
Germany--Essen
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Nuremberg
Germany--Wassenberg
Alps
Italy
Italy--La Spezia
Zimbabwe
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1940-04
1942
1943
1944
Description
An account of the resource
Thomas Page grew up in a farming family before joining the Royal Air Force in 1940, training as a flight mechanic. He was initially posted to 257 Squadron (Hurricanes) but soon went to Gloucester to train as a fitter from where he was posted to 71 Maintenance Unit at Slough. Here he recovered crashed RAF and German aircraft. Responding to a requirement for flight engineers, he went to RAF St Athan for training and then to a Heavy Conversion Unit to meet his crew. Flying in Manchesters, he recalls the engine problems that the type suffered from.
Posted to 49 Squadron, he began his tour with an operation to La Spezia. Thomas describes his various experiences during the tour including bad weather over the Alps, running off the runway at RAF Fiskerton and crew injury. He describes operations to Essen, Dusseldorf, Nuremberg and to Hamburg for the first use of Window. He details his duties during these operations.
Completing his tour, Thomas was commissioned and posted back to RAF St Athan to train flight engineers. After the war he flew in Lincolns and was part of a goodwill tour of Rhodesia. Trained in intelligence, Thomas was posted to No. 3 Group Headquarters and then Bomber Command Headquarters before retraining as an accountant and personnel officer. Then he undertook postings to RAF Bridgnorth, Karachi, and RAF Wildenrath.
Thomas describes touring Europe with his wife before his final posting, to RAF Swinderby as officer commanding personnel. Here he left the RAF to work in a bank in Lincoln. During his service Thomas took up gliding, a hobby he continued in civilian life.
Conforms To
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Pending revision of OH transcription
44 Squadron
49 Squadron
aircrew
bombing
bombing of Hamburg (24-31 July 1943)
fitter airframe
flight engineer
flight mechanic
ground crew
Heavy Conversion Unit
Hurricane
Lancaster
Lincoln
Manchester
military service conditions
mine laying
RAF Dunholme Lodge
RAF Fiskerton
RAF St Athan
sport
training
Window
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/687/9236/PBakerR1602.1.jpg
6a0c81f3250c4f6b817266c6d51e778d
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/687/9236/ABakerR161102.1.mp3
a9c96cedb5672ce8f10f9652d10532b9
Dublin Core
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Title
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Baker, Ron
R Baker
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Ron Baker. He served as a flight mechanic with 467 Squadron at RAF Scampton.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-11-02
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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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Baker, R
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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RP: This interview is being conducted on behalf of the International Bomber Command Centre. The interviewer is Rod Pickles. The interviewee is Ron Baker. The interview is taking place at Ron’s home in Verwood, near Christchurch, Dorset on the 2nd of November 2016. Also present is Ron’s wife Phyl. Ron, this interview is all about you so if we could start at the beginning and sort of go back to when, when you were leaving school and what, what prompted you to want to join the RAF?
RB: Well, I I left school at fourteen. Just a few months before the war started actually. I think I left school in April and the war started in, or was declared in the September. Then I was working then as a telegraph boy. I remember driving err cycling around in those days. First of all the first air raid warning that was sounded. Everybody was surprised and taken aback and somebody came out and took me into their house until the all clear came sort of thing. But then I spent four years as a telegraph boy.
RP: Where were you working then? Where was that?
RB: In Willesden. In London. So I lived through the initial Blitzkrieg sort of thing as well. Then they formed the Air Training Corps. I think in 1941. Which was developed from the Air Defence Corps or something. It was a cadet unit then and then the Air Ministry took it over I believe and made it the Air Training Corps. So I joined then at sixteen. And I served there. I think with the 406 Squadron was the squadron in those days.
RP: Is it still going?
RB: I don’t know if it’s still going now, no. But I know we had, I think in Willesden alone we had about four squadrons. And in those days I mean we’re talking about a hundred and fifty to two hundred in each squadron.
RP: Good grief.
RB: So, you can imagine.
RP: That is good.
RB: In those days it was really going well and I served there for two years until I was eventually called up to the Royal Air Force.
RP: So you were called up rather than volunteered, yes?
RB: Well, yeah. Well, yes I was called up. I was conscripted in that service. Yeah.
RP: Right. Yeah.
RB: But I mean I would have volunteered anyway but there was no need to. You were taken in, sort of. And I was actually taken in about two months after my eighteenth birthday so I went in relatively quickly.
RP: They didn’t waste time.
RB: Yeah. Whereas a lot of them like cadets who had put down for aircrew were just waiting and waiting and waiting you know. Sometimes it took them a year to get in in those days. Because everybody wanted to be aircrew really.
RP: Yeah.
RB: But I think they used to call us the Brylcreem boys. But that was the sort of glamour of clearly it was, it was very new obviously as you know. The air force. And that was it really. So, I went in as ground staff and did my initial training at Skegness. The square bashing and so forth.
RP: Skegness. That’s very [laughs] very bracing then.
RB: Well, it wasn’t in those days [laughs] I think the RAF took over Skegness.
RP: Oh right.
RB: The Navy took over the holiday camp there and then Skegness was a you know.
RP: Oh, it was a military base really was it?
RB: A military base. Yeah. And we lived in the, all the guest houses there. I mean they confiscated the guest houses and we were billeted in those. And I served in the RAF band that they had there. And did my initial training there. We were kept back there. I should have, I think it was eight weeks the course. But because I was in the band and they were doing various performances around Lincolnshire for, used to be go around the towns doing Wings for Victory days.
RP: Oh yes. Yes.
RB: And things like that. So I was kept back for a little while and then eventually got posted to Cosford where I did my engineering course which was I think something like about six months. I can’t remember. Yeah. Roughly about six months I think it was.
RP: Did you enjoy the training?
RB: Well, yes. It was, well Cosford is quite a big place as you probably know anyway.
RP: Yes.
RB: Isn’t it? Or it was in those days. And we passed out there. And I was in the band at Cosford as well.
RP: Yeah.
RB: The same problems there really. We had to go out on various parades and while the course was going on so I had to do, pick up afterwards you know what I’d missed. But I eventually qualified and we left Cosford. Funnily enough when we left Cosford we got fourteen days leave. We had to take all our kit with us and then we received our posting whilst we was on leave.
RP: Oh right.
RB: So we had no idea where you were going.
RP: So you went out.
RB: We just all said our goodbyes.
RP: You went. You didn’t know where your mates went.
RB: No.
RP: Unless they wrote to you.
RB: We said goodbye to each other because we’d been together a long — and my posting came through to Waddington. Arrived at Waddington and who should be there? A lot of the chaps that was in the same billet. Which was unusual. But I think when you finished the course you usually went to an Operational Training Unit or a Maintenance Unit to get a bit of experience obviously but apparently they just formed this squadron at Waddington and we were thrown in onto an operational squadron straight away. It was 467 Squadron and if I remember rightly I think Waddington had been closed down. They were concreting the runways or something.
RP: Yeah. Yeah.
RB: Doing something with the runways and —
RP: Because the bomb loads were getting heavier and —
RB: Yeah. And when it opened up again which was about I think it was about the latter part of ’43. Around about October/November the Aussie squadron moved in, was 467. I think they came from Bottesford.
RP: Right.
RB: They moved in there because, and it was 467 Squadron but they, they made it in to two and made the 463 Squadron out of it.
RP: Right.
RB: And I was posted to 463. So, we met with all our friends again. In fact, actually I’m still in contact with one of them.
RP: Oh. That’s good.
RB: We speak occasionally over the phone. He lives up at Lytham St Anne’s in —
RP: Well, you ask him if he needs, if he wants to be interviewed because they’ll interview him as well.
RB: He I hadn’t heard anything about it actually.
RP: Well, if, if you give me his name afterwards. We’ll make contact.
RB: Yeah. Will do. I’ve got his name and address actually.
RP: Yeah.
RB: In fact, I haven’t spoken to Don for a while I must give him a ring again.
RP: Yeah. Yeah. But, no we’ll get in touch with him. Don’t worry.
RB: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, but we often have a chat over the phone and we exchange Christmas cards and so forth you know.
RP: That’s good you’ve still got someone.
RB: We followed one and other around. It was rather interesting.
RP: So, what did you make of Waddington and Lincoln when you first got there then? What was your initial impressions?
RB: Well, it was all, all new to us obviously you know. Especially going on to an operational squadron and with the Aussies it was great. They were, they were a great crowd to serve with. They really really were you know. I remember being detailed to this, this crew because there was a crew of eight of us.
RP: Yeah.
RB: In ground crew.
RP: Did you stick with the same aircraft? Or the same crew if not the aircraft.
RB: The crew stayed together. The aircraft you varied actually because —
RP: Yeah. Because of the sensibilities.
RB: You lost them as well and —
RP: Yeah.
RB: You just, you flipped around. You was on W for William one day.
RP: Yeah.
RB: And on T for Tommy another time, you know.
RP: But were the aircrew still the same? Were you serving the same aircrew or different aircrew?
RB: Usually. Unless — until they left you know.
RP: Yeah.
RB: Until they got lost or they didn’t come back unfortunately.
RP: Can you remember the first time that happened?
RB: I can vaguely remember it. I think that if I vaguely remember I think we had to get one of the chaps out. I think it was the rear gunner and he was dead. He’d died. Apparently he was sick in his oxygen mask I believe and suffocated.
RP: Oh dear.
RB: But we, I remember sort of getting, or helping to get him out obviously.
RP: Yeah.
RB: You know because they had the medical crew and that there. But that was the only instance.
RP: At least the aircraft had made it back. Yeah?
RB: Oh yeah. Made it. The aircraft made it back alright. Yeah. Yeah. And —
RP: Did they suffer many losses? Aircraft losses on the squadron?
RB: Did we not? I think 463 Squadron had the heaviest losses out of the Australian squadrons. And I think it was something in the region during the course of the war I think we did something in the region of about eighty, eighty six, something or —
RP: So how —
RB: During, during that period. That was from sort of when they joined in ’43. That’s right. Through ’44 to ’45. But I left. I got posted in, I think it was about the February 1945. I got posted overseas and then of course I left but I think the squadron stayed there until the end of the war apparently.
RP: But it must have been sort of morale sapping if an aircraft didn’t come back and you lost so many. Was it something you just got on with?
RB: Well, well, yeah. It was an everyday event.
RP: Yeah.
RB: I mean, you know I remember the biggest losses I had. I think it was when they raided Nuremberg in early 1944. I think that night was a bit of a disaster I think. I think we lost ninety two aircraft. And I think there was, we lost eight from Waddington from the two squadrons. That’s 467 and 463. But, and then there was another occasion. Well, when you listened to the news the next day they usually said, you know so many aircraft raided Hamburg or Stuttgart or whatever it was and four or five, or five of our aircraft was missing. And on one occasion there was a raid on and they now said one of our aircraft was missing. And it was our one.
RP: Oh dear.
RB: Yes. It was hard really. Yes, because, you know the ground crew and the aircrews I mean they bonded together. I mean, you know we were all great mates in that sense.
RP: Yeah. There was good spirit on the squadron.
RB: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean rank didn’t come into it really. I mean, it was, it was just like going to work in the normal way you know. I mean when you called the pilot who was probably a flying officer, you called him George or something like that you know.
RP: What rank were you at the time?
RB: Well, I was an aircraftman. AC1.
RP: You were an AC1. Right. And you rise above that.
RB: But that was, I mean when I was at Waddington I don’t think we ever did a parade or anything like that. It was all work. I mean it was going to work in the morning and coming home at night sort of thing. Like you do normally.
RP: Was there any social aspect then of the squadron? Going into Lincoln. Did you get much time off?
RB: Oh yes. On occasions. I mean the aircrew would say they would take us out to the local. The local pub in Bracebridge Heath I think it was —
RP: Yes. Bracebridge Heath. Just up the road.
RB: The Horse and Jockey.
RP: It’s probably still there.
RB: It is. And they still use it.
RP: Yeah. Oh that’s good.
RB: Apparently when they have these like Armistice Day and Anzac Day they have a reunion every year. And they usually congregate at the Horse and Jockey.
RP: Oh that’s nice.
RB: Before they go on to the, I think it’s a Memorial there at Waddington now isn’t there?
RP: Yes. Yes they have put a few.
RB: For 463 Squadron.
RP: Quite right too.
RB: I get the newsletter twice a year from our Squadron Association so that’s how I know all this.
RP: That’s fine. That’s good.
RB: Yeah.
RP: It’s good to know it’s still continuing isn’t it?
RB: That’s how probably my name went forward. I think they must have —
RP: They must have contacted the Association.
RB: Yeah. Yeah.
RP: But you mentioned that you were at Waddington. Then you got posted overseas. So where were you posted to?
RB: Well, it was, I didn’t actually go. I went to Blackpool where this was the embarkation town. Blackpool was an RAF town.
RP: Yes. Yeah.
RB: In those days as well. And the draft I was on I got kitted out with everything to go to — it looked as if we were going to go to the Far East but you couldn’t rely on that because they would kit you out for something like that and send you to the North Pole, you know. But to confused people.
RP: Yeah. Yeah. So you didn’t know where you were going. Yeah.
RB: But anyway, course then the war was, you know well in its advance sort of thing and things were changing obviously day by day I suppose. The draft I was on was cancelled at the last moment. Then we were hanging around there. Being Blackpool. And eventually I got a home posting to, I think that what they wanted to do was get as many troops out of Blackpool during the bank holidays you know. So, I got posted out to South Wales with two other chaps.
RP: Where was that? In St Athan?
RB: No. Brawdy.
RP: Brawdy. Oh Brawdy. Yeah.
RB: Yeah. Brawdy. I think we were on Halifaxes down there. I think it was a meteorological squadron. I know they used to fly out every day to get the weather report.
RP: Oh right. So was that a similar engine to what you’d been used to?
RB: No. They were Hercules there and they were the radial engines there.
RP: Oh right.
RB: Yeah. I was on Merlins with the Lancaster, you know.
RP: Was that another training course or was it something you just adapt to?
RB: No. We’d just do, I uses to work in the hangars there assisting the inspections you know. Just sort of ten to a crew there and do an inspection and work with them. And then as I say the three of us went down there. And we knew we were going to go overseas because I mean I was twenty then and single so it looked as though I was going to go to the Far East. Burma or somewhere you know. Of course the —
RP: Yeah.
RB: Eastern war was still on. The Far East war was still on. And then a notice came up on the DROs. Daily Routine Orders.
RP: Yeah. Yeah.
RB: I believe. A notice came up there that they wanted ready trained people in certain categories for the Fleet Air Arm. And I fell in to that category or sort of all three did so we volunteered to go into that. And we were eventually taken in. We were de-mobbed from the air force at 23.59 one day. Re-called up the next day at 01.
RP: Right.
RB: So, we were civilian for about two minutes.
RP: And then you joined the Navy.
RB: I joined the Navy. And I was —
RP: Was that in the same trade?
RB: Yeah. Yeah. Well, they called them air mechanics.
RP: Yes.
RB: Instead of flight mechanics. Yes. Because I went on Spitfires then. Well, they called them Seafires there but —
RP: Seafires.
RB: Spitfire with a hook on the bottom.
RP: Yeah. So where were you stationed?
RB: I went back to South Wales actually. Too — I forget the name of the place now. They had a Fleet Air Arm base there. I was there for a period. Then eventually ended up in Northern Ireland. At Belfast. It was the Fleet Air Arm base there right by Harland and Wolff docks.
RP: Oh right.
RB: And then I finished my time there ‘til I was demobbed.
RP: Did you have any option about finishing your time? Or was that it?
RB: No. You just waited for your, I mean you had the demob number.
RP: Oh right.
RB: I think mine was about fifty three or something. So —
RP: So, you didn’t have any choice then.
RB: No. You just waited for that to come around. We weren’t, we were redundant really. We’d, you know, nothing to do. But —
RP: So, what rank were you in the Navy then? What rank did they give you there?
RB: Same rank. Air mechanic first class sort of thing.
RP: So —
RB: Yes.
RP: You never rose to the heights of sergeant or flight sergeant.
RB: No. No. No. No.
RP: Ordering people around then.
RB: No. Just —
RP: You just, you were just one of the workers.
RB: Just one of the [laughs] yeah one of the workers.
RP: But did you enjoy the work? The engine work.
RB: Yeah. It’s, it was all something. Well, something new because I’d no idea I was going to ever do that, you know. And you were trained to do it and it was, I enjoyed it mainly with the 463. With the Aussies at —
RP: Did you, you enjoyed working on the Lancasters? On the Merlins.
RB: Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
RP: Were they reliable engines?
RB: Oh yeah. The Merlin was yeah. It was excellent. Actually there was two. There was the Americans made one. What was it?
RP: Pratt and Whitney was it? Pratt and Whitney.
RB: No. I’ve forgotten the blooming name of it now. Packard.
RP: Oh Packard. Yeah.
RB: Packard made them under licence for Rolls Royce because I think Rolls Royce couldn’t keep up production. I mean we were losing so many aircraft in those days and they couldn’t meet the production so Packard made them under licence. I know we had two toolkits. One for the Packard Merlin and one for the Rolls Royce Merlin.
RP: Right. Different. Different widths I suppose was it?
RB: Well, I think what it was I think the threads on the nuts and bolts.
RP: Yeah. Slightly different.
RB: Were different.
RP: Different pitch isn’t it?
RB: Yeah. I mean the Rolls Royce ones were to British standard of course and the American — Packard ones were American standard so we had to have two toolkits. The engine otherwise was identical you know. It was made to the Rolls Royce licence. But yes then it was just you know just serve through, through 1944 when the main bombing campaign was going on really and we were at it all the time. We didn’t get a break much. Got the odd day off here or there but it was, you reported to work in the morning about 8 o’clock around the main hangar. You were transported out to your aircraft which was about a, I don’t know a mile, a mile and a quarter away.
RP: Yeah. Yeah.
RB: Actually because in those days the aircraft were —
RP: Had to be dispersed. That’s it. Yeah.
RB: Had to be dispersed all around the exact perimeter.
RP: Yeah. Yeah.
RB: Of the aerodrome obviously and you had an apron there which your aircraft went on. And the next one was probably about fifty, a hundred yards up. You were all well staggered for safety reasons. And I know our apron was right next to the bomb dump which wasn’t very [laughs]
RP: Which wasn’t friendly enough was it really?
RB: But —
RP: Did you get much leave? Were you allowed home at all?
RB: You got your regulation leave. Days off. You might have an odd one if it was a bit quiet, you know but I mean it was a seven day week you know. It —
RP: So, weekends. They still carried on as, as just a normal day was it?
RB: Yeah. A seven day week. You did get a bit of a period where you had what they called the moon period. It was a full moon.
RP: Oh right.
RB: They obviously — sometimes the squadron would stand down for about ten days or something like that from operations and but then of course you was, they were still doing training flights.
RP: Yes.
RB: So quite — and we used to go up on the training flights.
RP: So you’ve flown in the Lanc.
RB: Oh yeah. I flew quite a lot actually. We used to go up on what they called an NFT which was a Night Flying Test. You’d only go up for about a half an hour or so and it was to give the pilots and the crew flying on instruments practice.
RP: Yeah.
RB: And then they used to have a, they had a bombing range over The Wash.
RP: Oh yes. Yes.
RB: And we used to go and sometimes have a trip on that and do it on the bombing range over there. They used to drop these smoke bombs I believe.
RP: So, what seat did you get for that then?
RB: Just the way, usually one of the turrets, you know.
RP: Yeah.
RB: I mean on the night flying tests only a skeleton crew would come out like the pilot, the engineer and the, probably the wireless op and if we wanted to. We didn’t have to go obviously. I mean we used to, I used to go get a flight but a lot of the chaps wouldn’t go and fly, you know.
RP: Yeah.
RB: I used to fly in either the rear turret or the mid-upper turret mainly. The gunners used to come out.
RP: You’d get a good view then.
RB: Yeah. You’d get a good. Mid-upper’s the best.
RP: Yeah.
RB: Yeah.
RP: So, while you were on the squadron did you get the sense when you joined it that the war was going our way? Was there any sort of feeling?
RB: Not really. No. No.
RP: You didn’t really know.
RB: No. It was just, you didn’t really know. You just, you know did what you were doing sort of thing. You didn’t know what was going on really, you know. Even on, I’ll tell you, even on D-Day. I remember D-Day because normally take-off would be about 7 o’clock in the evening on the normal routine and night bombing. And they would get back about probably three in the morning. But on this occasion we were called out on to the flights at 2 o’clock in the morning and we thought, well, now what’s going on? You know. 2 o’clock in the morning.
RP: Yeah.
RB: 4am take off. Well, we obviously prepared for all that you know. And then of course it was cancelled. And then the next night the same thing.
RP: Right.
RB: So we’re, 2 o’clock out in the flights there and 4am take off and of course they went.
RP: That would be the 6th of June then.
RB: Yeah. Yeah.
RP: Yeah. It was just the weather cancelled it didn’t it I think?
RB: Yeah. Yeah.
RP: Yeah.
RB: That’s right. They cancelled the first one.
RP: So, when did you first hear it was D-Day as such? When did that news come to you?
RB: On the 9 o’clock news.
RP: So you heard. Yeah. Yeah.
RB: When it was announced. Yeah.
RP: So you realised why you’d had an early start then.
RB: Yeah. We, we had a bit of clue. I remember one of the crew when they landed he said, he said, ‘Christ, I’ve never seen so many ships in the Channel.’
RP: Oh right [laughs]
RB: Yeah. And we didn’t know.
RP: No.
RB: We had no idea at all what was happening.
RP: No.
RB: None at all. We was completely in the dark. You know.
RP: So, when they, when they took off on whatever on the operation it was you weren’t aware of their destination.
RB: No.
RP: As ground crew you weren’t privy to that.
RB: No. You had an idea. I mean, I mean Berlin we had an idea because we knew by the petrol load. I mean there was the petrol load was different every day sort of thing and it would depend where they were going. But I always remember. I still remember that, I think it was one thousand eight hundred and seventy six gallons was usually Berlin.
RP: Right. Well done for remembering that.
RB: I can remember.
RP: Is that a full tank?
RB: I can remember all that.
RP: Is that a full tank?
RB: Pardon?
RP: Is that a full tank then? To Berlin?
RB: No. No.
RP: No. What was —
RB: I think a full tank was two thousand one hundred and fifty four.
RP: Oh right. And where would they go? Would they ever go on full tanks?
RB: That would be — I think they only, only on all the time I was there they only went out twice on full tanks. They raided Königsberg I think it was.
RP: Oh right.
RB: Right on the Russian.
RP: Oh that’s a pretty far distance.
RB: Near the East German Russian border it was. I think it was something like about a ten or eleven hour flight.
RP: Gosh.
RB: And you imagine being in that rear turret for eleven hours. That sacrifice.
RP: Oh, I was in it for a half an hour and that was, that was, you know thinking, yeah.
RB: Oh dear me. But yeah normally it varied. I mean if they were, I think if we was around the Ruhr it is usually around about the fifteen hundred mile I think the petrol load was. So, it varied where ever they were going, you know. We never knew where they were going. Nobody ever knew but you had an idea sort of thing if you know what I mean. But —
RP: So, where were you on VE day. Where were you then? Where were you on VE day? Can you remember that?
RB: Yeah. I was down in South Wales waiting to, waiting to go in to the Navy.
RP: Right. And how did the news get to you and your friends there then? Was that a radio broadcast?
RB: I think it was mostly over the radio I suppose. I don’t know. I don’t really remember that part of it, you know. I know we, we all, we all had a good booze up you know. Celebrate. But, and then of course I was, I think it was on the, when I went into the Navy it must have been about July August. Just before the Far Eastern war ended, you know. It’s —
RP: So, you —
RB: Anyway, we virtually went redundant then. So we were surplus to requirements.
RP: So when — yes. So when you left your final posting what job did you take as a civilian?
RB: Well, I went back to the Post Office but I didn’t like it. So I left. And you had a job to leave then because there was a restriction on you. You couldn’t leave a job there I think, you were doing there, without permission so —
RP: Oh right.
RB: You know, it was restricted. So I said, ‘Well, if I don’t, if you don’t let me go I’m going back in the air force.
RP: So what were you working as in the Post Office?
RB: In the sorting office.
RP: Oh right. So, yeah.
RB: Yeah. In the sorting office then. And, and a friend of mine worked for an electrical distributing company. In a electrical wholesale distributing in the industrial side. And he, actually he was the CO of our ATC squadron, you know because we used to meet up afterwards. And they wanted staff so I went in there and worked in the office and learned the trade from there. And eventually went out as a representative for them and ended up as a branch manager until I retired.
RP: So, you didn’t sort of carry on any engineering from the RAF then.
RB: No.
RP: You —
RB: Well, I think in those days there weren’t the amount of jobs going. I mean there weren’t the garages like there are now. I mean there were very few cars on the road for a start.
RP: Well, yes. Yeah.
RB: And you’d got, you’d got sort of thousands of chaps coming out with the same trade anyway so —
RP: Yeah.
RB: It was —
RP: Were there any schemes available to you when you left that you could have, training that you could have taken?
RB: No. We didn’t get any, any assistance at all.
RP: No?
RB: Nothing at all. No. You just, you were just, you know put back on the market and get on with it.
RP: So, you had to find your own work then.
RB: Yeah.
RP: Yeah.
RB: Yeah. Yeah. And there wasn’t, there wasn’t the amount of work going really. I mean I was living in the London in those days. Imagine what London was like after the war. I mean it was you know devastated really. And things were in a, you know, a complete mess. And I was, I was out a bit earlier than the RAF. The Army and Navy demobbed a little bit earlier. So, I came out a bit earlier than the ones in the RAF. By a few months only you know but so I was one of the first ones out in that sense.
RP: Oh right. So, did you keep in touch with the guys back on the squadron? Did you know —
RB: No. No.
RP: No. You never —
RB: Lost altogether. Yeah.
RP: Because they, I think the squadron disbanded at Metheringham didn’t it? I think it went to Metheringham and disbanded.
RB: I don’t know where it disbanded. I know it stayed there. We heard various things. I know I heard — I mean the kite I was on, on T Tommy for most of the time. Right the way through. And eventually it got shot down. I heard that. And I think they came down in Belgium or somewhere, and actually my grandson, he linked into the — I think 463 have got a website.
RP: Oh right.
RB: And he dug out a photograph of it. At the crash unit in Belgium. Yeah. It looked as if they probably all got out I should imagine, you know because it wasn’t completely smashed. It was — the body work was all there sort of thing. Do you remember that one?
RP: If you know, if you know the names of the crew there is, there is a way of finding out obviously on the internet but I’m sure your grandson —
RB: No. I don’t actually. No.
RP: I’m sure your grandson is on the case if you wanted him to.
RB: Yeah. He’s, well actually he lives in America now.
RP: Yeah.
RB: He lives over there and he works for a very large company that are contractors to the American government. And he’s involved in the, sort of American Air Force side of it, because he says to me, ‘Grandad,’ he said, ‘Have you ever heard of Mildenhall and Leconfield?’
RP: Just a bit.
RB: Because they’re there.
RP: Yeah.
RB: They are still, you see —
RP: Yeah. Mildenhall is still there. Still.
RB: Yeah. He’s very interested in it all and he’s dug out a lot of the information on it really but —
RP: So if I was —
RB: No. You lose — actually one other interesting point our officer commanding was the famous name of Kingsford Smith. I don’t know if you know Kingsford Smith was a legend?
RP: I’ve heard the name.
RB: He was a pioneer of the Australian air.
RP: Oh right.
RB: And he was the first, Kingsford Smith was the first man to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean.
RP: Gosh.
RB: And his nephew was our commanding officer. And I believe there’s an airport over there in Sydney somewhere.
RP: Yeah.
RB: Named after Kingsford Smith. Yeah.
RP: Well, yes, quite an accomplishment really.
RB: Yeah. Yeah.
RP: So, if I was to ask you for your lasting impression was of your time at Waddington what would you think? What would you tell me? What’s the lasting impression you have of your time?
RB: Well, I think, I think I was sorry to leave. You know. Say you enjoyed it but I mean it was the atmosphere there was great because it was, it was just like going to work. There wasn’t sort of discipline or anything like that. There wasn’t any parades or anything like that. You had a job to do. And you went to work every day and did it like people do now probably you know. And that was it really.
RP: So, it’s just sort of another day at the office really then.
RB: Exactly.
RP: Which was nice isn’t it? Given that there’s a war raging and you’re —
RB: Exactly. Yeah.
RP: You’re going to work like that.
RB: Yeah. Yeah.
RP: Do you think that was true of most? Most Bomber Command stations?
RB: No. I wouldn’t say so. Not in the RAF probably but with the Australians I think.
RP: Yeah.
RB: I remember joining the crew. And the sergeant was a, he was a big fella. Very loud voice and a bit of an extrovert sort of thing, you know and he was a time serving one. He must have been well in his thirties. And as soon as I joined I mean I thought oh my God what have I landed into here? [laughs] And every time he spoke to me, ‘Yes, sergeant.’ Like you do. ‘Yes, sergeant.’ ‘No, sergeant.’ And he said to me, he said, ‘What’s all this sergeant business?’ He said, ‘You call me Gilbert,’ he said. That was his Christian name. And that was the atmosphere.
RP: That was very informal then.
RB: Yeah. Yeah.
RP: [unclear]
RB: And the corporal there who was in charge of the air frames he was George.
RP: Yeah.
RB: And that was the sort of atmosphere all the time I was at Waddington. And it was you was there, you had a job and you did that. You know.
RP: Were you ever aware of what was happening at other stations like Scampton or, or Coningsby?
RB: Not really. No.
RP: No.
RB: Not really.
RP: There was, there was no mixing at all in Lincoln or anything like that?
RB: No. No. We used to, I say we used to go out, we used to get the odd day off. We would go in to Lincoln and go to the cinema and things like that.
RP: It must have been a very blue city, Lincoln then. With so many RAF there.
RB: Absolutely. Yeah.
RP: Yeah.
RB: Another thing I do remember. Certain things, they stick in your mind. Aand one of the things is like during the summer as I said take-off was usually about 7 o’clock in the evening. You know. A summer evening. And everybody was taking off all around. I mean, I don’t know, there was about twenty odd airports, airfields in Lincoln and they were all taking off at the same time. And everywhere you looked the sky was absolutely full of Lancasters and they were all at different heights because when they take off I think the first ones sort of just circle and circle and take ‘til they gain height ‘til the last ones get off. And wherever you looked, all Lancasters you know and of course the noise was enormous.
RP: Amazing.
RB: Yeah.
RP: Because it’s an amazing sound isn’t it?
RB: Absolutely. Yes.
RP: It still sort of makes you —
RB: And all of a sudden, just like that they were gone.
RP: Yeah.
RB: And it was complete silence. And it sort of hits you. It was, it was, you know —
RP: And you hoped, and you hoped they would all come back obviously.
RB: Yeah. It was —
RP: Well, it is—
RB: Uncanny really.
RP: I feel it’s still an iconic sound whether it’s a single Merlin or four Merlins isn’t it?
RB: Oh yeah. It was uncanny really when that silence hits you. You know. Because I think it used to take about, it took about an hour or so for take-off. I mean —
RP: So, once they’d taken off then were you left with any Lancasters to repair? Or was it back to the billet or what?
RB: Once they take off, I mean yeah. One of us had to stay on duty as what we called night flying duty. And one of us had to stay out there on the flight all night in case they returned. One returned early. I mean they used to, you know come back if they had a fault or a malfunction or something like that. They always called it, you know, an aborted flight. I think the Australians used to call it a boomerang. So, they, ‘We boomeranged,’ you know. But so that was, that was not very pleasant because you it was complete black as you can imagine.
RP: Yeah.
RB: No lights anywhere.
RP: That’s right.
RB: You were there on your dispersal point on your own. Sitting in the hut.
RP: Yeah. Did you have any, did you have any sort of hot drink or anything?
RB: No. No. Nothing going like that at night.
RP: Oh dear.
RB: You were just there and that was it you know. One. And another chap, another chap about a hundred yards away in his place. And of course you were there for when they came back. One of us had to be there to guide them back on to the apron. So, the aircraft would taxi around the perimeter track and then you had to take over. You had, you had two torches.
RP: Yeah.
RB: And you had to guide him in.
RP: Right.
RB: Because the pilot couldn’t see ahead. He could only see out the side.
RP: Yeah.
RB: And the engineer out the other side. So you then had to first of all you made sure that the apron was clear.
RP: Yes.
RB: Nothing on it because you’re walking backwards you know. And you’re walking backwards with these two torches guiding him in.
RP: Yeah.
RB: And then you’ve got to turn him around and you mustn’t get him off the apron or he’ll sink into the earth.
RP: And there was no lighting to tell you the edge.
RB: No lighting.
RP: No. No.
RB: You were doing this in the complete dark. You’ve got to turn him around. Stop him and cut the engines. And the crew get out obviously and they’re shattered with tired and one thing and another obviously after that. But then you have to go in and secure the aircraft. You had to go in and check it all over.
RP: And that was just —
RB: Make sure everything was switched off.
RP: One person doing this.
RB: Yeah. Make sure everything’s switched off. Lock the controls because you have to lock those in case the wind caught the rudders and things, you know. But you’re doing all this with a torch. Complete dark. You know. Didn’t used to like that very much.
RP: How often did that duty come around?
RB: Well, it came when there was eight of you in the crew.
RP: It was one in eight then.
RB: One in eight. I mean they I suppose there was at least I suppose in those days three or four ops a week.
RP: Yeah. Not a lot of fun on a cold Lincolnshire February night I imagine.
RB: Pretty awful. Yeah.
RP: So, finally then how does a Willesden lad end up in lovely Christchurch in Dorset then?
RB: Oh we, we moved down here about twenty years ago isn’t it? I retired. We lived up, we lived in Middlesex which was just on the outskirts of London. And my son actually got married and he, the firm he worked for moved him to Bournemouth.
RP: Oh right.
RB: And he got married and lived in Sixpenny Handley which is a little village.
RP: Yeah.
RB: About nine miles from here. And they started a family and we, we moved down to be somewhere close to them. We’d been down here about a year [laughs] Less than that [pause] I don’t know. Anyway, he worked for the Chase. The bank in —
RP: Oh, the bank yeah.
RB: Chase. And they eventually moved him to America. He was involved heavily with this in 2000 when they had the changeover and he was going backwards and forwards to the States. I think he went there twice in one week.
RP: Gosh.
RB: So, eventually they moved him out there for three years and moved the whole family out. To our disappointment. And he went out there for three years and of course he eventually stayed there. He never came back and they’re still there.
RP: Wow.
RB: So, they’ve been there about nineteen, twenty years now, and which, you know, we haven’t really seen our grandsons grow up in that sense because I think one was six and one was four when they went out there. One’s now twenty five and the others twenty three. That was it. And we’ve been, we came down here to be close to them, they moved off and we’re here.
RP: I can understand.
RB: Yeah.
RP: It’s lovely around here.
RB: Yeah.
RP: Well, Ron, I think it’s been a pleasure. A pleasure talking to you. And thank you very much indeed for being so —
RB: Well, I just hope it might have been of some assistance. I don’t know. That’s my experience and —
RP: It’s great and thank you very much for inviting me.
RB: My pleasure.
RP: It’s been lovely.
RB: I hope I haven’t spoken too much.
RP: You’ve said more than, as much as you wanted to and as much as we can listen to don’t worry. We’ve been happy to record all this.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with Ron Baker
Creator
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Rod Pickles
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-11-02
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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ABakerR161102, PBakerR1602
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Pending review
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00:39:46 audio recording
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eng
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Navy
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Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Temporal Coverage
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1943
Description
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Ron Baker, originally from Willesden was in the ATC before joining the RAF and trained as a flight mechanic. He was posted to 463 Squadron at Waddington. On one occasion he had to help to remove the body of a gunner who had died during the flight. He recalls one day when the usual routine of operations was changed to an earlier than usual take off time. That was D-Day. His duties included waiting through the night for the return of his aircraft and to guide them back to their dispersal point. One member of the ground staff waited through the night in case the aircraft came back early. Eventually Ron volunteered to join the Fleet Air Arm as a mechanic before being demobbed.
Contributor
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Julie Williams
463 Squadron
467 Squadron
dispersal
flight mechanic
fuelling
ground crew
ground personnel
Halifax
Lancaster
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
perimeter track
RAF Brawdy
RAF Cosford
RAF Waddington
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/571/10320/BFraserDKFraserDKv1.2.pdf
7f9c985222c9f4a3d6bbf63c19e5c8d7
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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Fraser, Donald Keith
D K Fraser
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
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Fraser, DK
Description
An account of the resource
12 items. Two oral history interviews with Warrant Officer Donald Keith Fraser DFM (1924 - 2022, 1566621 Royal Air Force), a memoir, his log book, photographs and service material. The collection also contains an interview with Sylvia Fraser, his wife. He flew a tour of operations as a flight engineer with 101 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Donald Keith Fraser and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-11-04
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. Some items have not been published in order to protect the privacy of third parties, to comply with intellectual property regulations, or have been assessed as medium or low priority according to the IBCC Digital Archive collection policy and will therefore be published at a later stage. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collection-policy.
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Transcription
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WO DONALD KEITH FRASER
DFM 1566621
101 SQUADRON
JULY 1943 – MARCH 1944
CREW NAME: WL EVANS
[photograph of Donald Fraser]
[page break]
[photograph of Bomber Command Memorial]
[page break]
Contents
Page
Chapter A Introduction. 1
Chapter B Prior to World War II. 3
Chapter C Joined RAF 23rd July 1942. 7
Chapter D 101 Squadron Base Ludford Magna. 11
Chapter E 101 Squadron Operation Dates and Targets. 15
Chapter F 101 Squadron Notes on Various Operations. 17
Log Book and Battle Orders. 34
Chapter G Christmas 1943 and Christmas Dinner Menu. 41
Chapter H After Operations posted to Heavy Conversion Units. 45
Lindholme. 45
Bottesford. 47
Cottesmore. 51
North Luffenham. 52
Chapter I Advances in Technology. 55
What if? . 57
Chapter J Aircrew Bomber Command. 59
Wartime Bomber Squadrons. 60
Bombing of Berlin. 60
A Day in the Life of a Squadron. 61
Clothing Worn on Operations by our Crew. 62
Contact made with Two Crew Members plus information on others. 63
Chapter K The Lancaster Story. 67
Further notes relating to Black Thursday including information given by Len Brooks our Rear Gunner. 73
[page break]
[four photographs of author and Avro Lancaster]
[page break]
INTRODUCTION
Over the past 50 to 60 years I have enjoyed reading many books about bomber crews who flew with Bomber Command during World War II especially during the period from mid July 1943 until the end of the war. These books contained many accounts of true grit and heroism carried out by crew members. There are, however, a few experiences recalled which appear doubtful, a number of reported instances which are far-fetched or quite ridiculous to have suggested could have occurred.
Crews of the heavy bombers normally consisted of seven crew members all of whom were well trained to carry out specific tasks and as a team made up a competent crew capable of carrying out the various operations asked of them.
Operations were normally carried out over Europe (mainly to Germany) targets being the main industrial areas, factories, railway junctions and yards and eventually towns and cities, such as Berlin, Hanover, Hamburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt to name a few, all of which by 1943 the inhabitants were heavily involved in production for the German war effort.
The Bomber crews objectives were to carry out the operations they flew on to reach the target, drop their bombs and return home safely with their aircraft undamaged. Remember all these young men were volunteers, highly trained with the Pilot usually the “Skipper” and Captain, this was not to say that he gave all the orders and that no crew member acted until he gave that order. The Flight Engineer and Wireless Operator were the most mobile within the aircraft, therefore, if a situation occurred within the fuselage either or both could intervene by giving a quick call to the “Skipper”, or should a fault occur with the engine, the Flight Engineer would usually be the first to notice and carry out the essential remedy while informing the Pilot of the situation with procedure carried out. For a crew to be efficient and confident they had to be alert at all times, watching, listening and acting immediately. Survival required a highly trained crew team with loads of confidence in one’s self and in the other crew members and in the aircraft, so giving them a very strong attitude to press on.
A dedicated, loyal and skilful ground crew, a strong reliance in the Almighty (or what faith one had) and with very importantly more than normal, good luck, having lady luck on your side.
I have therefore put on paper a few experiences which happened to our crew while flying over Germany during mid 1943 to mid 1944. The following are not from diaries – they are what I recall after a long time. The experiences are genuine, the timing may be a little out, but to the reader it will still show the excitement, the pressure, sometimes fear, but above all the confidence and determination the crew had to carry out the task involved and return back to base with a full crew still intact.
A question I have been asked many times “why did you enjoy flying and with such odds against staying alive?” My answer, I loved flying, I enjoyed the excitement and I volunteered. I also liked the thought of coming back to base to a good meal and I felt safe and secure in my sometimes cold bed with its nice white sheets, compared to the Army personnel who
1
[page break]
worked under much more difficult conditions not knowing when they would eat or sleep and under conditions just as dangerous as ours, in fact, in many, more so.
By the end of writing I hope that I provide you with some idea of what these then young crew members of Bomber Command endured when flying over Germany for 6 to 7 1/2 hours at a time in a Lancaster bomber with around 2,000 gallons of fuel stored in tanks in the wings and with up to five tons of bombs slung under their feet along the fuselage, travelling at 250 miles an hour in the dark at 20-21,000 feet in height with temperatures of from -10 to 20oC below zero and with German fighters trying to shoot them down and with anti-aircraft guns (which could be very accurate) also trying to blow them up, just to make our journey a little more scary at times to find that on returning when we reached the English coastline that it was covered in thick cloud and dense fog making it almost impossible to find somewhere to land. Some of the words most suited to express the emotions of the crew in certain situations could be excited, interesting, scary, fear, relief, apprehensive and difficult.
I think, however, that the Brylcream boys done a very good job all these years ago.
Happy days!
2
[page break]
CHAPTER B
PRIOR TO WORLD WAR II
1919-1939
The First World War ended in 1919 after four years of fighting and with a very heavy loss of life on both sides. Those who were lucky enough to survive and return home found it extremely difficult to find employment.
The Government had created some opportunities by forming the Forestry Commission with the role to establish over the coming fifty years a supply of timber sufficient to make the UK self sufficient in wood requirements. This was to be created by the purchase of large areas of land, mainly in Scotland and North England (cheap less productive land) then cultivating and planting this land with conifer species. To achieve this management had to be trained and forestry workers had to be recruited.
Forestry schools were established throughout England and Scotland to educate and train management staff. One such school was opened at Dunkeld in Central Scotland where a Mr Simpson received his training and he afterwards took up the post of Nursery Manager at Tulliallan Nursery, Kincardine on the Forth.
During the war the larger estates had suffered from the lack of gamekeepers and staff to carry out the maintenance and control of vermin etc, therefore there were many vacancies for people interested to fill these posts. My father and two of his brothers did just that, they became keepers on some of the very large estates in Scotland.
My father and mother were married shortly after the war and he took up an appointment as a game keeper on a large estate near Stirling, where my sister Jean and elder brother Sandy were born. In 1923 he moved to take up Keepering on Tulliallan Estate near Kincardine. The family lived in the East Lodge which was situated adjacent to the main road from Kincardine to Dunfermline and next to the land belonging to the Forestry Commission nursery. This is where I was born on 24th August 1923. Two years later the family again moved, this time to take on the position of head keeper on Donibristle Estate and lived in the small village of Auchtertool, Fifeshire where my two younger sisters, Betty and Mary were born. These were from what little I can recall, were happy times, the family did not have much spare cash but had sufficient to satisfy the family needs.
Mr Simpson lost part of his right arm during the first War and had an artificial part fitted. In 1949 I joined the Forestry Commission Research Branch and guess where I was stationed, at Tulliallan Nursery and Mr Simpson was still there. He told me that when my father left the East Lodge in 1925 he bought his hens and chickens from him. In 1950 the Forestry Commission built around 20 houses for its staff some 400 yards west of the East Lodge and Sylvia and myself were lucky enough to have one of them. Mr Simpson played an important role in our lives over the next 30 years, however this is another story.
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Moray estate during the winter months arranged a number of pheasant shoots to which a number of friends and associates of the Lairds (The Earl of Moray) were invited to attend.
The 29th January 1929 was one of those days and the shoot covered the area which my father was responsible for. The morning started with rain, however the shoot commenced and the guns and beaters started with good success. A good number of birds were raised and shot, as the day continued the weather became worse and by lunchtime, thunder and lightning had started so it was decided to call the shoot off. During the morning a few birds had been shot, but had not been collected by the dogs so my father with his two spaniels decided he would retrace the morning route and see if he could collect lost birds. The weather continued to deteriorate, while he was crossing a fence he was hit by lightning. As the day went on and he had not returned the other two keepers decided they would go and look for him. They found him where he lay by the fence with his two dogs nearby. This was a terrible and tragic day for all concerned, my mother with five children all under the age of 11, no house and little money coming in to support the family. My mother did have two sisters who stayed in Edinburgh and who visited fairly regularly and helped all they could with the family. The estate owner, the Earl of Moray and the Estate Factor were very helpful and within a week or two, arranged for the family to move to Aberdour where they gave us a house with a fairly large garden (this became quite a good asset especially when the War came).
I was told when I was much older that at the time there was much talk about what should happen to the family the suggestion being that the family should be split up with the three girls staying with mum and the two boys (Sandy and myself) being placed with other people possibly with a relative or with other people. Our mother strongly disagreed and said none of the family would leave they would stay together. I believe that my mother made the right decision, had the family been split up, our lives would have been totally different and not for the better in my opinion.
These were hard times for our mother (in those days there was not the same support or financial assistance available to call on as there is today) however somehow our mum managed to sort things out and keep all the family together. Unfortunately we as children were too young to contribute in the way of bringing in money to the home, our mum was a very likeable person and soon made friends and was extremely capable of working to earn money, she turned her hand to doing housework and helping people in their homes and for two days each week helping in Donibristle Estate house, which meant a fairly long walk to get there (one mile each way).
She and her sisters were always very happy smiling people always ready for a joke, this helped to make life much better for everyone. She still had friends on the estate and the whole family occasionally in an evening would take a walk of around three miles to visit Mr and Mrs Linton, he also was a gamekeeper on the estate.
Our mum was also a good Christian and attended church fairly regularly and also enjoyed attending some of the concerts and meetings held in the village hall, she also was a member of the WI.
The estate was very good to the family we received twice a year a load of fire wood, which myself and Sandy would chop up into suitable sizes to use on the fire. In the Spring the estate workers would come to dig over the garden and planted potatoes which helped greatly, this meant that all we (Sandy and I) had to do was keep the garden free from weeds and hill up the potatoes and plant some vegetables.
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[page break]
As time moved on and we the children grew older all by the age of eight or nine years managed to find jobs. Sandy and myself delivering milk before going to school and then delivering groceries after school and at weekends Jean our oldest sister assisted in the Cooperative grocery shop. This of course all helped to bring in some money.
The school leaving age at that time was 15. We all attended Aberdour school initially. At the age of 11 the choice was either moving to Burtisland school which was a technical college or go to Dunfermline high school, both schools were a distance away from Aberdour and required travelling by bus. All the girls, Jean, Betty and Mary enjoyed Dunfermline High, while Sandy and myself went to the technical school. We all got excellent grades in the exams. I left school in 1938 at a time when the job situation was very limited with little choice. I had two interests, first to be a forester, my dream being to see all the high elevation land covered with trees as it was during much earlier times and take part in that operation. Secondly to become an Engineer.
I applied for two jobs, one on the Moray Estates to become a trainee forester, the other to become an apprentice mechanic with a garage company in Kirkcaldy.
Both replied and I decided to take up the forestry appointment. This proved very enjoyable and I loved the variety of jobs and gained volumes of experience working with two brothers, Bob and Will Ewan. Will Ewan was foreman and took a liking to me and gave me all the encouragement and opportunities to carry out everything which was available. The Second World War commenced on the 3rd September 1939 and when I was 17 1/2 years old I volunteered to join the RAF on flying duties and became a flight engineer. So in the end I got both my dreams to come true. After the war being demobbed in 1946, I took up an appointment to become a probationer at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. In 1948 I joined the Forestry Commission Research Branch.
5
[page break]
6
[page break]
CHAPTER C
JOINED RAF 23RD JULY 1942
The Second World War started on 3rd September 1939. I’m not going into details regarding the reasons why Britain thought it necessary to do so as I believe most people know the reasons.
Prior to the war during the summers of 1937 and 1938 the Territorial Army held their camps on the outskirts of Aberdour on grass fields owned by Mill Farm, which was situated adjacent to the Sheriff Road. To us as youngsters it was exciting and interesting to see double rows of horses tethered along a single rope and the troops living under canvas in large tents. To see the different tartans depending on which regiment was resident in camp at the time, such as The Black Watch, The Camerons or The Gordons.
They were the first troops to be called up for service followed by people from certain professions and the general public of different age classes, one had to be 18 years old before being recruited.
All three services required recruits and there was a certain agreement of allowing people to join the service of their choice, however, if one service was short of personnel then recruits had no choice but to go where sent.
I was sixteen years old when the war started and when my time came to be called up I wished to join the RAF and, if possible, to fly on reaching my 17th birthday. I decided I would volunteer for the RAF on flying duties. Volunteers usually were given the opportunity to serve in the service of their choice.
I recall discussing the war with a few of my colleagues and suggesting that this war would change the face of Europe, and would also change all our lives completely if we survived.
I was called up on 23rd July 1942; my orders were to report to Warrington Recruitment Centre. My stay there was for two days where I, along with many more of my own age were fitted out with uniform and all other necessities. We then travelled to Blackpool to commence our training and embark on a flight mechanics course.
Blackpool like many other seaside resorts had many private residences available (usually used as holiday accommodation or bed and breakfast), these were now being used to accommodate RAF recruits.
I with others was billeted in Montague Street, South Shore near to the South Shore beach. This turned out to be excellent, the landlady treated us extremely well, and we each had our own bedroom and facilities. She had to supply us with breakfast and evening meal, and normal washing facilities. In fact for all the time I was in Blackpool, which was just under a year I stayed there, the RAF supplied our towels etc. In fact two evenings a week we had what was called ‘shower parades’. In total there was near 10,000 RAF personnel billeted in
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the town, so through the town certain buildings such as baths or swimming pool areas were converted into showers, rows and rows of showers with dressing accommodation alongside.
The recruits such as ourselves were divided into groups of between 40 and 50 and each group had a corporal in charge, he was in charge of all our activities such as the shower parade. We had to assemble at a point near to our billet on certain evenings each week. The corporal would march us to the showers then afterwards march us back, he was also responsible for us on all other activities.
The course of flight mechanic was a very intensive course covering both theory and practical work. This was carried out at Squires Gate near St Anne’s, three miles east of Blackpool and was originally a small airport. The hangers were converted to workshops for training purposes.
We were transported in bus convoys daily, morning and evening to and from the base with our same corporal, Lofty Clark, in charge. We also carried out the usual training and skills necessary to be a good soldier including physical training, assault course, rifle drill and route marches. Most of these were carried out on the area around the South Shore pleasure ground. The mechanics course lasted for five months. At the end of each fortnight we had verbal exams and after six weeks written exams, each exam had to be passed before one could move on. If I remember all our group passed their exams.
After the mechanics course we were given two weeks leave and on return commenced on a fitters course, which lasted a further five months, the same routine as previously. What I forgot to say, we had a break in the morning and afternoon when the NAAFI vans arrived serving a bun and a cup of tea.
By the end of the further course we were capable of dismantling an aircraft engine and reassembling it with success. We also had a basic knowledge of the aircraft workings at this stage before moving onto the next stage of our training, the flight engineer course.
We were divided into those who would be flying on Halifaxs [sic] and those who would fly on Lancasters, fortunately I was selected to fly on Lancasters.
Blackpool was a fairly good place to be stationed at, as with its many parks there was always plenty of opportunity to play sport, which was very much encouraged by the RAF. I spent most weekends playing either football or rugby; in fact for the 1942‑3 season I played rugby for Blackpool’s third team. There was little time in evenings for anything, as I said two nights were taken up with shower parade, then most weeks a further two nights for other activities. Every Sunday there was a church parade, one had to attend the parade but not the service if it was not your religion. Most places in Blackpool were closed, however, the lower levels of the tower were still open and I remember the organ was still being played and the ballroom was open at certain times.
For the flight engineers course those of us that were to fly on Lancasters were transferred to St Athans, South Wales. The course was originally intended to last eight weeks however, on arrival we were told that flight engineers were in such short supply that the course was being crammed into two weeks. To enable this to happen we worked a 12‑hour day, seven days each week, however, the course was a success and we all knew the basics about the Lancaster workings, although we still had not flown in a Lancaster.
At the end of the course we were split up into groups of six and told to report to a certain Air Training Unit. I had to report to Lindholme near Doncaster, where other members of crew which included pilot, navigator, bomb aimer, mid upper gunner and rear gunner were already
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at Lindholme operating as a crew for a period of four weeks awaiting for flight engineers to become available.
On arrival we were introduced to our crews and the following day we were flying as a complete crew, however, not on Lancasters (Lancasters were too scarce to be used on training duties). We flew on Halifax, this was a heavy bomber and gave the pilot the opportunity and experience of flying heavy aircraft. We continued training and flying at Lindholme for a further week.
As a complete crew and along with one other crew from the same course at Lindholme we were posted to 101 Squadron which was based at Ludford Magna seven miles west of Louth Lincolnshire. This was a recently built airfield; the runways and perimeter roads were complete along with the aircraft stand pods. Accommodation was nissen huts as were the messes. Roads and paths around the areas were still not laid; Wellington boots were the order of the day.
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CHAPTER D
LUDFORD 101 SQUADRON
Ludford Magna
Ludford Magna, a small village situated on the main road between Louth and Market Rasen, was to change dramatically as the area was chosen to be the site for one of the new warfare RAF bomber airfields. Work commenced in spring 1943 and by May the airfield was ready for occupation however, as with many other war built sites, many buildings were far from being useable.
The airfield had three runways with the main runway, which was two thousand yards long from north to south. The other two runways were 14 hundred yards, one of which ran east to west. They were all connected by a narrow perimeter track of which there were 36 standing pods. All personnel accommodation was nissen hut type buildings and erected on the north side of the main road running through the village, some distance from the main airfield.
101 Squadron took over occupation of the airfield in late June but even then there were no hardcore paths leading to the billets or the ablution blocks. This meant that travelling to and from billets or airfield, the only serviceable footwear was rubber boots. We as a crew arrived in late July and I remember squelching in the mud around the base and when it rained circumstances were even worse, and it did rain quite a bit during the autumn and winter hence the airfield got the nickname of Mudford (instead of Ludford) and was well deserved.
On days when operations were planned the routine was briefing which was held at a certain time when all crew members met in the briefing room where the CO (Comanding [sic] Officer) addressed the crews stating which crews were flying and which if any were on standby in case any crew members were unable to fly.
The CO would then open the curtains on the wall covering the maps and the target, after which the various heads of section gave details of weather expected on route over target and on return, also bomb load, fuel load and any other relative information such as height levels expected to be flown at by the different aircraft. Lancasters usually flew at one or two thousand feet higher than the Halifax, which would be flying at around 19,000 feet.
It was most important for 101 Squadron to keep strictly to the timing and height levels as with ABC (Airborne Cigar equipment) on board, 101 Squadron crews task was to cover the rest of the bombers flying on the operation, along the route to the target, through the target and on the return route. Example, if the target time was 20 minutes for all aircraft to pass through the target and if 101 Squadron had 22 aircraft flying, each aircraft would be allocated a time through the target of one minute apart.
This put considerable pressure on the navigator and pilot, the route was always discussed among the crew members such as pilot, bomb aimer and engineer in order to help and assist the navigator to stay on course such as any landmarks, heavy barrage of ack ack or search
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lights, as these would usually mean certain industrial areas, towns or cities. Also if weather conditions were good possibly a certain bend on a river or railway, or road crosses, these markers were always very helpful to the navigator to keep him on course and on time.
All crew members had different personalities we all, however, accepted that we were professionals and some of the best in our trades, and that belief and the fact that we worked extremely well as a crew. We trusted each other’s judgement and carried out the requirements without question.
The crew (our crew) was organised similar to a football team we had a captain in our pilot Wally and with a few key team players who had the ability to carry out other members’ duties. They were Navigator, Jimmy, could act as bomb aimer, Eric our bomb aimer had sufficient knowledge of navigation to bring the aircraft home, and myself as engineer could in an emergency takeover and fly and land the aircraft. The gunners were the crewmembers most out of touch with the others. In my position I could watch their turrets for movement and could keep in touch with them, and if for any reason their turrets were not moving I could give them a call. I could easily see the mid upper gunner Bill and see the rear gunner guns Len when they turned to port.
Eric our bomb aimer lounged in the front compartment of the aircraft on lookout for other aircraft and to aid the navigator, his map reading was spot on, and he liked to give a commentary of what was happening leading up to the target – such sayings as men it’s bloody marvellous, we are bang on time over the target, then this was his time he was in control, he was very precise with his left slightly, right a little, hold it there, left a little. I would be watching for other aircraft and for fighters, and as he said on this occasion that it was over Berlin I said hold it Eric another Lanc is just passing immediately beneath us. He said: “I have missed the target we will have to go round again”. In this situation Eric was in control and Wally our pilot even with a few strong words said to Jimmy our navigator “give us a new course to bring us round again”. There were the occasional shouts from the gunners such as “fighter on port, eleven o’clock” or “watch that searchlight” or “collision between Lanc and Halifax – no parachutes, poor bastards”. The wireless operator Norman (Nobby) was good at his job he never panicked. Nobby could obtain bearings when others couldn’t. I think he did naughty things on the frequencies to get priority. He had the warmest place on the aircraft.
Jimmy our navigator was superb, conscientious, every course had to be accurate and everything he did he gave a reason for his decision. Wally our pilot would discuss with him the situation for the change of course and automatically changed course. Wally was an excellent pilot, steady and a good captain and we worked well together, we the crew called him our taxi driver. Taking off with a full bomb load and possibly two thousand gallons of fuel was the most nervous part of the trip, after receiving the green light he would taxi onto the runway, line up, test the engines remembering we had probably some waiting for five to ten minutes, with slow engine revolutions which could overheat the engines. We together would open up the four throttles when the engines were screaming he would release the brakes and the aircraft would start rolling along the runway. When we reached the 90+ speed he would require both his hands on the controls and I would push the throttle controls fully forward, keeping the port engines throttles slightly ahead of the starboard engines throttles, as I found that the Lancaster tended to veer to the port on take off or nearing the end of the runway. If we were still on the ground I would push all four throttles through the barrier, this gave the extra power we only used this in extreme cases, as it was hard on the engines and used extra fuel. Once in the air Wally would say “undercarriage up” then “flaps up” and we would start climbing on a spiral course until we reached the height of around ten thousand
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feet before setting course on our operation. I would adjust engines to obtain speed required with minimum revs.
As I previously said 101 Squadron operated ABC, which meant we carried an eighth member of crew. A specialist, his job was to jam German radio transmissions to the night fighters’ ground based controllers, his operating place was just behind the main part of the port side about 6 ft square with no external vision. It was said that these members had no one crew to fly with and were allocated a crew on an operation base, this maybe true however we were a very organised crew and this arrangement did not apply. We therefore were allocated Ken as a crewmember and he flew with us during the remainder of our tour.
101 Squadron radio call was for aircraft ‘Bookworm’, control tower ‘Bookshop’.
Returning to after briefing was completed we returned to the mess where a meal was always arranged which consisted of a main course of egg, bacon and chips. We then dressed into our flying kit, collected our parachute and made our way to the crew room where we collected our flying rations, these consisted of sandwiches, Horlicks tablets chewing gum and a flask of coffee or tea. If you wished wakey wakey pills to help keep you awake while flying (none of our crew ever indulged in these) we also collected a package containing money and maps of the countries over which we would be flying on the chance that we may be shot down.
After a few operations, the crew was allocated our own aircraft, for us X² the dispersal point was quite a way round the perimeter track and close to the road. The aircraft was parked facing away from the road and perimeter fence so when Mac our ground crew sergeant in charge of X² and his colleagues required to clean their dirty, oily boilersuits they would wash them in a can of fuel and hang them on the fence behind the aircraft, then when the engines were tested the slipstream would blow dry their clothes.
There was usually four or five technicians allocated to each aircraft with either a corporal or sergeant in charge. They were a grand bunch of lads, dedicated and had to work in the open under all various weather conditions from high summer temperatures to severe cold and winter weather conditions. They also had a remarkable collection of spare parts hidden away in their crew hut, which they built up over time from broken Lancasters. This enabled them to carry out repairs and patch up any enemy damage that had been inflicted on the aircraft. This meant that the aircraft could be kept serviceable and ready for action without delay and not having to ground the aircraft while waiting for spares from the stores.
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CHAPTER E
OPERATION DATES AND TARGETS
[photograph of author]
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Operations 101 Squadron 1943-44
Operation – Date - Place
1 - 20th August 1943 - Leverkusen.
2 - 30th-31st August 1943 - Munchen Gladbach.
0 - 31st Aug-1st Sept 1943 - (Abortive) Berlin. Starboard outer feathered, landed on three engines.
3 - 3rd-4th September 1943 - Berlin. Held in searchlights for five minutes.
4 - 23rd-24th September 1943 - Mannheim.
5 - 29th-30th September 1943 - Bochum.
6 - 2nd-3rd October 1943 - Munich. Shot up over Amiens landed Tangmere.
7 - 5th-6th October 1943 - Hanover.
8 - 20th-21st October 1943 - Leipzig. Electrical problems.
9 - 3rd-4th November 1943 - Düsseldorf.
10 - 10th-11th November 1943 - Modane. Fuel shortage, landed Tangmere.
11 - 18th-19th November 1943 - Berlin.
12 - 22nd-23rd November 1943 - Berlin. Rear turret frozen up.
13 - 26th-27th November 1943 - Berlin.
14 - 16th-17th December 1943 - Berlin. Heavy losses fog on return. Many fighter flares around target area.
15 - 20th-21st December 1943 - Frankfurt.
16 - 24-25th December 1943 - Berlin. Rear turret u/s starboard outer feathered.
17 - 29th-30th December 1943 - Berlin.
18 - 1st-2nd January 1944 - Berlin.
19 - 2nd-3rd January 1944 - Berlin. Mug passed out through lack of oxygen.
20 - 5th-6th January 1944 - Stettin. Best photo in bomber command.
21 - 15th-16th January 1944 - Brunswick.
22 - 27th-28th January 1944 - Berlin.
23 - 28th-29th January 1944 - Berlin.
24 - 15th-16th February 1944 - Berlin.
25 - 19th-20th February 1944 - Leipzig. Heaviest losses in group.
26 - 20th-21st February 1944 - Stuttgart.
27 - 24th-25th February 1944 - Schweinfurt. Best photo in group.
28 - 25th-26th February 1944 - Augsburg.
29 - 1st-2nd March 1944 - Stuttgart.
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CHAPTER F
101 SQUADRON
NOTES ON VARIOUS OPERATIONS
In late July 1943 after completing my flight engineer course and joining the other crew members at conversion unit Lindholme near Doncaster, with two other crews we arrived at 101 Squadron based at Ludford Magna. The crews were always known by the name of the pilot and out of the three crews that arrived, two crews had the name of Evans; W L Evans and A H Evans. I was the flight engineer assigned to W L Evans’s crew and had flown with them at conversion unit, however, the records had been mixed up and showed me as flight engineer to A H Evans’s crew. The simplest method of resolving the problem would have been for me to join A H Evans’s crew and the other flight engineer to join W L Evans’s crew. W L Evans, however, said definitely not, I was his engineer and in no way was I not flying in his crew, the records were therefore corrected.
For the next three weeks we worked as a crew getting to know each other and familiarising
ourselves with the aircraft. When we were told that we were to be on operations we had
flown 33 hours in total, 12 of which was night flying.
Both crews flew, our first operation was on 22nd-23rd August 1943, the target was Leverkusen. There was of course much excitement among us and especially when at briefing the curtains covering the maps on the wall were opened and we saw the target, we were the new bods not knowing what to expect. We listened carefully to what was being said by the various Heads of Section regarding the weather, hot spots to miss along the route, where fighters could be expected and where flak would be very heavy.
Leverkusen was a German town situated in the near proximity of the Ruhr Germany’s main industrial centre, where a high percentage of their heavy equipment was made. The Ruhr had been visited many times and considerable damage carried out which helped delay their war equipment this was an operation to attack specific targets, which would further upset and delay their war effort.
After briefing we returned to the mess for a meal, which usually consisted of egg, bacon and chips. Takeoff was scheduled for around 21:30 hours so before that we had to collect our parachutes rations and packet containing money, maps etc to cover the countries over which we would be flying in case we had to bail out.
We then changed into flying kit before catching the crew bus out to our aircraft. The next task was to carry out the pre-flying checks on the aircraft, then start the engines.
Wally then taxied the aircraft along the perimeter track towards the takeoff runway, waiting in the queue for the aircraft in front to obtain the green light to takeoff. Then our turn, green light given, we turn onto the runway, line up at the end, carry out the formal checks between pilot and engineer. Wally our pilot and skipper then holds on the brake as I open up the four
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throttles, pushing the port two slightly ahead of the starboard two, let brake off and feel the aircraft rush along the runway increasing speed rapidly (this was the most exciting part of the operation as far as I was concerned).
As the throttles are fully opened and as the end of the runway is nearing, the heavy aircraft laden with fuel and bombs leaves the tarmac behind. Relief. Pilot: “undercarriage up” engineer “undercarriage up, brakes on off”. Pilot “flaps up”, engineer “flaps up”. As the undercarriage and flaps are raised you could feel the plane sink a little before starting to climb. Pilot to navigator: “course and speed, and height”. I would then reduce throttle to minimum revs to produce power sufficient to keep climbing at the speed asked for, then as far as possible synchronise the four engines to cut out unnecessary noise. The noise from four Merlin engines was a noise that you never forget.
Taking off and managing to get this large aircraft off the ground safely while possibly carrying two thousand gallons of fuel stored in the wings and a full bomb load under your feet, as I said previous, was always the most exciting part of the operation as far as I was concerned and I always marvelled at Wally’s skills in achieving this without any mishaps. I was always relieved, happy and knew that everything would be all right until we had to do it all again on the next operation.
We had no troubles with our landing at base on return from Leverkusen, taxied to our parking space, caught a crew bus which took us to the debriefing room where we received a nice hot cup of tea or coffee with a spot of rum in if wanted. The debriefing consisted of an Intelligence Officer asking a number of questions about what we saw on route, anything unusual, searchlight positions around built up areas, flak, fighter activity. Did we see any planes being shot down and did we see any parachutes appearing and anything else, which may be of interest.
We were then able to return to the mess for breakfast. While having breakfast, A H Evans and crew arrived, we had a few words regarding the operation and made our way back to our billet for a few hours sleep, luckily it was coming up to high moon period so for the next ten days there were no operations.
The second operation, which both crews were on, was to Munchen Gladbach on 30th and 31st August, we had another fairly quiet trip without any problems and landed safely on time at Base. We heard that two planes were late, one of which was A H Evans, we held on at breakfast hoping to hear some news. News came through that a SR Lancaster had landed further south due to fuel shortage, it turned out not to be A H Evans and crew. The following day we heard the dreaded news that A H Evans’s crew was reported missing and presumably shot down. This was later confirmed.
This was a new experience for us to know that seven young men who we had been friendly with, even for a short time, were no longer around. The engineer had come through the same training as myself – mechanic course fitters course at Blackpool – followed by flight engineers course at St Athans, then crewing up at Lindholme. He was slightly older than myself therefore not in my squad although I did know him on the course to say hello, and as you know both crews joined 101 Squadron on the same day and I almost changed places with him.
The same routine was followed each time we took off and continued to be the most anxious time and possibly the most scary and nervous moments of each operation. We soon realised that each operation was different with its own hazards and that flying over Europe for however short or long a period, it was a very dangerous and frightening place to be.
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The normal procedure for all aircraft after takeoff was to start to gain height, circling the area until reaching a height of around 10,000 ft before setting course for the target. Around the Lincoln area there were at least 20 airfields, each with at least 20 aircraft flying on each operation, that was why the residents living in the area knew when operations were on by the noise of 400 planes all circling to gain height. Once a course was set we tried to reach a height of at least 15,000 ft before crossing the enemy coast.
There were certain things that we had no control over such as the weather, the conditions on route could be quite different from that forecasted. Increased wind speeds, a tail wind instead of a nose wind, these affected the navigator greatly who was trying to stay on route and be at a certain point within the time space of the operation. More so with 101 Squadron, responsible to give protection by using ABC over the full length of the operation. Thunderstorms and heavy clouds could also cause icing up of the engine air intakes and front edge of the wings (remember temperatures could be as low as -20°) and if not dealt with could cause engine failure.
Fog, however, was the most serious problem, thick fog in the UK on return. Blanket fog so thick it was impossible to see anything from the air or the ground, this caused heavy losses of aircraft as returning from flying with low fuel levels, trying to find a landing ground was impossible, for many resulting in heavy losses in aircraft and crews. Conditions improved slightly when FIDO was installed on some runways.
There were hazards from conditions which crews did not expect as the Met weather forecasts had given much more favourable conditions, otherwise we should not have been flying. As soon as we flew over the Dutch coastline we expected to be greeted by flak and if ground conditions were good by enemy fighters, depending on the operations route, flak could be very heavy and accurate especially round the towns and cities. Searchlights then also came into play especially those with the strong blue coloured lights. If caught by one of these it was almost impossible to lose them they were also radar controlled by anti-aircraft guns, which were especially accurate and many aircraft became casualties.
There was also a fair risk of collision bearing in mind that on the route to the target there were possibly between 400 and 600 large aircraft (100 ft wingspan) all travelling in the same direction at the same time, making for the same point and expected to be over the target all within the space of 20 minutes or less (granted there would be a range of heights between some, possibly within a band of 2,000 ft). Think of it as 600 cars travelling along a motorway all doing 70 miles per hour, all expecting to pass point ‘A’ at between 01:00 and 01:20 hours. If congestion occurred the car driver would see and would slow down, there was no way of changing lane or slowing in an aircraft. It was therefore very clear to us as a crew early on that flying over Europe was a very dangerous and frightening place to be and if we were to succeed we had to work as a team, be alert all the time whether for two hours or eight hours. This we managed fairly well, we recognised that the safest place to be was in the middle of the concentration along the route. It was usually those who had strayed off course that were picked off by fighters or became casualties by flak.
Our navigator Jimmy was therefore a very important member of the crew (he was an exceptionally good navigator) the rest of the crew could also help him which we did if conditions were clear telling him of certain markers, such as there is heavy flak ahead to 11 o’clock, or we are just passing over a river with a railway line and road alongside or such like information.
He could then take action if necessary and give a change of course to Wally our pilot, or if we had a strong tail wind ask me to reduce speed slightly. So we had two-way conversation
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between key members such as navigator, bomb aimer, pilot and engineer but only with reference to the operation in hand.
The rear and mid upper gunners role was to continually scour the sky by rotating from side to side in their turrets, with one turning to starboard the other turning to port, the bomb aimer controlled the front myself had the only view to watch the gunners and watch ahead and to the sides, while the bomb aimer carried out his other work such as dropping window or preparing for his bombing run, therefore we were fairly well covered. If another aircraft came close or overhead, or below us on our bombing run a crewmember could give the alarm. If a fighter was seen and showing interest then mostly the gunners gave the alarm “fighter starboard, 2 o’clock, dive now!”. Wally would dive immediately and carry out a corkscrew manoeuvre then return on to normal course, this usually worked. If for any reason I could see the gunner’s turrets not moving I would give them a call, only once was it necessary to take further action (this is recorded later) usually they were just having a short rest or such like.
Fuel was also a concern, petrol was rationed throughout the UK as most of the supplies had to be imported, therefore fuel for aircraft was also closely regulated on Lancasters to 200 gallons per hour flying time. Therefore if the estimated time for an operation was seven hours, fuel allocated was 1,400 gallons plus 200 extra, a total of 1,600 gallons.
The flight engineer therefore did have some control; it was dependent on how efficient he was in regulating the engines (similar to driving, there are good drivers and not so good drivers). The Lancaster had six fuel tanks, three in each wing with the small tank on the outside of the wing which could only be pumped into the middle tank, the other two on each wing could be used in tandem or individually to feed the engines.
It was the engineer’s responsibility to use the fuel distribution the most successful way so that whatever happened the maximum fuel was available to keep the engines running. To such ends I fully used the centre tanks each fuelling the two engines on port and starboard when sufficient was used pump tank fuel into tank two, then using fuel evenly from the other two tanks to supply the port and starboard engines.
If anything unforeseen happened such as a tank being damaged from enemy flak or fighter guns, the minimum fuel loss would occur and I could re-adjust my method of usage by opening and closing valves.
All engines could be run from one of the four tanks, this meant keeping a log and recording every ten or fifteen minutes. It was also necessary to record engine temperatures and oil pressure and with experience listening to the noise of the engines could give a good indication of how efficient they were running. Fuel could be saved by making sure that, when possible, the engine revs could be reduced and that other control on the aircraft such as flaps, etc were being used at optimum levels. This saving in fuel could be the difference between touching down safely or not, on the odd occasion when fuel loss occurred from a leaking tank or when on reaching the base area it was under thick fog and extra flying was necessary to find a suitable landing site.
Life on the base was very mixed, flying on operations was usually carried out during the dark nights of the moon and these two weeks could be hectic, operations could be on two consecutive nights resulting in our crew getting to bed at around 05:00 hours and then having to be ready for pre-briefing and head of section meetings, followed by main briefing at 15:00 to 16:00 hours and once again ready for takeoff by 21:30 hours. Other times operations could be scheduled and then cancelled because of possibly extreme weather
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conditions over the UK or over the target area. The dark nights were therefore a continual case of being ready to fly when called upon.
The period of high moon was more relaxing. Training and practice still had to be carried out such as bombing practice for Eric; this was carried out on targets set in the North Sea a few miles off shore. Gun practice for Len and Bill carried out on a moving target towed behind a small plane off the coastline.
The station had an excellent gym where one could keep fit which was essential and a very good library of general reading material and technical information. I also spent a considerable amount of time on the simulator improving my flying skills and landing procedures, also the period when crews could have some leave. I always travelled home on these occasions.
We were on base during the autumn (harvest time) as a crew we decided to help the local farmer with stocking and collecting his grain crops as our accommodation Nissen huts were situated near to the farmstead, in return he offered us a pile of fire wood to keep our stove lit during the colder nights as the coke ration was rather limited.
Ludford Magna was a small village supporting two pubs, a post office and a small but very nice church during the 11 months, which I spent at the base. I had never been in either of the pubs. I had attended the church service on a number of occasions.
The Women’s Institute also ran a small unit situated on the main street where one could obtain a nice cup of tea and a cake, also within a mile radius there were two small cafes which crew members frequently visited during the day for a tea and a bun.
During off flying periods we as a crew fairly regularly visited the Kings Head Hotel in Louth where we had a meal. Crewmembers also received generous leave, seven days approximately every 6‑8 weeks depending on weather and operation timing. We had extra rations of chocolate, vitamin tablets and cigarettes. On leave from Ludford I always travelled home to Aberdour in Fife, Scotland. It was a long, slow journey, going on leave we usually managed to go by transport from the base then catch a train at Louth to Grantham where we could catch the train on the main line travelling between London and Edinburgh. This was usually an overnight train and usually very packed by other military personnel doing the same. The train usually reached Edinburgh during the night or very early morning then another wait to catch a train to Aberdour. The conditions occurred on the return journey unfortunately the train reached Louth early in the morning when no such transport was
available; it was then a seven mile walk back to base.
Leave was a time to catch up with family and friends and especially to catch up with sleep and to chill out and rest. I said earlier that we did have good rations of sweets, chocolates and cigarettes which I usually was able to take some home.
During the winter 1943/44 we had several days of heavy snow and naturally this added to the mud when it melted, it also meant that to keep operational the runways and perimeter tracks had to be cleared of snow, every available person, air crews and ground crews, armed with spades and shovels turned out to clear the snow. We were treated with the odd drop of rum to keep the cold out and our spirits up, and to keep us digging.
Our billet nissen huts had snowdrifts around them, these Nissen huts were unlined and in bad weather there was considerable condensation inside and this used to run in the corrugations of the sheeting and if the temperature was cold enough, it would freeze. We did have heating in the form of a round pot stove with chimney from top of the stove up through
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the roof. Coal or anthracite was the main fuel, it was of course rationed and in short supply. There were raids between huts to obtain extra supplies. The odd chair went missing along with any spare pieces of wood to help out. If you were lucky and had sufficient supply to completely fill up the stove and get it and part of the chimney extremely hot then it would keep the hut warm until the next morning.
During the summer the problems were different, it was earwigs that would climb up the inside of the huts and occasionally drop into beds. I remember one of our crew members, I can’t remember who, while sleeping an earwig crawled into his ear and he had to pay a visit to the MO to have it removed. Field mice could also cause annoyance.
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NOTES ON VARIOUS OPERATIONS
Operation 3
3rd/4th September 1943
Target: Berlin
We had a reasonably quiet trip keeping clear of the various hot spots on route and staying well on course, searchlights were many on the approach to the target with some very powerful blue lights. As we prepared for our bombing run we got caught by one of these powerful lights and no matter what we did we could not lose it, and if we did a further light caught on to us. We were flying at 22,000 ft; Wally decided the best manoeuvre was to put the aircraft into a power dive and loose [sic] height quickly.
After four minutes we were down to 18,000 ft and still dazzled by its glare just then a Halifax, which was flying at a much lower altitude, drifted across under us and the light caught on to it, then the Halifax completely exploded. It had received the full blast possibly intended for us. These blue searchlights and guns were radar controlled and worked together.
We reached the target and bombed at the lower level then set for home and had a quiet trip back to base. We were a bit shaken up by what had happened to the Halifax and in future made a mental note to keep well clear of blue searchlights. The navigator noted in his log the position of this light so if possible it could be targeted for special attention.
Operation 6 (705 hours)
2nd-3rd October 1943
Target: Munich
Takeoff time for the operation was 18:45 hours. For us as a crew this was a quiet trip, we had no problems with enemy fighters, searchlights were few and by keeping strictly on course found no problems with ack-ack. We reached the target on time, bombed and started on our way home still without any troubles, then as we thought we were doing well without warning we were shot up by anti aircraft guns near the town of Amiens which caught the underside of the body of the aircraft and along the wings. From this we developed a fuel leak. In trying to evade further damage from the anti aircraft guns Wally put the aircraft into a power dive at around 21,000 ft, trying to pull it out took Wally and myself great strength pulling on the control column, we were down to 5,000 ft when we finally levelled out. On inspecting the aircraft at Tangmere we found that many of the rivets on the lower side of the wings had been stripped open owing to the strain on the wings caused by the speed in diving, and counted over 80 holes of various sizes along the body and wings however after refuelling the following day we decided the aircraft was airworthy and safe enough to fly back to base where we could have repairs carried out quickly. Mac was not amused when he saw the Lanc X not X² but was pleased that we had brought it back safely for his team to repair it.
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Operation 8
19th/20th October
Target: Berlin
During the week previously I had been told that more new Lancasters would be arriving at base and the one with X² as its recognition number would be allocated to our crew and from then on for our use on operations. Up until that date we operated on whichever aircraft was available. Mac, a ground engineer (Sergeant) had arrived on the station in July, until now he was a spare engineer, X² became his charge for all servicing and repairs. We struck up a great relationship between us and after each operation, as soon as possible I would contact Mac and tell him of any problems which we had experienced during the flight. I was thrilled to think I would be the only person operating these engines and I could nurse then [sic] whenever possible and be reasonably sure that they had not been misused for no good reason. Mac had warned me that because of the lack of time, the aircraft had been checked and was serviceable, however, he and his team had not yet had the time to check all electrical and hydraulic circuits.
Takeoff was 17:30 hours and all went well until I retracted the undercarriage, it appeared to lift ok but the warning lights indicated that it had not fully locked. We proceeded to circle and climb and as we reached the Dutch coastline Nobby, our wireless operator, was having problems with his equipment, I then had a temperature gauge on one of the engines reading an excessively high temperature. The engine appeared to be working satisfactorily, however, we were still only a short time into our operation. I was concerned what may continue to happen and without radio contact we could have a problem.
We still had a full bomb load on board and high levels of fuel, under these conditions we could not return to base and land without losing our bombs. Wally was in agreement with Jimmy our navigator, they decided that they would set course for Texel and drop our bombs on the installation there. This we did then returned to base. As we had no contact with ground control we landed without permission.
On return before landing, however, we dropped our undercarriage and as the lights were not showing we did do a shallow dive with a quick pull up, this jerked the undercarriage down and all was well. The problems were resolved, the pressure gauge was faulty, meaning the undercarriage was not fully engaging because of limited pressure on the hydraulics.
Operation 10
11th/12th November 1943
Target: Modane
Normally as we have said previously operations were usually carried out during the nights when there was no moon. This was full moon; a beautiful bright night with clear skies which meant that aircraft flying could be seen for great distances. We had no trouble in reaching the target with little or no opposition from enemy fighters, searchlights or flak. Even on the way home it was trouble free and we could see and watch the marvellous sights of the high mountains as we passed over them and then without notice flying over Amiens a blue searchlight ‘coned’ us, immediately followed by heavy and accurate ack-ack fire which burst very close to us, causing some damage to the underside of the aircraft and to one of the fuel tanks, luckily no crew member was injured.
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This was not a great problem it only meant isolating the tank involved, eventually causing a fuel shortage. I said we would not have sufficient fuel to reach base, so Jimmy (our navigator) gave Wally a course for Tangmere in South England where we landed. On checking we found that the aircraft was not too badly damaged around 50 holes of various sizes along the underside of the fuselage and two holes in the side and front window where a piece of shrapnel entered in and out again, as well as cutting a hole in the sleeve of my flying jacket. This I did not know until I was removing my jacket.
The following morning we refuelled and returned to base.
Operation 14 (Black Thursday)
16th-17th December 1943
Target: Berlin
This was supposed to be a very quiet trip as reported at briefing in the late afternoon. The weather was so bad over Europe that no fighters would be able to fly therefore the route would be straight to the capital Berlin, and straight back out – should be a very easy journey, unfortunately things did not turn out this way.
As we crossed over the Dutch coast the weather took a dramatic change and instead of cloud and thick fog, conditions were good for flying and the fighters which were supposed to be sitting on the ground were flying on strength and interrupting the bomber stream, and we noted a few running battles and a number of aircraft being shot down. Within a short time it was clear that this was going to be a night to remember. The attacks continued all the way to the target, fortunately we remained clear of any trouble except for seeing the odd fighter going in the opposite direction.
There was the usual heavy concentration of searchlights and heavy activity of ack ack over the target creating a heavy barrage. We bombed on target and set on our route for home, this proved uneventful for us although we did see a few fighter battles being continued.
The weather by this time was beginning to close in with much more low cloud as a result Wally decided to carry out a gentle decent, reaching the coastline at around 2,000 ft and by this time we knew that there would be trouble with low cloud and fog. We were alerted by base that Ludford was fog-bound and that we should proceed to Driffield, this was when it became very difficult. By now all the crewmembers were active in trying to find any ground markers all with little success, Eric who was still in his front position shouted “pull up Wally – I’ve just seen a barrage balloon”. Jimmy quietly informed us we must be over Hull, I’ll use this as a reference check.
By now we had been in the air for 7 1/2 hours and from my calculations our fuel was becoming in short supply. Nobby (wireless operator): “I’m picking up a signal” RT messages from Dishforth and Catfoss but they could see no lights through the fog.
Then Catfoss offered to put a light on for us, they, however, realised that we were very low and put the beam aimed parallel to the ground.
Presumably, because of the light what Wally and I saw was a farmhouse and buildings, we both acted simultaneously, Wally pulled the control unit full back, I slammed the throttle fully open, luckily I had been flying with the engine booster pumps on so there was no delay in the engines producing full power. As the power emerged we somehow managed to lift the aircraft over the buildings we must have been only feet away from the ground because as the
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aircraft pulled up the tail wheel clipped the farm entrance gate, I think that it must be true to say that the beam of light from Catfoss saved our lives.
Wally: “How much fuel have we left?” My reply, ”Very little, what should we do?” Jimmy: “Take course for base and try to land there”. We decided to return to base and as luck would have it Eric caught a brief glimpse of something he recognised followed by a few sodium lights of the outer ring lights and as we circled round Wally said “I think I will go round again as I will then have a better chance of landing”. “No” I said, “we do not have the fuel for that”. So with some quick manoeuvring he managed to bring the aircraft back on course. Unfortunately, as I have said previously there are so many airfields in Lincolnshire that the outer perimeter lights cross over each other and this is what happened to us because we were flying so low we managed to pick up the occasional light expecting it still to be the lights for Ludford. Unfortunately we had crossed over and unbeknown to us were travelling on the lights for Wickenby. On having a glimpse of the runway lights Wally turned in and asked for permission to land thinking it was Ludford, Ludford control said yes but we can’t see you. We landed safely part way down the runway the fog was still very thick. Wally to control: “We have landed but fog too thick to see”. Control: “You have not landed where are you?”. Wally and I looked at each other “Wally we have haven’t we?” Then a further voice came on, this is control Wickenby we think you have landed here “who are you?” Wally told them and asked them to give directions. Leave the aircraft where it is, we think it is still on the runway, we will send transport to collect you when we find you. After 20 minutes a crew bus collected us and eventually dropped us off at the mess where we had a meal and it was Wickenby.
Wickenby was a wartime base similar to Ludford and with similar living accommodation. We were given a nissen hut where we had a cold bed. As we were extremely tired after our ordeal we had a good sleep.
We woke up to a much better day and there on the runway was Lancaster X² just where we abandoned it. I arranged for fuel and a starter trolley to be delivered, prior to refuelling Wally and I started the engines, carried out the pre-flying checks.
The engines fired up and ran for 2 to 3 minutes then began spluttering and then stopped. We had run out of fuel, the decision not to go round again was the correct decision.
Mac our ground engineer and his staff were there to meet us on our return and gave hand signals in order to park up on our parking point. Mac said: “where have you been” and gave me a big hug. “I think I heard the old girl last night and we came running out hoping to see her, I’m sure it was her she has a noise all of her own, a sweeter, quieter noise”. However, when we checked the time we thought that we must have been mistaken because we were sure that she did not have the fuel to last that time. Then we heard that a Lancaster had crashed on the rising ground hear [sic] Louth so we then went to bed – none of our aircraft landed last night, apparently they are scattered across the east side of England as they are from all the other bases round about.
“Is she ok?” Mac asked. “Yes” I say. “You might however check over the engine booster pumps as they were used a lot last night”. Mac: “What’s happened to the cowlings around the tail wheel?” Me: “Oh, give the tail wheel mounting a good inspection Mac”. Mac “Why, what happened, surely Wally didn’t do this on landing, he usually lands on the main wheel first”. Me “No, we hit a gate”. Mac “You what? You hit a gate, why didn’t you open it first!” Mac: “Yes, will check her over and make her ready for tonight if required”. Fortunately the fog again returned with poor visibility, it was 4 days before we flew again and then the operation was Frankfurt.
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We found out later that out of the 483 Lancasters that flew that night 25 were lost over Europe from a combination of attack from night fighters, flak and collisions. Another 29 Lancasters from crashes, which occurred due to the thick fog conditions experienced around the airfield on returning home and trying to land.
Mac also confessed that he and his engineers were completely fed up with the time they had spent working on the carburetting on the engines, ensuring that the fuel taken up by the engines was the least possible and me insisting that they check the volume over and over again until no more could be done.
He now agreed that all the effort made now paid off as if not there was no way that she could have kept flying for that period of time (8 hours 30 minutes) and he said thank you.
Each aircraft carried seven crewmembers, 101 Squadron aircraft carried eight crewmembers. On the attached page there is a paragraph which Len Brooks, our rear gunner told his recollection of the night’s events due to the fog.
Considering the events of that night in a rational way it is difficult to believe what happened could have happened with a satisfactory ending.
We had travelled across Europe direct to Berlin and back escaping enemy fighters, flash lights and enemy ack ack fire without mishaps, only to arrive back in Lincolnshire to find all the eastern side of the UK that the cloud base had almost reached ground level. Base diverted us to Driffield and we found ourselves over Hull and among barrage balloons. We were flying low to try to find some marker which we could relate to such as outer ring lighting or runway lighting, as there were a number of airfields in that area.
Nobby our wireless operator said I’m picking up RT messages from Driffield, Dishforth and Catfoss but they could not see us because of the fog. Catfoss offered to put a light up for us realising we were so low, their beam was almost parallel to the ground. How was it that the beam came on at that precise moment? How was it that we acted so quickly with the control column and obtained such a quick response from the engines? The aircraft must have climbed at 40‑45% because as the power took over the tail wheel caught the gate leading into the farmhouse, meaning that the aircraft was at most four feet from ground (travelling at 150 miles per hour), this meant covering the ground at 88 ft per second. The time we had to clear the farmhouse and building was less than one second, how could that happen?
We know what Len Brooks said, he felt the power from the engines and looked down and saw the chickens in the farmyard scampering away from their coupes denoting that the aircraft had climbed exceptionally quickly. How did the aircraft pull itself up and over a two storey building in such a short distance? What would the consequences of been had the aircraft not made it? How many people were in the house; farmer’s wife and family? How many children? In fact what was their experience of it, did they sleep through it or were they very scared? We don’t know. How many animals were in the steading, was there a milking herd of 20 to 30 cows? The destruction could have been tremendous, as it was no one was injured as far as we know.
We gained some height; Jimmy gave Wally a course back to base. Why was it just at that precise moment that the fog thinned to allow Eric to recognise an object followed by the sodium lights of the base outer circle? Wally saying that he thought he should go round again, I say no we haven’t the fuel, Wally doing an unconventional manoeuvre to bring the aircraft back on course and immediately picking out further lights of the outer ring. However, by this time we had left Ludford outer ring and crossed over onto Wickenby outer ring. We kept on circling round very low to keep lights in sight and luckily spotted the runway lights
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and landing part way along the runway thinking we had landed at base surprised to find it was Wickenby we had landed at, then being told to abandon the plane where it was on the runway. Had we been directed to taxi off the runway and round the perimeter track to a conventional parking area I think the engines would have cut out on the way giving all the crew a complete shock. As it was it was only myself and Wally who realised the seriousness of the situation when we started the engines the following morning.
As I said earlier this was supposed to be a very uneventful operation, in and out of Europe. The average trip to Berlin was around 7 1/2 hours flying time, fuel 1,750 gallons, this I consider could have been estimated at around 7 hours maximum flying time, 1,700 gallons.
I realise that I was always considered better at conserving fuel than most engineers however, how did our aircraft manage to stay airborne for 8 1/2 hours and give out as soon as we touched down. This turned out to be a very exciting but frightening night, how was it that we managed to avoid the various objects we encountered and still managed to bring X² back safely. This was an episode that as a crew we never talked about.
Operation 16
24th/25th December
Target: Berlin
Takeoff time if I remember correctly was early evening in order that we should reach the target before midnight. On board each aircraft was a mix of various bombs, high explosive, incendiaries and delayed timed bombs triggered to explode on Christmas Day.
It was an uneventful night for us, keeping our place on route, seeing some ack-ack activity
aimed at those aircraft, which strayed off route and seeing the occasional night fighter gun tracers streak across the dark sky.
We reached the target on time and Eric was preparing for his bombing run when I noticed that the oil temperature gauge on the outer starboard engine was reading very high. I had to decide the best action, normally on the bombing run I would be on lookout watching for other aircraft approaching us from above or below us and was all the other spare members of crew, it was critical to have maximum look out because of the concentration of aircraft all making for the same point. Many collisions occurred in these situations; damage could also take place by aircraft flying above by dropping their bombs without watching what was below.
I said “Wally, feathering starboard outer”. Wally to Eric: “Cancel bombing run, engine feathered, have adjusted revs on other engine”. Jimmy: “Wally take course so-and-so and go round again”. This was a very difficult and dangerous decision to take as our aircraft would be on an entirely different direction from all other aircraft and exposed to enemy fighters.
We as a crew had previously discussed what we should do in the event of something like this happening, the conclusion was that after flying all this way to the target our first priority was to put our bombs on the target, so any distraction must be remedied first before the bombing run was made. Hitting the target was the only reason for being there. Eric carried out his bombing and the result was that the bombs scored a direct hit, this was confirmed from a self-operating camera situated in the bomb bay and rolled when the bomb doors were opened.
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Afterwards we set off on our return run on three engines but because of limited power instead of holding our 20,000 ft altitude Wally and I decided to make a gradual descent, passing over the enemy coast at 5,000 ft and making our way direct to base on the instruction given by Jimmy our navigator.
The engine proved to be suffering from a faulty gauge, this, however, we had no way of knowing and had it been an engine seize up and possibly resulted in an engine fire, we could have been in serious problems being an easy target for enemy fighters. Wally made a very professional landing on three engines, of course he always did make a good landing in the dark, it was during daylight that he always had a few Kangaroo jumps before rolling along the runway.
Operation 19
2nd/3rd January 1944
Target: Berlin
I would expect that everyone would experience fear on a number of times during their lifetime being frightened is nothing to be ashamed of. Fear can be brought on instantly by such things as an explosion, a fire or such like, then fear can turn to panic. Controlled fear can be felt when one expects that they are likely to die, on the motorway getting caught up in an accident when cars are travelling at speed.
Our crew experienced such emotions once when on operations over Berlin when our Lancaster was hit by ack-ack fire, which exploded very close to us and caused severe damage to the fuselage from shrapnel, also causing loss of all communication. After checking all engines and fuel supplies, and assessing for any further damage I realised that Bill’s (our mid-upper gunner) turret was stationary with no signs of movement from him. I knew that something must be wrong so I touched Wally gave the thumbs up and pointed towards the rear. I collected a portable oxygen bottle and on the way through the aircraft I touched Nobby on the arm and signalled him to follow me. True enough Bill was not in his turret, with the light from my torch we found him trying to open the fuselage rear door and in his panic he had no parachute with him. He seemed very strong and determined to leave the aircraft. The only way to prevent this happening was to hit him with the oxygen bottle. We were able to man handle him back to the rest bed. When giving him the oxygen bottle he began sucking
it like a baby, we made him comfortable with a blanket then returned to our positions.
This episode had taken over 30 minutes at probably the most dangerous period of any operation over the target with lights being shone from the torch and loss of lookout crewmembers (mid-gunner and myself). Luckily the aircraft was not too badly damaged between 40 to 50 holes along the fuselage.
In early January Bill reported sick, which meant that we required a mid upper gunner, Dave who had lost his crew was looking to join a new crew, so he joined our crew and flew with us until we completed our tour of operations.
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Operation 28
25th-26th February 1944
Target: Augsburg
I have little recognition of what happened on this trip, it however was of great importance because this was the first time on any operation that Lancasters had been fitted with 2 x 0.5 guns in the rear turret instead of the 4 x 0.303 guns. Furthermore it was only 101 Squadron who had them.
These turrets were made by a small local company from Gainsborough and designed in conjunction with 101 Squadron’s technicians; this gave the Lancaster a much greater firepower.
At briefing it was announced that six aircraft, which included our X², were fitted with 0.5 guns and that crews should take the initiative and attack fighters rather than take evasive action.
All I remember of what must have been relatively quiet was that the 101 Lancasters that were carrying the new turrets and firing at the fighters, it was the fighters that were taking evasive action and as the fighters were unaware that only a few aircraft were fitted with these much more effective guns. Over the next few operations there was much less fighter activity which was much less effective.
On a number of operations as well as dropping window we also dropped leaflets, the leaflets were typed in German and gave information as to how the war was progressing (propaganda information).
All operations were usually carried out at twenty thousand feet plus for Lancasters, other types of aircraft would bomb at slightly lower heights because of the thin air at above 10,000 ft. Oxygen had to be taken through masks and also because of the altitude temperatures could drop to as low as -20o, so much so if you touched any metal part of the fuselage with your bare hand it could stick to the metal and because of condensation one had to free the ice from your mask frequently.
Operation 29
1st-2nd March 1944
Target: Stuttgart (8 hours 10 minutes)
During the 1930s and 40s the winters could be very severe with long periods of frost and snow. March 1944 commenced with heavy and prolonged snowfall resulting in Ludford runway being covered in over 8 ft of snow which had to be cleared before flying could continue. At that time there was no heavy snow clearing equipment available, only the normal tractors that were on site, therefore to move the snow every person on the station not on duty was put on snow clearing. The aircraft standing points were cleared first so that ground crews could operate then the task of clearing the main runway commenced spades and shovels were the tools of the day. Generally I think everyone enjoyed it with plenty of high jinks and laughing, many snowmen being made along the runway edges.
Operations were ordered for that night 1st March therefore the runway had to be ready for takeoff by 16:00 hours. It was crucial that 101 Squadron was available because we were the only Squadron operating CIGAR a jamming device which prevented German radar from
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contacting their fighters to give them instructions. Bomber Command refused to fly without 101 Squadron’s aircraft.
It was determined that the runway would not be fully cleared, however, if four hundred yards were ready aircraft could take off with a light fuel load, fly to the neighbouring airfield Wickenby, fully fuel and bomb up there.
Briefing took place mid afternoon; flying was laid on for 16:00 hours. We were the first plane off without trouble, a further two followed, the fourth didn’t make it on the cleared runway part, ploughed into the snow and skidded off the runway closing it. This meant that four of 101 Squadron’s aircraft carrying CIGAR were available. On the operation the aircraft were spread out along the route covering the period of the raid. (ie approximately five minutes apart)
Our aircraft was fuelled and bombed-up at Wickenby and took off among the planes from Wickenby. The operation as far as we were concerned was quiet, with few fighters, no troubles. We bombed on time and returned for home crossing the Dutch coast at around 10,000 ft, then continued to base Wickenby, then de-briefed, had breakfast and then to bed. We stayed at Wickenby for two more days before we could return to Ludford.
On our return our Squadron Commander told us that we had completed our tour of operations and since the squadron moved to Ludford we were the only crew that had achieved that, so he didn’t want to test our luck any further.
The following two days were spent testing the new rear turret with the 2 x .5 guns under various flying conditions, including high level flying at 25,000+ ft and it proved to be equally good under all conditions.
Five days later we all went on leave, this was the break up of the crew after which none of us met again, during the war that’s how things happened.
Before going on leave I went to see Mac to tell him the situation. “Can’t you stay?” he asked “where are you being posted to?”. “I think I may be posted to Lindholme as an instructor”. “Why can’t you stay here then and instruct here? I will miss you, you’ve taught me more about carburettors and how they work. I know I told you you were a pain in the neck to my chaps, you demanding that they check and monitor the engines performance to obtain maximum fuel savings. I will continue to carry out your instructions and to see if I can help save other crew’s lives as we have just recently experienced on X²”.
“If you do a further operation tour, come back here and I will try to look after your aircraft again for you, all the best, good flying”.
Operation Highlights
I have highlighted only a few of our more exciting operations, many of which have been written about and described by other aircrew presumably because these were the operations which for some reason caught the headlines and probably they were the crew members which survived.
It must be remembered, however, that every operation had its dangers. The fact that the aircraft flew over enemy territory was a dangerous place to be, with it being usually in darkness and with anywhere up to 600 aircraft plus on many occasions, all making for the
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same target within a time limit of between 30 to 60 minutes alone had its dangers and problems.
When I say that we had a quiet trip this usually meant that our crew had no major problems and every member carried out his duties as an individual and as a team member. This did not mean that minor problems did not occur such as the rear turret freezing up causing problems for Len (rear gunner) from severe cold and lack of visibility or wireless operator loosing [sic] contact with base or even Wally and myself with ice forming on the wing edges from travelling through cloud. On one occasion the whole crew suffering because of being caught up in a thunderstorm, the aircraft being thrown about like a toy, falling immediately to 1,000 ft and back up again, something that no one had any control over.
Cold was a further concern; the temperature could fall as low as -20 to 30oC below zero. The metal of the aircraft if you touched it with your bare hand, the skin could stick to it therefore gloves had always to be worn. There was warm air circulated throughout the aircraft this was controlled from a duct situated near to the wireless operator’s station and at times should he become very warm would turn it down.
Oxygen masks were also worn as above ten thousand feet oxygen was necessary and it was a continual task to have to remove the ice from your mask, as it built up due to the moisture created from breathing. As you can imagine the gunner being isolated from the main cabin area suffered even more.
The enemy could also cause a few problems on route. Fighters had an advantage over the heavier, slower bombers and the fact that bombers had four engines creating a fair amount of exhaust flame and light made it easy for the fighters to see us. Generally if a fighter was spotted by the gunners in time it was safest to take evasive action.
The action would come say from the rear gunner ‘fighter 3 o’clock approaching’ following ‘dive, dive to port’. The skipper would immediately throw the aircraft into a dive and do a corkscrew manoeuvre, regaining back on his normal course. This generally worked; it was the fighter which was not spotted by the lookouts which caused the problem as they would normally attack from below the rear of the aircraft strafing the fuselage with bullets.
Search lights. The normal searchlight could be a problem for aircraft at lower levels and were situated around most towns, cities and industrial sites, however, there was another much more dangerous blue searchlight, much brighter which could penetrate to much higher altitudes and operated in conjunction with anti aircraft guns. Being caught by one of these was an unfortunate experience and usually resulted in severe damage or the loss of the aircraft. We on one occasion suffered this experience, the blue light locked on to us and no matter whatever we did it was impossible, after about three minutes Wally decided to put the aircraft into a controlled dive to loose [sic] height, as we did so a Halifax aircraft which was operating at a much lower height came across our track. The anti aircraft guns operating in conjunction with the searchlight opened up and the Halifax just blew up. We had a lucky escape.
As I said some anti aircraft guns operated in conjunction with searchlights, however, the bulk of them were situated around towns and cities and created a heavy barrack in order to keep the bombers from bombing at low levels, the result could be seen and occasionally heard, and on one occasion over Amiens felt.
Returning from Modane on a bright moonlit night without warning this small unit of guns opened up and a shell exploded very close to us, fortunately not causing any injuries to the crew. Shrapnel caused damage to the fuel lines causing a leak in the pipe and holes appeared
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in the fuselage, and along the wings and side windscreen of the aircraft. We made an emergency landing at Tangmere in South England and on inspection found over 100 various size holes along the length of the fuselage and wings.
The piece of shrapnel that hit the windscreen had entered through the starboard side unbeknown to me had ripped through my flying jacket sleeve and gone out through the front window, again, lady luck was with us.
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Log Book and
Operations Record Book
(Battle Orders)
Every crew member kept a log book showing every date, time and flying details carried out.
I have copied some pages which correspond to copies of the Squadron’s battle orders, referring to operations 14, 15, 16 and 17 as detailed in my log book.
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[page from authors logbook]
[underlined] TOTAL FLYING HOURS NOVEMBER 101 SDN [/underlined]
[underlined] DAY [/underlined] 3 hrs 30 mins
[underlined] NIGHT [/underlined] 39 hrs 45 mins
[underlined] TOTAL 43 hrs 15 mins [/underlined]
DECEMBER
16 – Lanc III X2 – WO EVANS – FE – 14 OPS – [underlined] BERLIN [/underlined] QUIET TRIP – HEAVY LOSSES – FOG ON RETURN LANDED AT WICKENBY – 8 hrs 30 mins.
20 – Lanc III X2 – WO EVANS – FE– 15 OPS – [underlined] FRANKFURT [/underlined] MANY FIGHTER FLARES AROUND TARGET AREA – 5 hrs 50 mins.
24 – Lanc III X2 – WO EVANS – FE– 16 OPS – [underlined] BERLIN [/underlined] REAR TURRET U/S STRB OUTER FEATHERED – 7 hrs 10 mins.
28 – Lanc III X2 – WO EVANS – FE– 17 OPS – [underlined] BERLIN [/underlined] 6 hrs 40 mins.
[underlined] TOTAL FLYING HOURS [/underlined]
[underlined] DAY [/underlined] 0 hrs 0 mins
[underlined] NIGHT [/underlined] 28 hrs 10 mins
[underlined] TOTAL 28 hrs 10 mins [/underlined]
[underlined] DECEMBER 101 SDN [/underlined]
[signature] OC ‘C’ FLT.
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[indecipherable page]
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[indecipherable page]
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CHAPTER G
CHRISTMAS 1943
I always thought of Christmas as a time for giving and receiving, a time of joy and happiness, a time for families to come and meet and join in the happiness of the event. It was of course a time to remember, to consider ones relationship with family, friends and others and how relationships could be improved. Christmas 1943 was different; it was a time of anxiety and many other emotions, anxiety not only for the crewmembers but more so for the folks at home.
Before joining the RAF we lived in a small village where everyone knew each other. There was three of us in the forces, my older sister Jean, my brother Sandy and myself, living at home with my mother our two younger sisters Betty and Mary. So quite often my mother would be stopped in the street and asked how one of us was getting along, furthermore she had received a telegram stating that I had not returned from an operation and that further information would be forwarded when received (one must remember that at that time (1943) telephones were a luxury so the only method of communication was by the Post Office. Christmas 1943 was also the first Christmas that we had not all been at home).
The ground crews also had similar feelings when waiting for their aircraft to return from an operation and then the relief when they saw the aircraft landing and taxiing in.
There was also a period of what today would be known as pressure, then it was just part of the job although some individuals did suffer from depression and for some this ended their flying career. All crew members had to be physically and mentally fit to survive.
It was early morning on Christmas Day 1943, we as a crew had just returned from an operation, the target Berlin. After debriefing we arrived for breakfast at around 6:30 hours, the atmosphere in the dining room was best described as noisy as you would expect from 150 young men aged between 19 and 23 years old, until you really looked around and saw one, two even three empty tables then the atmosphere changed to a more sober one.
Christmas dinner was being served at 13:00 hours, this gave us time for a few hours sleep before arriving back at the mess around 12:50 hours. The meal was good and all seemed in high spirits. We finished eating and were enjoying a cigarette when the duty officer arrived, he slowly walked up to the bar and turned the Toby Jug sitting there towards the wall, this was our first indication that operations may be on, slowly the mess began to empty as the air crew members began to leave.
It was a cold but pleasant afternoon as I hurried along the perimeter road thinking of past Christmases and remembering the simple things, the pink or white sugar mice, an apple and orange possibly a few sweets, we never had many presents, hand knitted socks or gloves, then my thoughts were interrupted by seeing coming towards me a tractor pulling a bomb trolley with a mixed load of bombs on board, and further to my left I could see a fuel bowser topping up a Lancaster. Normally the aircraft were filled with 1,200 to 1,400 gallons of fuel
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sufficient for a five or six hour trip, if the trip was going to be longer then the aircraft were topped up.
On arrival at our Lancaster X² Mac, our ground engineer, was there standing in front looking at the aircraft, I said ‘”what are you doing?” Thinking he answered “isn’t she beautiful, I don’t want her to fly tonight. I am the happiest sergeant on the Squadron. Before I arrived at Ludford I had been with 101 Squadron for 18 months and during that time I had lost seven aircraft under my control. Since being here and in charge of X² and you as the flight engineer after five months I still have the same aircraft. Do you know how many operations you have flown in X²?” “No I don’t “, I replied. “Eleven and six of which was to the big city Berlin and we are still going strong.” “Let’s go and carry out ourground checks”, I said.
We had just finished when Wally our pilot arrived. “I thought I would find you here” he said. “I thought we could carry out a test flight and check out the hydraulics on the undercarriage?” “Yes I have fixed them” said Mac. “Let’s go” said Wally, “coming” I said to Mac. He hesitated then said “I haven’t got a parachute”. “Neither have we” I said.
We fired up the engines, taxied out, got the green light from control and were airborne. I then vacated my seat and let Mac have it. As I checked all the fuel and engine gauges etc we climbed to around 300 hundred feet, flew in a south west direction and as we banked to starboard there standing on the ridge was the magnificent building Lincoln Cathedral with the city spread out below it. We were privileged to see it yet also very humbled and it seemed than that what we were doing was right and that this was a ‘just war’ and had to be won. I touched Mac on the shoulder and pointed down. I’m sure he was brushing a tear away.
Ten minutes later we had landed with everything ok including the hydraulics as we closed the rear door of the Lancaster X² we hugged each other and I’m sure we all said a short prayer, at least I did.
[inserted] [Christmas dinner menu RAF Ludford Magna Sergeants Mess 1943 [/inserted]
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Briefing was scheduled for 19:00 hours. All two hundred of us where [sic] there on time and the Group Captain arrived and slipped up onto the platform, the wing commander brought us all to attention. I noticed that the curtains covering the map on the wall stayed closed “I’ll be brief” said the Group Captain, “all flying has been cancelled for tonight because of severe weather conditions over Europe. I also wish to thank you all for the maximum effort and success, which has been put in during the past five months. Good show and good flying from now on. I will let you go to continue your Christmas celebrations, have a good time, good night and god bless”. Mac got his way and X² did not fly on Christmas night.
Briefing was scheduled for 19.00 hours and as I said all flying was cancelled, this only lasted for 15 minutes, after which all the members of the 25 crews that would have flown, along with all the other necessary ground staff support teams necessary to service such an operation (all in 350‑400 young people) were now free to do as they wished, however as by now it was around 19.30 the choice was limited, retire to the mess or the local pubs.
As we the crew were now making our way back from the briefing room, Norman (our wireless operator) announced that he was visiting the pub to see if they had any beer “Are you coming?” “No” I said “I’ll make my way back to the mess”. Bill (our mid upper gunner) said “I’ll join you for a beer”.
The technical section of the squadron was situated on the south side of the main road which ran from west to east through the village from Market Rasen to Louth. The living accommodation and messes were located on the north of the road.
On reaching the main road instead of crossing and carrying on up the lane to the mess for some reason I turned right and continued along the main road, as it was extremely dark walking in the centre of the road as this was the safest place. As I continued I heard music and singing coming from the pub on the right everyone seemed to be happy and enjoying themselves, further on and on the left was the other pub ‘The Black Bull’. I could hear footsteps coming and going, but could not recognise the people, here also was the sounds of people enjoying themselves.
A little further along the road on the left stood the small church, as I approached I could hear the organ music and the congregation singing carols. I remember thinking if I was thinking of attending church I should have dressed. I was in battle dress and should be in uniform, however to return to the billet and change it would make me too late for the service.
I found myself at the church entrance I looked through the entrance hall, I could see a chink of light coming from under the heavy door. I pushed the door open and heard the creaking noise, on entering I stood for a few seconds to allow my eyes to become accustomed to the light, a few members of the congregation hearing the door turned to see who entered, as I moved across to take a place in the pews an elderly gentlemen from the other side came across squeezed me on the shoulder gave me his hymn book “we are on verse three god bless” and returned to his place. The church was fairly full mostly of elderly people man and female with a few children, all were singing and appeared to be enjoying it, the service was not a format which I knew, however I felt good to be involved and somehow very pleased to be there. All those in church appeared to believe in what they were singing and doing and further more believed that all the service people on the base were doing what was right and that they all had their full support that the war was a righteous war and a war that had to be won.
At the end of the service I quickly left the church and made my way back along the main road. I was somehow excited so much so that I remember running all the way and turning
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right until I reached the mess. There were a number of people sitting around having a drink and/or reading. A colleague was reading the picture post magazine which had an article covering 101 Squadron. When I asked him if I could have a look, he said “I’ll keep it for you”. On the centre two pages was a photo of a Lancaster with staff standing around and on the wings etc, inspecting the photo closely I noticed that it was not a 101 Squadron Lancaster as it did not show the special aerials to work ABC. (The programme had been arranged unfortunately while we (our crew) were on leave and a Lancaster from Wickenby had been used).
I checked to see if the rations had come in and found a good selection of cigarettes were available Woodbine, Captain, Players and Gold Flake and there was also some chocolate.
The dining room was closed, on a trestle table at the end was a collection of bread, cheese and butter. I took a few rounds of bread and a chunk of cheese and made my way back to the billet, on arrival I found Wally, Eric, and Jimmy were there and they had a good fire going, making the chimney almost red hot. They were sitting reading and asked “where did you get to?” “Church” I said “you should have said I would have come with you” said Eric, “I didn’t know, I brought some bread and cheese for toast if you want it”. “Thank you” said Wally “have a mug of tea, the teapot will still be hot on the stove”. “I called in at the mess they have cigarettes and chocolate in. Only a letter for Bill which I have brought back. He and Norman were going to the pub. Where is Len (our rear gunner)?” “Oh, he has gone to try to hitch a lift home to Grimsby, remember if opps are on tomorrow give him a ring to let him know so that he can return, I have his telephone number” said Wally. “Do you want something to read?” asked Eric. “No” I said, “I think I will turn in and catch up with some sleep”.
This 1943 Christmas was at least different from all previous ones and part of my life which I will never forget.
The next time we flew was on 30th December and then again the following night on 31st December both operations were to Berlin. Mac continued to service X² and over the next 3 1/2 months we completed a further 13 operations to complete our first tour.
We didn’t always bring the aircraft home in the same condition as we started, however, we always brought it back and Mac and his crew always managed to repair it and have it serviced ready for the next trip.
We completed our tour in late April 1944 and the crew were all split up and we went our separate ways all as instructors. I joined the staff at Lindholme as a flight engineer instructor. In June D‑Day arrived, we were again temporarily called up as reserved in case the invasion went wrong, fortunately all went well. I was later transferred to Bottesford then Cottesmore and ended up at North Luffenham where by now VE Day had arrived in June 1945. We were again crewed up to join the Tiger Force to operate against Japan. Luckily for us VJ Day came much sooner than expected with the use of the hydrogen bomb being used on Japan, which stopped us from being posted to the Far East.
I stayed at North Luffenham until demobbed. Lincoln Cathedral played an important role in our lives as we used to use it as a landmark when returning early in the morning from operations and provided weather conditions were good, when we saw the cathedral we knew we were safely home again. Sadly Lancaster X² only flew two more operations after we finished and was lost over Mailly le Camp, France on the 3rd/4th May 1944.
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CHAPTER H
HEAVY CONVERSION UNITS INSTRUCTOR
LINDHOLME
BOTTESFORD
COTTESMORE
NORTH LUFFENHAM
After Operations
After completing our tour of operations with 101 Squadron in April 1944 the crew went on leave for around ten days and while on leave I received information informing me to report to Lindholme on such a date.
Lindholme was 1656HCU the conversion unit, which I had reported to prior to being crewed up and joining 101 Squadron. Ludford Magna as I had said previously was an airfield specially constructed as a utility base to carry on the war against Germany. All buildings, temporary constructions accommodation nissen huts were situated in small groups situated around the unit site.
Nissen hut accommodation for up to eight persons situated in the wilds half a mile from mess, flight units ablution block 20 yards away with washing and shower facilities, no heating (as you can imagine it was very cold in winter). The accommodation had a stove in the centre of the hut with a chimney, which went up through the roof, used coal or anthracite as fuel and required lighting daily. These huts were extremely hot in summer with regular visitors such as field mice, ants and earwigs. In winter they were extremely cold and damp with condensation running down interior sides and dripping on beds etc.
Lindholme was a peacetime permanent station which had all the niceties available, good roads comfortable, centrally heated one-person accommodation with all mod cons including dining room with waitress service. This to me was the biggest difference between Ludford and Lindholme.
Lindholme then was a conversion unit where pilots and crews had completed their initial training on smaller aircraft then upgraded to the heavy, four engine bombers such as Halifax and Lancaster. Lindholme trained Lancaster crews; it was here where additional crewmembers such as gunners and flight engineers joined in.
Having completed a successful tour of operations my role now was to introduce flight engineers who had completed their year long course, at possibly Blackpool and St Annes’s as up to this time these trainees had only briefly seen the interior of a Lancaster, far less done any flying.
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Unfortunately because of the shortage of Lancaster bombers arriving to the squadron, the conversion units such as Lindholme were still using Halifaxs [sic], this did not cause too much of a problem for the other six members of the crew (except the engineers) as it was a heavy bomber and the handling regarding flying and landing was similar to the Lancaster giving the pilot the experience of flying a large, heavy plane.
The engineer’s role was the same on all heavy bombers so the experience gained was still valid and it still gave him the necessary confidence. The difference being some of the instruments and dials on the Halifax were in different positions to that of a Lancaster. The crews would have a period of familiarisation on reaching the squadron before finally carrying out operations.
Life was so much more comfortable working on a base with all mod cons as expected for the 1940s.
My role along with others was to aid the trainee engineers to familiarise themselves with the aircraft inside and out, and when flying with their new crew, introduce the engineer to his role such as to the large number of switches and dials on the main panel and also the instruments on the engineer’s panel.
One of the main tasks was how to change flying on the various fuel tanks safely, the other how to feather an engine if required without causing any problems, how they as a person fitted in with the other crew members. Therefore while the pilot was under instruction with a pilot instructor mainly on what we called circuits and bumps, which was taking off, flying around and landing again. I would also fly and show the engineer and make sure he was confident and safe in his execution of his duties.
The time varied depending on how quickly the pilot took to prove himself capable and the instructor pilot was satisfied that he could safely fly and land such a plane, this could take anything from a few hours to many hours.
I used the experience, which I had gained over the past year of flying many hours in different conditions to make sure that these young operators had a better chance of completing a successful tour than I had. I tried to emphasise on them the need to be fully committed to their job of making sure they knew their role and capable of carrying out all the safety checks which should be carried out by themselves even although someone has said that they have done so, that they used the engines efficiently and monitored the fuel available as economically as possible. I had prepared a schedule, which if used in conjunction with the gauges and filled in every fifteen minutes in flight or so gave instant information if any problem had or were occurring to the fuel position, when action could be taken.
Lindholme being a permanent station was well equipped and had space available for each crew members to have their own section huts which proved most usual [sic] and I spent a good part of my time being available to talk with these trainee engineers, discussing any problems or whatever.
In any month I spent on average around 50 hours in actual flying time either day or night flying. This was made up of flying with possibly 10 different pilots on 26 to 30 different flights. The flights were generally around the airfield at fairly low altitude, up to two hundred feet carrying out circuits and landings with pilot, instructor and conversion crews. We therefore did not carry parachutes; this also gave the trainee crews a little more confidence to think that we had confidence in them.
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In June 1944 two days after D-Day I attended an instructors course at St Albans, South Wales lasting for four weeks, which proved most instructive, enjoyable and created confidence with ample time for self expression. After that I took the opportunity to attend any other courses, which became available such as a course on jet engines – something for the future, update course on the improved Merlin engines coming into service and a short course on Stromberg carburettors. The RAF at this time was looking to the future and on the levels and quality of staff they were likely to require once the war ended, but with the peace still to be kept for years on. At present most if not all of their engineers and a station or base engineer were all from senior ground staff, so when I was asked if I would wish to embark on such a course (the course was quite complex covering all aspects of engineering ground and in flight) I said I would.
After quite a lot of time on reading (time which I had) I eventually sat the paper and was very happy with the results 89% success, this was of course only part of the paper an oral examination was also required which up until I was released from the RAF I had not taken, however, these showed on my records.
1668 Heavy Conversion Unit,
Bottesford
After leaving 101 Squadron I spent a short period at Lindholme as a Flight Engineer Instructor before moving to Bottesford. Bottesford was another war time base similar to Ludford Magna and from where Lancasters also flew, however, in early 1944 it had become surplus to requirements.
The living accommodation instead of being Nissen huts were constructed of fabricated wooden framed units. Being available it was used as a holding base for American troops waiting for D Day resulting in the accommodation being left in a dreadful state.
During August 1944 1668 Heavy Conversion Unit took the base over and myself and few others were in the advance party. On arrival we found it difficult to find accommodation suitable to live in however, after a few days of hard work managed to make progress with repairs. Among the early arrivals were two air gunners both of whom had completed their tour of operations. Jock on Wellingtons and Jack on Lancasters. The three of us became really good friends for all the time we were on the base. In fact, Jack is still a good friend, he now lives in North Cirney Nr Cirencester and we have a card from him each Christmas.
The base was situated midway between Newark and Grantham on the left, half a mile off the main A1 road, walking or cycling were the only methods of transport for getting around the base or for travelling further afield.
We had been at Bottesford for just over a week when this night the three of us decided to have a ride around, on reaching the main road instead of turning left for Long Bennington and Newark we turned right towards Grantham. After cycling along the A1 road for about three miles we came across a signpost, which read Marston and Dry Doddington so we decided to go left and see where the lane would take us. After a mile we came upon a nice looking pub on the corner of the crossroads called the Thorold Arms where we decided to call and have a beer this being Friday evening. The pub was open, furthermore this was the first time that I had entered a pub since I joined 101 Squadron, as I had promised myself that so long as I was flying on operations I would not have a drink.
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Training at Bottesford got under way relatively soon and by early September crews for conversion to Lancasters were arriving in number. The routine was very similar to that at Lindholme.
Crews arrived without any experience of the Lancaster and it was our role as instructors to train the flight engineers to a standard where he was competent and safe to act on his own, and to pass on my experience which would make him feel more confident, while other staff members were doing the same for the pilots and the other members of the crew.
Bottesford as I said previously was a base built around 1942 to a standard sufficient to allow Bomber Command to carry the war to the enemy, where heavy bombers such as the Lancaster could operate from. Carrying a bomb load to most destinations necessary and to cause severe damage to their war effort.
From the staff viewpoint it was a complete change from the comfort offered by a peacetime base with all the mod cons, even including waitress service in the dining halls.
Bottesford was however a very happy unit where, so long as the training and flying was carried out on time to a very high standard, all was well.
It was becoming clear that with D Day over with the Allied Troops now moving across Europe as expected and on course, that victory in Europe was only a matter of time with the need for heavy bomber operations becoming limited. This meant that the training for crews could be relaxed and extended, therefore to ensure the trainee flight engineers interest and enthusiasm was kept alive. Two other instructors and myself introduced a short course on engine maintenance, this course lasted three weeks, the purpose of which was to strip down an engine completely, then reassemble it so that it would fire up and run. We had available to us a Lancaster, which had recently run off the runway on landing and was declared not airworthy. The four Merlin engines were still in good condition; this meant that with four engines and four trainees working on each we could entertain sixteen students.
The course proved a great success and it was felt that all those involved had afterwards a better understanding of the engines, which could possibly save their lives in the future.
As the weeks passed three of us, Jock, Jack and myself, had more free time and when on an evening we decided to leave camp we usually ended up at the Thorold Arms. By now we knew many of the locals as well as the family and were being brought into the evening events, such as playing darts. There were a number of really good dart players and eventually we, along with Sylvia, also became an excellent partnership.
Five months on. Christmas 1944 was a completely different Christmas to that of 1943, by now Sylvia and myself were seeing quite a lot of each other and I was still on duty over Christmas, I was asked to spend Christmas day with the family, we had a lovely time. A few days later I was on leave and travelled north to spend New Year with my family in Aberdour.
Our friendship blossomed and we were spending more and more time together and with Sylvia’s family and friends. Sylvia had a brother and three sisters; Roy was the oldest followed by Eileen then Sylvia, with Gert and Brenda the two younger sisters. Roy was also in the RAF on air-sea rescue and spent most of his time overseas.
Eileen was on munitions working in Grantham; Sylvia also worked in Grantham in ladies hosiery. Gert worked in a bakery with Brenda still at school.
In the evenings when the pub was open Sylvia helped serve in the bar with her father and mother Gert usually at weekends. During early 1945 flying at the base continued smoothly
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and generally without incident. We had one scary incident during night flying practise, an enemy light bomber managed to evade the radar controls and came in along the runway following one of the Lancasters and dropped cluster bombs along the length of the runway. This did cause some excitement as these bombs could explode from the vibration of the landing aircraft. Fortunately the runway was cleared without any injuries.
The other excitement was when one of the Lancasters, which we had just received from squadron required an air test to check its airworthiness before being put to use as a training aircraft. One of the staff pilots and myself as engineer was asked to carry out the test which we did, doing all the usual flying and checking the various instruments and controls. We decided to put it in a downward power dive, at first all was fine and the controls responded perfectly then it happened the port outer propeller began speeding up. No matter what we tried it continued to increase then it disappeared, the two on the inner engines seemed all right, the propeller in the starboard reached well above the normal speed but stayed in place. We quickly reduced our speed and dive, and made a quick return to base and landed on two engines, the aircraft did not pass its airworthy test. We found out later that it was a fault with the balance plates on the, then, new four paddle bladed propellers.
I, by now, had spent eight months as an instructor resting from the pressures of flying on operations and I knew that in the near future it may be necessary to do a further thirty operations, either across Europe or possibly against Japan. A few of us were thinking along the same lines and discussing the possibilities with others of forming crews.
There were two staff pilots on the base who were seriously thinking to the future, with whom I would have been happy to fly with and to this end we took every opportunity of carrying out test flights and then engaging in some low flying, which we expected would be necessary for the future especially if the enemy were the Japanese.
I increased my link training and spent considerable amounts of time keeping fit and up-to-date on all aspects of flying which could be beneficial to our survival. There was suggestion floating around that a new Tiger Force was being formed, which was likely to operate against Japan.
The river Trent gave an excellent corridor to practise low flying as there was at that time no obstacles such as power lines, telephone lines or high buildings to restrict flying. The river banks were relatively high with a river width in excess of 130 ft where the Lancaster wingspan was 101 ft and could easily be tucked in below the level of the banks, great flying, great excitement and very satisfying.
The war in Europe was progressing well, the need for heavy bombers was becoming less and with now limited targets. In mid April a few of us were informed that it was almost 12 months since we last flew on operations and it would now be necessary to do a further tour, more information would be available shortly.
On 8th May 1945 the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, announced the termination of the war in Europe to the whole country and his speech was broadcast over the station Tannoy system at 3pm. The afternoon was then devoted to sports activities and there were parties in all messes during the evening.
I was not on base, this was the date selected on which I was to be presented with my DFM at Buckingham Palace by King George VI. My mum and Aunty Kate travelled down from Edinburgh on the overnight train in the early hours of the morning; I joined the train at Grantham. As usual it was standing room only so I met up with my mum and Aunty on the platform at Kings Cross station. If I remember correctly the investitures commenced at
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11am so we had time for breakfast then made our way to the palace. There were many RAF personnel there as well as family members to watch the ceremony and see their relatives presented with their medals. We were all greeted on arrival and then informed of the procedure.
The King seemed very thin and poorly, dressed in an Admiral’s Naval uniform. After shaking hands with him and him pinning the medal on my uniform he asked me which squadron I flew with. I told him 101 Squadron, he replied “One of the elite I believe, good flying”.
We were out of the palace by 1:30pm, by this time the news that the war in Europe was over was known and London was beginning to fill up with people. Everyone was in party mood, singing and dancing or just walking around. London had been under blackout conditions since the start of the war in September 1939. Today things were different all the dark days were over; the people of London were showing their joy. Every light possible, which could be lit, was lit and the streets looked most inviting, it was an amazing sight. My mother and Aunt Kate were booked to stay the night in London so I saw them to their hotel then I made my way back through the crowds to Kings Cross and caught the train back to Grantham. What a day to be in London, VE Day the 8th May 1945 celebrating the end of the war in Europe. There was a real sense of relief and everyone was there to have a good time and to party.
The train was again packed, mainly with service personnel making their way home on leave. I arrived at Grantham around 5pm and from the station phoned the Thorold Arms expecting to speak to Sylvia. She and Eileen had gone to the church service and not yet returned so it was Sylvia’s dad that answered, he said he would tell Sylvia on their return that I had arrived in Grantham. It was agreed that Sylvia would come and meet me cycling on one bicycle and pushing the second for me to ride back to Marston, however, on her travelling along the A1 road towards Grantham she met a person she knew cycling from Grantham. She stopped and asked him if he had seen an airman walking and he said no. Previously to this an RAF vehicle had passed Sylvia with RAF personnel on board, thinking that I had thumbed a lift and that I would be dropped off at the road end leading to Marston she decided to turn back. As I was not waiting at the road end she then thought that I must have decided to go back to Bottesford, collect my own bicycle and return to Marston later.
Sometime later Gert happened to look out of the window at the Thorold Arms and shouted to Sylvia “Jock is coming down the road”. Sylvia, thinking she was having her on didn’t believe her until she herself looked out the window. My other pals Jock and Jack had already arrived and all including the locals were having a great time. As the evening progressed and the drink continued to flow a game started where the aim was to collect as many possible pieces of other peoples [sic] ties by cutting off the ends, this was all taken in good fun until one person who had just been given a new tie for his birthday, that day, by his wife and she was not amused at seeing it being cut to pieces.
The end of the war in Europe sealed the fate of most of the war time built heavy bomber bases, they had completed their usefulness for which they were built, that in giving Bomber Command the opportunity required to take the war to the enemy, which they had accomplished very successfully.
Food on the stations was very good with a real selection most of the time. Sundays was the time when the menu suffered as most of the catering staff had time off and tea was usually laid out to help yourself, mostly cheese, bread and butter, and possibly a few cakes. This possibly was the reason why on Mondays the sweet was often bread and butter pudding, something I didn’t like then and even now when on a menu I still shy away from.
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This was the time that Petula Clarke was often on the radio, in fact every lunch time she recorded a song especially for RAF Conversion Unit 1668.
Bottesford was no exception for within six weeks the complete Conversion Unit was closed down and I, along with others, moved to new surroundings to the peacetime base of Cottesmore where all the staff enjoyed the luxuries of a permanent built unit. Working conditions within the base were very relaxed, with all enjoying a five day week when most weekends were free unless on duty. Flying hours, however, as far as I was concerned still reached between 33 to 44 hours each month.
During June onwards, now that the war was over in Europe, it was still most important that the peoples of Europe, friends as well as enemy, that Britain controlled the airspace and continued to show this by having continued aircraft flying in the skies around.
Certain trips were carried out in order to show ground staff, who had carried out such an excellent job in sometimes terrible conditions to keep the bases and aircraft serviceable along the last five years the opportunity to see for themselves what conditions across Europe looked like now. These trips were given various names: the Ruhr Express, Cooks Tour, Happy Valley Express, each lasted five to six hours flying time where up to 12 to 15 personnel were on board plus the crew of four.
I, as Flight Engineer, was on a good number of such trips. They were enjoyed by most and showed the devastation which had occurred to many of the towns and cities across Europe, in vast areas which had received attention from bombing by the RAF followed by the destruction caused by the Armies fighting their way to Berlin since D Day.
The destruction was terrible with many large areas just a pile of rubble or shells of buildings still standing. The thing which impressed me most was the number of churches and round towers such as commercial chimneys which still stood.
Such a trip would cover from a base to Ijmunden, Amsterdam, Arnhem, Nijmegen, Wesell Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf then back to base. Or base to Cologne, Bonn, Aachem Rotterdam then home.
Cottesmore
Cottesmore was situated between Grantham and Stamford, four miles west of the A1 road near the village of Ashwell and six miles north west of Oakham, so our move was only a few minutes flying time. There was much movement between stations, which gave the opportunity of visiting different locations which we heard about but not visited, such as Drem in East Lothian, Ternhill and Shawbury in Shropshire, and many others which helped to make life more enjoyable.
Being stationed close to Stamford and the main road north it wasn’t difficult to hitch a ride or at worst catch a bus or train to Grantham.
Our stay at Cottesmore was fairly short lived; we then moved on to North Luffenham another of the pre war built stations with all the usual mod cons. North Luffenham is situated south west of Stamford, one mile off the A6121 road. Before leaving Cottesmore I had confirmation that we were crewed up and to expect instructions shortly regarding a further tour of operations in the Far East but before that certain procedures would have to be carried out, such as doctors reports and certain jabs given. However, six weeks on and we were still waiting.
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The war against Japan was expected to last for some considerable time, however, the introduction of the Atom Bomb by the Americans and the use of them by the American Air Force brought the Japanese war to a very quick end. We had at the time just received our preliminary dates and instructions for flying out to the Far East. This announcement that the Japanese had surrendered cancelled this and we missed the opportunity of joining the Tiger Force. The use of the Atomic Bomb on two Japanese cities seemed, and was, a terrible thing to do and caused terrible casualties among the Japanese citizens in these two cities.
However, if it had been necessary for US troops to land and fight their way through all the various islands the casualty list was estimated that it could have been one million plus service people.
North Luffenham
The war in both Europe and Japan was over which meant that working conditions at North Luffenham changed as from now. There was less requirement for further training of Lancaster crews. There were a large number of service men and women in all three services hoping and wanting to get back to Civvie Street as soon as possible. The government also had a problem in that across the country there were not the organisations or jobs available to employ all those excess to requirements service personnel. Therefore a delaying action was in place to slow down the release. Lancasters were of course used for various operations such as dropping food supplies to the people of Belgium and Germany and for bringing home prisoners of war from Germany and elsewhere and from bringing to the UK survivors from the torture camps.
The top chiefs of all three services were of course now considering the future of the armed forces. The Air Force was no different, we had won the war but not the peace, the peace may be a lot more difficult and to that end the Air Force was trying to assess and ensure whatever happened they had sufficient of high quality personnel to carry out this purpose. Therefore as personnel were being demobbed, if they should have certain qualities they were being given the opportunity to stay on by being offered certain incentives.
While at Luffenham I took the opportunity of attending as many courses as possible, improving my knowledge and information regarding the services and of course continuing to add to my flying hours, something I enjoyed doing.
Our job on the unit was similar to any other staff member, flying still took priority, other duties such as Duty Officer and such like was also now part of our programme.
I recall an interview which I had with the Group Captain Section Leader arrived at the flight office and said “Jock, the Wing Commander wants to see you”. “What have I done?” “Nothing, it’s good news, make your way to his office for 11am.” “I’m flying at 10 o’clock”. “Ok, after that will do”. I arrived at his office next day around 9.55 am, his secretary showed me into his office. I saluted, he said “Good, come and sit down” then the interview went something like this: “I have been looking over your record and I see that you have carried out a lot of flying, almost 2000 hours. There are not many people who can live up to that, you must enjoy flying?” “Yes I do”.
“I also see that you have attained a pass, in fact an extremely high pass on the Chief Ground Engineer course, unusual for aircrew even although you are a Flight Engineer”.
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“Your flight commander also told me you were highly respected and thought of at Cottesmore because of your work with Engine Service course. You would seem to be going back to Civvie Street?” “Yes sir”. “Do you want that?” “Possibly”.
“Even with all your exceptional work the war is over so I can’t recommend you for a medal however, what I can offer you – you know that the Air Force is looking for people like yourself for its future success – therefore the offer I am prepared to put to you is stay on in the Air Force as a Chief Ground Engineer with Flying Officer on entry (permanent) with good promotional opportunities to at least Flight Lieutenant or even Squadron Leader. Think carefully about it, don’t make your mind up now, come and see me in one week’s time.”
The unit continued flying and with training. The war being over the RAF was keen to show off their aircraft such as the Spitfire and the Lancaster, which had been so brilliant during the war, to the general public so a number of open days throughout the UK were arranged whereby the public could come along and see over all these war time aircraft. These days proved very popular.
To show off the Lancaster we landed at the base involved, stayed for four to five hours opening the Lancasters up and allowing people to enter by the rear door, make their way up through the fuselage past the pilots positions and exit through the flaps in the bomb aimers compartment, at the front of the aircraft reaching the ground by ladder. Two of the open days I remember going to were Finningly [sic] and Haverford West.
During my time in the RAF I only met up with my sister Jean on one occasion and that was when I was at St Athans in South Wales, she was stationed at Bridge End and we managed to meet for an hour or two, where we met I cannot recall. My brother Sandy was stationed at Swinderby for most of his time in the RAF as a fitter servicing Lancasters, and even although we were relatively closely stationed to each other we never once met up and even when I occasionally landed at Swinderby we never managed to get together. Of course these plans were always last minute arrangements and we might only be there for an hour or so before taking off again.
After two weeks I made a further appointment to meet the Group Captain and told him that after serious consideration that I had decided to leave the RAF and return to Civvie Street. I believe that he was disappointed, he wished me success in whatever I decided to do, we shook hands and I left his office.
I was demobbed on 10th September 1946 at Uxbridge then travelled north to Stamford, Sylvia had earlier moved to Stamford to further her career as a shop buyer, by working in a much larger ladies fashion store, travelling to Stamford on a Sunday evening, returning home in the Saturday evening. This meant that we saw more of each other on my time off.
The other opportunity that was open to me on my demob, as I had over a 1000 flying hours, was to join BOAC. Unfortunately the base was Australia and the airline travelled between Australia and Ceylon. Also available because I had A‑level passes on RAF teaching courses gave me the opportunity to train as a technical course teacher.
Both of which I declined and decided to return to Civvie Street and continue in forestry, which was always my first choice and as my future notes will show.
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CHAPTER I
ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY
WHAT IF?
Advances in Technology
Most of the technology was designed to combat the increasingly efficient enemy night fighter’s control system, in July 1943 window was used for the first time. Window was made up of thin strips of aluminium foil (approximately 9" long) packed in bundles of approx 100. It was the bomb aimer’s responsibility to drop these down a small chute filled in the front compartment every 15 minutes along route. With all other aircraft doing the same, the concentration played havoc with the enemy’s ground and air radar sets, however, it could not deter the enemy fighter threat for a long period of time, as the Germans managed to overcome this problem.
During D-Day window was used with great success in fooling the Germans that a second landing area further east along the coast was to happen. 101 Squadron completely serviced this operation by dropping window, continually moving across the channel for 48 hours, which meant that German defence forces were stretched along the French coastline rather than being able to concentrate on the D-Day landing site. By the time they realised their mistake the landing had a strong hold.
Other new aids such as RDF (Radar Direction Finding) known as Monica was trialled by 101 Squadron, but was short lived simply because the enemy night fighter crews became efficient at tuning into the signals omitted by Monica.
In July 1943 another new system known as Ground Cigar was operating twenty-four hours a day from a site on the Suffolk coast, jamming the whole of the 38‑42 MHZ band known to be used by the German fighters.
It became obvious to the boffins that to be really efficient the system needed to be airborne, it was envisaged that a single Bomber Command squadron should be allocated the new RLM role and would operate within the main part of the bomber stream. This highly responsible task was given to 101 Squadron, the new system was known as ABC or Airborne Cigar. The ABC required an additional crewmember known as a Special Duties Operator; the area behind the main spar normally occupied by the aircraft emergency couch was converted to accommodate the new equipment. Externally, 7 ft long aerials were fitted to the aircraft, two along the spine and the third under the forward fuselage. The special duty operators were German speaking and became the eighth crewmember in 101 Squadron crews.
The role was to jam the radio transmissions made by the German night fighters ground based controllers. ABC equipment consisted of a panoramic receiver and three transmitters; the receiver could pick up all 24 different frequencies being used by the crystal controlled VHF sets. Its eight crystals each covered three wavebands used by the Germans’ night fighter
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crews to receive the necessary information about the bomber stream location. Once the operators were able to use their German language skills to find the active controller frequency he put down a key connected to one of his transmitters, which broadcast engine noise on that frequency effectively jamming it over a range of around 50 miles. He repeated the process until he had his three transmitters effectively jamming three German frequencies.
In theory, eight of the 101 Squadron Lancasters could cover all 24 frequencies in use during the night.
This equipment was quite weighty therefore so-called unnecessary equipment such as the steel plates behind the pilot’s head and the steel door behind the front compartment were removed to counter the weight increase.
ABC was very effective in jamming the German night fighter’s ability to connect quickly with the main bomber stream. The other downside was when the 101 Lancasters specials were operating their equipment these aircraft could be readily picked up by German night fighters and searchlights. With the squadron suffering much heavier losses than any other squadron in Bomber Command. There was a plaque in the middle of Ludford Magna remembering the 101 sacrifice, it read:
[border] 101 Squadron Lancasters based at Ludford Magna
from June 1943 with highly secret ABC radio and 8 man
crews flew on every major Bomber Command mission
suffering the highest losses of any squadron in World War II [/border]
Ludford Magna was also selected as one of the first airfields in the group to have FIDO fitted. FIDO (Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation) this was justified because of 101 Squadron’s key role within Bomber Command.
The equipment consisted of two pipelines running along the edge of each side of the main runway with perforated holes in the pipes. In extremely foggy conditions when aircraft were due to land petrol was forced along the pipes which was then set alight, this helped clear the fog sufficiently to allow aircraft to land safely. One of the disadvantages being should an aircraft with fuel leaking or swerving off the runway an explosion could occur causing loss of aircraft.
This equipment came into us in January 1944. The standard rear turret fitted to the Lancaster was the Fraser Nash with four 0.303" (rifle calibre) machine guns, which were always thought to be of poor quality in terms of armament. A new turret was built by Rose Brothers of Gainsborough after much discussion with personnel from 101 Squadron. The new turret was easy to control, had more room for the gunner and better vision. Six aircraft from 101 Squadron were the first to receive the new turret. Our aircraft X² was one of the six (2 x 0.5 calibre).
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On 25th/26th February 1944 when we visited Augsburg, operation 28, Len our rear gunner was excited about the possibility of using them against a German fighter and witnessing what effect it would have.
1943‑44 was an excellent period to join 101 Squadron. The squadron had just moved to a new base at Ludford Magna near Louth, Lincolnshire and was well placed to carry the war to the enemy. A highly rated squadron within 1 group, a squadron which was given every opportunity to prove itself as one of the best and we were so lucky to be part of it.
The squadron was involved in all that was happening. New equipment was becoming on stream such as ‘Window’, ABC, upgraded Lancasters, FIDO and the introduction of the more superior rear turret. As days and weeks passed our crew was becoming the most experienced so as a crew were very much involved, we flew on the operation when Window was first used. We were also on the operation ABC was first introduced into Bomber Command and our aircraft X² was one of the six aircraft fitted with the new turrets.
These were exciting times, sometimes frightening, anxious and tiring, however, as a crew we worked as a team. We were loyal to each other, dedicated in what we were doing and hence very satisfied with the results we achieved. On completing our tour of operations we were the only crew that had completed a tour of operations since the squadron moved to Ludford Magna. Statistics showed that if Lancasters lasted more than five operations they were exceptional.
All who served in the forces have memories, some good, some not so good. My memories of being in the RAF are of being good and exciting times not to be missed.
My memories of being part of 101 Squadron are also of exciting times, with plenty of different experiences, most when flying. Some exciting, some frightening, one or two horrific, others best forgotten, however, a part of life which I am proud to have been part of and on the whole really enjoyed.
On 12th June 1944 I received confirmation that I had been awarded the DFM.
What if?
The situation seemed very strange, here was seven or eight young men from various backgrounds and from different areas of the United Kingdom, who had for the best part of a year lived and dined together. Worked as a close team under very difficult and dangerous conditions and after completing a tour of operations went on leave a few days later, moved from base on to other jobs and from then until the end of the war had no further contact with each other. In fact until recent years I still had no contact. It was 2001 when I met up with Norman our wireless operator and then years after that out special operator Ken.
What if when I joined 101 Squadron Wally Evans, our pilot, had not insisted that I was his engineer and I had joined A H Evans’ crew as their engineer? A H Evans’ crew were lost on their third operation.
What if when our Lancaster was caught by the blue searchlights over Germany, if the Halifax which drifted a few thousand feet below us into the path of the searchlight at that split second and received the full impact of the guns had not done so? We would be just another statistic.
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What if when over Amiens we received only comparatively slight damage from exploding shrapnel which passed through the window, just caught my flying jacket sleeve and then went out through the windscreen? Had I been standing three inches to the right the result could have been very different.
What if on returning to base from operations over Berlin on 16th December 1943, when caught up in thick fog and was diverted, if the beam light put up by Catfoss had not been at that precise moment when we were flying at zero feet from the ground we would have ploughed into the farm house. Another aircraft lost on operations. Or when on reaching base Wally had not accepted my advice and decided to go round again on another circuit before landing, we would have crashed due to shortage of fuel.
What if I had decided to accept my commission and stay in the RAF as a Station Engineer probably reaching rank of Squadron Leader or had joined BOAC as a flight engineer possibly based in Sidney Australia, or had taken up the opportunity to become a teacher teaching technical subjects? Life would have been so different, however, I believe I made the correct decision, in fact I know I did. This however is for another time to discuss.
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CHAPTER J
AIRCREW BOMBER COMMAND
WARTIME BOMBER SQUADRONS
BOMBING OF BERLIN
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SQUADRON
CLOTHING WORN ON OPERATIONS BY OUR CREW
CONTACT MADE WITH TWO CREW MEMBERS PLUS INFORMATION ON OTHERS
Aircrew Bomber Command
A typical description of a bomber crew at the time was provided by the ministry publication entitled Bomber Command. The men of Bomber Command are appointed to fulfil a special mission. Their life is not that of other men, not even those in the other branches of the service. It’s very physical conditions are different for them now; a day is much of the night, as much of the day is a time for sleep and repose. Discipline is constant yet flexible. Triumph and disaster are met with and vanquished together.
Air Marshall Arthur Harris, Air Officer Commanding in Chief Bomber Command 20th February 1992. He was known as Butch, the opinion of him varied in accordance with our losses, if they were heavy then his popularity (if that was the right word) suffered. You must remember that most aircrews never saw him when he visited Ludford, I thought he was stone faced, severe and even cynical over our effort. I disagree with those who dubbed him arrogant – he certainly was not. Nevertheless, if his crews did not see enough of him to love him they certainly appreciated what he was doing for them, he gave his command a much-needed sense of purpose. Up to the end of 1941 many people tended to regard strategic bombing as little more than a wasteful sideshow. It was Harris who proclaimed loud and long
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that Bomber Command was vital to the war effort and that his crews should be given the best of everything, because their efforts would be decisive in the final outcome.
After a successful raid the C‑in‑C would send a signal to the squadron saying good show keep it up this meant a great deal to men who knew that they stood a less than even chance of surviving a tour of operations.
Harris was also a great innovator, he called for better navigation and bombing aids, better lit flare paths and increased safety conditions on take offs and landings.
GEC was one of the aids which he had pressured for which enabled the navigator to plot his position relative to a ground station, this turned navigator from an art into a science.
Wartime Bomber Squadrons
People of the younger generation can get the impression that Bomber Command was one big, happy family. This was not so, squadrons were very much individual entities, we didn’t mix much with other squadrons and they assumed the character and charisma of the people who were on the squadron at the time.
As a result, few outsiders will ever appreciate what it was really like to serve on a bomber squadron unit. Not wishing to dwell on the dark side of squadron life I was twenty years old at the time, life was for living, we got on with the job. The higher direction of the war was for the older types – 25 years old and above. They were enjoyable days and of course we always expected to come back, suffice to say therefore that at least 277 aircraft were lost or went missing from 101 Squadron between July 1943 and 1945 and that the squadron lost 1094 crew members killed in action and 178 taken prisoner of war.
This was the highest casualty rate of any RAF squadron in World War 2.
Bombing of Berlin
It is difficult for ordinary citizens to visualise the effect of concentrated aerial bombardment.
Un Sangro front in Italy, often spoken of as the biggest land bombardment of the war, 1400 tons of shells came down in eight hours. Remember the front was many miles in length and mostly open country yet they smashed the German defence and prisoners spoke of the astounding paralysing effect of these heavy bombardments. Now compare the figures of the air assault, take as an instance only one raid in January 1944, 7300 tons of bombs went down on Berlin in 30 minutes. Remember too that the bombs fell into built up areas on a shorter front than a land attack. Remember too that tonnage for tonnage a bomb contains a much higher explosive charge than a shell. No city, no defence system could stand up to such attack for long delivered as Bomber Command was doing.
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War time Bomber Station – a normal day’s work load
The total number of personnel on the stations was around 2,500 including officers, male and
female personnel.
The station was equipped to perform as an individual unit like a small town with runways of sufficient length so that the aircraft could take off and land from where to attack the enemy.
It carried sufficient supplies of food, stocks of all the necessary maintenance supplies such as aircraft parts, tyres, turrets, engines and down to all the other small items like rivets screws everything necessary to keep the aircraft flying.
In every hour of the day people were working and with 2,500 staff on board the station could exist from the rest of the country for weeks. Time meant very little to staff and many would not know which day in the week it was or which date in the month it was. Sundays were just another working day.
The work was continuous, outside interests were possibly intentionally forgotten, all friends and family had to remain outside the airfield boundaries.
The best way of describing a normal working day is by eight am the bomb handling crews would already be hard at work sorting out the various bombs, such as the 4,000 lb (cookies) mounting them onto low engine driven trolleys, others would be packing the incendiaries into special cases, similarly all the other bombs likely to be used on operations. All these would be loaded onto special transports and dispatched around the airfield to the Lancasters which would be flying later that day if operations were on.
This operation would carry on well into the afternoon. Other staff would be doing the same with cartridges, feeding thousands of them into their ammunition belts and distributing them to the guns in the aircraft.
Other airfield staff would be filling the fuel bowsers which held 2,500 gallons of petrol and filling up the Lancaster fuel tanks which held 2,140 gallons. The fill up amount would depend on the time of the operation (Lancaster used an average of 200 gallons per hour). At the dispersal points ground crews would be carrying out their inspections on the aircraft under their control, engine fitters would be carrying checks on engine’s plugs and instruments, turrets and undercarriages and tyres, while others would be doing other pre-checks on the airframe wings, intercom and oxygen bottles etc., should any faults be found then an air test would be necessary to be carried out by the Pilot and Flight Engineer to make sure all was well. If a fault was still found and was connected with the flying ability of the aircraft further work would have to be carried out, a further air test would be required. Occasionally a complete engine may have to be replaced putting great strain on the ground crews.
While all this was happening other special staff would be working against time. The Intelligent Officer checking maps and up to date information regarding the target and route. The weather people checking the last minute weather conditions.
In messes the kitchen staff would have to prepare breakfast, lunch, tea and supper for around 200 people on top of that when operations were on a meal consisting of chips and egg had to be prepared and served approximately two hours before take-off time for the aircrews. In the locker rooms each flying crew had to have a parachute, flying helmet, safety aids, maps and money of the countries over which they would be flying, in case of being
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shot down. Sandwiches, extra rations prepared by the WAAFS and parcelled up to include chocolate, fruit, chewing gum and other items of refreshment.
The Station Officer and Flight Commander would be selecting the crew and working out the technical data for the journey.
Up until now the aircrews who may have been flying the evening before would be, during the morning, catching up on sleep (having got to bed around 4 to 5am), and in the early afternoon catching up with information etc. from their own Flight Officer or be visiting the aircraft to discuss with the ground crew, Sergeant-in-charge, any problems from the previous operation. Then probably the Pilot and Flight Engineer would have to carry out a test flight.
Once it was announced that operations were on, the aircrews had to attend briefing, have their meal then collect all necessary equipment from the locker room ready for being transported to the aircraft, to carry out the pre-flight checks ready for take-off. Only then after this could the ground crew relax, have a meal, a wash and have some time to themselves, if there was any time left, then be ready for the aircraft returning home anytime from five to eight hours later depending on the distance of the target.
Crews on return were interviewed by the Interrogation Officer, then have their meal and then to bed for hopefully a good sleep, to be ready for what were to happen the next day.
The Clothes Normally Worn on Operations by our Crew
In Bomber Command there was no laid down dress code for air crew to wear when flying on operations, every Squadron in fact every person had his own preference, all had to wear the RAF uniform, however what they wore under or over was entirely up to individuals (the RAF uniform had to be worn for safety reasons in case they landed in enemy territory, in uniform they became prisoners of war, in ‘civies’ they were most likely to be called spies and possibly shot).
Most of the operations carried out on Lancasters (in fact from all heavy bombers) were from heights of 20,000 ft or over where temperatures could drop to as low as -35 or -40oC below zero.
There was a certain amount of heating within the aircraft, this was heat which originated from the engines through ducts and entered the fuselage in the wireless operators compartment, therefore while the wireless operator and the navigator were roasting a little of the heat could be felt by the pilot and engineer, the bomb aimer who was in the front and the gunners in their turrets received no benefit, they had to source heat from other means.
As I indicated earlier it was an individual choice what clothing they wore, however I can tell you what our crew would normally wear, starting with the most comfortable.
Wireless operator: Normal RAF battle dress, heavy white jersey up to the neck, Mae West, parachute harness, flying boots and silk gloves.
Navigator: Normal RAF battle dress over silk underwear, heavy jersey, Mae West, parachute harness, flying boots, leather shoe foot with lamb’s wool tops (easily cut off), silk gloves plus leather gloves.
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Pilot and Flight engineer: There was much less heat reached the front of the aircraft therefore we wore silk underwear, long johns under RAF battle dress, heavy white woollen jersey up to neck, leather gloves over silk gloves. No Mae West, parachute harness, flying boots leather shoe base and leather flying jacket.
Bomb aimer: He usually flew in the nose of the aircraft which could be very cold, he wore silk underwear, long johns, RAF battle dress usually two heavy woollen jerseys and heavy over suit, Mae West, parachute harness, silk gloves, woollen gloves and a pair of leather gloves on top plus the normal flying boots.
The two crew members who suffered most from the cold were the gunners.
Mid upper gunner: he was still within the aircraft which gave some comfort. He wore two complete suits of silk underwear, two woollen jerseys, RAF battle dress, unheated over suit, heated over suit, Mae West, parachute harness, woollen scarf, woollen head cover under his helmet, three pairs of gloves, silk, woollen and leather, heated flying boots.
Rear gunner: This was the coldest place in the aircraft in fact he was actually outside the rear of the plane, so if it was expected that the temperatures would be around -20oC he would wear that similar to the mid upper gunner however if the temperatures were expected to drop to say -40oC he would add on extra layers of clothing and wear five pairs of gloves.
The gunners flying suits were electrically heated from a plug-in switch as were their helmet and gloves, their flying boots were also electrically heated, therefore if everything worked properly they were reasonably comfortable, this was however not always the case, a fault in the electrical system, possibly caused by enemy action, then they had problems and could receive severe frost bite, resulting in loss of fingers, toes or even more.
When the gunners were dressed up to ready to fly, it was difficult for them to walk and reach their position in the aircraft. The rear gunners especially looked like the advert for Dunlop tyres!
One of the main reasons for all crew members wearing silk gloves was if you caught the metal part of the aircraft with your bare hand it was so cold that the moisture from your skin would stick to the metal and leave you with severe injuries.
In the aircraft flying at over 10,000 ft oxygen had to be used which meant using masks attached to the helmets, which every few minutes you had to break the ice which had formed around the mask from just breathing.
The oxygen was also distributed through the aircraft from a single supply at each crew position there was a supply tap, there was also emergency bottles at each position, these would last for around 10 minutes.
We all also carried a whistle which was attached to the top left hand buttonhole of our tunic. The sound from a whistle carries much further than the human voice. It could be used to attract attention to one’s self in a dangerous situation or for making contact with others.
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Contact made with Two Crew Members after 60 Years plus information on others
Living in Scotland during the 1950’s and 60’s we had little choice of attending any of the activities which took place such as Airfield Open Days, Squadron reunions, or fly pasts, and it wasn’t until the early 1970s when we moved down to Shropshire that we began attending the occasional ‘open days’ (by this time Brian was old enough to be interested), Sylvia’s mum and sister’s home was in North Hykeham, Lincoln, only a short drive from Waddington RAF station, so this was our first visit of many which proved interesting and a good days entertainment.
We then in 1998 decided to revisit Ludford Magna (101 Squadron airfield) and the small church in the village where a Book of Remembrance was, the Book of Remembrance was of interest to me as it contained all the names of the aircrew that had been lost during the period which 101 Squadron had been there, as I said in my earlier notes that when we arrived at Ludford in July 1943 there was four crews two of which had the name of Evans, WL Evans and AH Evans, at Lindholme Heavy Conversion Unit. I was crewed up with WL Evans’ crew, and carried out my training with them, however when we arrived at Ludford somehow the paperwork was wrong and I was crewed up with AH Evans’ crew. It was suggested that as neither crews had been on operations the obvious thing was just to leave the paperwork as it was and for me to change over to the AH Evans crew, and the other Flight Engineer to take my place, Wally Evans would not agree, I was his Flight Engineer and that was how it had to be. All four crews flew on the same operations, on our first two, all returned, on our third AH Evans crew did not return, and by our fifth operation only our crew WL Evans were still operating. Checking in the Remembrance book sadly, I was able to read and realise how lucky I was that Wally had faith in me all those years ago.
While in the church we met a lady who looked after the church and was in fact decorating it with flowers, as she said this weekend coming was the 101 Squadron Association Reunion, when a service was held in the church followed by the laying of wreaths at the small memorial and afterwards the Women’s Institute laid on in the village hall tea and cakes for all, and if the weather was kind the Lancaster bomber would give a flying display.
In the year 2000 I joined the 101 Squadron Association and have attended the reunion every year since in early September, and in recent years Brian and Pauline have also joined us, joining the Association has proved very good as we have met many veterans who were flying during our time in the Squadron and other very interested people. It was through the Association Newsletter that I made contact with some of our crew members whom I had not heard from for nearly 70 years. They are Norman Ellison, our Wireless Operator and Len Brooks, our rear gunner.
In the summer of 2002 after writing a short article for the 101 Squadron Association Newsletter I was contacted by Chris, the son of our Wireless Operator (Norman Ellison) asking if I was the Donald Fraser who flew with his dad in 1943‑44 with 101 Squadron. After the telephone call Chris arranged for Sylvia and I to go to his home to meet his wife Christine and James his son, he lives in Exeter, his dad’s home was in Dawlish only a few miles apart. Chris then took us to meet his mum and dad, it was great to see him after 63 years and as such was quite emotional for both of us. It was so good to meet his wife Pauline. We stayed for around two hours before travelling on our way to Woolacombe. We met up again over the next two years, unfortunately Norman’s health deteriorated and he passed away on 13th February 2005. We attended his funeral, since then we exchange Christmas cards and the odd telephone call each year with his wife and Chris and his family.
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Norman also kept in touch with Wally Evans (our Pilot). After the war he emigrated to Australia where he lived for a number of years before returning to the UK in the mid eighties when he again contacted Norman, they then tried to contact all the other crew members, unfortunately the only member that made contact was Len Brooks, our rear gunner, Norman understood that Wally died in the late eighties.
Len Brooks, our rear gunner, we all knew that he lived in Grimsby for most of his life. During our time at Ludford whenever there was no flying on, he would take the opportunity to visit home which only took him over an hour to hitch a lift. If there was any change on flying one member of the crew would give him a telephone call and he would return to the Squadron very quickly.
During the 1980s and 90s there was a large number of books written covering the war and Bomber Command, I enjoyed reading many of them, even although as you know I did not believe all that was written, many of the books covered the time we were flying, as a result many of the operations we flew on were mentioned in them. There was a series of books written by Patrick M Otter on Bomber Command One Group, the group which 101 Squadron was in and operated throughout Lincolnshire. On reading one of Otter’s books called “Maximum Effort” I came across a picture of a number of air gunners while they were stationed at Lindholme as Instructors during their rest period. On a closer look I recognised one as Len our rear gunner. On contacting Mr Patrick Otter in 2004, he said it was 16 years since he spoke with Len at his home in Cleethorpes. However he could find no trace of him in the local telephone directories, he said he had left a message at the RAFA club in Cleethorpes to see if anyone knew what became of him, and if he had any response he would drop me a line. We thought that he had passed away around 2001‑2002.
I also made contact with Ken Lewis our Special Operator through the Newsletter, Ken also wasn’t in the best of health, however he arranged for his son in law to drive him from Reading (his home) to Lincoln. We had a great time at the Reunion lunch catching up with the past in September 2006, Ken’s profession was in Insurance which he spent all his working life in. Unfortunately he was unable to attend any more reunion meetings.
At the end of the war Norman had been in touch with Bill Blaynay, our Midupper gunner, who part way through our tour of operations after an unfortunate incident was released from flying. He told Norman that he had been reassessed and had his Sargents [sic] rank reinstated, other than that we have no other information about him.
There was still two more crew members still unaccounted for, Jimmy, our Navigator and Eric, our Bomb Aimer.
Shropshire during the war had a number of Heavy Bomber Airfields, Ternhill, Shawbury and Cosford which are still in service today. Prees, and Sleap, were both wartime bases flying Lancasters, at Prees the hangers are being used as storage units for commercial companies. Sleap is now the home of Shropshire Flying Club using part of the runway, a few buildings and the Control Tower. It is open to the public, where you watch the small aircraft flying and one can enjoy and a good cup of tea and a cake and have a good chat with people who are still interested in flying.
There is also a small Museum covering plane parts from World War II. In the last three years Sylvia, myself and friends occasionally drop in for a cup of tea, by now we know a few of the staff who are all Volunteers and very interested people.
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Jimmy Grant, Navigator
On one of our visits in 2012 I had taken with me the 1943 Christmas Dinner menu for 101 Squadron, all the crew members had signed it in the inside, most people looking at the menu thought that we had had an excellent meal considering there was a war on.
Mike Grant one of the longer serving volunteers at Sleap Museum, who aids in researching the items that are given to the Museum before they go on display to the public.
Meantime he is also tracing the history of the oil pipeline which carried the millions of gallons of oil from the ports, across the UK down to the Channel ports and on to the D Day landing sites and beyond. This will be a very interesting book to read when it is published, soon.
On seeing the menu Mike said “I know this signature, he is one of my family, see how he writes the ‘G’ and the ‘r’ in Grant, we all write our signature the same way, and we were all told off at school for not writing properly”. We worked out that Jimmy our Navigator was his uncle. After the war he said the family had gone their separate ways, as many families did, so he had no idea where Jimmy would be now – it’s a small world.
We still have no idea of what happened to Eric our Bomb aimer.
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CHAPTER K
THE LANCASTER STORY
It became clear reasonably early in the Second World War that if Britain had any chance of winning, Bomber Command had to take the war to Germany, deep into its industrial heart, which was not possible with the short range light Bombers.
It was decided by the War Council that a much larger aircraft which could travel further, with a much heavier bomb load into Germany was needed, hence the introduction of the four engined heavy bomber, the Halifax and the Lancaster.
1942 marked the turning point for Bomber Command, Marshal Travis Harris (later known as Bomber Harris) was appointed Leader of Bomber Command. He believed that Bomber Command given the necessary aircraft and equipment, could play an important role in winning the war by strategic bombing of Germany’s industrial towns and cities.
Harris ordered a 1000 aircraft raid on Cologne be carried out. Fortunately the operation was credited as a success, this persuaded the Government to allocate Bomber Command high priority for aircraft and more importantly navigation aids and radar which were vital for accurate delivery of bombs on targets.
The development of the Lancaster continued with a few prototypes being produced, the production of Lancasters increased slowly at first and gradually stepped up reaching their peak by the end of 1944.
The earlier two engine bomber had a second pilot to aid the captain with a crew number of five, however on the four engined heavies where crew members could move around the fuselage, a change was necessary. The heavies had a mid upper gun fitted requiring a mid upper gunner; because of pilot shortages owing to the increase in numbers of new squadrons coming on stream and the increased complexity of the four engine bomber, this called for a specialist engineer to replace the second pilot, so the flight engineer was created, the standard crew of the Lancaster comprised of seven specialists, Pilot, Navigator, Flight Engineer, Wireless operator, Bomb Aimer, Mid Upper Gunner and Rear Gunner. Each was an expert in his own field and each a vital cog in the overall crew, rank played no part in the airborne life of the crew.
The Lancaster was involved on most of the important operations, such as the Dambuster Raid on 16/17th May 1943, The Battle of the Ruhr, Battle of Berlin, (Overlord, the name given to the Invasion of Europe 6th May 1944) and Operation Thunder Clap, mass raids against supply and communication targets such as road and railyards continued, and against German naval shipping at Le Havre.
In late July a bombing campaign against the V-weapon sites commenced as there was fear that Germany had a new secret weapon, raids were carried out on launching and storage sites, these operations took much of Bomber Commands efforts throughout the autumn of 1944 as did the attacks against the French railway in support of Overland. In September the
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Navy believed that Tirpitz (the German Battleship) which was anchored in the Kaa Fjord in Norway was about to put to sea. Bomber Command was again given the task of destroying her. On the third attempt on 12th November 31 Lancasters attacked the Battleship. This time on arrival the weather was clear over the ship, no smokescreen obscured the target, during the attack several hits were seen by the Lancaster crews, followed by a heavy explosion, one of its magazines blew up, then the mighty Battleship rolled over and capsized.
By the end of 1944 the Allied Armies were approaching the Rhine, come the end of March 1945, they had crossed the river in strength and were advancing on Berlin.
Bomber Command’s role assisted by the United States Eighth Airforce was to support the Allies by bombing Military targets, and in supporting the Russian Army on their advance from the east on Berlin.
The last major attack of the war took place on 25th April 1945 by the bombing of the Bergholf (Hitler’s Eagles nest) and the SS barracks nearby.
The war in Europe ended on 8th May 1945 (VE Day), however just previous to that operation Manna was put into action, which was dropping vital food supplies to the starving civilian population of the Netherlands (the Germans agreed to the dropping areas) a similar operation dropped food parcels to the Dutch population. A large number of Lancasters were involved, these operations stopped on VE Day.
With the war in Europe over, plans were made for the repatriation of British and Commonwealth prisoners of war under the code name Operation Exodus, many Lancasters were converted to carry 25 passengers for this purpose. Flights continued bringing prisoners home from across France and Germany. Receiving camps were set up in the United Kingdom for the thousands of men returning home from Europe.
Although the war was over in Europe, many Lancasters were preparing for war in the Far East, known as the Tiger Force, it was agreed that 10 Squadrons of Lancasters would be used until the New Lincoln Bomber came on stream which had much longer fuel ranges. Fortunately the Japanese war ended sooner than expected (because of the use of the Atom bomb) resulting in Tiger Force not being required. Myself along with many other crew members were very relieved, because flying over Japan would have been very difficult and dangerous.
After the war the Lancaster continued flying carrying out various roles until the new aircraft came into service, of the approximately eight thousand Lancasters that were built only a few are left with only two airworthy aircraft, one in Britain and the other in Canada.
During World War II Lincolnshire was known as Lancaster County, because of the large number of squadrons scattered across the County (28 in total). Today most of the land then used is now returned to agriculture. It is still difficult to travel around without driving past the site of a famous airfield.
The airworthy Lancaster belongs to the Lincolnshire’s Lancaster Association, based at RAF Coningsby and is part of the Battle of Britain memorial Flight. Each year this flight performs at many air-displays entertaining thousands of people and serves as a living memorial to those air crew who gave their lives in the defence of their Country.
There is a second Lancaster which has its home also in Lincolnshire at East Kirby and belongs to two brothers, Fred and Harold Panton, the aircraft is maintained to a very high standard,
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where the public can have a taxi ride in the Lancaster, and enjoy the sound of the four Merlin engines.
The people of Lincolnshire were the first to know when the RAF were on operations, as with 28 squadrons based throughout the county and each squadron with at least 20 aircraft serviceable, the sound made from over 2000 Merlin engines, as they circled and climbed to reach a height of 10,000 ft before setting out across Europe was tremendous. People from the Netherlands told me (after the war) that during the war they lay in bed at night hoping to hear the special sound made by the British bombers, and as they passed over, they wished them success in their operation and prayed that the young men who flew in them returned home safely.
During operations I listened to the four Merlin engines purring away for five or six hours, the sound was magic and something I will never forget.
I am one of the thousands who have been entertained over the years by attending many of the fly pasts and open days, where the Lancaster has been carrying out the flypast, firstly to hear the sound of the Merlin engines which is music to my ears, then to see this superb aircraft flying towards you at around 200 feet nearly always brings a tear to my eyes for memories past.
Date: 30 Aug 1943
This picture was taken from the camera operated in conjunction with the opening of the bomb doors and Bomb Aimer releasing his bombs on our 2nd Operation to Munchen Gladbach. The picture plotted the bombs hitting the target.
[photograph of bombs hitting target]
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Lancaster Bomber
Specification
Length: 69ft 4ins (21.08m)
Wingspan: 102ft 6ins (31.00m)
Height: 20ft 6ins (6.23m)
Maximum Speed: 300+ mph
Range loaded: 2,600 miles app
Ceiling loaded: 24,000 ft
Internal payload: up to 7 tons
Full fuel load: 2,140 gallon
4 Merlin engines 1390 hp
(The latest Lancasters could be better in all specifications)
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[photograph of Avro Lancaster bomber]
[photograph of Avro Lancaster cockpit]
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[inserted] 16th December 1943 14th op. [deleted] Page 3 [/deleted] [/inserted]
Black Thursday
[inserted] Further notes on our 14th operation on 16th December 1943 [/inserted]
[crest]
AT A minute before midnight on the night of December 16. 1943 Lancaster LM395 emerged briefly from low cloud just north of Caistor. There was barely time for the pilot, Sgt Stan Miller of Scarborough to register what was happening before the Lancaster struck high ground near the town. When rescuers arrived they found no survivors among the crew of seven.
Crashes amongst Lancasters returning from ops or on night exercises had become an almost regular occurrence in Lincolnshire by the winter of 1943. But that night something awful was happening as the 1 Group aircraft returned from a round trip of eight hours to Berlin.
The raid that night had been specifically planned to catch the defenders fog bound on their nightfighter bases across Northern Europe. Instead, the mist came down and shrouded many of the airfields in Eastern England as the bombers were returning.
That night 483 Lancasters and 15 Mosquitos raided Berlin. Twenty-five aircraft were lost to a combination of night-fighters, flak and collisions over the German capital. At least another 29 Lancasters were lost in crashes when the bombers returned to airfields blanketed in fog.
1 Group suffered more than most with 13 aircraft being lost and 56 men killed in crashes on or around their bases. 100 Squadron was hit hardest of all, losing four aircraft, including two which collided right over the airfield at Waltham. 460 at Binbrook lost two as did 166 at Kirmington. And single aircraft were lost from 625 Squadron at Kelstern, 101 at Ludford and 12 and 626 lost a Lancaster each at Wickenby.
During briefings that afternoon, crews had been told that Bomber Command had been waiting to mount a raid on Berlin when the weather was so bad that the fighters would be grounded and they would have an easy trip. This was to be it.
The planned route was straight in and out again over Denmark. But the fighters, which were supposed to be sitting on fog-shrouded airfields across Holland, Belgium, Northern France and Germany, were airborne, and the first intercepted the stream of Lancasters over the Dutch coast and there were running battles, until the bomber stream turned for home across Denmark. Twenty one aircraft were shot down and four lost in collisions over Berlin itself.
The weather became progressively worse as the aircraft returned and by the time the 1 Group Lancasters began arriving they found the cloud base had almost reached ground level.
Crashes began to be reported from almost every airfield. Tired crews were unable to pick up the circle of lights which by then had been fitted around most of the dromes. Some came down in open fields, some, like LM395, simply flew into the Wolds. At Waltham, two Lancasters from 100 Squadron, O-Oboe and F-Freddie, collided as they circled looking for the funnel of lights that could guide them to safety.
One man who remembers that night vividly is Wing Commander Jimmy Bennett, who had arrived at Waltham three weeks earlier to form the new 550 Squadron which was due to move to North Killingholme in the new year.
Bennett. with two tours behind him already, chose to fly that with 'Bluey’ Graham and his crew.
"Our take-off was early, about 4.30 in the afternoon, and even then visibility wasn't very good and it was plain we were not going to be in for a very pleasant journey,” he said.
The bombers emerged from the cloud cover which was supposed to protect them over the North Sea. “There was no high cloud and at times we could see dozens of aircraft around us," Bennett recalled. "The clouds below cleared slightly over the city, we dropped our bombs and got away again. There was some fighter activity but we were not bothered.
"Coming back the cloud started to increase again and it was clear that by the time we reached England it would be almost right down to the deck. Bluey decided to come down through the cloud over the North Sea. In conditions like that it was always wise practice. Lincolnshire may have been fairly flat, but other places weren’t and there were always a few of what we called "stuffed clouds" around, clouds which contained something hard, like a hill.
"We dropped down into the mist but Bluey picked up the outer circle of sodium lights at Waltham, stuck his port wing on them and followed them round until he found the funnel and put her down.
“We rolled along the runway to the far hedge and we were already aware that planes were coming down all around us, landing at the first opportunity, so we decided it would be a lot safer to leave the aircraft where it was and walk the rest of the way.”
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Black Thursday
[picture of aircraft]
100 Squadron had suffered terribly that night. So had 97 Squadron at Bourn in Cambridgeshire. It lost no fewer than seven aircraft in crashes.
The 1 Group Summary, which was circulated to all squadrons at the end of December, recorded: “No opportunity for striking at our objectives must be lost. This being the case, it is obvious that, in addition to the enemy on the far side, the elements of this side still have to be mastered.
“As an illustration, after the raid on Berlin on December 16/17, a widespread and unpredicted deterioration in the weather at our home bases occurred.
"No diversion areas were available and many deplorable accidents resulted while our aircraft were endeavouring to break cloud and land."
The Summary continued: "An investigation has now been completed which shows the accidents cannot be attributed to a common factor. Some aircraft broke cloud too quickly, some broke cloud too slowly and continued to sink, whilst others ''slipped in” on a turn while endeavouring to keep the airfield lights in view."
It added: "Conditions were vile and unexpected yet 136 aircraft landed safely. We must continue to strive for better airmanship and more effective ground control.
But no number of investigations and changes to procedure could erase the memory of that wooden hut near Louth for Wing Commander Bennett.
One crew which narrowly escaped joining the casualties that night was one from 101 Squadron at Ludford. [inserted] X2 [/inserted]
Len Brooks, who was the rear gunner in a Lancaster flown by Sgt Walter Evans, remembers that they were diverted to Driffield because of the bad weather. Over East Yorkshire they were picking up RT messages from Driffield, Dishforth and Catfoss but could see no lights through the murk.
Then Catfoss offered to put a light up for them. " They realised we were very low and put the beam almost parallel to the ground right on us. I remember feeling the power go on. the nose lift and suddenly I saw under the turret chicken huts, a garden shed and finally chimney pots flashing by. That Iight had saved us.”
[inserted] This refers to the aircraft being suddenly given full power to lift itself over the farm buildings [/inserted]
Mr Brooks also remembers the first time Ludford's new FIDO fog dispersal system came into use. This consisted of a system of petrol burners the length of the runway, the theory being that the heat generated would drive the fog away. It worked, too, the only problem being that the hot air caused a great deal of turbulence over the runway.
He recalls that two aircraft ahead of them declined to land, despite the exhortations of the station commander, Group Captain Bobby Blucke. When it came to their turn they were so low on fuel they had no option and Evans virtually forced the Lancaster down onto the runway.
[inserted] [symbol] Len Brooks our Rear Gunner He was looking backwards from the aircraft therefore had a completely different view from the others of the crew [/inserted]
[photograph of the rear gunner, Len Brooks]
102. An unknown gunner standing by his turret. 12 Squadron, Wickenby, May 1944.
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Training the Crews
[crest]
BEFORE BOMBER Command could launch its projected expansion in late 1943 and 1944 it had to have a ready supply of crews. And that meant an increase in training establishments.
Changes in the training system meant that each Group became responsible for turning out its own heavy bomber crews. With Lindholme in South Yorkshire as the Base station, Heavy
Conversion Units were set up at Faldingworth, Blyton and Sandtoft with other training units being based at various times at Hemswell, Ingham and Sturgate.
Most of the1I Group crews were to go through these training bases and many felt that flying with operation squadrons was considerably safer than in the HCUs.
Until more Lancasters became available, their conversion to four-engined heavies was largely on Halifaxes, and in particular on the early Mark I and lls. They were underpowered aircraft which had already been discarded by operational squadrons in favour of either Lancasters or the much superior later marques of the Halifax. They also had some nasty habits, particularly when inexperienced crews tried one particular manoeuvre which effectively blocked the airflow over the tail and was responsible for the destruction of a number of these aircraft.
One ex-12 Squadron crew remember starting six cross-country exercises from Sandtoft and failing to complete one of them. There was little wonder that Sandtoft became known throughout 1 Group as Prangtoft.
Sandtoft itself was, like the other training airfields, originally intended as an operational station.
The site. which is alongside what is now the M180 between Scunthorpe and Thorne, was selected by Air Ministry surveyors in January 1942 as suitable for use by heavy aircraft and work started that October on the construction of the airfield. It was intended that it would come into use as a bomber airfield in January 1944 but in the meantime, it was decided to earmark the new station for a Heavy Conversion Unit.
It officially opened in December 1943 (although it was by no means complete, not unusual with newly-opened airfields in 1 Group at the time). The first unit to operate from there was A Flight of 1667 HCU which moved in from Faldingworth, followed by its other two flights. Later in the year a fourth Flight was formed and this became the Flying Instructors’ Flight which in turn provided the training for instructors within 11 Base which also included Lindholme and Blyton.
[photograph of gunnery instructors]
133. Gunnery instructor at Lindholme in 1944. On the extreme left is Bob Dunston, an Australian who had lost a leg while serving with the 8th Army at Tobruk and later volunteered for the RAF as an air gunner. The picture comes from Len Brooks of Cleethorpes, pictured second from the left.
[inserted] Second from left is Len Brooks our Rear Gunner [/inserted]
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[blank page]
Dublin Core
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Title
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WO Donald Keith Fraser
Donald Keith Fraser's memoir
Description
An account of the resource
Memoir describing his life and service career in the RAF. He also gives a list of 29 operations he participated in with notes on specific operations, and recounts a brief history of the Lancaster.
Creator
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Donald Fraser
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80 typewritten pages
Language
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eng
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Text
Text. Memoir
Identifier
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BFraserDKFraserDKv1
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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France
Germany
Great Britain
Poland
England--Lincolnshire
France--Modane
Germany--Augsburg
Germany--Berlin
Germany--Bochum
Germany--Düsseldorf
Germany--Frankfurt am Main
Germany--Hannover
Germany--Leipzig
Germany--Leverkusen
Germany--Mannheim
Germany--Mönchengladbach
Germany--Munich
Germany--Schweinfurt
Germany--Stuttgart
Poland--Szczecin
Germany--Braunschweig
Germany--Ruhr (Region)
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IBCC Digital Archive
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Tricia Marshall
David Bloomfield
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
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1942
1943
1944
1 Group
101 Squadron
1667 HCU
aircrew
bomb trolley
bombing
bombing up
briefing
Churchill, Winston (1874-1965)
Cook’s tour
dispersal
Distinguished Flying Medal
fear
FIDO
fitter engine
flight engineer
flight mechanic
fuelling
Gee
George VI, King of Great Britain (1895-1952)
ground crew
Halifax
Harris, Arthur Travers (1892-1984)
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
memorial
military ethos
military living conditions
military service conditions
navigator
Nissen hut
Operational Training Unit
perception of bombing war
perimeter track
petrol bowser
radar
RAF Bottesford
RAF Catfoss
RAF Coningsby
RAF Cottesmore
RAF East Kirkby
RAF Lindholme
RAF Ludford Magna
RAF North Luffenham
RAF St Athan
RAF Waddington
RAF Wickenby
runway
searchlight
service vehicle
Tiger force
Tirpitz
tractor
training
Window
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/755/10753/ACourtPR171211.2.mp3
f5adb26711d51c0b4874459a61b47524
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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Court, Percival Robert
P R Court
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Robert Court (b. 1924, 1728924 Royal Air Force). He served as a rigger and airframe fitter.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-12-11
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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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Court, PR
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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CB: My name is Chris Brockbank and today is the, Monday the 11th of December 2017 and I am in Reading with Bob Court to talk about his life and times and starting with what are your earliest recollections of life, Bob?
PC: I don’t know. Being [pause] at a place called Organford where there were floods. My mother was sat with her feet in the water and nursing me. Then the old chap was going off to work and he left his Hunter watch on the bed head so I could hear it ticking. That’s my earliest memory.
CB: What did your father do?
PC: He was a post office engineer. Linesman.
CB: Whereabouts?
PC: Dorset.
CB: And what did that involve?
PC: Well, in those days the, during the winter months the snow would bring the lines down and they had to go and put them back up. So it meant travelling about all over the place.
CB: Right. And where did you go to school?
PC: Poole. National school. National Boy School, Poole.
CB: Any exciting times there?
PC: Oh yeah. I thought they were all exciting [laughs] Yeah. It was ok. I managed to keep to the top of the heap all the time so life was pretty, pretty easy.
CB: Did you develop a main interest?
PC: Woodwork, I suppose. I don’t know. My mother wouldn’t let me go to the Grammar School. They wanted me to go and take the exam. But my mother wouldn’t let me go.
CB: Why was that?
PC: Probably she couldn’t afford it. But in, in retrospect I say she probably saved my life.
CB: Because?
PC: If you’d have gone to the Grammar School you’d have been aircrew.
CB: Right.
PC: Not many of them survived.
CB: Right. Right. And what age did you leave school?
PC: Fourteen.
CB: Then what?
PC: Then what? Well, I worked for this furniture company. And then when I was old enough volunteered for the Air Force.
CB: Yeah. But first of all what did you do?
PC: What do you mean what did I do?
CB: Well, immediately after you left school what did you do? Before you went to the furniture company.
PC: I worked for a friend of a member of the family who had a radio business. And I suppose, I don’t know when I turned up, when they packed up. And I went to the Labour Exchange because I had a suit on I suppose they thought here’s a chap for the shop, for this furniture store.
CB: So what did you do in the furniture business?
PC: Well, repairing, French polishing. All sorts of things really. Selling it. Delivering it.
CB: You said you were interested in carpentry at school. So did that put you in good stead for what you were doing for the furniture company?
PC: I suppose it did in a way. Yes. I suppose it did.
CB: So were you an apprentice there or —
PC: Yeah.
CB: Right. And how long were apprenticeships in those days?
PC: This one was three years I think it was. Yeah. Three years, I think. Three years, I think. Three or four years.
CB: So, you were born in 1924.
PC: Yeah.
CB: And that meant that when the war started what age were you?
PC: Fifteen.
CB: And what reaction did you feel with the start of the war?
PC: Pretty good [laughs] I didn’t think we were going to lose. Never entered my head that we might lose. I didn’t realise how close it was but at the time no you wouldn’t. Never thought of it.
CB: So, this is when you’re working for the furniture company.
PC: Yeah.
CB: What did you do that was related to the war at that stage because you were too young to sign up.
PC: I did a bit of firewatching. We had to do that every night. Well, not one night a week at least. Then they started introducing payment so I did two nights. Sometimes three. It wasn’t very onerous.
CB: What did you have to do?
PC: Well, just keep a watch out for incendiary bombs because they were using a lot of those at the time. And put out any fires they might cause. Fortunately, in my area they didn’t cause any. So I was alright. Not bad at all.
CB: So what did they, what title did you have for that task? Fire watching. Was that ARP or what was it?
PC: No. It wasn’t ARP. Just fire watchers or something.
CB: Right.
PC: I don’t know. Who was it introduced it? [pause] I think it was Morrison, wasn’t it? Morrison.
CB: Herbert Morrison [pause] But what did you actually have to do in fire watching?
PC: Well, keep, keep an, keep your eyes open for any incendiaries that might land near you.
CB: I was thinking did you have a base to work from or did you walk the streets or what did you do?
PC: No. We had a room over a shop that we used to sleep in. And any air raids we’d go out and wander around the streets.
CB: Right. And you had a supervisor or who controlled what you were doing?
PC: Yeah. We had a chap who owned one of the shops. Well, he owned a chemist shop and he was the chap in charge. Yeah.
CB: So what did you find in there?
PC: Hmmn?
CB: You’re looking in your book. What have you got in there?
PC: Oh, I’m just trying to remember what was going on. The Dunkirk business.
CB: Well, we can come back. Let’s talk about Dunkirk then. So you remember Dunkirk in 1940.
PC: Yeah.
CB: What do you remember particularly about that?
PC: Well, when was it?
CB: Because you’re in Weymouth.
PC: Germany attacked Poland. No. I was in Poole then.
CB: Oh, in Poole were you?
PC: The Phoney War. Holland. The occupation of Denmark and Norway. The evacuation of Dunkirk. I remember watching soldiers coming in to Poole Quay on any craft that could make the journey.
CB: Right. When they landed then what happened to them?
PC: Tea, cigarettes, beer and food being given to the bemused troops. Pitiful to see them. Did not appreciate —
CB: What sort of state were they in?
PC: Not very happy. Glad to be out of where they were though.
CB: Were they upright, bedraggled or what were they?
PC: Well, they were a bit bedraggled but apart from that they were ok. Glad to be out of there. That was all.
CB: Yes.
PC: Yeah.
CB: So after that you continued with your fire watching.
PC: Yes.
CB: Did you join the ATC or —
PC: Yeah. Yeah. I joined the Air Training Corps.
CB: Right. And when was that? That was when you were what age? Was it at the time of fire watching?
PC: Yeah. Obviously [pause] when were the ATC formed? When was that?
[pause]
PC: Yeah. Herbert Morrison was the one who said all persons between sixteen and sixty register for fire watching duties.
CB: Right.
PC: So, I, they used to pay four and sixpence. Twenty two and a half pence per night. I didn’t earn much so I volunteered to do two and sometimes three nights a week.
CB: Yeah.
PC: Which helped my salary immensely.
CB: Can you remember what you earned when you were working for the furniture company?
PC: Yeah. Twelve [pause] twelve and sixpence.
CB: Did you?
PC: Or sixty two and a half pence.
CB: Yeah.
PC: Per week. The Air Training Corps was in 1941. And I joined in March 1941.
CB: The ATC.
PC: Yeah.
CB: Yeah. So, now you’re coming up to be old enough to join the forces. What made you join the RAF rather than the Army or the Navy?
PC: As I said, I couldn’t swim. And I didn’t like the brown jobs. They got too close. So, I thought the Air Force might be a bit safer.
CB: Right.
PC: Which it proved to be.
CB: So, what, what was the process then of joining up?
PC: I went to [pause] where did I go? I went up to Southampton I think. Volunteered.
CB: Did you go to Cardington as a start?
PC: Yeah.
CB: What happened at Cardington?
PC: I went to [pause] joined [pause — pages turning] Yeah. Cardington. Somewhere. I volunteered. It was possible to volunteer at seventeen and a half.
CB: Yeah.
PC: I did that in February ‘42. Volunteered for service as a flight mechanic.
CB: Right.
PC: Report to the centre of Southampton for a medical and attestation. Bear true allegiance to His Majesty King George the Sixth, his heirs and successors blah blah blah. Got the King’s Shilling in the form of a postal order.
CB: Oh, you did. Right.
PC: I was hoping to be given a shilling but they didn’t. They give me a bloody postal order. I should have saved it but I didn’t. So, I went to, and I was with the ATC at their Fleet Air Arm place at Sandbanks and I had to report to Cardington.
CB: Right.
PC: Yeah. Never been outside the county ‘til then.
CB: So, what did you do at Cardington?
PC: Got kitted out. Did some tests. We had to fill out, yeah fill out all these books. Tests. I was about to decide what we would do. Test booklets. Fill in name and number. Answer all the questions you could. Such things as mathematics, simple science, English diagrams to determine which way cogs might revolve around levers and pulleys operated. Seemed to go on for hours and days by the end of it. Afterwards when discussing with others how they thought they had fared I began to realise that not all of us were as well equipped as others. In fact, the lad I travelled with from Poole had found the exercise very daunting. Then we were interviewed by, about technical matters school, blah blah blah. Issued with uniforms and equipment. Everything. Dog tags and whatever. When all this was going on the, an airman came and called out your name. Gather up your kit and follow him. My friend from Poole was amongst us. ‘Where are you going?’ I asked. ‘I’ve been selected for the RAF regiment.’ Soon our numbers were quite depleted. We slept soundly that night.
CB: So, are you saying not everybody was accepted in to the RAF?
PC: They were accepted into the RAF but not in what they wanted to do.
CB: Right.
PC: Like this chap that came with me was put in the RAF regiment.
CB: Yes. So, what other jobs would they have put them into?
PC: Well, there was cooks.
CB: Yeah.
PC: All sorts of things I think. Different. Different. I’m trying to think really.
CB: But you’d been identified as somebody to work, you said earlier as a rigger.
PC: Yeah.
CB: Is that because you asked for that or they suggested that’s what you should do?
PC: Well, no. What happens, you were sort of all lined up and said, I would say about sixty or so of us and those who wished to be air frame mechanics to cross to the other side of the room. Not a soul moved. Didn’t know what he was bloody talking about.
CB: No.
PC: ‘Right,’ he said, said to the group, he said, ‘All those on the left engines. Those on the right airframe.’ That’s how I became a flight mechanic air frame.
CB: Right.
PC: That’s it.
CB: Was this chap a corporal or —
PC: It was better actually than the engines. I thought so anyway. And we went from Cardington to Skegness for square bashing.
CB: What else did you do at Skegness?
PC: Just the initial training. Marching up and down.
CB: Yeah.
PC: Cracking the paving stones.
CB: Yeah.
PC: Then we were —
CB: Was there any classroom work? It wasn’t square bashing all the time was it?
PC: Square. Well, most of the times. Yeah.
CB: And from there?
PC: Didn’t have any rifles so we had wooden replica rifles. Bayonet practice with pikes. Scaffold tubing with the bayonets welded on. Bayonet practice we charged at straw filled sacks on wooden frames and around again. We were encouraged to scream and shout the meanest of obscenities as we charged forward. Urged on by the instructors. In, out, Oh God, out the ground, left, right, right, oh dear. Oh dear. Unarmed combat was taught. Be invited to charge the instructor with a rifle and bayonet, and we’d be tipped ass over head in no uncertain manner. How we would fare in real combat was never really put to the test. The assault courses, climb wire, barbed wire, rope netting. Crossing streams and, oh dear. Did guard duty. We’d sit on the seafront with a machine gun on the beach. Wend our way through the mines laid on the beach, ropes and tape. The odd mine was clearly visible in the sand so one was apprehensive when going backwards and forwards. The Butlins Holiday Camp was used by the Navy as a training establishment. Given the name HMS Arthur. The camp was full of Naval though we never seen any in the town. They must have kept them away. Perhaps the authorities in their infinite wisdom kept us apart. Many lectures on various aspects of service life. We had medical officer of the dangers of venereal diseases. This was my first introduction to sex education. For me it was a rude awakening. The MO marched on the stage in the lecture room and held up an unrolled French letter which he announced was a condom. In my ignorance I only knew it as the more familiar name. They were sold sureptisously in barber’s shops where male customers would be discreetly asked if they needed such things for the weekend. He ran to great length about syphilis, gonorrhoea, associated with women of a dubious character. If we did succumb to these wiles we’d be marching with a standing penis and no conscience. Returned to a room behind the guard room where prophylactic treatment was available. This lecture was reinforced by an American film of soldiers frequenting a brothel and the resulting liaison in full colour. Various venereal diseases in all its ghastly forms. Pretty shocking to my young senses. What kept most men on the straight and narrow was the exception that women were to be respected. The ultimate way was that the man would marry a virgin and young women accordingly kept themselves chaste. At home sex was never discussed. It was taboo. But nevertheless there were plenty of innuendoes bandied about between Babe, Benny and some of the lodgers. I was a little naive to appreciate what was going on. Films and books were played down as part of any stories so as not to offend the sensors. Songs adhered to a strict code of practice. Some comedians like Max Miller sailed pretty close to the wind. A popular song of the day was, “Doing What Comes Naturally.” And that was how people were introduced to sex. To suppress our sexual drive a cup of tea or cocoa we drank was laced with copious amounts of Bromide. Also we were kept so busy with square bashing and PT at the end of the day we were too exhausted for such dalliances. That coupled with our meagre pay did not leave us much for entertaining the opposite sex. As the course progressed so did our fitness. Jack London was training for his fight would delight in picking out likely lads to spar with him in the boxing ring. Fortunately, for me being I was slight build I was not selected for this ordeal. We could not avoid the forced marches that were his pet items. Be paraded in marching order with small pack. Gas mask we had to march at a fast pace for about ten miles or so. Periodically we’d be halted for a short rest but Jack would prance about shadow boxing while we looked on in awe. And off we’d go again at almost a gallop. After six weeks or so of this intensive square bashing we were deemed to be sufficiently proficient in parade ground techniques and arms drill, armed and unarmed bayonet, to be referred to the next place of our training. Come of some use in the overall strategy of the Air Force. And then off we went. Went to —
CB: Where did you go next?
PC: Went to a place called Brindley Heath near Birmingham. Just outside Birmingham. And we marched up to the camp known as Kit Bag Hill surrounded by an eight to ten foot high wire chain link. This was number school, number 6 School of Technical Training. It would be our home for the next five or six months. So that’s where I went.
CB: So, at the Technical School this was specifically was it for the trade you were put into?
PC: Yeah. Yeah. Number 6 School of Technical Training.
CB: Yeah.
PC: Very desolate. Looked rather gloomy after Skegness. I was accommodated in one of many of the wooden huts. In the centre was a coal burning stove. Iron beds that telescoped to give a spacious look to the room. On each bed was three square shaped mattresses called biscuits. Pillow. Three blankets all arranged in a precise manner which we would get accustomed to making before going on parade in the mornings. A corporal was in charge of the hut and the weekly inspections of the hut ensured was spotless before he allowed us to go to breakfast. Woe betide anyone who entered the hut after he’d pronounced it satisfactory. Not only were the trainees RAF personnel but there were the Fleet Air Arm, Polish and WAAFs which added a degree of rivalry to us all. Each morning we’d parade outside the hut at 7.30 am. Headed by the station band we would march to the workshop to the strains of, “Sussex by the Sea.” We would mutter as we marched along in the darkness, “Good old Sussex by the sea. You can tell them all we know sod all of Sussex by the sea.” How’s that? [laughs]
CB: We’ll pause there for a mo.
[recording paused]
CB: So, the RAF called this site you’re talking about RAF Hednesford.
PC: Yeah.
CB: What did you actually do there?
PC: That was the —
CB: Brindley Heath.
PC: Yeah. First two weeks dealt with basic engineering practice. I did on occasion metal, metals used in aircraft production. Types of drills, screws, tools, heat treatment, corrosion. Main practical work involved filing a piece of mild steel about three or four inches square, a quarter of an inch thick. Dead flat and square. Both faces and all surfaces. At the end marks were attained in the practical theory and oral examination we continued with the course. Otherwise we were re-mustered into probably the RAF regiment. Perish the thought. Anyone with ninety percent could go on to the fitter’s course. Those with marks forty or less would be re-mustered. Only one of our entry was. Which was a hundred and fifty eight passed with high enough marks and one failed. And he had the, as he had had office experience in Civvy Street he was posted to the admin section as a Clerk GD. We were rather derisory towards him but he had the last laugh because by the time we had completed the course he had been promoted to corporal. So he did well. None of us were concerned about going on the fitter’s course which meant another ten weeks of training and many were anxious to join a squadron and actually service aircraft. Once the basic training was over we got down to the serious business of the flight mechanic’s course. Sixteen weeks of instruction, preliminary rigging, knots, lacing of wire and rope. Fabrication, application, doping and painting, carpentry, hydraulics, pneumatic, wheels and tyre maintenance, marshalling of aircraft. Procedures for the daily inspection. At first I’d been disappointed in not being successful in being selected as an engine mechanic but once on the course I found it so varied and covered such a variety of activities I was glad. Later in life it stood me in good stead. Once we were, similar routine with our spare time spent in the NAAFI. Occasional visits to the camp cinema. One film I recall was the story of that guy who sold his soul to the devil. Was it a warning? Also got initiated in playing cards. Not Whist, Rummy and Cribbage that I was reasonable in but Brag, Pontoon and Solo. We did not have a lot of money to indulge in these games and after being relieved of my meagre pay by the card sharks among us I became more cautious about getting too involved. The only game officially sanctioned by the powers that be was Tombola or Housey Housey. Less stressful and you were unlikely to lose too much of your money. Weekends we’d venture in to town with Walsall being one of the favourite places. Many thought I came from Canada. Due to my West Country accent no doubt. So I would say I came from London, Ontario. I was intrigued by the accents of these Black Country people as they were known here. Hednesford itself was a mining village. We’d often visit the snooker hall and local pub. The younger miners a little hostile to us as many would have liked to have joined the Services from what was a Reserved Occupation from which there was no escape. Hence their frustrations. Shall I go on?
CB: Yeah.
PC: My best friend, Bob Matthews, a Londoner and I was a bit in awe of him because he was very streetwise while I was just a country boy who knew nothing of the big wide world. As I lived in Poole it was much too far for me to go home on a forty eight hour pass and I stayed with him with his parents in London. Fabulous. They lived in Woolwich and his father was security officer at the Royal Arsenal. They had a small cottage inside the Arsenal as part of the job. You would say that this was the safest place in London. Bob had a regular girlfriend. Sylvia, I believe. And he introduced me to her sister Vera. This made a convenient foursome for us. Also, Vera was my first really serious girl. We used to write copious letters to each other even when I was posted overseas. However, when I was abroad for a long separation of course there was a cool off a bit and she met up with another lad. When I came home in 1947 we did try to get together but I was very unsettled and did not know what I wanted to do so we drifted apart. Compared with Poole, Woolwich and London in general was a wonderland to me [pause] Pubs such as Dirty Dick’s were so different from those in Poole. We would meet Bob’s mother in one and she would proudly show off her pride and joy to her friends. Christmas I spent at the camp not wishing to go home as I wanted to enjoy service life to the full. I withdrew my name from the list of those wishing to go home to allow the married ones a better chance of selection. Periodically we used to do guard duty. This involved being on duty from 6pm until 8am the next day. One did stints of two hours on and four hours off and we usually slept in the guard room cells. Some did duty on the main gate and others patrolled the perimeter fence. The shifts 12 to 2am and 2 to 4am were in my opinion the worst. I remember on one occasion falling asleep in the sentry box and nearly falling over as I slept. God knows what would have happened if the orderly officer had come around. Tell that the circulated camp was that Naval Fleet Air Arm types who assisted their mates to enter the camp after the magic hour of 23.59 by fixing their bayonets to the rifles. Pushing them through the chain link fence to form a sort of ladder. Coming up this way one of the bayonets snapped off. What was the outcome I never did know or whether it was true. Completion of the course in February ’43 we attended a passing our parade, informed of our postings, given a travel warrant and sent home on a weeks’ well-earned leave. We had previously been asked where we’d like to be posted and I opted for Ibsley near Ringwood. A Spitfire fighter station. Whether they did this deliberately to post you as far from the location desired I don’t know but I was posted to 1651 Heavy Conversion Unit, Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire.
CB: Right. We’ll stop this for a mo.
[recording paused]
CB: You mentioned the passing out parade from the end of your training. So how did that go?
PC: Well, the square bashing do you mean? After doing the foot drill.
CB: Yeah.
PC: Yeah. What did that involve?
CB: Yeah. When you’d finished your technical training you had your passing out parade.
PC: Technical training.
CB: Yeah. Before you were posted elsewhere. So what, what was the passing out parade?
PC: I can’t remember really. I think we just had to march past the CO and eyes right and off you go.
CB: Yes. And did they give you something in terms of certificate. Or —
PC: No. No.
CB: Families invited or anything like that?
PC: No. No. No. No.
CB: Right. And did you get a bean feast afterwards?
PC: A bean feast?
CB: A pub. Food.
PC: No. No. You were sent home on leave.
CB: Right. That was the reward [laughs]
PC: Yeah. Yeah.
CB: Yeah.
PC: Yeah.
CB: Ok.
[recording paused]
CB: So when you joined the RAF you were an AC2. How did the promotion go from there?
PC: Well, the next stage was AC1. And then LAC. Leading Aircraftmen. I think nowadays they follow the Army and they call them corporals.
CB: Well, I think they’ve still got LAC and SAC.
PC: Yeah. Have they?
CB: Senior Aircraftsman. So at what stage were you, did you become a Leading Aircraftsman? At the end of your technical training was it?
PC: After I’d been on the Heavy Conversion Unit for a bit.
CB: When you got on with it. Right. Ok. So you were posted to the Heavy Conversion Unit. That was at Waterbeach. So, what was your role there?
PC: Just —
CB: Because you are now technically what’s your description of your trade at that stage?
PC: I’m a flight mechanic.
CB: Right.
PC: Flight mechanic air frame. Yeah. Arrived at the camp at about [pause] it was quite dark. Reported to the guard room. Soon allocated a billet. Guided to the dining for a much needed meal. Quite bewildered. At the same time thrilled to hear the roar of aircraft engines as the planes were taking off from the airfield.
CB: What were the aircraft?
PC: Stirlings.
CB: Right.
PC: The airfield was about four miles from Cambridge. Only built during the general rearmament programme of the late 1930s. Officially opened in 1941. Earmarked to be a heavy bomber station. When I arrived it was equipped with the Short Stirling four engine bomber. I was a little disappointed to find that the unit was not on operational one but involved with the final training of aircrews before going on to an operational squadron. Stirlings were given this role because the Lancaster and Halifax heavy bombers coming on stream were far superior in Bomber Command in bomb carrying capacity and ability to fly at high altitudes. Stirlings had been designed in 1936 but its projected wing span of a hundred and twelve feet had to be reduced to less than a hundred to be accommodated in the hangars. This would seriously affect its ability to fly any higher than about eighteen thousand feet and was therefore more vulnerable to anti-aircraft and fighter attack. Its robust construction based on the Sunderland ensured that it would withstand serious battle damage. It was used successfully as the main bomber along with the Wellington. But as night fighter operations improved these losses were unsustainable. Stirlings last big operational roles was when it was used as a paratroop carrier. And the towing of gliders during D-Day and at Arnhem. It was at Arnhem that my brother Jim was captured and spent the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp. My first day on the flights when I was introduced to these huge monsters towering above me left me a little awestruck by its sheer size. This was certainly a big aeroplane standing about twenty feet high. Twenty eight feet high on its huge ungainly undercarriage. My job as a flight mechanic was to carry out daily inspections. Checking the tyres, tyre creep, leaks from the oleo struts, free working of the ailerons, rudders and elevators and inspect for damage generally. Checking the cockpit. The operational controls. The most frightening task for me was the cleaning of the cockpit windscreen and windows. This necessitated climbing out of an escape hatch midway along the fuselage, walking along to the cockpit and then lying down to clean the Perspex windows. At first I would crawl on my hands and knees up the fuselage much to the amusement of the old hands. After a few days I became as blasé about it as they were and would quickly clamber along the fuselage ignoring the height above the ground. Refuelling held its dangers too. The training of pilot and co-pilot to successfully take off and land at night and to get the rest of the crew to operate as an efficient unit. Night flying was the norm for this work and on its completion usually about two or three in the morning one of the jobs was to refuel the aircraft so that it was ready for immediate take off. The Stirling had fourteen tanks in the wings holding over two thousand two hundred gallons of fuel. On a cold winter’s night this was a gruelling task. To hold open the nozzle to allow the petrol to flow in to the tanks hands and fingers soon became numb with cold. Accentuated by the high octane fuel. I’d not been there long when my turn for night flying duties. This meant being, among other things being on standby on the flight hut to answer requests from the pilot for a supply of compressed air. In night flying operation the aircraft would be doing circuits and bumps continued throughout the night. The small engine driven pumps which fitted to the aircraft could not maintain enough compressed air in the [floor cylinder] to cope with the continual application of the aircraft air brakes. After a number of landings and take off a cylinder would need replenishing. My job was to meet the aircraft on the perimeter, top up as necessary. Rather than wait in the cold flight for a call out many of us would join the aircrews with a fully charged air cylinder and enjoy the thrills of night flying. Sans parachute I might add. When the top up cylinder was empty we would leave the aircraft. Turn to the flight and have to wait for the next call. At the end of the night flying the next task would be to meet the aircraft on the perimeter. Guide it to its dispersal point on the flight. On my first occasion the duty corporal took pity on me and told me he would delay my introduction to this task as long as possible. Whether he doubted my competence I know not. There was suddenly a flurry of activity and with the phone ringing continuously, airmen gathering up torches and disappearing into the night I found I was the only one apart from the corporal left in the hut. The phone rang and he reluctantly handed me two small torches and told me to guide G-George to its dispersal point with some brief warnings of the possible dangers. Out I ventured in the total darkness to meet this huge monster towering above me on the perimeter track. Along with my two torches waving them in the prescribed manner I gradually brought the aircraft with its roaring engines and red hot exhaust to its dispersal point. Now came the tricky bit where it was necessary to turn the aircraft in a complete circle on the frying pan to be ready for refuelling. One had to be careful to keep in full view of the pilot. Not to stumble or trip otherwise one might be run over by the tail wheels as the aircraft turned around in the tight space. With heart thumping and nerves frayed I managed this without a mishap. I’ve often wondered if the pilot ever thought how vulnerable the poor ground crews were when carrying out this type, this operation. Back in the flight hut I don’t know to this day who was more relieved. Me or the corporal. Periodically, as well as doing a guard duty on the main gate on the perimeter of the station we also had to do a kite guard. Kite being slang for an aeroplane. For this duty one would have a couple of blankets, go to a designated aircraft and spend a night guarding the aircraft. I cannot recall whether we were armed or not or how effective the guard was is debatable. Whenever I did this duty I would spend the time exploring the aircraft, playing the various roles of bomber crews. I imagined I would assume the duty of the pilot, co-pilot, flying over Germany and the North Sea to the target. When tiring of this I would then take on the role of the bomb aimer. Lie down in his position in the front at the front and guide the plane and drop the bombs. Other roles would be front, rear and mid-upper gunners. Sitting in their turrets and shooting down enemy fighters. Although I fantasised playing these roles I never felt I would be suitable as an aircraft member. Aircrew member. Partly as I did not consider my education, background good enough at the time. Aircrews were recruited from the universities and Grammar Schools and my basic elementary schooling was not good enough. As war progressed and a shortage of suitable candidates became apparent particularly for the flight engineers. I would probably have been acceptable. By this time I’d retrained as a fitter and was quite happy in that role. For sleeping there was a foldaway stretcher located in the fuselage but sleep was an uncomfortable experience, climbs in the aircraft on a cold winter’s night. And equally so on a hot summer’s night. At 6am in the morning loud banging on this aircraft would awaken one and you would stagger off to the dining hall for a cup of tea and an early breakfast. But the ordinary perk was the cooks were generally sympathetic and generous at that hour. I had not been at Waterbeach long when it came apparent getting around a camp site, a bicycle was required so I wrote home and asked my mother to send my bicycle to me. She did. Registered. And I was mobile. A cycle was as essential in those days as a car is today. Visits to Cambridge and the local villages was easily accomplished with the minimum of effort. This being the fen country it was very flat. Very few hills to negotiate. This part of the country was ideal for the location of bomber stations so that although heavy laden to take off safely. Cambridge was a beautiful city with its many fine buildings, colleges and the River Cam running through it and I spent much of my free time exploring its many features. Cambridge being a university with its teaming population of undergraduates I found it difficult in coming to terms with. I was brought up to the idea that one had to get out to work and earn a living as soon as possible. My mother did not encourage one in the value of education. In fact, by her intransigence she discouraged me from taking the entrance to the local Grammar School. At the time, 1943 Cambridge was full of American servicemen and I’m afraid us poor erks could not compete either financially for the favours of the local girls. We had to be content with the NAAFI, Toc H, Sally Ann, for entertainment. Plus the cinemas. I remember there was some trouble when some time expired servicemen returned from their tour of duty in North Africa and many confrontations occurred between the two factions. I found it more expedient to stick to the village and Waterbeach itself than get involved in any trouble. My father died in November ’43. Flight Sergeant Mills took me under his wing and helped me through the trauma and he often took me to the British Legion club in the village where he was a much respected and popular friend. As spring arrived the hours of daylight increased. The trainee aircrews were required to wear goggles with dark lenses in order that flying hours were maintained. The runways were illuminated with sodium lights to complete the illusion of night flying. This almost around the clock flying put quite a strain on the servicing ground crews. But with the increasing aircraft production losses of aircrews by enemy action it was necessary to maintain a flow. One day while working on the flights [unclear] came and said anyone would like to retrain as a fitter 2. This was an upgraded group 1 in trade structure in the RAF was highly regarded as it opened up the route to promotion. I asked when mine would be likely to be selected, know if to be selected and how that might be. He told me it would be several months before it would come about. Thinking to myself it would get me off the flights for the winter months I put my name forward. Rather than months, a couple of weeks later given a weeks’ leave and told to report to Number 1 School Of Technical Training at Halton to begin a fitter’s conversion course [pause] on the 2nd of July 1943. Number 1 School of Technical Training, RAF Station Halton. Halton was the home of the boy entrants in the RAF and affectionately known as Trenchard’s Brats. The terms of service was to fulfil twelve years of service from the age of eighteen when the option to sign on for a period if they so desired. The apprenticeship was four to five years duration and they seemed to be the cream of the tradesmen and indeed they were. The war was a Godsend to that force with the rapid expansion of the Air Force. Many were promoted to high ranking position both as officers and senior NCOs. So they did well. Volunteers and conscripts like myself after completing a flight mechanic’s course the period on the squadron required to do a conversion course of fourteen weeks to be brought up to the required standard. I think I was the youngest and certainly the lowest in rank at AC2, Aircraftman Second Class. Many were LACs, Leading Aircraftsmen with several years service to their credit. RAF Halton near Wendover in Buckinghamshire was situated uphill from the town. Every day we would form up on the square, march to the training workshops. The Brats would lead the parade with the mascot of a goat, a goat and the station band at the head. The Brats were distinguished by wearing cheese cutters. Peak cap, with a chequered brim on the edge whilst we wore the Glengarry type of head gear. One of our entry also wore a cheese cutter as he had had the devil’s own job to convince the RAF police that he was not a Brat. One night on the town he had been an aircrew member and lost all his hair as result of some trauma and had permission to wear the cap to avoid embarrassment. The course, like the flight mechanic’s was fairly intensive dealing with basic engineering, metal repairs, hydraulics, minor and major inspections. A lot of instruction involved American aircraft such as the Kitty Hawk, Tomahawk and the methods used in the servicing of these aircraft. Weekends we could not obtain a pass we were expected to take part in some sporting activity. The skivers among us would often choose the cross country run over the hills and through the woods down to Tring. At some convenient spot we would hide, enjoy a crafty smoke and wait for the main pack and rejoin them for the return to the camp. Those who declined to take part in any of these activities would find themselves detailed for spud bashing which involved the peeling and removing the eyes from the potatoes. Halton was conveniently placed near London. And weekends we could spend in the city. We used to stay in the YMCA hospital, hostel at Westminster. Therefore we’d be taken by bus to a section of the underground not used by the railway. Here three tiered bunks were provided at a shilling. 5p per night. You took pot luck as to who your fellow borders might be and hoped they would not be too drunk or awkward. Other times when I stayed in camp I would explore the local towns of Aylesbury, Rickmansworth, Tring etcetera. During wartime these were pretty boring places to be for a serviceman as with beer in short supply unless you were a regular you could not hope to get served in any pub. Whilst at Halton the forty third intake of Brats came to the end of their course. We were all given a forty eight pass and told to leave the camp or stay at our peril. When we returned to the camp we’d seen why we had been told to get out. The place was in a shambles. Beds and mattresses hanging from windows, forty free entry signs daubed on walls and general mayhem everywhere. Apparently it was a tradition that on the completion of a course the Brats were given a free hand to celebrate their final days at Halton. The new entry would have the job of cleaning up the ensuing mess. Which gave them the incentive that they could do better when they completed their course. However, when we finished the privilege [pause] however when we finished the privilege was not granted to us. I completed the conversion course and now fitter 2A still with the rank of AC2. This gave me an increase in pay and I was now in group one of the trade hierarchy of the Air Force. Sent home and then posted back to 1651 at Waterbeach.
Other: A rest.
CB: I think we’d better stop there. Thank you very much.
[recording paused]
CB: We’re taking a pause now because Bob’s getting a bit tired. We’ve got to the stage where he’s returned to Stradishall and there’s a lot more to be covered in the later part of the war and afterwards in the Far East. So we’re going to reconvene. Much of what he’s been speaking about he’s got directly from his own book, “Stirlings, Sentinels and Dakotas.” So, more later.
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Interview with Percival Robert Court
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Chris Brockbank
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2017-12-11
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00:57:38 audio recording
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eng
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Royal Air Force
British Army
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Bedfordshire
England--Cambridgeshire
England--Buckinghamshire
England--Staffordshire
England--Lincolnshire
England--Skegness
England--London
Netherlands
Netherlands--Arnhem
Description
An account of the resource
Percival Robert Court joined the Air Training Corps in March 1941, volunteering for the Royal Air Force at the earliest age of seventeen and a half. Training at RAF Cardington, he became a flight mechanic. He then moved to Skegness to continue into formal training, including lectures on sex education and venereal disease. He states that sex was never discussed and that it was taboo and rumours they were putting bromide in the water. Alongside this, he outlines several examples of social meetings within the base staff, including shared songs and daily prayers at RAF Hednesford, as well as when his father died in 1943 and he relied on his wing commander to help him through the tough ordeal. He then recounts his training and experiences at RAF Hednesford, explaining the very high marks that were required to continue on his mechanic course as well as commonly having to take guard shifts and night operations. Percival was posted to Heavy Conversion Unit 1651 at RAF Waterbeach, of which he then outlines his daily required workings and several experiences with Stirlings and Lancasters. He also sets aside time to remember his brother, who was captured at Arnhem, being imprisoned for the remainder of the war. Based at RAF Halton, Percival took a course that allowed him to be promoted, as well as higher pay, learning information about American aircraft and spending his weekends in wartime London. When the war came to an end, he was given 48 hours to leave the base and no celebration. Percival Robert Court believes his mother saved his life by not letting him go to a grammar school, explaining that if she had, he would have died in an aircrew.
Contributor
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Sam Harper-Coulson
Julie Williams
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1941-03
1943
Conforms To
An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Pending revision of OH transcription
1651 HCU
civil defence
dispersal
faith
fitter airframe
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
mechanics airframe
perimeter track
prisoner of war
RAF Cardington
RAF Halton
RAF Hednesford
RAF Waterbeach
Stirling
training
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/821/10805/PFisherT1701.2.jpg
ab966b75919cc81ba9cf72d7ae808da1
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/821/10805/AFisherT170726.1.mp3
14a8d63f6e971f8062c9b1885ae60417
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
Fisher, Thomas
T Fisher
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Thomas Fisher (1922 - 2020, 1097527 Royal Air Force). He trained as a bomb aimer / navigator.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-07-26
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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Fisher, T
Transcribed audio recording
A resource consisting primarily of recorded human voice.
Transcription
Text transcribed from audio recording or document
GT: Ok. This is a official interview of Mr Thomas Fisher and we are just outside of Dumfries in Scotland and it is the 26th of July 2017. Your interviewer is Glen Turner from the 75 Squadron Association and accredited IBCC interviewer, and also present is Thomas Fisher’s daughter Julia McLennan and a traveling friend here of Glen’s, Diana Harrington from Middlesborough. So, Thomas, can you give us, your opening piece of information would be where you were born, your date of birth and where you grew up, please.
TF: Yes. I was, I was born on December the 7th 1922 in Sunderland and I grew up in that, in that town.
GT: And where did you go to school?
TF: In Sunderland.
GT: And did you complete High School or —
TF: I, well, I [laughs] I passed the 11 Plus to go to Grammar School which I did do but unfortunately, I, my parents said I had to leave school when I was fourteen which was rather a bit of a blow because, and a surprise because my father had already signed a form to say I would stay until I was at least sixteen. But they sort of said they needed the money and so I left school and got a, got a job. I worked in an office for a while and then I became an apprentice painter and decorator. I worked at that until I was, until I was eighteen and that was when I decided that I would join the Air Force.
GT: Had the war been going long at that time or did you join before the war?
TF: No. The war had been on since the end of ’39. End of ’40. It would have been going on for a bit over a year during which time we’d have been, it had just been a series of disasters. You know, the Dunkirk evacuation and lots of bombing. I must admit I was getting a bit fed up with hearing the siren going at 3 o’clock or so in the morning and expected to get up and go to an air raid shelter. But, but fortunately that was the only time that I was subjected to bombing was before I joined the Air Force. I was much safer when I was in the Air Force [laughs] I was never at an airfield that was attacked at all and, and well to be quite frank I had one horrible time when I picked up the local newspaper and the corner was folded over of the heading and I could just see the letters “tain” said, “We must surrender.” And I took that as Britain says we must surrender. I was absolutely horrified at the thought. I just stood and stared at that for a bit and then I bent down and picked it up and the corner flipped over back. And it wasn’t Britain. It was Pétain, the French Prime Minister. And that was, I think that was one of the times that I sort of definitely thought the Air Force seems to be the only thing that’s doing anything at the moment so, and also I’m getting a bit fed up with them coming over and dropping bombs on us so we might as well go and do the same to them.
GT: So, you were seventeen years old at that time.
TF: At that time. Ah huh.
GT: And you mentioned that yourself and was it your family that were involved with German raids over Sunderland?
TF: Yes.
GT: And were you attacked, did the Germans manage to bomb your area? Your street, or house?
TF: They actually did later, at a later date when I was in the Air Force they did actually bomb the house.
GT: Did you lose any family from that?
TF: I, I got, I was stationed in the Air Force at Inverness and I got a message to go and see the adjutant and when I did he said, ‘I’ve got some bad news. Your house has been bombed. But there’s no, no one’s been hurt.’ So that was alright and they were very good. They immediately gave me a railway warrant and sent me on leave to see if I could do anything to help.
GT: Ok. So, let’s then just go back slightly to your reasons for joining the Royal Air Force and and how you managed to achieve that for me please.
TF: Well, the reason. Yes.
[telephone ringing]
TF: I would say the reason was —
GT: Ok. Hang on. I’ll tell you what. We’ll just pause that.
[recording paused]
[clock chiming]
GT: Ok, Thomas. Can, can you please tell me why you joined the Royal Air Force and when and how?
TF: Yes. Well, I joined in nineteen, at the beginning of 1941. And the reason why was I got a bit fed up with getting bombed by German planes coming over in horrible times. Middle of the night getting it Not that I expected I was going to make any difference but I just felt I would like to do something to make up for all the bombing that was going on and so I visited a recruiting office and said, ‘I’ve joined the Air Force.’
GT: So you were saying that you lived or grew up in Sunderland but there was no recruiting office there. You had to go somewhere else.
TF: No. No recruiting office.
GT: Where was the recruiting office that you went to then?
TF: It was at Newcastle on Tyne which was about twelve mile away. But, and so I went through there and joined the Air Force and, and I think I was put on what they called deferred service for about two months and then eventually went down to Blackpool where we got kitted out. Well, it was rather pleasant in a way because it wasn’t an Air Force station as such. We just lived in hotels. There’s hundreds of small hotels in Blackpool and there would probably be about six of us because they were nearly all geared up with double beds you see and of course we all had one each. So if they had six rooms it normally meant there would be twelve people staying but there was only six of us sort of like. We got good meals and then went out and got our uniforms and got kitted up with a whole pile of stuff. We were all given a kit bag and moved along a line and someone would say, What size shoes do you take?’ ‘What size shirt do you, what’s your collar size?’ And such like and you’d just keep dropping things in and we took, with laden kit bags went back to our hotel and were told to pay after, after lunch with our uniform on. And, and someone came and checked over to see if everybody fitted reasonably well and then we started doing basic training with a lot of PT and marching along the promenade, running around the sands like a lot of lunatics with rifles and bayonets. And, and then in the fullness of time we, I was there about a month and then went down to Number 4 School of Technical Training.
GT: Now, Thomas, now Thomas earlier you were telling me when you initially went to the Recruiting Office what they recruiter did to give you your future job. Can you, can you tell me that again please? What happened when you went to the Recruiting Office.
TF: Well, when I offered to be a flight mechanic he said, ‘Not so fast. We’ll have to see if you’re suitable for training.’ And, and then started to give me what I’d say with good grace here was a bit of mental arithmetic. Just wanted to know whether I could add up and I wasn’t completely illiterate and, and then and said I was quite suitable for training. So that’s why I ended up at Number 4 School of Technical Training at St Athan in South Wales.
GT: And how long were you there for and what did, what did they train you on?
TF: They trained [laughs] they trained us on all sorts of old pieces of aircraft. I don’t think there was a complete plane. Actually, when I was [unclear] was when I went to start the training someone came in to [laughs] in to my classroom one day and said, ‘Would there be any chance that there’s a sign writer here?’ So I said, ‘Yes.’ So he said, ‘Well, could you come through so that I’ll show you what we’d like you to do?’ And they wanted me to do some small lettering on a sort of board you see and said, ‘Well, the problem is I don’t know when you’re going to be able to do it. You can’t miss any of your course and you certainly can’t be expected to give your spare time because you’ll not have enough. You’ll be spending more of your spare time studying anyhow so would you mind missing PT? So I said, ‘Well, if it’s for the good of the Air Force I’ll miss PT.’ And so, when everyone else went to do PT in the middle of the morning I used to just go and spend a bit of time in there and in reality waited ‘til the tea van came around and had a cup of tea and a bun or something while everybody else was doing PT. But most of the things were very old pieces of aircraft. Just an engine here and there and we, I don’t ever recollect seeing an aircraft with an engine in to do anything. But however, we had our tests and we passed out as a flight mechanic engine. You had the choice of being either engine or air frame. If you were air frame you were usually referred to as a rigger and if you were an engine you were usually referred to as a fitter.
GT: So that was your choice. You were given a choice to be a rigger or an engines.
TF: Yes. A rigger or a fitter. One looked after the airframe and one looked after the engine.
GT: So how many was on your course when you went through there?
TF: I would think possibly about twenty or twenty four. Maybe two dozen.
GT: Did, did you lose anybody? Did they drop out or move on?
TF: I honestly couldn’t remember but I don’t think so.
GT: And the tests you did at the end there was it written or did you have to prove yourself on the machinery?
TF: Well, I think it was mainly written but it was also taken into consideration your work that you’d done during that time. One of the things I remember which seemed a complete waste of time was trying to find a piece of metal as a cube to fit into a square hole. And I could never for the life of me, never could think what that was going to have to do with an aircraft was spending hours and hours filing away to get a perfect fit.
GT: So during that time at St Athan then your barracks you were in were you twenty men to a room? Did you have bed packs? Did you have spit and polish shoes? Did you have marching?
TF: No. We didn’t have marching but we were expected to spend one evening cleaning the room and leaving everything neat and tidy for the COs inspection the following day. That was once a week.
GT: No stand by your beds inspection?
TF: I don’t recollect that. No.
GT: Interesting.
TF: On the whole, yeah it was reasonably comfortable and beds, we did have, we did all have a sort of a little fitted wardrobe each to put clothing and things in and, and then at the end of that time we were given two weeks leave.
GT: So how long was a course for, Tom?
TF: Well, I think it would be about sixteen weeks. I went in, I think it would probably be the 1st of May when I went in and it would be October when I passed out and that would have been a week at, a month at Blackpool and the rest of the time at St Athan. And I was given two weeks leave and, with instructions to report to Number 92 Squadron at Gravesend. So, I thought from Gravesend being at the, on the Thames Estuary I thought it was going to be a very busy station with getting fighters and bombers going. But however [laughs] when I got down to Gravesend, they said, ‘Oh, 92 Squadron. They’re not here.’ So, I went, ‘I’ve trailed all the way. Come all the way from one end of the country to the other.’ ‘No.’ He said, ‘They’re not here. I don’t know where they are.’ And I thought surely you must know. But then when I thought about it later I thought, well no. You didn’t give information like that away. They were just, suddenly the squadron would just go and they wouldn’t say where they were going. So, I was told to, I was shown where I could have a bed for the night, where to go and get a meal, ‘And after breakfast in the morning if you come back here I’ll have found out where 92 Squadron are and give you a railway warrant again and you can go join them.’ So when I went back he said, ‘Well, they’re in Lincoln at an airfield called Digby. So, I then took all my kit, got a bus in to London and then the train up to Lincoln and then on to, to Digby.
GT: So you were still eighteen years old at this time.
TF: At that time. Yes.
GT: And you got to Digby ok and what aircraft did they have when you first arrived?
TF: Spitfires. And, and it was actually in a way a little bit of an exciting time because obviously there was no television but we did see news regularly. News came on the radio. Everybody was glued to the radio for the 9 o’clock news and you kept hearing about, particularly during the Battle of Britain how they’d shot such a lot of German planes down and such like which later we discovered was great exaggeration. There were never anywhere near that number shot down. However, you saw the, the squadrons taking off and looked across and you saw, I saw great big bell outside the crew room and the notice up, chalked on a blackboard. “When you hear this bell you will run like hell.” And so when you, when somebody pokes their head out of the door and shouts, ‘92 Squadron, five minutes readiness.’ And the pilots then all knew that whatever they were doing would have to be dropped in five and be off in the plane and away. And then we would come out, possibly come out when it was time to go and ring this great big bell and we would dash down and unplug the, well wait ‘til the pilots got the planes started, unplug the starter batteries out and wave them out because a Spitfire a pilot can’t see where he’s going if he’s looking ahead because of the little wheel at the back on the ground. And if that lifts up the propeller’s going to hit the ground and twists so you sort of slowly guide them out and then they’re away and you see the whole squadrons flying off to somewhere and you know, you feel, well I’ve had some little part in this. And then when they come back they were immediately refuelled and every morning they were checked over completely to be ready for the next time.
GT: So, what Mark of Spitfire was flying on that squadron at that time?
TF: I don’t honestly remember. I just do know that they weren’t fitting with cannon. They were definitely just the eight gun and, but they were three bladed propellers. I gather some of the early ones were only two but later they were four. But I’m not sure what the number was.
GT: That’s fine. So, so when you got to Digby did they have everybody put into barracks again? Or did you have single billets or —
TF: No. It was a pre-war station and they were, it were quite good because there were a block. A big block of building and A Flight would have one side and B Flight another and the downstairs would be, we were all split into two watches because you had to cover every, complete daylight so sometimes it could be from what? 5 o’clock in the morning until 11 o’clock at night. And so obviously we were split in to two. Two watches. And one watch would have one room and there would probably be about twelve or twenty people in the room. But they were brick built and pre-war, centrally heated and incorporated on the landings. There were bathrooms and things. They were reasonably comfortable.
GT: So, you chose rigger as your trade.
TF: No. Fitter.
GT: You went fitter. So, from the engines that you had to work on at St Athan you arrived on the squadron and you were given Merlins to look after.
TF: Merlins, ah huh.
GT: So, did you learn your skill on how to maintain a Merlin directly there on the squadron? Was that a quick learning session for you?
TF: Well, what we trained on at St Athan were Kestrels which were really very similar to a Merlin but only very, nowhere near the power. But I suppose we must have just picked a lot up as we went along really. And I was there for a relatively short time and then for some reason or other I got posted to 417 Squadron.
GT: And what time, what date was that then, Tom? How long did you spend at Digby?
TF: That would be [pause] October. Just before Christmas. It was probably end of November.
GT: So barely two months. Barely two months or so on 92.
TF: Ah huh.
GT: Right. So you went up to 417.
TF: 417.
GT: And where were they based?
TF: Charmy Down in Somerset. Near, very near Bath.
GT: And aircraft type?
TF: Spitfires.
GT: And how long were you there for?
TF: I was there quite a while and I was very surprised to find I was now in the Canadian Air Force. It was all four. All the Canadian squadrons were fours.
GT: And how did they, work out? The very —
TF: Well, it was, it was just being formed. It was a new squadron just being formed so the pilots were, had a lot of, a long way to go to get operational and they were all Canadian. And the ground staff, the fitters and riggers were mostly Canadian but I think they must have been a bit short and there was about a half dozen or so of British boys made their numbers up.
GT: Was the Battle of Britain still going at that time or had it finished?
TF: No. The Battle of Britain was over then.
GT: Ok. Just going back then. So, you were on 92 Squadron during the Battle of Britain.
TF: No. I was still after the Battle of Britain.
GT: That was still just after. Ok.
TF: The Battle of Britain was 1940.
GT: Alright.
TF: And that was 1941 when I went in.
GT: Was there still much German aircraft activity that the Spitfires were going up to meet at that time?
TF: Not a great lot. I think what had happened was the squadron had originally been at Gravesend and they were very busy. They were. And when they went up to Lincoln there was a little bit of a rest. They weren’t going to be quite so, so busy and while I was there we had a visit from the King who came up to inspect the squadron.
GT: What’s your recollections of meeting the King? Did you shake hands? Did he talk to you?
TF: No. My recollection is of being rather appalled at the idea of, we had to parade in front of the hangar in our best uniforms and shoes polished and such like and the announcement came over, ‘All personnel not on essential duties will line the roadway and cheer his majesty when he goes past.’ And I thought I’ve seen this on the newsreels and you used to think it was spontaneous but you were actually ordered to go out and cheer the King. [laughs] And the other recollection I have for him was that his face was absolutely plastered with makeup. He looked, almost looked as if he was trying to smile or do anything. Well, he had a little permanent half smile. If he tried not to it looked as if it would all crack or something. It was really thick. It may have looked fine on camera but it looked ridiculous when you were close to him. And so things weren’t all that busy at Digby when I was there but now as I say there were, there were just this Canadian squadron was just being formed. It was bitterly cold weather then but obviously got in thick and one of the things that surprised me was we used to have to put heaters in the planes to stop them freezing. I don’t know why because they always had ethylene glycol in the tank. Anti-freeze. But however, they had these heaters to go under the engine and another one under the cockpit and the fitters always looked after the heater. And one day I noticed on the notice board, it said, “In future the flight mechanics will not do any servicing to the catalytic heaters.” They will — “This will be carried out by a specialist.” And then a bit further down, “The specialist will be AC Fisher.” And I I don’t know one end of them from the other [laughs] I have no reason why I would know anything more about them but the following day someone came and collared me after I’d finished my breakfast and said, ‘I’m taking you to —’ I think it was to Colerne. Another Air Force station, ‘Where you are going to get a day’s instruction on catalytic heaters.’ So, I went there for a day and on the strength of that I, I was then inspecting them. But it was quite a good job because it was bitterly cold weather and when all the mechanics were bringing the heaters off the planes they were still quite warm so I had my little part quite, quite heated. So —
GT: Fascinating. Well, those Canadians should have been used to the cold weather, wouldn’t they?
TF: Well, yes. So, and then I was supposed to have them all ready for early evening to go back in having been checked over and refuelled and such like.
GT: So you became a bit of a specialist on the base then. Very good. So how long did you stay with 417 and where did you go from there?
TF: I stayed with 417, not very long. I stayed with them for I suppose getting [pause] we moved about, about the Easter of the following year up to a place in Scotland called Tain. But I always remember that because I’d been out and when I came in he sort of said, ‘Oh. We’re moving and you’re on the advanced party. You’ve got to leave tomorrow.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are we going?’ ‘I’ve never heard of it.’ But it was quite a journey up from, from Somerset up to the north of Scotland.
GT: So that was about Easter 1942.
TF: Ah huh.
GT: Be about there. And how long did it take to move the squadron up there?
TF: Well, quite a while in a way. We went up and funnily enough the weather was beautiful. We were sitting out most of the time waiting for the planes arriving and of course they were being flown up. And it was probably two or three days and then things just, were just continued there and then things started to change. We got issued with tropical uniforms and it was, the Canadian boys went on embarkation leave and one half at a time and then there’s the other half and it never occurred to me to query why we didn’t get any embarkation leave. But however, I just thought we were going. I had all the gear. The kit. And somebody came in one day and rattled a few names out and said, ‘You’ll not be going with the squadron. You’ll remain here and look after the planes and they are always to be available at about half an hour’s readiness.’ And so the squadron moved off to the Middle East and about half a dozen of us stayed behind and gave the planes a check over every day and ran the engines up to full boost and and there was nothing else to do. It was absolutely very boring. But luckily for me I came in to our hut one day and there were one of the boys looking really miserable and I thought he’d had bad news from home, and I said, ‘What’s wrong.’ He said, ‘I’ve been posted.’ I thought, oh, lucky you. ‘Where are, where are you going?’ He said, ‘I’m going to Inverness but I’m all by myself. I’ve got to go all by myself to Inverness.’ I thought, ‘What a dreadful thing to happen. Would you like me to go instead?’ He said, ‘Ahum.’ I said, ‘Well, look, let’s go to the orderly room and see if we can get it changed.’ So I went down. I said, ‘Was the posting by name or just for a flight mechanic?’ And he said, ‘Just for a flight mechanic.’ I said, ‘Can you change that name to T Fisher?’ And he said, ‘Yes, but mind you you’ve got to go in the morning.’ Everything in the Air Force was wanted to be done yesterday but then you do nothing for about six weeks and then again its a rush. And so I went down to Inverness and that was the best thing I ever did in the Air Force actually. I’d only been there a week or two when the, it was a tiny little station and it was 14 Group Headquarters Communication Flight and they called the station Longman. And I [pause] and then while I was there there was a notice came out and the CO called a little parade of flight mechanics. There would have been about possibly twelve of us altogether of riggers and fitters and he said, ‘I’ve got a communication from the Air Ministry and they would like flight mechanics to volunteer to become flight mechanic air gunners. So, ‘And if you would volunteer will you take a pace forward.’ So I duly took a pace forward and if I hadn’t the others took a pace back which would have left me standing at the front. And he said, ‘You’d better come and see me this afternoon.’ So I went to see him and he said, ‘What on earth made you want to be a flight mechanic air gunner? Is it because you wanted to fly?’ And to be quite frank I felt like saying if the Air Force hadn’t have such silly names for people calling people a pilot officer and he might never have, never a pilot at all and a flight mechanic that doesn’t fly.’ So, but however you don’t talk to COs like that so I said, ‘Yes. Because —’ He said, ‘Well, why on earth didn’t you join as a pilot?’ I said, ‘Well, the main reason is that the recruiting officer said flight mechanics were wanted more.’ I said, ‘But I also knew that pilots have to have a flying, had to have a school leaving certificate and I don’t have one.’ He said, ‘Well, that is true. You have to have a school leaving certificate but no one will ever ask to see it.’ So I thought oh, this is [pause] ‘So, in that case I’m recommending you for training as a pilot.’ So, in the fullness of time I, we got sent for to go down for a selection board which was held in Edinburgh. So I went down to Edinburgh. I was told to book myself in somewhere for a few days and I went down to Edinburgh and had this. And the first thing I noticed was we went in to a big room and there was a blackboard and somebody came in and whipped a cover off the blackboard and says, ‘You’ve got one hour to write an essay on the —’ And there was a choice of two or three subjects. So, I got that over and then there was a few tests like Morse aptitude test, another eyesight test, then a night vision test and then the next day had another paper handed out and it was a maths. An hour of maths. And at the end of all that there was an interview. Oh, no, after that there was a medical. And I thought that was when I was going to fail. We had to blow up a tube of mercury and I thought my lungs were going to burst and I just shut my eyes and blew and blew and blew and blew. And then I heard a voice say, ‘Alright, you’ve done it.’ And, ‘You’ve passed the aircrew medical and now you go for the Board.’ And we knew some of the questions you would automatically be asked about, ‘Why do you want to fly?’ And I was always amused because in the sort of Aircrew Association magazine that I used to get later people used to say what they’d always said to things but you knew full well they would never have said it. ‘Well, because if I’m got to go to war I’d like to do it sitting down.’ And so, another one, ‘Because you get more money.’ And so on. Anyhow, I knew neither of those would really have been what they said. So, I I said, ‘Why didn’t you join then?’ Well, I couldn’t very well say, ‘Because I don’t have a school leaving certificate.’ So I said, ‘Because I was told the flight mechanics were urgently needed.’ And so a few things and then the other thing that always puzzled me they set such a store on, ‘What sport did you play?’ So and for some reason we all knew that what they wanted to hear was that you played rugby. They didn’t want to hear you played Association Football. But as it happened I was never any good at any sports so I couldn’t. Netball, I would go the opposite way to what I wanted to go and I had never managed to bowl anybody out at cricket so I was absolutely no good. But however, I thought well, there’s no good saying that so I sort of said that, [pause] ‘Did you not play for your school?’ And I said [laughs] ‘No. The school I went to was in the middle of a large town. It had no playing fields.’ However, we did used to go to the swimming baths regularly and I said that I was also a very keen member of the Scouts Association Swimming Club which meant you could get in the baths for tuppence instead of three pence or something on certain nights. So that seemed to satisfy them. And, and then a few more questions and then I was told they would, I would be recommended but they explained that you no longer could you be a pilot. You had to agree to be a PNB which meant you would be a pilot, navigator or a bomb aimer but you all got the same pay and you all had exactly the same and you were all equally important. That was always stressed. And so I went back and just waited to be sent for again. And this was about three months must have elapsed before they sent for me so there was no urgency. And I went to Aircrew Reception Centre at London which I didn’t like at all. I never did care for, I never cared for London and that was the only thing I really remember about it was going for a long run through some of the London parks and to then, I thought that was the PT part. But no, you then started to stop in certain places and do exercises. And that night I was on fire watching which meant I was sleeping on the top bunk of a two decked bunk and only had to get up if there was, if the sirens had gone. Had to watch for where bombs had fallen. And when I leapt out of bed for my turn my legs just buckled up. I think with the unaccustomed exercise I couldn’t even stand [laughs] never mind run. It took me ages before I was able to walk again. And anyhow, I finished there and most people went up to Scarborough to do their ITW training but instead of going there I was sent to Cambridge and went to Pembroke College which was rather nice. I was quite pleased about that. And when we finished there we did an awful lot of law. Military. It’s Air Force law and administration. Civil law. And we did meteorology which is understandable and, but and then there was the exams at the end and, and then if you, you never knew who had passed and who hadn’t because if people hadn’t passed something they just were whisked away. You never saw them. You couldn’t see anything. Speak to them even. Anyhow, I then moved down to a little airfield called Sywell, near Nottingham and learned to fly on Tiger Moths which was quite, I thought that was great. To sit in a little plane and push the throttle forward to get more power and pull the stick back a bit and I’m actually flying now, you know. And that was fine for two or three days but then they started to have to do spins and loops and oh dear and I was just felt absolutely ill with that. Oh, I felt horrible. And anyhow, I stuck it out for the training and then the chief instructor gave us all test flight and he told me that he didn’t think I was going to be suitable for pilot training which I think I already knew [laughs] And so I I was then put down to be a bomb aimer. And from [pause] from there I went to Manchester but we didn’t do anything. It was just a question of waiting until we went out to Canada. And in the fullness of time I got on the Andes and it was quite a nice pleasant run and landed at, I think it was St Johns in Canada and went up to Nova Scotia. Not Nova Scotia. New Brunswick. And then eventually down to Ontario for a bombing and gunnery course. And I always remember the first time we flew. The pilot said, ‘It’s just a wind finding exercise, isn’t it?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Well, how about if we do it over Niagara Falls?’ Oh, I thought. That’s great. And, you know, that sort of thing. Gosh. I never ever thought I would be sitting here flying over Niagara Falls. And so, I finished there and then went on to Number 1 Air Observer’s School which was mainly for navigation and flew quite, trips out across the Great Lakes and navigated about Canada and quite, quite pleasant really. And it was much easier than doing it over here because there was no blackouts so if you saw a train going along with lights on you think well there should be a railway line near here. Well, yes that must be it. Where here there are so many trains you don’t know where you were going. And towns were all lit up so again that was good, everything was easy, quite pleasant and a plentiful supply of everything. And, and we used to spend most weekends going down to America. And so I was quite, quite happy time to be there. And eventually we finished training and the great day arrived when we could get our flying badge and it was quite a do. They assembled the whole, the whole of the station and the courses passing out which in this case was us would be in the middle and you would hear your name read out and we were all forever being told you put, you have your white flash very loose in your hat so it can be easily plucked out and you hear your name which in my case was Sergeant Fisher, Sunderland, England. And the next might be Sergeant Jones of Winnipeg, Canada. So we went and stepped forward and some air marshall picks out, plucks out the white flash and someone hands him a flying badge and pinned it in and then you give him a salute and walk away. And there was the band playing, and a marquees with a buffet meal laid out and they made quite a do of it.
GT: Was the course you were on, Tom was it a mixture of of English, Canadian, New Zealand, Australian? The people —
TF: Mostly when I was there they were about fifty fifty English and Canadian. I don’t think there was, I don’t know if there was any Australian although we did see, there were quite a few Australians waiting to go on courses when we were waiting at Manchester to go over to Canada. So, there were obviously some Australians would go.
GT: That was the Commonwealth Training Scheme.
TF: Yes.
GT: Because the majority of New Zealand and Australian aircrew went through that scheme before they headed off through to England. So it’s interesting to hear you actually went the other way to so this training scheme to go back to England. So, when you finished that training and you were given the half brevet of observer or bomb aimer.
TF: Ah huh.
GT: Which one?
TF: Well, it was really what we used to be called observer and that went out of fashion and bomb aimer, but bomb aimer had also become much more of a navigating. And when I went on to bombers they used to work in conjunction with the, we had a navigator and one of us would operate one radar set. I think I used to do the Gee and he used to do H2S and —
GT: So, for your time then in Canada how long did you spend overall and then what was the dates and year that you got back to England?
TF: I would say slightly less than a year overall there. A lot of that time was hanging about mind. When I was at Moncton we weren’t doing, we weren’t, it wasn’t, they were just waiting to go somewhere else. Then there was two weeks leave when I went to New York and then back to Moncton to wait for a ship to bring us back home again. So, the actual time was getting on for a year altogether.
GT: When you were in the USA what was the feeling like about the war and obviously they recognised you guys because you were all in our English RAF uniforms or did you change in to civilians and try to keep yourself —
TF: No. No. We always wore our uniforms and we didn’t have passports. It was quite sufficient to have your identity card in your pocket when they came around at the front of you. They would just look at that and went across. There was no bother. It was really quite pleasant actually because the Americans were really really good. It was not unusual to go in to a restaurant for a meal when you asked for the bill or as they would always call it the check, you would always get oh its been paid for. Or someone to come in the bar and produce a tray of drinks on your table and say, with the gentleman, ‘With the compliments of that gentleman in the corner.’ And yes. They thought we were marvellous you see. But —
GT: What were the American ladies like? Did you get to go out to the nightclubs or the —
TF: Yes.
GT: Dances. Dine and dances.
TF: Yes. No problem at all like. I always remember going to one and as soon as I got in this girl came up and said, ‘Are you with or without?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m without.’ She said, ‘With now.’[laughs]. But, oh yes, there was never any problem on that score.
GT: Because you know the Americans were over in England [laughs]
TF: Yes, I know, and I think we to a large extent were treated the same as the way they were. Only of course they had lots of goodies to give away and such like but there was no need for that anyhow in America. There was plenty of things. But yes they were. They were very very interested to know what we were doing. Oh, it was a sort of a wonderful time. I used to, it was only a Friday evening we used to get a train from Toronto down over the border to Detroit. And, and what really happened was a terrific contrast because in Canada you cannot get drinks other than coke. There was no, no bars you can’t get a drink in restaurants and its quite, quite strict on that score but you could just cross over the border. And even in Niagara in the American part there’s nightclubs and business going on all night. In the Canadian half it shuts down quite, no where to go drinking and things like that.
GT: So you were about twenty years old by this time.
TF: Ah huh.
GT: You had yet to have your twenty first to come. Right. And so, when you finished in Canada you were all put on another ship back to Britain.
TF: Yes.
GT: Was it part of a convoy or was the ship fast enough to avoid the U-boats?
TF: The ship, it wasn’t a convoy. None of them were in convoy. It was reckoned it would be fast enough but if by any chance it got torpedoed it would have been terrible because it was so crowded. It was a very big ship. The Mauretania and it was, oh, I was absolutely appalled when we went on and they gave us a hammock. I says, ‘Go to sleep in a hammock?’ And it’s and I realised afterwards we were lucky to have hammocks to sleep in. At least we were in the top half as well where there was a bit more air and such like. It was so crowded they could only give, there was plenty of food but they could only give us two meals a day because they just, you know there wasn’t the space. They couldn’t fit any more in to the dining rooms.
GT: So how long was that journey? Two weeks?
TF: No. About a week each way.
GT: Brilliant. So, when you got back to England what happened to you then?
TF: Well, they sent us up to Harrogate for, for a very short while and then we came home on leave for two weeks. I went back to Harrogate and we stayed there for a few, a few weeks again and then for some strange reason I went up to Whitley Bay to do what they called a survival course and it always puzzled me why I was picked. Nobody else on the course went with me. I just went up to Whitley Bay and I was a bit appalled actually because when I got there I was issued with khaki battledress and great thick heavy army boots and we spent a lot of time running about on, on the beach and the purpose really was to try and show us how we could survive on stuff you could find on beaches. Sort of, you know I think I’d rather just die than eat some of this stuff to be quite frank. But, and I always thought it was funny to think that we were marching around like a lot of little soldiers during the, during the day and in the evening we went back to our billets. We were in sort of houses in, not, they weren’t people living in them but the houses had been sort of commandeered and they were empty and they just put beds and a few tables and things in for us and we changed to our Air Force uniform and go down to a dance. And I often thought I wonder if people realised we were, and also of course we were very proud of our new flying badges but then again in the morning we were back again in to this khaki uniform. But I flatly refused to wear Army boots. But on the other hand it was a bit awkward because we still wore those funny little gators and there was a gap between the top of my shoes and the [laughs] and the gator. So if you ran through a stream your feet were absolutely soaking wet. But anyhow, it was only a short course and when that was finished of all places I came up here to Heathhall.
GT: And that was a posting that that you asked for or was it just something you were told to go to?
TF: It was just something we went to. It was called Number 10 Advanced Flying Unit. And it was flying Avro Ansons and it wasn’t bad. It was quite pleasant really. We used to fly over the Irish Sea and over to Ireland and the Isle of Man and such like and a lot of, a lot of little cross countries and such like and [laughs] I never thought at the time that I would be living so near to, to Heathhall.
GT: So, what year was this? What month and year? Can you remember?
TF: Oh, we’re getting on for ’44 now I would think.
GT: And what was your role to be doing at this with the Ansons? You were still training? Or did you teach others?
TF: Navigating. Navigating and [pause] mostly navigating but we did, did drop practice bombs and actually it was part of the targets, one of the targets we used was, is still visible through the, through the, you can see the base of it and usually I had a cross country flight and then come back and we’d go, go and drop bombs. Six bombs from different directions over. It was either there or Luce Bay and and I think that was mainly what we did here at Heathhall. And then from there I got posted up to Lossiemouth and that’s where we were told we would have to find, sort yourself out in to crews.
GT: Oh, what, what base was that at? Sorry you went to the Lossiemouth base.
TF: Lossiemouth.
GT: Ok.
TF: Ah huh. It was an Operational Training Unit.
GT: Ok.
TF: I think we were number 20 OTU and, and we were in a way sort of lucky there because we were told we would have to form crews and from what I’d understood with most people the whole collection of aircrew was put in to a hangar and told to, ‘Sort yourselves in to crews and if you haven’t formed yourselves in to crews in an hour we’ll just come and put you in.’ But we were told to sort yourselves out in to crews and you’ve got a week to get that done. So just get to know each other in the bar, in the mess and get, get to know each other and and see what happens. And the second day over there I was [unclear] I was going to have a drink before the lunch break and there was a flying officer and a flight sergeant came in and they came straight across to me and one said, ‘Oh, I’m John and this is Eric. Eric’s my navigator and we would like you to join us as bomb aimer.’ And I thought well he’s a flying officer. That’s not bad. He must have some experience. So I readily agreed and I discovered afterwards that why he had had experience they’d kept him on as an instructor. So I felt quite confident we’d got a good pilot.
GT: Yeah.
TF: And then during that time we collected a rear gunner and a wireless operator and that meant five of us in the crew and we were now on Wellingtons and but [pause] And then after a little while the, for some strange reason again we were posted down to Moreton in Marsh and we were now told we were going to join Tiger Force.
GT: Now, you earlier mentioned it was 1944. So, by this time when did you get posted to 20 OTU in Lossiemouth?
TF: I was posted to 20 OTU in Lossiemouth and then from Lossiemouth posted to 21 OTU at Moreton in Marsh.
GT: But what year was that please, Tom?
TF: Oh, we were getting on for ’45 then, I guess.
GT: So you spent quite a bit of time training within the UK once you got back from Canada.
TF: Ah huh.
GT: On the Ansons, wasn’t it? I was just thinking back to the time you spent down here training on the Ansons. So how long did you spend on bomb aimer training with the Anson aircraft?
TF: The Bomb aimer training at?
GT: With the Ansons you were, you were bombing off of here somewhere. So —
TF: At here they were Ansons, ah huh.
GT: There’s quite a few months for you doing that.
TF: Probably, I don’t think it was a long time, probably about four months.
GT: And that took you in to early 1945. Wow.
TF: It would be getting on for that. Around that time. Ah huh.
GT: So, you, you were aware at the time with your crew that the war was closing. It was coming to an end.
TF: I don’t think we were actually. I don’t think we were. I don’t think. I don’t think we knew very much beyond our own immediate little —
GT: Right.
TF: No. I don’t think. We’d heard obviously you heard on the radios, news reels and you saw newsreels in cinema but I don’t think we were actually aware that it was getting so near finishing.
GT: Because it’s a long time to be spending doing your training when —
TF: It is an awful long time. Yes. But of course. there was such an awful long time of waiting in between. Sort of from Pembroke College, Cambridge to Flying School was straight off but then Flying School to going out to Canada to do really the next part of your training there was about three four maybe six weeks in Manchester. A week on the ship and two or three weeks at Moncton in Canada. All we always kept doing something but there was nothing to do with our, with training. It wasn’t until we got down to the Bombing and Gunnery School that you started to realise it and you also realised these were the only places they were giving us any tests at the end to make sure you’d, you got through. The others were just filling time in.
GT: So, when you crewed up at 20 OTU Lossiemouth did you do any flying there or did you go straight down south?
TF: I don’t recollect doing much in the way of flying Lossiemouth. I think we went down to, to Moreton in Marsh.
GT: That was 21 OTU.
TF: 21 OTU. Yes.
GT: Ok. So, and you did flying time there then.
TF: Yes. We did quite, oh we did a lot of flying time there and it made you wonder what we’d all been trained for first because now all the methods that we’d been doing were hardly used because there there was radar and you had a new type of bombsight. The Mark 14. The old one you used to have to watch for your target coming up between two wires and it looked like a really primitive thing. It was, it looked a bit like a compass and then an arm sticking out and you had to just search for the, find the target. Yes. I think. Give the pilot instructions. ‘Left. Left.’ Which incidentally if you wanted him to go to the left it was always, ‘Left. Left.’ And if it was right it was always just, ‘Right.’ So if he heard two he would know it was left. And gave him instructions and always one that, don’t do any last minute corrections because a bomb will always go in the direction the plane’s going. So if he’s moving to the left the bomb will just go over to the left and not to where you wanted it to go. And so yes it was [pause] but now we had a thing, which just shone across on the ground. And you just had to direct the pilot to get so that that cross went, the long arm went up over the target and when he reached the cross piece that was when you pressed the button and it released a bomb.
GT: So was it, ‘Bombs gone.’ ‘Bombs away.’
TF: Oh, ‘Bombs gone, yes.’
GT: ‘Bombs gone, skipper’
TF: But yes, it was usually something like we do sort of working out in your settings and wind speeds and all that and then said, ‘Bomb doors open.’ Because the pilot would open the bomb doors and then you would then say, ‘Number one and two selected and fused, nose and tail. Because if you dropped a bomb before it’s fused it doesn’t explode. Or so they say [laughs] I wouldn’t know.
GT: So, with the arming of your weapons you had a selection panel to choose and you already knew what bomb load you had. Is that correct?
TF: Well, you would. Yes. Because it’s got to be, it’s better if it goes out evenly and not all at one side first when it’s fused and you always had to select and fuse and then you —
GT: So those fuse setting that you, you then set the bombs before you released them was that given to you as part of your briefing before. Before you were to leave for an operation or was that something you chose when you were there for the, during the flight. The fuse settings for the bombs where did they come from?
TF: They were put on by the armourer.
GT: Yeah.
TF: And —
GT: So you knew the fuse settings before you took off.
TF: Well, it was just a switch.
GT: Good. Ok.
TF: And, and apparently we would [give them away] was because they would be left hanging on the thing. If there were little things left hanging on the bomb rack they would drop them without the fuses being set.
GT: Right. So that, that’s your arming wire which is selected to the, to the micro switch on the aircraft. So, you set the micro switches to hold the arming wire. As the bomb fell away wire came out of, out of the nose fuse and allowed the spinning propeller to arm the fuse of the bomb. Yeah. Good stuff. Ok. So, so Tom then once you moved down to 21 OTU that must have been pretty much near the end of the war.
TF: It would be because it was when you say 21 OTU. When we finished, we finished our training on 21 OTU and then we moved up to I think it was 16 I can recall 1630 or 1830 Heavy Conversion Unit.
GT: And what aircraft did you convert from the Wellington to that?
TF: From the Wellington to the Lancaster.
GT: Lancaster Mark 4 or Mark 3s generally. The Merlin engine.
TF: Merlin engines. Yes. Four Merlin engines which lots of people blame for having hearing aids in later life but —
GT: That’s a point to ask you, Tom. For your hearing protection. You didn’t have any hearing protection.
TF: Didn’t have any at all. And it wasn’t just in the, in the, in with four Merlins in the Lancaster but running the Spitfires up on the ground to maximum boost. There were no other. It can’t have done the ears any good at all. But to go back to Lancasters we’d now collected two more in the crew making it up to seven. A flight engineer and a mid-upper gunner.
GT: And, and that was and at what base were you at, Tom?
TF: North Luffenham.
GT: North Luffenham. So, now, now the war had finished you mentioned Tiger Force early on.
TF: Yeah.
GT: So, can, I know what Tiger Force was. Can you describe to me what you knew of Tiger Force at that time?
TF: Well, I just knew that we were going to go to Japan and I also know, quite vividly remember being to keep, we were going to have a little capsule of some sort of poison sewn in our, in the collar of our battle dress. We were told that if you get shot down the choice is yours. You can either be taken prisoner or you can bite the end of your battle dress off and take that.
GT: Cyanide probably.
TF: It was poison. Yes.
GT: Ok. So you were training on, on the Lancasters at this time. Had the atomic bombs been dropped?
TF: No.
GT: No. Ok, so you were, with this training in Tiger Force did they mention the Lincoln bombers to come?
TF: I’d heard of them. I didn’t know what they were but, particularly what they were though but I did read afterwards that the British government and the American government had come to an agreement that we would send out Tiger Force which would consist of twenty squadrons of Lancasters plus 1830 Heavy Conversion Unit. Why that I don’t know but that was what we were on so we knew full well we were going to, to go out.
GT: There was quite a numerous amount of squadrons of Mosquitoes to go as well I understand from the Tiger Force —
TF: I would think. I would think so because the Mosquito was a fantastic aeroplane.
GT: Certainly. So, they actually stated to you you were going to be going to Japan or bombing Japan.
TF: Well, I suppose we’d be bombing Japan first, isn’t it? No. There were, one or two places were mentioned but I don’t think it was officially. Officially mentioned.
GT: So how many flights did you do then in preparation for that? Because VE Day had happened.
TF: VE day had happened. Yes. And it sort of quite regular really. I might also mention earlier on when we were on OTU on Wellingtons that one night there was somebody extra seemed to get in. Come on wearing a flying suit so you couldn’t see what he was or what his rank was but he was an extra person came along that night. And the following morning we found we were no longer had a radio operator in the crew. [pause] He’d, he’d been taken out and that was the Air Force way of doing things. You know, no chance to say cheerio or anything. It was just [pause] I’m assuming that he wasn’t up to scratch and he just disappeared and later in the day we just got a new one.
GT: Did you have any, any idea that some of your crew members were unhappy or couldn’t take the strain? Or —
TF: No. No idea at all.
GT: And at this time you had done no overseas operational bombing —
TF: No.
GT: Sorties at that time.
TF: No.
GT: Because —
TF: No, it was very shortly, we’d only been crewed up and flying for two or three times. That apparently is the RAF way of doing it. I think they thought it might be bad for morale. They just —
GT: Were you made aware at the time of LMF? Lack of moral fibre.
TF: Of any —
GT: Lack of moral fibre. Were you aware of that term?
TF: Not an awful lot. I think I heard more of it afterwards. I think it was a disgusting thing. We knew of its existence but I suppose you always adopted the attitude of well it wouldn’t happen to me, would it?
GT: But you were a volunteer. All of you blokes were volunteers. Right?
TF: Yes.
GT: And they still treated you quite badly at that.
TF: It was, it was dreadful.
GT: Someone couldn’t keep it going. Ok. I’m assuming then that your navigator was, was removed from flying status because of his supposed lack of moral fibre and the way you described it. Would that be fair?
TF: Well, I think it possibly, could be that he was. Just wasn’t efficient enough with his, it was the radio operator. I think it could be just that he wasn’t in it. But I don’t know whether [unclear] would have anything to do with it but I did know that he was only member I knew in the aircrew that was married.
GT: Ok. Maybe he was removed so the war was finishing and they only wanted single, single men.
TF: It could be.
GT: Yeah.
TF: But there was no reason given. It’s just he flew with us one night and then we never saw him again.
GT: Right. So, when you did your training through on OTU and then on the HCU did you do any practice bomb dropping from the Wellingtons and then the Lancasters?
TF: Just practice.
GT: Just practice. Yeah. And how many hours have you accrued then for daylight and night time. Can you remember the flying hours you had done?
TF: It wasn’t a great lot.
GT: Now, Wellington. The Heavy Conversion Unit at that time is that pretty much where you much finished because you didn’t go to Lancaster Finishing School at all?
TF: No. That was one of the things that always puzzled me. Why didn’t we go to a Lancaster Finishing School like other people? But I realised afterwards it was because we did all of it on Lancasters. The others that went to Lancaster Finishing School went on to Stirlings and Halifaxes and then just did a short time on Lancasters but we did the whole of Heavy Conversion on Lancasters.
GT: Intriguing because most of the LFS Schools, Number 3 at Feltwell, for instance most of the 75 Squadron aircrew that I’ve talked with and seen their logbooks they only did four flights. Four to five flights in one week from a Stirling and then straight on to Lancaster. So, so you did, you did the full, that’s huge. Ok. So then, then came VJ day for you guys.
TF: Ah huh.
GT: And did flying pretty much cease because you were preparing for Tiger Force to get going to the Japan region.
TF: Well, that was to say rather strange. What happened in my case was just before VJ Day I was told I had to go and see the CO. And I went to see him and he said, ‘Your demob’s going to be coming up shortly.’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m not surprised,’ I said. I said, ‘But,’ he said, ‘My job actually is to persuade you to sign on.’ He says, ‘Now, you could. If you were, the best thing you could do you know would be to sign on for twenty one years. You’ve done five years. Twenty one years you’ll be thirty nine. Eighteen when you joined. Twenty one years. Thirty nine. You’ll retire on a pension at thirty nine.’ Which sounds very nice but it was going to be only a very small pension anyhow. But anyway, I thought well I don’t think the peacetime Air Force is for me. I think, I always think of the words of a PT or drill instructor and he had a gathering of us to take for a PT session early one morning. Our names appeared on the notice board to attend for PT and we all knew it was because we’d done some minor infringement of rules and regulations and we, I went down and I had my PT kit on and I had a sweater or something on top. It was a bit chilly. And a lot of the Canadians, well they were mostly Canadians actually and most of them were commissioned and they came down in overcoats for the PT, so he said, well of course as you realise he had to be reasonably polite. He couldn’t speak as if they were just, ‘Hey you,’ do this or do that. He said, ‘Could you take your overcoats off?’ ‘Oh, no.’ ‘No? Why not?’ ‘It’ll be cold.’ He said, ‘Well, you can’t do PT in overcoats.’ ‘Well, we could try.’ [laughs] And he got really exasperated and said, ‘It’ll be a good job when this war’s over and we can have a proper Air Force without all this flying.’ And I thought my goodness an Air Force without flying. Does he think the Air Force’s main purpose is to do PT and march about and things like that? No. The peacetime Air Force wouldn’t be for me.
GT: So, he swayed your decision to sign on further. Yeah. So, so you that chap was asking you to carry on as a bomb aimer.
TF: Yes.
GT: After the war.
TF: And, after the war and he says or you could just sign on for six months. And I thought well what’s the point.? I’ve, you know I’ve got to adjust now to going back to Civvy Street. I’m not staying in the Air Force. I’m quite sure of that. I could not possibly put up with the peacetime. I could imagine it. Marching here and marching there. Life was so free and easy and things and also it was, they would probably be a little bit more strict on the visions of class. You know. I mean, in the aircrew when we’d done a, whether your crew were officers or sergeants you all went in for a meal the same, in the mess at the same time having, and we all used to use the same mess. It was all, you know nobody did any different but I should think that changed in peacetime. And so I said, ‘No. I don’t think I will.’ And then he said, ‘Well, if you won’t sign on you won’t do any more flying.’ And I thought is this man crazy? They’ve spent thousands of pounds training me in two years or so. Training me for this and now because I won’t sign on [pause] and I just cannot stand sort of being threatened like that. It just, that was just enough. So, I said, ‘Well, in that case I don’t do any more flying. So, later that day we were down for night flying and I went along to the, the briefing room and there was the board for tonight’s crews. And there was a sort of list down the side of the pilot’s names and the list along of the crew and I looked down. Flying Officer Jorgenson. Navigator Flight Sergeant Stobes, bomb aimer — it should have said Flight Sergeant Fisher. It had been rubbed out. And I was absolutely appalled. I didn’t think he really would have done it that quickly. I was really really annoyed and so, oh well that’s it. I don’t. So I did nothing for two or three days and then I thought well, I think I might as well go home for all the good I’m doing here. So I did. And then I started to worry about it a bit. You know, you’re being rather stupid if you get, if they discover you. You’d probably lose your stripes and crown and your demob pay would go way down. Way down. So you’d better go back. So I went back and at the same time I was relieved but at the same time it was not good for your ego to know that nobody had ever missed you. And anyhow, I went and saw the adjutant and said, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ He said, ‘What do you mean what do you do?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m not flying now.’ He said, ‘Well, whose crew were you in?’ And I told him. He looked up some records, he says, ‘That was a few weeks ago.’ ‘Oh yes. Yes.’ He said, ‘What have you done since then?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m waiting for a job.’ He says, ‘You mean you’ve sat on your behind and done nothing.’ ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘I wouldn’t put it like that.’ He said, ‘I don’t see how else you can put it.’ Anyhow, he said, ‘Come in the office next to me and you can sort of help me. You can be a sort of assistant adjutant.’ So that’s what I did. But I didn’t like it at all.
GT: So, there was no other aircrew. Had the same thing happened to them? Did he just single you out or was it common across —
TF: Well, no. There was no more but as it happened after I had [unclear] him up for about forty years later and I got a telephone call and he mind, sort of said, ‘Am I speaking to Mr Fisher?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Thomas Fisher?’ ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Were you in the RAF?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘You used to like to spend your weekends at Cheltenham.’ And I said, ‘As it happens I did but how do you know all this?’
GT: Yeah. And what happened?
TF: And he said, ‘Well,’ he says, ‘One final. One final question. Were you in Yorgeys crew?’ We always called him, he was always, his name was Jorgenson. He was always known as Yorgey. And I said, ‘Well, yes. Yes, but who are you?’ He said, ‘Well, I’m Frank, the wireless operator,’ he says, ‘And I’ve set myself a task of when I retired I was going to trace all the crew so that we could have, and see if we could have a reunion.’ And he said, I said, ‘How have you traced me? I live in Scotland now. I’ve moved from the North of England.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m with Scotland Yard and you must remember I’m used to tracing people and most of them don’t want to be traced.’ So, he, he said, ‘Can you think of any of the other names?’ I said, ‘Well, how far have you got?’ He says, ‘Well, I’ve discovered that Johnny is, only lived about forty miles from me. So we’ve been together and you’re the next one.’ And eventually went through with the aid of a newspaper ad, an advertisement and eventually traced all the crew and we met up. All met up again at Woodhall Spa. It was amazing to see each other after an absence of [pause] this would be about 1990. An absence of about forty five years.
GT: So when you finished with, with the aircrew because as then flight sergeant you became deputy adjutant you didn’t keep in contact with your crew even though you were still the same?
TF: No. With actually, this was the first, I gather that VJ Day the crew, I mean I just couldn’t understand it. We’d worked together all this time and then we only did two more practice flights and then that was, that was it. They’d actually gone on a train to go down to an RAF station. I think it was in Cornwall and the RAF police boarded the train and singled them out and said, ‘Will you get off at the next station and return back to your base. You’re not wanted anymore.’ So that was only a matter of days before VJ Day was announced.
GT: Fascinating. That must have been really disappointing to spend all that time —
TF: It just struck me as so ridiculous to think all this training that I’d had and why split a crew up?
GT: And you were the only crew that you know of that this happened to.
TF: Ah huh.
GT: That recruiter, eh. He’s got a lot to answer for.
TF: And then in many ways I was certainly glad I didn’t sign on because it wasn’t very long before bomb aimers were redundant [pause] The aircrews, most aircrews were now restricted to two. Pilot and a navigator. Bomb aimers were not wanted. Air gunners were no longer wanted. Radio operators were no longer, were no longer needed after a while because the pilot doesn’t need, you don’t need to use Morse Code anymore. You can speak plain language over hundreds of miles.
GT: Mind you, you’d been given a lot of navigator training so most navigators later received bomb aiming training.
TF: Could possibly. Possibly I had about that. But there was hundreds of us. Thousands in fact, I suppose.
GT: The UK was awash with airmen wanting to do something.
TF: And then just finally I got a bit fed up working in, just in the office and I asked the adjutant if I could, I thought well, perhaps I could go and learn to drive. That would be more sense. And —
GT: So up to this point you’d never driven a vehicle.
TF: Never driven at all. No.
GT: Aged twenty one. Going on twenty two.
TF: Ah huh.
GT: Yeah.
TF: No. I mean there must have been hundreds of us learned to fly a plane before we learned to drive a car. And he says, ‘Well, I could send you to Catterick and they’ll give you some tests and see what your suitable for.’ So I went to Catterick [laughs] and I had, I don’t know what these tests were. How they were worked out but and then in the central, he said, ‘I’ve got the result of your test and it appears you would be ideal for training as a butcher and cook.’ I said, ‘You are joking surely.’ And I can’t really, don’t believe what I was hearing. I had been, I was told I was suitable to train as a flight mechanic which is a higher grading. And then I was training as a bomb aimer navigator and now I’m just suitable to be a butcher. And that’s the one thing I could not stand was the sight of raw meat. And I said, ‘Well, that is out of the question. I just will not do that.’ He says, ‘Well, what would you do?’ I said, ‘Well, learn driving. He said, ‘Well, there’s no vacancies.’ He did try I must admit. ‘No vacancies in any driving school but I could send you to a transport company and you could do local training.’ So I did get transferred to this but I never did any training out there at all. What I was used for was to fill in gaps where people were away. If they were short of. Although I wasn’t an officer I would often do a parade and I would take part as orderly officer or something. Whenever they were a bit short I filled in for that. And then eventually I just got demobbed. But I was just so, to think I’d had blooming tests and now it turned out I would have been better off as a butcher.
GT: That’s crazy. So did you follow up and look at the medals that you were entitled for your war service?
TF: Just, I was just entitled to the, what everybody was. The Defence Medal and the, the war —
GT: The ‘39/45 Star.
TF: Star. Ah huh.
GT: And, and did you send in to have them? Received them?
TF: I did take them.
GT: And you’ve got them now.
TF: Ah huh.
GT: You’ve still got them.
TF: Ah huh. Incidentally I’ve got a photo here of the crew.
GT: Oh ok.
[pause]
GT: Perhaps you can, I’ll tell you what we’ll finish the interview first there.
TF: Ok.
GT: And let’s have a look at those soon. But so from, from your time of being demobbed, Tom you obviously didn’t go the butcher route. So, what did you end up doing in your new civilian life?
TF: Well, I had two things in mind. I was, one of the things that I thought I might have, might have had some help on instead of doing this silly business saying I could be a butcher or something I thought if they might have told us what grants were available for what training purposes. So, I had, when I was, before I joined I worked for my father as a, as a painter and decorator. So, I just went back to, to doing that and the Air Force and the government paid part of my wage because I’d left as an apprentice and there I was twenty two twenty three and I would not, I would expect better pay than [laughs] so they made up the difference. I can’t remember how long it was but they did it for so long and I sort of settled again and that. And then eventually I, I expect my father was getting a bit past it so I took over and I had quite a reasonable business. I got some quite some, quite good customers such as Lloyds Bank and I did quite a lot of decorating on hospitals and schools and things and, and then I also had a wallpaper and paint shop. And that, that was the rest of my, my life.
GT: That was here in Dumfries?
TF: No. It was in Sunderland.
GT: Oh, ok.
TF: But I [laughs] must say that the shop itself became a bit of a nuisance because the supermarkets, the Do it Yourself supermarkets were coming out. The price maintenance came off paint and wallpapers and so there was sort of cut price wars. And then to make things worse the shop got broken into twice. I got a bit fed up with hearing the telephone go in the middle of the night. ‘Something about your place. Can you get around?’ So this was including one practical joker who rang me up about 3 o’clock in the morning and said, ‘This is Sunderland Fire Brigade. ‘There’s a fire at your wallpaper shop. Can you get around?’ And I thought, oh no. ‘Yes.’ So I went back up to the bedroom and started to get dressed and my wife said, ‘What was that about?’ I said, ‘It’s just some fire. She said, ‘Well, ring the Fire Brigade.’ I said, ‘Well, that was the Fire Brigade that rang me.’ She said, ‘Well, how do you know?’ So, ‘I Don’t.’ So, I rang the Fire Brigade and they hadn’t phoned at all. It was just a hoax call trying to get me around in the middle of the night.
GT: They were going to wait for you huh? So you met a lady and you married and had children I guess.
TF: Yes.
GT: Can you give us a little bit of your, your fond memories of that time? Who is your wife and your children?
TF: Yes. Well, I I was sort of quite fond of going dancing and that seemed to be the way of meeting most people but and I met my wife at a, at a dance and I sort of had a few dances with her. One or two. And then they played, which was the custom in those days of the last dance was always a waltz and they usually sort of announces that, ‘Will you take your partners for the last waltz?’ Which, when that finished I said, ‘Well, I’ll sort of see you home.’ And she said, ‘Well, I live up at Grindon.’ And I thought that’s a bit far isn’t it? But she said, ‘I get a bus.’ I said, ‘Where do you get the bus from?’ Park Lane was the bus station. ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘I’ll go around that way.’ So, I went around that way and saw her on to the bus and arranged to see her again and then saw her two or three times and then it became quite a regular, a regular thing and and then that’s, we got married in 1950. And the problem was at that time was it was so difficult to get houses because with being so much bombing done at the places were instead of being streets of houses there were just streets of bomb sites and they were building new houses but the council where I lived in Sunderland would not allow any new houses to be built privately. Only council houses. And that was, created a problem. Well, firstly I didn’t want a council house and secondly you couldn’t get a council house until you’d had two children. So, so that’s how you fit that in was never explained. But eventually we, we looked at a few places and found somewhere we could live quite happily. I went, went in for it and I remember putting an offer in and the agents saying, ‘Well, mind I’m not having an auction, a Dutch Auction going on in my office, you know. If that’s your offer it has to be stick to that. If somebody comes along with better I’m not coming to see if you want to go any more.’ And then he added, ‘But I will place that offer before my client and I’ll advise her to accept it. And in a very short time I heard word that she had accepted and so we got well, the house if nothing else. And I got married in 1950. And, and I was sort of, you know having my own little business by then and, and then Julia and my other daughter came along and I think that was about it really, wasn’t it? I’d always wanted a wallpaper and paint shop and I just ran the business from my house you see and then someone sort of said he had one and he was retiring. He wanted to give it up, you know. He said would I like to take it and I said, ‘Yes. I think I’ll take it over. And and then we moved from where we were living until I was, just carried in until it was time to retire and my wife wanted to move somewhere else. She didn’t want to stay in Sunderland and I was quite happy there excepting I did get a bit fed up with having the shop broken into a couple of times but then I sold the shop anyhow. Then my house was broken into a couple of times and, and then I think I had my car broken into two or three times. So I thought well yes, I think I’ll agree. We’ll move. And my wife wanted to go down to Devon and, and I thought it’s nice. I like Devon. But I didn’t think I wanted to go that far the other end of the country you see. Anyhow, someone she knew suggested there was someone was building these houses just up this road and so we came through and had a look and decided to have one and I asked how much it would be. He said, ‘I’ll work you a price out.’ And this was in the middle of the summer and I always remember we got the price just as we were coming up to see you at Christmas. And so, after the Christmas we went, but unfortunately we couldn’t sell our other house it was just, so we had to let it go. So I had to ring the solicitor up and say we can’t go ahead with this and then the estate agents kept sending me a brochure and I looked at it one night when one came and I said, we’d sold our house in the meanwhile and I said [unclear] does this sound familiar to you, “In the village of Lonchinver, a three bedroom bungalow newly built. Just requires the purchaser to choose the bathroom and kitchen fittings.” That sounds like our house or what would have been our house and so I rang up and sure enough it was. So we came through to see it and it wasn’t quite like that. There was no walls up. It had a roof on but however we decided then we’d sort of decided we would move so we moved up over here. And that would be in nineteen, in 1991. So I’ve been here twenty six year now.
GT: Grandchildren?
TF: Two. One in Edinburgh and one in Aberdeen.
GT: Wow. Very good. And and in your retirement did you settle and golf, tennis, bowls?
TF: No. I I was never, never very keen on golf. No. I got, I bought a touring, a small touring caravan and we, we always went, we went once a year or two to a reunion and then went went away in the caravan about a month each year and a few weekends. And then I joined the Aircrew Association and they used to have some quite nice little breaks. About four day breaks. They were often connected with flying but not necessarily. Went down to Duxford for a few days. Up to the Scottish Memorial at East Fortune and Mildenhall.
GT: Was the Air Force Association something that was important to you after serving in the RAF?
TF: Not the Air Force Association itself but the Aircrew Association was. I suppose there were so many people in the Air Force Association and I did join actually. I more or less had to because they [laughs] they asked me to decorate their premises out and when they discovered that I’d been in the Air Force I really didn’t have any alternative but to join. But it wasn’t what I expected. It was merely a place to go and drink and a lot of the people they weren’t, hadn’t been in the Air Force anyhow. It was just, just a club to go drinking. But that wasn’t what I was looking for. But when I heard of the Aircrew Association I, it was a lady that my wife knew mentioned it and she said, ‘We have some really nice outings and get togethers. Why don’t you ask your husband if he wants to join?’’ So she mentioned it to me and then a few weeks later she said, ‘I’ll be seeing —' so and so, ‘This afternoon. What do I tell her? She’s sure to ask us if you would like to join.’ I said, ‘Tell her yes I would like to join. So, the following day a telephone call from the secretary and he said, ‘I understand you’re interested.’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ He said, ‘Yes, well. You were in the RAF.’ I said, ‘Oh yes, I definitely was.’ He said, ‘Do you know your number?’ I said, ‘Yes, I still know my number.’ And he said, ‘Were you aircrew? By that I mean not just did you fly but were you qualified?’ And I said, ‘Oh, yes.’ He said, ‘Well, I’ll make enquiries and we’ll be in touch.’ And obviously went to find out whether or not I’d actually, the bloke finally came back and he said, [unclear] so, ‘Would you like to come to our Christmas lunch?’ Which I did do. And well, regular quite regular lunches. Often here or down at the Valley and in the, in Dumfries. And then there was a monthly meeting so that was a regular thing then. But no, I never went in for golf or tennis or anything like that.
GT: What about air shows? Do you still, do you still look at the different aircraft that the aircraft are flying today? Of any interest?
TF: Not really. Not the ones today. I’ve always been more interested in in the old ones. In fact, there’s the Heathhall Airfield still have an aircraft museum and we are going there on Sunday, aren’t we? But yeah.
GT: And have you been to East Kirkby or Hendon or Coningsby where the Lancaster is?
TF: Yes. I went over to Coningsby and I saw the Lancaster in the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
GT: Fabulous. And —
TF: And that’s it. We were standing underneath it.
GT: Very good. So, your crew you mentioned that one of your crew members managed to get hold of you. So are your crew still about?
TF: No. I’m the only one left.
GT: You’re the last one surviving, eh?
TF: I’m the last one surviving. Ironically I was the oldest.
GT: Gosh. Yeah.
TF: I think at twenty two I was the old man of the crew.
GT: Do you think bomb aimer was was the job for you in the end? Did it work for you?
TF: It worked quite well yes. I mean. I quite, I would have been quite happy as a pilot but I realised that I was not in the position to be able if, if a plane got in to difficulties to get it out. Flying straight and level I could cope with quite well but if something happened you know I wouldn’t have been any use at all. And navigator? Well, bomb aimer and navigator were the same thing really. I think the only difference was the navigator did, went deeper into it and they did a thing called a square search which we never never did. But I mean we were expected to be able to navigate a plane. I mean, as an example we were flying in a Lancaster once and the radio operator says there, ‘Skip, the wireless if off. The radio. I can’t get anything on it at all.’ So, Johnny called and said, ‘Well, really you know we’re not supposed to fly over the sea without radio. What do you think, Eric?’ That was to the navigator. ‘Oh, press on.’ ‘What do you think Thomas?’ ‘Oh, press on regardless. Not a little thing like a radio going to stop us.’ So, we did and that was alright. And then suddenly there was a shout from Len, ‘Hey skip, port engine’s gone. Oil pressure’s right gone. There’s no pressure there at all.’ Oh, feather the port inner.’ And then it wasn’t very long before, The starboard engine’s now gone.’ So [laughs] so things looked to be getting bad. So we had two, just two engines and at the same time I heard the navigator, I think the navigator swearing away to himself you see and he said, ‘Oh skipper, the H2S is not working.’ And Dennis says, ‘Oh, well Tom will take over the navigating now.’ I said, ‘I’m sorry but Gee’s not working either.’ So, he says, well we had to get back to the old method of, of getting a bearing where you could and a course and came back to North Luffenham and called up on the radio. That was the one where you sent Morse messages out but plain talk on the other one was ok. And Johnny calls up and requests permission to land and they said, ‘We’re sorry. You can’t land here. There’s too thick fog so you can go to —’ It was somewhere near Oxford, and they gave us a course to fly if we went down there and we got there and then it was quite exciting in a way because you heard the flying control say to, ‘Clear all aircraft off. Emergency landing.’ And Johnny had called up and said, ‘Well, we’ve only got two engines. So yes. Emergency.’ And you saw the crash tent and ambulance coming up to meet us at the end of the runway and then race to be alongside us and you thought ee gosh, you know, in a couple of minutes time I could be in the back of that ambulance. Or I might just be walking away. So I think I’d better get down in to a crash position and go down with my back to the main spar and then thankfully you felt a bump bump bump. We’re down now. We’re alright.
GT: Because your bomb aimer’s position is lying prone in the nose, isn’t it?
TF: With your back on to the main spar.
GT: Yeah.
TF: In the event of an emergency the bomb aimer gets the, lifts the first aid kit off the hook and takes a chopping axe off it’s thing. Stuffs them down in the front of his battledress and gets your back of the main spar and then that’s it.
GT: I can’t think of anything worse that’s going to kill you it’s an axe stuffed in your pocket. Yeah. Well, well Tom is it, you’ve given us such an amazing amount of your recollections and your time obviously the war finished before you got a chance —
TF: Finished. Yes.
GT: To do any operations per se but do you remember any of your friends that that got on operations? Did anybody talk to you about what they saw? What happened.
TF: Well, one thing I do remember is that after that I volunteered to be a flight mechanic air gunner and then the CO’d recommended for pilot training. I’d been down, had a selection board, came back there was a thing came out, “Would flight mechanic volunteer to change to flight engineer?’ And my friend did that. Changed to flight engineer and he was away, oh I had only just started my training when he was away and trained and we kept in touch. We always wrote and, and then he got, he brought the plane back from Germany and got a Distinguished Flying Medal when the pilot was killed. And I looked a bit surprised to see when he put it on his letterhead. He was still [unclear] DFM and then, I was just starting really. Just starting probably two or three years past Cambridge when I’d kept in touch as I say and I wrote to him and I got the letter back and it was just marked, “Return to Sender.” And it had been opened, got my address out and sent back and he, obviously the reason for that was that he hadn’t come back. And when we were at Lincoln I looked at the [pause] at the Memorial numbers and sure enough his name was on. So he, he’d actually gone on ops, it would only be a few weeks training at St Athans and he’d gone on ops and I hadn’t even finished, hadn’t even got down to flying training.
GT: So as a flight engineer he got on to ops pretty much straight away.
TF: Straightaway.
GT: He was.
TF: He didn’t do, didn’t do any flying training. Didn’t do any OTU or anything like that. Just go straight to a squadron.
GT: Do you think that saved your life then?
TF: Or possibly might have been to Heavy Conversion Unit.
GT: Do you, you consider then that because that would have been say perhaps a year and a half’s worth of the war if you didn’t choose flight engineer. Could that have saved your life too, do you think?
TF: It could have done. Yes. If I hadn’t, if I hadn’t picked the flight mechanic engineer and got recommended for pilot training if I hadn’t done that I would have automatically probably have gone with him and just been a flight engineer. Actually, I did wonder about changing when he went. And then I thought well look you’ve had this altered in your paybook from now I would say trade or category FME UT PNB and you’d also a bomb aimer and a pilot navigator were a higher category than a flight engineer and you got a better pay so I thought well, I’d better just let things go. But yes, it was a very lucky, lucky thing to happen.
GT: Yeah. Tom, you still have your logbook.
TF: Ah huh.
GT: It’s ok. So have you given a copy of this to the IBCC?
TF: No.
GT: Because I can arrange if that’s the case. If you have not then we can arrange for that.
TF: I, the, the museum up at Heathhall took a photostat copy of it.
GT: They might have that in their local files but the IBCC are very keen to, to be able to copy yours in a high resolution file and as a point of note for the recording Tom is showing me photographs of his crew both at the time of training and also later on in nineteen ninety, nineteen ninety something there.
TF: 1991.
GT: Yeah. In front of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight aircraft which looks like Coningsby.
TF: It is, yeah.
GT: Yeah. Coningsby. So, so Tom would you, would you like to also approve that copies of these photographs can also go to the IBCC?
TF: Yes. Yeah.
GT: Fabulous. Right.
TF: Went to, went to the first reunion we had was at Woodhall Spa which is just a few miles from Coningsby and had arranged that we would see the Battle of Britain of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster and they’d also arranged that we would go in it. And we all went in and took up our respective positions. One in the rear turret, mid-upper turret. Me down in the bomb, in the bomb section and there was it seemed to me, I don’t know where they came from but there was an awful lot of people snapping photos of us in there and they said, ‘That’s the first time ever that we’ve ever had a complete crew come.’ They said, ‘Plenty of people come but never as a complete crew.’ So that was at, at Coningsby at our first reunion.
GT: So, when you left your crew how long did they stay together after that?
TF: Oh, it was a matter of days.
GT: Oh, it was. Ok. So, it wasn’t —
TF: Well, one, one went as a airfield control. Another one went in charge of a group of German prisoners to close an airfield down and transfer all, all the goods up to, to somewhere else. And apparently I gather, that he had only problem tracing two. And one was the mid-upper gunner. A Welsh boy. And he knew he was Welsh so he put something in the Cardiff, in the Cardiff newspaper and, but the boy himself didn’t see it but his ex-wife saw it and thought that sounds as if it could be Terry and told him. And he was very cagey about it. He was wondering [laughs] what the reason why he was ringing him up about.
GT: Fascinating. Well, Tom, I I think you have duly covered your career, your life your service very well and it’s been an honour and a pleasure to come and interview you today and I’m going to make sure that this copy gets to the IBCC by next week and I’m sure that you’ll receive some form of communication from them. So —
TF: Ah huh.
GT: But it’s, it’s been a great afternoon so thank you very much. We’re also going to get some photographs and —
TF: I might also add that we did get a little bit of a bit of a reward in as much that in nineteen, in 2005 was it the Lottery granted money for people to visit when they’d served anywhere abroad and at, I went to Canada. And then again in 2010.
GT: And you visited your, the previous Training Schools where you were.
TF: Yes, because it turned out that the Navigation School was now Toronto Airport.
GT: So that was pretty easy to go back and see the Commonwealth Training Scheme areas.
TF: And then we did another one in 2010. About seven years ago now, wasn’t it? Oh, we did another one and in this case they said you can take the, they would pay the cost for a carer to go as well. [unclear] asked if she would be a carer for us.
GT: So, have you been to the Bomber Command Memorial in London yet?
TF: Not in London.
GT: Ok.
TF: Just the one in Lincoln.
GT: So, you’ve been to Lincoln and you’ve seen the Spire. What do you think of the Spire?
TF: Well, it makes you realise the Lancaster’s wingspan is very, it’s quite wide. Yes its, its quite good. Actually, I thought the whole set up that they had at this opening ceremony had been very well thought out and was quite well, really well organised.
GT: And you are prepared and getting ready to go to the opening of the archives building, Chadwick Hall. And that will be early in 2018. Just coming up.
TF: I don’t, I wouldn’t know. I doubt if I’ll be at that time but I —
GT: Oh well, I can promise you Tom that your record that you’ve just been telling me today will be in the IBCC Archives and they’ll be, they’ll be honoured and thanking you very much for that. So, I think we can, we can safely say that I can now complete the interview with you, Tom.
TF: Ah huh.
GT: And thank you very much.
TF: Not at all.
GT: For your time. So, this was Thomas Fisher and I have been in the company of Diana Harrington and Julian McLennan and this is Glen Turner who has come to interview Tom today. My service was Royal New Zealand Air Force for thirty years as an armaments technician, so now secretary of 75 Squadron Association I am honoured and pleased to help out the IBCC with interviews of the Bomber Command crews from World War Two. Signing off. Thank you very much.
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Interview with Thomas Fisher
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Glen Turner
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-07-26
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AFisherT170726, PFisherT1701
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Pending review
Pending revision of OH transcription
Format
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02:04:40 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Spatial Coverage
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Great Britain
England--Lincolnshire
Wales--Glamorgan
Description
An account of the resource
Thomas Fisher trained initially as a fitter in the RAF. When the Air Ministry announced that flight engineers were needed from the ranks of the ground mechanics he volunteered for training. The CO was surprised that he volunteered and asked him if it was only because he wanted to fly. If so he should apply to train as a pilot. Thomas didn’t have a school certificate but the CO encouraged his application anyway and Thomas began training. He enjoyed the flying but not having to do emergency manoeuvres. Initially, Thomas was working as a fitter for 92 Squadron at RAF Digby on Spitfires. He then was posted to 417 Squadron at RAF Charmy Down. He then was posted to 14 Group Headquarters at Inverness. He joined Bomber Command as a bomb aimer and was prepared to join Tiger Force.
Temporal Coverage
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1942
1944-07-04
1945
Contributor
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Julie Williams
20 OTU
21 OTU
aircrew
Anson
bomb aimer
bombing
flight engineer
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
Heavy Conversion Unit
Lancaster
Operational Training Unit
RAF Digby
RAF Lossiemouth
RAF Moreton in the Marsh
RAF St Athan
Spitfire
Sunderland
Tiger force
training
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https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/870/11111/AHextellGJE160104.2.mp3
37d80c475d2be9fba2485ea100ad6789
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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Hextell, George
George Joseph Edwin Hextell
G J E Hextell
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Warrant Officer George Hextell (1141319 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a flight engineer with 51 Squadron and became a prisoner of war.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-01-04
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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Hextell, GJE
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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GH: Yes well, I’m [unclear] Hextell, Hextell, I was a WO, my number 1141319.
MJ: So, how did you manage to get into the RAF then?
GH: How did I manage to get into this? Well, as I say, I was conscription, in 1940, all called up, all the people, the young people, and then I was [unclear] going to be dragged into the army, I thought when I got into the RAF I couldn’t be a pilot, cause I thought, I haven’t got the education for that, I going underground staff cause I worked in a factory, Morris motors, in Birmingham and I went into Birmingham and signed up one Saturday lunchtime, I hadn’t finished my job, and I wanted to know what happened to me cause I was called up after two or three days and posted to Warrington Padgate RAF training station where I did my square bashing and all that stuff and as I say, I hadn’t packed my job and eventually my mother had to get into the factory and tell the bastards I had joined, what did he do that for? They said, you know, there was a job here for him, if he wants it, I thought, no, so I trained as a flight mechanic, cause I was interested in wheels [unclear] and cars and engines and I went to after about three or four months at Padgate I was posted to number 5 school of technical training at Locking in Somerset and I went on a course on engines and aircraft there, you know, and I was there till end of 1941 and I passed out after that was posted to Scotland, Castletown, right up in the north of Scotland, you could almost see Norway, from where we were but we were only there about two or three weeks and [unclear] library, not doing much, any odd jobs and then we were eventually posted, as I say, to number 5 school of technical training Somerset, big long train ride down from up in Scotland and, I was there till the end of 1941 as I say when I got posted to Scotland and all I did, I worked and see all these different engines and aircraft, you know, worked on the Merlin engine, you know, and when I’d finished that they sent me to a maintenance echelon in Kent, [unclear] End, I worked on the maintenance echelon, squadrons came and went but I, we’re always permanent there like, you know, and Spitfires and all I could remember during there the Battle of Dieppe, when they landed in Dieppe in 1942, that was in September, that was disastrous, I remember that morning and I got up early, about five o’clock as something was on but nobody, oh, the second front started but that’s what it was, it turned out to be, Dieppe and they after the German [unclear] headquarters at Lorient and of course a lot of casualties, a lot of Canadian soldiers took part, a lot got killed, lot got captured and [unclear] after that we went to, so Dieppe, we just servicing the Spitfires that’s all, I was an engineman and we just served the Merlin engine up you know and it was good but, stop there for [unclear]. Well it was [unclear] at Gravesend but one day the engineer officer called us all in and wanted to know who wanted volunteer as flight engineers on the four engine aircraft that were coming into service, the Lanc, Halifax and the Stirling and of course there was three of us there, I put me name down for it, and I said, oh I can’t do any [unclear] but I was the only one who passed the medical, we had to go up to Euston House in London, aircrew candidate selection board and they explained to us all about how to fly, you know, [unclear] up and dark nights and flying over the oceans and that, you know and [unclear] and all this kind of thing you know but I went through with it and I was sent to St Athans in South Wales near [unclear], Cardiff and I did a course there and these four engine bombers would come in and they what they wanted to know was, there was a great big crowd of us volunteered and all the chaps going in for the Lancaster, you know, cause it got a famous name but and the squadron leader, I remember, he got us all lined up in the hangar, a big long queue of us and he said to stop any argument about who wants to go on, which was the best aircraft. He divided us up into three and he said that’s it, Stirlings, Halifaxes, Lancasters. Well, I got the Halifax, I went into the Halifax, and that’s how I came to be trained, trained at St Athans. And that’s a while I was posted to Marston Moor into Yorkshire and that was a conversion unit, number ten conversion unit and where pilots and aircrew met up and cause you see the crew I got in eventually had been flying on Whitleys then at St Eval in Cornwall on Coastal Command but they all stuck together and of course I was coming up [unclear] a conversion unit so it was there I turned up with them and became the flight engineer and of course there was seven of us in the crew, pilot, navigator, bomb aimer, rear gunner, mid upper gunner and all like that and that’s how I came to be with 51 Squadron. But it was only [unclear] I don’t know what they’d done before but, quite a bit before we went on our operations but the first operation we went on was mine laying off the Dutch coast, dropping mines in the sea and we used to have a naval officer explaining how important it was just [unclear] dropping it in the right place and the right height and all this kind of thing, that was the first flight I flew but of course I did many, we did many hours [unclear] circuit and bombs training, I mean the pilot was, all the crew was getting trained and I was getting trained as well in [unclear] that’s how I came to be with them but as I say the 51 squadron was only like just four men, and there was not many before, you see, you know a lot of names but I didn’t know many because I wasn’t there that long and I went there in the end of January ’43 and we went on, I went on two bombing raids with a crew, with our crew to Lorient in France and one night I went with my own crew and another time I stood in for somebody who was absent for another crew, they’re all officers, pilots, navigators, they was all officers, and I flew with them and I remember the first night we went on, we got back at about three o’clock in the morning and we couldn’t get back to our [unclear] I was stationed at Snaith in Yorkshire, East Yorkshire and couldn’t get back on our own drome so we had to land at Stowe-in-the-Wold in Gloucestershire and everybody, I think it was the first time I’ve seen these giant four engine bombers, you know, and all the people came out and looked at it, they were a big aircraft it was and after that I came to be [unclear] but as I say we did two operations in Lorient but that’s all I did and I just saw the operation mine laying, two to Lorient and on the fourth operation we did on Dusseldorf on the 27th of January ‘43 and I thought, oh, blimey, that’s done it, cause the briefing officer told us it was a heavily defended area, well we knew that because of all the Ruhr and all the places around there, Essen and all those places, I mean, it’s taken a heavy toll of our aircraft but of course it, well, it didn’t bother me and you know, but I thought we’ll get through it alright. But we were shot down over Holland, got over the North Sea alright into Holland, never heard a word, everything quiet and then next thing, I was sitting, I was standing in the middle of the fuselage, putting a flare in a flare shoot for taking photos with the cameras, you know, when the bombs dropped and whilst I stood there all of a sudden on the starboard side, right that at [unclear] machine gun bullets you know [mimics machine gun fire] couldn’t believe it, you know, couldn’t understand it, [unclear] one side or the other, he caught the port engine which controls all the hydraulics and pumps and that and the aircraft and I thought, oh, that was, looking into the astrodome it caught fire, the wing caught fire and I was horrified and the pilot was trying to save it but the aircraft you know dodged about and that but we were going down and we were all rushing, putting our parachutes on and the next thing I knew was I was flying through the air and the second pilot was a New Zealander, he explained it he could he’s written a little book about from where he came from in New Zealand who landed off, and as we were blown out, I was blown out, there was three of us out of the seven and three escaped, the New Zealander, our wireless operator and myself, the other four chaps got killed, pilot, navigator, the bomb aimer and rear gunner. I’ve never heard a word from them at all. And it was in Mill in Holland, place called Mill and it was five past six took off and from up in Yorkshire, ten past eight I was in a prison cell in Holland. Germans wanted to know, you know, why come bombing our women and children, and all I said, well, for the simple reason that you are coming and bombing our women and children and then of course they [unclear] interrogated me and I was there about a week I think and we went to the Dulag Luft interrogation centre and were there a while. Then they sent us to Amsterdam in a big prison, a big prison or whatever it was, big [unclear] and we were locked up in solitary confinement and had a lot of questions asked, you know, and were there about a week and one Sunday they transferred us from Amsterdam onto a train to take us to in [unclear] was Stalag VIII-B but they renamed it later Stalag 344 because Sagan, the Stalag Luft 3 where the air, the air people, where the aircrew prisoners went, they were full, the two, to many, so I had to go to a Stalag but this was at Lamsdorf in Upper Silesia near the Polish border, what’s the name? [unclear] I think or something like that and that was where I ended up but I know the night we flew, we had a brand new aircraft, it had only come from the manufacturers the day before but it hadn’t got a mid-upper turret [unclear] you got [unclear] hadn’t got a mid-upper turret on this particular one, the wing commander said it will give you more speed and all the rest of it you know and [unclear] he didn’t need a mid-upper gunner, so Taffy Jones, our mid-upper gunner he didn’t fly with us that night, he got away with it but as I say, I mentioned a second pilot, but I forgot to mention that before we took off at six o’clock at night from Snaith and staff come up and the group captain came up with this chap and he was a New Zealander, Jack Cardey and he said, I want this chap to fly with you tonight, he said, it’ll give him a bit of experience and that was the first time we met him and he got on board and that was his experience, he became a POW, and I’ve heard from him once or twice but not lately but yes, that’s how I came to be in Poland. Yes, capacity of the Halifax I think it was eleven hundred and ninty gallons but the first flight engineer, the idea was to run the engines as quickly as possible, to have the throttles open all the time, you know, to give, put [unclear] and get the engines to performing properly and another thing before take-off you were testing your engines before one by one and ramp them up to about three thousand ribs [unclear] a minute and then switch one of the magnetos off, there’d be a drop of one of the rears, I think, what was it so many percent, five percent was it, you were allowed if you that went below that [unclear] was faulty, yes, all the four engines [unclear] two magneto on each side of the Merlin was a marvellous engine [unclear] this is a backdrop somewhere ok, ok for take-off. Yes, it was quite an experience but we got through it alright and as I say with Jack Cardey, second pilot who flew with us, he didn’t act as a pilot, as I say, he was only a passenger, he was more than a passenger than I was. But he was in the Royal New Zealand Air Force and I think he’d come from Wellingtons and flown Wellingtons before. And of course at Snaith where I was stationed, 51 Squadron, they’d done all our operations from there and we hadn’t been there for long, as I say, there was only like just four men squadron up and I didn’t know any of the people that went before, you know, I mean, you just mentioned I knew a lot of people who [unclear], well I wouldn’t know, I think I knew about two, a Canadian, [unclear] Stewart or somebody like that and I know I went to Berlin one night and back or something, Slim Stewart, he was a Canadian, but no, as I say, I didn’t have enough time there to get to know anybody, I knew the group captain Grey, he was a station commander, I was in b flights squadron leader Moore, [unclear] Moore, h flights was name Russell, squadron leader Russell, and quite alright, yes I was, but as I say, we didn’t do many operations but [unclear] good the Germans were, night fighters, defences and that and as I say, we didn’t know this fighter was creeping up on us, never heard a word, never heard a word from the rear gunnery and I was horrified as I stood there and saw the tracer coming through the fuselage, you know, it caught fire, but as I say, we were blown out, that how [unclear] Netherland the cottage to walk up to the door and by [unclear] you do see these [unclear] but I was found myself floating through the air, and I saw lights going out in front of me going round and round a big roulette wheel, always remember it, and I was [unclear] I better pull this, the ripcord and I landed as I thought was a field but it was a bit of a built up area than that and I laid there for a bit I thought [unclear] a fine death or [unclear] something like that you know people come running up the Dutch farmer and he came up to me and I said, where am I? Where am I? And he said, Nederland, Nederland, I thought, where the hell is that, suddenly dropped the Netherlands, you know, and up to his house, he’s got two young daughters, they’re all clever [unclear] they brought [unclear] and money and souvenirs and [unclear] but they said that there was a couple of priests there who [unclear] quickly, they said, we’ll hide this, you know, that [unclear] a parachute and I said, we’ll have to notify the Dutch police, I presume they had to do it with any prisoners, there was a Lancaster shot down in the same area at the same time cause they picked the crew up with us and we were in this Dutch policeman’s house, he’s a Dutch police and I said notify them and he said, well, we’ll have to notify the Germans and they sent a minibus and when they opened up the doors, there was George Farmer, our wireless operator, he was a member of our crew and he’s a New Zealander and also a Lancaster crew as well, I think they were all intact, they picked them up in the same area and next thing I say I was being interrogated at a local station wanted to know where I’d come from, what the squadron was, bomb load was carrying, what [unclear] was and everything else, where you’re stationed, you know, and all that kind of business and yeah and as I say, I spent the night [unclear] and fetched up in front of this chap of the Luftwaffe, he wanted to know every day where we come from and what we were doing and all the rest of it, next thing we went to Dulag Luft [unclear] interrogation the treating of all the and then Dulag Luft, went to Amsterdam and I saw the big army place there, our second pilot, he’s been since the end of the war [unclear] travel I don’t know but I mean [unclear] we’ve been to Holland and we’ve sorted the place out with the war graves commission, we’ve been to the scene where our four chaps were buried because we had to identify them, cause the Germans said, you have to come and identify your crew and that got to [unclear] a church or somewhere and they took us down and there was four wooden coffins and there were the bodies lying in there and I said early, most of identify to let the people know, you know, but I couldn’t look at them because it upset me but [unclear] Farmer, our wireless op, he was thirteen years older than me, a bit more mature and he identified them, apparently they are buried in an air force base but after a while we in Holland that they buried them in this place where we went on a weekend in May and May is a big [unclear] first two or three days in May there were all flags flying out in Holland and, you know, as I know you come from England they will treat you well and really good. [unclear] Well, what I would like to do is to, you mentioned one chap [unclear] where he went to, I want to know how many miles we did from when we came after the camp in 1945 on that march, I mean, the names of the first, we went to Lamsdorf on the 22nd of January 1945, we could hear the Russian gunfire on the Eastern Front [unclear] and an Anson came over the Channel to evacuate the camp and we got ready to move out, we got nothing, bits of food stored up, which we took with us and out to the dark then they found us a barn, they herded us all in this barn, that’s where we slept and that’s we did, [unclear] months and months and as I say, it was the 22nd of January and [unclear] about April time before we never knew where we were like you know, I didn’t know then, I should have loved to know, I know the name of some of the important towns as Gorlitz, went from Lamsdorf to Gorlitz, oh, that was a terrible place, [unclear] Russian prisoners there, they treated them like, well, dogs, [unclear], never forget, filthy place [unclear] about a week and then moved us on the road, we never went to another camp, we went to, I can remember Jena, you know where, there are the famous optical lense [unclear] and what is the other place, where they did the porcelain? In German, Meissen [unclear], Meissen, heard about Meissen ceramic wares, marvellous, innit? [unclear] To plot the route we took and what we covered many miles [unclear] I said, end of January in April ’45 and the Germans got to be [unclear] you know and they used to catch you every morning, every night but I was with three of the [unclear] family wireless operator and we met up with another chap who was a [unclear] bloke some kind of destroyer in the Mediterranean and he decided to leave the company [unclear] like you know and we stayed, they put us in a barn one night and we stayed up there all the next day until it got dark, then we headed across the fields cause one got a compass, we could hear the Russian gunfire on our right in the East we could hear the Allied gunfire, the Americans and British on the left and we headed towards them and I know it was a terrible cold [unclear] in the [unclear] it was one of the coldest winters that I experienced.
MJ: Did you have a coat this time?
GH: Pardon?
MJ: Were you lucky enough to have a coat?
GH: A coat?
MJ: Yeah.
GH: Yes, I had a grey coat, yes, had a grey coat and one of us got a [unclear], a little [unclear] or a little saucepan. And I remember, the next morning when we woke, we [unclear] in this forest, we woke up, decided to have a cup of tea, [unclear] now we had a cup of tea, we lit a fire, made this tea and after a bit we sent a German, young German officer coming across, we thought, [unclear], this is the end, you know, [unclear] come around and put you hands up but all he said, he knew we were British and all he said was, don’t forget to put the fire out when you’re finished cause the smoke will attract aircraft in [unclear] always remembered saying that and we thought, oh, we got away with it, he got his Luger on the side, you know, he could have shot us easy, there’s four of us and the next day we saw a bloke, we were near a village, we saw a bloke with a big loaf of bread, a big cart with a loaf of bread, and we wondered where this bread had come from and we stopped him and asked him and he says, American tanks and troops so many kilometres down there, is the Third American army, the sixth army division, the Third American Army, General Patton and it was they who took care of us, they wanted us to go with them, they got a spearhead going through towards [unclear], come with us, they said, I said, no, we want to go home, we want to get back to England and they took us day by day, with these big six wheeler transport used to bring the supplies in, they took us back a few miles each day towards Paris and that, that’s where we finished up in Paris, one [unclear] did the time, that flew us from Paris to, forget the place now, I remember we had lunch [unclear] fish our fish is the best of all the Sunday lunch I’ve ever known, interrogated as quarter [unclear] as regards the performance of the aircraft, any spies, any stool pigeons, anybody like that, it was a bloke, forget his name, dammit, he was notorious but then I knew all about him and I don’t know what happened to him. But yes that was Lamsdorf for [unclear] yes. As I say, German officers sent for us, sent for me one day and in the main office and there was a German guard behind me walking with his rifle always walking behind you [unclear] shoot me but he wanted to know what my attitude was to the Russians, what my attitude was to the Russians, now they were dead scared of the Russians, yes, dead scared of the Russians, what do you think? I said, [unclear] if they attacked England, you know, I joined up and attacked them like to defend the country [unclear] saying that you know, wanted to know what my attitude was [unclear], I don’t know If I was the only one but they sent me two or three times and I, he was American cause he said to me, he said I’m a goddam American in the German, the German army, you know, and I could say, what are you doing in the German army [unclear] and things like that [unclear] I don’t know but that did happen, yes, want to know what your attitude was, what the British attitude to the Russians were, was alright, the Russians were alright, yes [coughs]. [unclear] to the camp, the barb wire, look out through the barb wire, see the typical German trees and the greenery enough in the spring and summer was nice, in the winter was bloody awful, I mean, there’s a [unclear] and you could hear the dogs patrolling the outside of the guard [unclear] you know, and there are all lights [unclear] and you went in the door of the hut, was a great big bulk kind of thing that they used in the night in case you had to [unclear] you know you couldn’t [unclear] the compound the [unclear] conditions were bloody helpless, just a [unclear] shed with a lot of wooden seats with [unclear], no cover, it’s not awful in the summer, terrible at [unclear] you know and it was whilst speaking earlier about the Dieppe prisoners, the Canadians, a lot of French Canadians killed and I reckoned, the Germans reckoned that our people took the German prisoners and chained them up with the result that we finished up in chains, you could just get under your pocket, handcuff [unclear] and you walk about like that, you sat, you sat [unclear] every morning, detail two or three blokes [unclear] big [unclear] all the chain across and bring them up from the office and then put them on you know, you walk about like that all day and if you wanted to tend to the nightshift, you get somebody of the German to unlock them, [unclear], we did all that, did all that and the parcels, [unclear] they were coming through but of course had always blame the RAF for bombing the railways or the Russians, was always blaming them, [unclear] the parcels, what you expect, we can’t get the transport, you’re bombing the railways and all that business but when we did get them, I mean, used to go down and I mean, I forget what country [unclear] parcel [unclear] us but perhaps put a pair of socks inside, just a pair of socks and [unclear] chocolate and cigarettes and of course the Germans all that when they used to go in the office and collect the parcels, this is a private parcel [unclear] that I [unclear] and cigarettes had stuck in [unclear] any messages inside and things like that you know and yeah and oh there’s a lot of chocolate, well of course that was the currency, soap and chocolate, you could get away with it, if you could bribe the Germans with that definitely and one of the blokes did and then another thing, you could go out on a working party if you wanted, if you felt that way inclined, go out on a working party, you’d pick somebody who looked you like [unclear] same way [unclear] and all this stuff and [unclear] identity, I’d go and [unclear] you [unclear] on a German farm, you know, work on a farm, get food and all that, get as much food as I wanted, you know, [unclear] like that, yeah, but we had the chance to do all that but [unclear] what you do to your [unclear] and I [unclear] by going, you know, to work you’re helping them, if you’re not, you’re not helping them and that was the idea but the parcels obviously they [unclear] parcel pretty good and milk and all that kind of stuff and there used to be one [unclear] every week was the M & V meat and veg bourse, they decided the cook house, the British blokes working in the cook house [unclear] German, they take a tin of meat and vegetable out to you parcel every week and cook it up for you kind of business that used to be great but of course there was a lot of racket going down there with blokes pinching more than one tin and all that, you say lot of that going on meat and veg always [unclear] and but we still lived alright work in twos parcel you get a parcel two a week [unclear] Tuesday or Thursday I think he does and collect the parcel and two of us living on the one parcel for two or three days and they try and get another one [unclear] part of our beds, there’s a little, have a little cupboard and a shelf and tins of this and tins of that and tins the other and cause I remember when [laughs] we had, came over the tannoy that we got load the camp at two o’clock in the afternoon the German commandant came over and he said that, you know, you gotta be ready for two o’clock, it was all queuing [unclear] all blankets and all that, you know, and we got tins of condense milk and all that kind of stuff [unclear] you know I remember I was sick of the bloody[unclear] wouldn’t let it fall under the Germans or under the Russians and, yeah, we took all this food and when they threw us, the first night when they threw us into this barn, great big barn, with straw on the floor and no lights and anything, no [unclear] and nothing like that and I felt sick and I wanted to be sick and I remember I got some new handkerchiefs had been more than seven days before and I was sitting all these handkerchiefs and that, you know, I’ll always remember that, sick as an [unclear], get up the next morning, you don’t know where you are going, what you were doing, I asked for a drink of water, no one would give you one, someone would give you drink of water, others wouldn’t, had promised you some [unclear] potatoes, cooked potatoes in big wicker baskets at the end of the day but you never got at the end of the day, you never got them, cause I [unclear] one or two of the German officers I reported it [unclear] one of them books down there I mentioned his name [unclear] what his name was but what happened I don’t know but they weren’t very, as I say, they never treated us, they never treated us too bad, anybody getting beat up or anything, cause lots of people, as you say, [unclear] to us, French Canadians captured at Dieppe, there were Sikhs and Indians and all kinds of, Palestinians [unclear] a year, the interrogator, he was a Palestinian, [unclear] Zelba, I don’t remember his name, and he used to do all our deals for [unclear], he used to get us a bit more coal to put [unclear] brickets to put on the stove, in the [unclear], you know to keep warm and we used to give him cigarettes and [unclear] and he used to bribe the German guard, he could speak German, he was born in Hamburg, as I say, he joined, he was with the RAF in Cyprus, and when Cyprus fell of course he was captured [unclear] Germany [unclear] collect cigarettes and all that, that’s how we used to get our stuff, listen to the radio every night [unclear] the bulletin come round, anybody caught with radios [unclear] every so often they would come and have a search they turn you all outside on a day like this, they turn outside early in the morning and they’d be out there all the bloody day, turning all your bed was ripped out, all that, you know [unclear] and put in detention, you know, and he ran away and the Jerry guard on a, it was on a Sunday and we was all lined up outside we saw all this going on and he ran away the chap did and the German guard got down on his knees and shot this bloke you know, he told him to halt and all that but he wouldn’t and that was going out on working party, yeah, but of course we gotta a senior British medical officer in the camp and he used to look after and he complained [unclear] and the leader of the camp was a regimental sergeant major [unclear] during some [unclear] and he had the badge at the back of the camp because [unclear] artillery [unclear] once and they always wore the at the back [unclear] he’s a camp leader but, you see, he outer perimeter [unclear] look at the people strolling and on a Sunday afternoon in the summer, I was looking and also he was looking [unclear] and former [unclear] and they had a dance round there and you could study, got to night school and [unclear] did a bit of that but [unclear] a bit smoking and could have a bit of walk now and again, you know, yeah, waiting for the news every night how far the Russians had got, how far, yeah, it was an experience, but as I say, really [unclear] one thing trying to get [unclear] more to do a book on the great escape or something but it was written by the one of them Tornado pilots or navigator who got shot down and of course [unclear] the forty’s war was lighter and he [unclear] but [unclear] I can’t read properly although I do a lot of reading. I met a German air force officer and he stopped and talked to us, spoke perfectly English and he said he was sorry for what we’ve been treated and he got us for that night, he got us in his barracks kind of place, like a German naffy, we [unclear], we could eat a German eat [unclear] in their naffy and he got us some brickets to put on the stove and there was straw on the floor, pallet on the floor, and pack of ten or twenty Polish cigarettes [unclear] concession [unclear] for what we’ve been through and we’ve be going through cause that was a [unclear] German, I remember I loved to know where we went and how many miles w covered, I never got to know that [unclear] laughing but I was a bit more serious on that and of course I combed me hair and do myself up but when our working party went out that was the main gates past the office where all the girls worked, checking identities and that cause look at your photo and, you know, oh that’s not you, you’re somebody else and used to be play the band and then march out and I knew a couple of guards, officers, forget what I was in, was in the cavalry, I was six foot, very look smart when I went out and that was to intimidate the Germans cause I looked a real scruffy lad. I think it was on the route to, perhaps on the route to Lamsdorf and they put us in a waiting room and there was all German soldiers in their uniform sitting, all [unclear] drinking and eating but we had to head up the corner, was about half a dozen or more of us and I remember the pipes was on, was warm in there, I mentioned it was warm and this one German, he says, we’ll make you sweat before long, you know, make it hot for you, always remember that, we were there cornered up in the corner, no sitting at the tables, long long waiting [unclear] the station in the waiting room, no, they wouldn’t let us sit at the table, on the chairs [unclear] on the floor and when they took us to one Sunday lunch on they took us to get on the train to go to across to this camp, all the Dutch people was crowding round us cause we stood there in a circle, was guards there with the rifles just waiting for the train to come and the Dutch people would inquisitive, you know, and I was given just a [unclear] and laughing at the Germans backs, you know, [unclear] that them kind of things, you could see [unclear] definitely.
MJ: On behalf of the International Bomber Command I’d like to thank George Hextell, Warrant Officer, from Squadron 51 for his recording on the 4th of January 2016 at one thirty. Once again, thank you again.
GH: Right.
MJ: And that was one hour and
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with George Hextell
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Mick Jeffery
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-01-04
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
Identifier
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AHextellGJE160104
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Pending review
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00:55:04 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
George Hextell joined the RAF as a flight engineer and flew operations with 51 Squadron on Halifaxes. After being shot down over Holland, he became a prisoner of war. Gives a detailed account of how his capture, imprisonment and liberation. Describes various episodes from the POW camp Stalag VIIIB: living conditions; food barter; witnessing an attempted escape.
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Peter Schulze
Spatial Coverage
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France
Great Britain
Poland
Netherlands
France--Dieppe
Poland--Łambinowice
Temporal Coverage
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1940
1941
1942
1945
51 Squadron
aircrew
Dulag Luft
final resting place
flight engineer
flight mechanic
ground crew
Halifax
mechanics engine
mine laying
prisoner of war
RAF Marston Moor
RAF Padgate
RAF Snaith
RAF St Athan
recruitment
shot down
Spitfire
Stalag 8B
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1142/11698/AStathamR160627.1.mp3
595eec4c7681578967589def030c70b7
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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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Statham, Rex
R Statham
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Warrant Officer Rex Statham (b. 1924, 1861640 Royal Air Force). He flew operations as a flight engineer with 10 and 158 Squadrons.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-06-27
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Statham, R
Transcribed audio recording
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Transcription
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AM: Well right. So, first of all we’re here in Luton and it’s Monday the 27th of June 2016. This is Annie Moody for the International Bomber Command Centre. I’ve also got Gary Rushbrook with me and we’re talking today to Rex Statham.
RS: That’s right.
AM: So, I’ll tell you what, before we start can you just tell me what your date of birth was Rex?
RS: Yeah. The 25th of January 1924.
AM: 1924.
RS: Yeah.
AM: Right. And where were you born?
RS: In Luton.
AM: You were, you were born in Luton.
RS: Yeah. I think it was 37 Princess Street. I think it was. I’m not quite sure the number. I can’t remember it.
AM: Yeah.
RS: I didn’t see it.
AM: What’s that?
RS: We moved across the road after that.
AM: Right. What did your parents —
RS: When my dad died.
AM: I was going to say what did your parents do? So, what was your early life like?
RS: Well, my father got killed. We moved across the road. I think it was 37 to fifty —no it wouldn’t be 37 but we moved up to 51. That’s where I, that’s where I was born. 51 Princess Street.
AM: And, and then? So, what happened to your dad? What sort of work did he do?
RS: Well, he was in the hat trade. He was in the hat trade. He used to sell ribbons and all that sort of thing.
AM: Yeah.
RS: I don’t know, I don’t know quite what, what, a shop or whatever or if he travelled for somebody.
AM: Yeah.
RS: I’m not quite sure about that.
AM: What about brothers and sisters? How many of you were there?
RS: Never, never had any brothers and sisters.
AM: So just you and you were an only child.
RS: Yeah.
AM: And you said your dad died. So how old were you then?
RS: Yeah. He died. He got, he got knocked off his motorbike. And he died after that.
AM: How old were you then Rex? ‘ish?
RS: Oh crikey. I can’t quite remember. I don’t really know. I was only small. I can only just remember him.
AM: Yeah.
RS: I can’t remember. Probably about five or six. Maybe. Maybe not quite as old as that.
AM: So, so young.
RS: Yeah.
AM: So, what, what was your life like then then with your mum?
RS: Well, when, when he died we moved. After a time we moved across the road. Yeah. It must have been because, earlier because I can remember I wasn’t at school. We moved across the road to live with my grandmother and grandfather. They had a hat factory across the road. We moved into that. In to their place with them.
AM: Yeah. Because we’re talking pre-war so pre-national insurance.
RS: Oh crumbs, yes. Yeah.
AM: Or widow’s pension.
RS: Oh yes. Yeah.
AM: Or anything like that.
RS: Yeah. I don’t think she ever got that.
AM: No.
RS: Yeah. That was that. Moved across the road and I know that, I know that I got, they had to go round and find some place that would let me go, take me. Like a school. Because I wasn’t old enough to go to school because apparently I nearly got run over by a lorry and they saw it and they got me in at some, it was a kiddie’s, a little kiddie’s school. You know. There was no such things as nursery schools in them days. It was a little school.
AM: Yeah.
RS: York House in Luton it was. I can remember that.
AM: So, what were school days like? Did you enjoy school?
RS: Not really. Well, I did and I didn’t. I weren’t a lover of school. I weren’t a lover of it. Definitely not a lover of it. Now, I went to, I went to Wallace Street School in Luton which was an ordinary council school you know. And then I went to the Modern School. I passed the exam to get in the Modern School and I went there. And then after that I went up to a place called Clarks College in London. It was [pause] and then the war broke out. I didn’t, you know —
AM: What, what were you going to do at Clarks College though?
RS: Well, it was just an educational place, you know. I really wanted to go in the Navy. That’s what I wanted to go in. I was absolutely barmy on going in that. I wanted to be an engine room officer artificer apprentice. That’s what I wanted to be but I never got there.
AM: So, what happened? Why the RAF then? How did all that come about?
RS: Well, it, it was during the war. War came along and they was after — and I, well I was working at Hayward Tylers. I was apprenticed at Hayward Tyler’s in Luton. And, I don’t know, everybody else was joining up and all that. And I just wanted to go and join up. So, I went and joined up as ground crew you see.
AM: Why the RAF though after you’d been so mad on the Navy?
RS: I don’t know. I don’t know really, why. And I don’t know. But —
AM: Maybe your mates were joining the RAF.
RS: Yeah. The boy who lived next door was in the RAF. And yeah. I joined up. I joined up as a flight mechanic. And —
AM: Where did you go to join up? Can you remember what, what —
RS: Yeah. Edgeware.
AM: What was the process?
RS: I joined up at the Drill Hall in Edgeware. I had to go up to Edgeware to join up. I had my medical up there and all the lot and then when I got called up, which was quite a long time after I had my medical and that I went, I went to Cardington. And from Cardington I went to Yarmouth on the foot bashing course. And the assault course which we went on. Used to go up and down the [pause] climb up and down the, you know, the funfair.
AM: In Yarmouth.
RS: A lot of nonsense really.
AM: Great Yarmouth.
RS: Great Yarmouth. Yeah.
AM: So, where you staying then? Where were you all in digs?
RS: Oh, we was all in civvy digs. I was in a house in Wellesley Road. I remember that. And the guard room was next door. That was another house. The guard room was the house next door. Yeah. That’s, that was, I remember doing my square bashing. I quite enjoyed that.
AM: Yeah.
RS: And —
GR: Did you know what you was going to be then? Did you know? Had you —
RS: Yeah. I knew I was going, I knew I was going in for, to be a flight mechanic but —
GR: So, as ground crew.
RS: You had to. Everybody had to that.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Initiation course. Initial course. You know.
Other: Could you pass me my handbag. There it is.
[recording paused]
RS: Yeah. I did that. And —
AM: So this is ground crew isn’t it?
RS: Yeah.
AM: So, you joined up.
RS: I joined up as ground crew. You see.
AM: You joined up to be ground crew.
RS: You see. And when, when we left Yarmouth I went to Cosford which was a flight mechanics course.
GR: Right.
RS: And it suddenly struck me that there was people was, as soon as they was passing as flight mechanics they was going overseas. I thought I’m not bloody going to go overseas. I didn’t want to go overseas. So they, they was recruiting for flight engineers. So, I went and re-mustered as a flight engineer.
AM: When you say you re-mustered what was the process then to do that?
RS: Well, it —
AM: You just told them.
RS: Well, actually nothing. You just asked if you could go and they give you an aircrew medical which was a farce really. He just came up and see if you was deaf and whispered in your ear. And I can remember him saying, ‘jam tart’ in my ear. Bloody stupid really. And then we went on this course which was, more or less, pretty much a fitters course but included air frames and that. We went on to that. So I passed out from that as a sergeant and I went from there. That was in Christmas 1943 that was. I went up to, come home, went home, come home for Christmas. And after Christmas I went up to Rufforth near York.
GR: Yeah.
RS: And we, we did our, you know — flying training up there. So, I’d never, never been an aeroplane before. We did our flying training and we was just about to go and be posted to a squadron and the pilot, which was a sergeant —
GR: Had you crewed, obviously you’d crewed up by then.
RS: We’d crewed up. Yeah.
GR: Yeah.
RS: We’d crewed up. He said, ‘I don’t want to fly bombers. I want to go on to Transport Command.’ That left us, we was messing about then for about three months doing nothing.
AM: How had you crewed up then?
RS: How was we crewed up? Well, it’s rather funny because they pushed us all in this big hut with all, there was officers and God knows what, all in this hut and they pushed us all in there. You just walked around and anybody you thought you fancied you just —it was a farce really. And we just crewed up. I crewed up with Spivey, you remember John, err Maurice Spivey.
AM: Maurice Spivey.
RS: Yeah. He was in it.
AM: Who chose? Who chose who? Did you choose him or —
RS: Well, no. You just went. You just went and spoke to them and said, ‘Did you want a flight engineer?’ And they sort of said, ‘Yes,’ so that was it. If you liked them.
GR: Yeah.
RS: If they was alright. Where [pause] and we had a, we got a pilot. He was a squadron leader the pilot was. No, a flight lieutenant. Sorry. A Flight Lieutenant Parry it was. And as soon as we got to — we, we passed out eventually after about another — fair while we passed out again. And we went to Lissett. And —
GR: So, this was when you’d been given a squadron.
RS: Yeah. Went to Lissett.
GR: With a new pilot.
RS: Yeah. Flight Lieutenant Parry.
GR: Yeah.
RS: And he, we got on to Lissett and about the second day we got on to Lissett the flight commander of C Flight which we were put in he, he crashed in Bridlington Bay and all the crew got killed. And they made, made Tom Parry up to a squadron leader. And we was the flight commander’s crew. Well, of course that was, that was heavenly because —
GR: So you hadn’t flown any operations yet.
RS: No.
GR: But straightaway you’re —
RS: No. Straightaway. But that was heavenly because you didn’t, you didn’t go on every night. One every night. You had spaces. Long spaces between them, see.
AM: What was your first operation to? Can you remember?
RS: Yes. I can remember. A place called Ferme D’Urville. It was on the night of D-Day.
GR: 5th of June.
RS: Yeah. In fact, when I, when I had to get the information to get that medal I wrote all those French trips out.
GR: Yeah.
RS: I’ve got it in the back room.
AM: Yeah.
GR: So the start of your operations.
RS: Yeah. Do you want to have a look?
AM: We’ll have a look afterwards.
GR: Yeah.
GR: Well we’ll just pause it for a second and we can.
AM: Oh. Alright.
[recording paused]
GR: So your first operation. On the —
RS: 5th of —
GR: 1st of June actually.
RS: I don’t know what that’s —
GR: Yeah. The first of June was to Ferme D’Urville.
RS: It was a gun sight. I remember that.
GR: What was it like though when you were first, when you were in the ops room or you were told — ?
RS: Well, it, it was alright. You didn’t think much about it, you see. The first one. You was a bit thrilled to get on it weren’t you? And it was right on the, right on the Pas de Calais area and it was only about, it was just like, shall we say about, well it was, it was as if the guns were firing over us.
GR: Yeah.
RS: They had to fire over the sea. We didn’t go in, you know we just —
GR: You hardly went over French territory. You just —
RS: Yeah. Only went over it. But then the next one we went on was a bit different. Went to Trappes.
GR: Trappes.
RS: Trappes.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Yeah. We lost five aircraft on that.
GR: What, 158 Squadron lost five?
RS: Yeah. It was, I think, I think that was quite a few aircraft lost on that. We went, we went after the marshalling yards to stop the Germans bringing the reinforcements in.
GR: Reinforcements up. Yeah.
RS: Yeah.
GR: And did anything happen to you on that raid?
RS: No.
GR: No.
RS: No.
GR: So even though you lost aircraft.
RS: We just lost aircraft. Yeah.
GR: Yeah. You were alright.
RS: Yeah. That was the first time I saw the Eiffel tower from up above.
GR: Not bombing it [laughs]
RS: No [laughs] We weren’t bombing it. No. We dropped, we went, it was a railway yard just outside Paris.
GR: That’s right. Yeah. Yeah. That was quite a famous target that was. Yeah.
RS: Trappes. Yeah.
GR: Yeah.
AM: What was it like then actually, actually seeing —
RS: What the Eiffel Tower?
AM: No. The railway yards. Actually seeing them and —
RS: I couldn’t see them because I was engaged in other things.
GR: Yeah.
AM: Right.
RS: I couldn’t, I was, I didn’t see most of the targets.
AM: What were you actually doing then?
RS: Well, I was, the pilot was like sitting in front of me and I was, there was this, like this partition and they, all my dials was at the back on an armour plated thing. And I was in there you know and I’ll tell you I was sitting in there but I had to do other things. We used to, we had Window. I don’t know if you know what Window was.
GR: Yes. Yeah.
RS: It was those metal strips. And it was my job to put them out and they went down the flare chute.
RS: Because that was to jam the German radar.
RS: That’s right.
GR: Yeah. Yeah.
RS: But I, what I did most of the time was taking these things out the packet and chucking them down the chute.
GR: Yeah. Did you have to do that on every trip?
RS: Yeah.
GR: So they dropped Window on every trip
RS: Yeah. Dropped Window on every trip.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Yeah.
GR: Now, looking at your list on the 6th of June which was actually D-Day you did two operations.
RS: Yeah. We did one in, one at night. One in the early morning and one at night.
GR: Right.
RS: Yeah.
GR: What was that like? Did you actually see the invasion fleet? Did you?
RS: Yeah. Yes. We saw, I saw the invasion fleet. Yeah. That was, it was about forty mile long.
GR: Yeah.
RS: It was massive. You know.
GR: As though the English Channel was full.
RS: Yeah. In the English Channel. Yeah.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Yeah. I saw that.
GR: And how did the raids go then? Was it, obviously the daylight one would have been your first daylight raid.
RS: Yeah. Yeah. The first daylight. Well —
GR: Was that different? Well, obviously it’s different but —
RS: It was. Yeah. It was, it was quite, you got quite enthusiastic about it really because you’d never done any. You’d never done it before. You know it’s the first one.
GR: Yeah.
RS: When you looked out. Yeah. That was [unclear] I remember that.
AM: What was that like then seeing all that invasion fleet there?
RS: Well, it was, it was quite something. You know, you had a job to take it all in if you know what I mean. There was so much of it and we were, we weren’t all that high.
GR: No.
RS: Because we wanted to get, to make sure to get this gun emplacement. I think we did get it. I don’t know. But they never sent back again so I presume we got it. It’s, it was quite, seeing all these vessels in the Channel was quite, quite something.
GR: Because obviously you knew the invasion was on.
RS: Yeah. You could see these merchant ships.
GR: Yeah.
RS: And then you saw the war ships on the side of them. It was quite, it was quite interesting really.
GR: Yeah.
AM: Could you actually see the men on the beaches?
RS: No. No. No. Couldn’t see that. I don’t think there was anybody on the beaches at that time.
GR: Yeah. The first one, the, your first raid, yeah on the Maisy gun emplacements was, yeah, dark.
RS: Dark.
GR: The daylight was to Chateaudun.
RS: Chateaudun. Yeah.
GR: In the daylight. Yeah.
RS: When, when we went to [pause] where was it? I forget where it was now. We went with Wing Commander Dobson. And he was a pilot. I don’t know if I’ve got it on there. I can remember that. And we was quite low and it was when we, we went to Caen.
GR: Yeah.
RS: And unfortunately they had crossed the river before we got there and we didn’t know our blokes had crossed the river and we dropped the lot. And it went on our blokes as well. It was a bit, it was a bit —
GR: Yes. That was the Canadians wasn’t it?
RS: Yeah.
GR: Mainly.
RS: That’s right. It was.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Yeah. Yeah. When we, when we sort of turned in a circle I looked out. I looked out of the side window and we was, well we was low enough to spot this German ack ack gun in a field. Saw that.
GR: They were, they were shooting up at you.
RS: They weren’t shooting at us. They was shooting up but not us.
GR: Yeah.
RS: At us. But they were shooting up there.
GR: And looking at it you did quite a few operations in support of the Normandy landings.
RS: Oh yes. Yeah.
GR: All the way through to August. Yeah.
RS: That’s right. Yeah. When we went, we used to go after, the Germans had their fighter ‘dromes around there. We used to go and try and bomb the fighter ‘dromes at night.
GR: Yeah.
RS: It was, it was quite, quite good.
GR: And after the Normandy campaign you obviously moved on to —
RS: Yeah.
GR: The industrial area in Germany.
RS: Yeah. We went, we went on to those flying bomb sites which was sort of a waste of time really.
AM: Why was that?
RS: Well, they was only like ramps and that and so small you had difficulty in hitting them. And the V-2 sites, they moved them about. So you —
GR: Yes.
RS: You just dropped where you thought, you know. We were told where to go but —
GR: Yes. The V-1 sites.
RS: Yeah.
GR: Were like the proverbial needle in a haystack.
RS: Yeah.
GR: You know. A small ramp in a —
RS: Yeah. That’s right. Yeah.
GR: Reasonably large area.
RS: And they could move them about.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Yeah. Did that.
GR: And on the operations across to Germany any near misses? Any close calls?
RS: Oh Christ, yes. Yes. Frightened me to death one night. We was going to Hanover. We got to Hanover. We was on the bombing run and a German fighter attacked a Lancaster which did a corkscrew and came up underneath us. There was a hell of a bang and apparently, I didn’t see him but the gunner said they went down because it must have squashed them. And we hadn’t got rid of the bombs. And what, I can’t quite remember, that Lancaster so Stan said was, went down. That, that went down, you know. That must have gone down and crashed. And crashed.
GR: He’d come up underneath the Halifax.
RS: It come up underneath. Like that.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Right underneath our bomb bay.
GR: Smacked into you. Yeah.
RS: And what happened then? There was, oh, there was another bang and the starboard inner engine went flying up in the air. Come up, bolts sheared off and engine went up.
GR: So you lost an engine.
RS: Yeah. Lost an engine. Yeah. Completely lost it. And we, I turned off, I shut off the fuel cock for the —
GR: Yeah.
RS: For the starboard inner. And we, we couldn’t open the bomb doors. Anyway, I pumped the bomb doors and pumped the bomb doors and where the, what do you call it switch, where the handle because the engine driven pump which opened the bomb doors had gone with the starboard engine.
GR: God.
RS: That was, that was driven off the starboard inner engine. And —
GR: Was the starboard outer still alright?
RS: Yeah. That was alright.
GR: That was still going.
RS: That was still going. And I managed to get the bomb doors open and we let the bomb, we dropped the bombs and, but when I went to check we still got the, I think, I think it was the four thousand pounder on there I think and that was still hanging up. And we were trying like hell to get rid of this and we couldn’t get rid of it. Anyway, we came back. We got back over the coast and we was going to land at Woodbridge but we weren’t, I was with this bloke. A pilot. McLennan. He wouldn’t. He said, ‘If you can’t get rid of that bomb you’ll have to jump out.’ Anyway, we, we managed to get rid of this bomb just as we almost got to Woodbridge, on the coast and it went. And we crashed it. We went to get the undercarriage down and of course one wheel come down. The other one didn’t and we crashed in the trees at Woodbridge. And that’s, that was how Maurice Spivey, he broke his fingers.
GR: Yeah. Maurice Spivey being obviously being obviously another member of the crew.
RS: Maurice was the wireless operator.
GR: Yeah. Maurice. Yeah.
RS: Somehow, I don’t know. He lost his fingers. He never flew again. He didn’t.
GR: Right. And that was because you were obviously coming in to land with just the one wheel.
RS: Yeah. No. He — I don’t know.
GR: But then you, you literally crash landed.
RS: Yeah. We crash landed. Yeah. Of course. It tipped over didn’t it? And we went into the woods there. Went into this big wood. I don’t know quite how Maurice got rif, got his fingers but I know he had them and then he had to, they cut them off in the hospital. I don’t know. I think he got frostbite as well because we’d got no, all the glass had gone out all one side of the kite you know. All one side of our Halifax. Where it was damaged with this bloody Lancaster.
GR: Yeah.
AM: What about the rest of the crew? When that damage happened.
RS: Well the mid-upper gunner was alright. The rear gunner was alright. But there was all the papers, you know. The maps and of course it was all like a shower of paper inside so it all blew back. Pat was alright and Geoff was alright. Did you know, did you know Geoff [Heatman?] and Pat [Carroll?]
GR: No, I didn’t. No.
RS: Didn’t you?
GR: I knew Maurice Spivey, but —
RS: Yeah. They were alright.
AM: You know you said you finally got rid of the bomb just before Woodbridge.
RS: Yeah.
AM: So you were over, over the Channel by now and in —
RS: Well, we was at the North Sea. Not far from —
AM: Right. So you dropped it in the sea.
RS: Not far from Woodbridge. We dropped it in the sea. Yeah. Pat managed to, I don’t know quite, I, I was working and trying, you know trying the bomb release. This screw. The big butterfly screw and I couldn’t do it and he happened to. Just was lucky and twisted it.
AM: Yeah.
RS: He got down and had a go twisted it and it just dropped.
GR: It was a good job because if you’d have crash landed with that on board.
RS: Well, we wouldn’t.
GR: No.
RS: We wouldn’t have crash landed.
GR: You would have jumped out. Yeah.
RS: We would have jumped out with our parachute.
GR: Did the whole crew, I mean obviously Maurice was injured. Did the rest of the crew get out all right?
RS: Oh yeah.
GR: Yeah.
RS: We all got out. We’d got, we’d got a spare gunner that night. A bloke who hadn’t, this was his first trip. A rear gunner. I can’t think what his name was now. And —
GR: That filled him with confidence then.
RS: Yeah. It filled him with confidence. He refused to fly again.
GR: Oh right.
RS: And the last time I saw him he was stripped and working in the cookhouse at Melbourne. Oh God, it was quite a, quite a do that night.
GR: Obviously. Yeah.
AM: Sounds it.
GR: But your crew went back flying.
RS: Yeah.
GR: Yeah.
RS: We had a new rear, another rear gunner because Arthur had, Arthur went sick.
GR: Yeah. So a new aircraft.
RS: Oh yeah, we had a new aircraft.
GR: New rear gunner. Yeah. Yeah.
RS: Oh yeah. That one wasn’t any good. That was a write off.
GR: Yeah.
RS: That was a right off. Yeah.
GR: And you carried on? Did you carry on to do, was it thirty operations?
RS: Yeah.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Yeah.
GR: Did a full tour.
RS: Yeah.
GR: When did your tour finish?
RS: Well, I’ll tell you. This was rather funny. I went. I had two to do and I went, I went to, I got posted to Melbourne to do the 10 Squadron, to do the last two. And I did one and then the last one I did was the last raid of the war. That was on a place called Wangerooge.
GR: That’s right. Yeah.
RS: I remember that.
GR: So why did —
RS: That was —
GR: Sorry. Why? If you’d done twenty eight operations at Lissett with 158.
RS: Yeah.
GR: Had the rest of the crew done twenty eight or had they done thirty for some reason?
RS: Well, some had done more because you see when, when you’re a flight commander’s crew you don’t, what can I say? They don’t do as many as how can I put it. They do. Tom Parry only had twenty to do because he’d done a tour before. So, that left us with ten anyway. And how can I put it? If, if all the crew, if all the crews, their crews were, you know healthy and that. You was just, you just didn’t have anything to do.
GR: No.
RS: And then they started messing about with these things, didn’t they?
GR: Yes.
RS: And saying that French trips would only, we’d got about three to one German and all that messing about with. But I was going to say on that last raid on Wangerooge I happened to look up, up and there was a Free French bloody Halifax above us and he dropped his bombs and it went and his big bombs went between our wing and the tail plane.
GR: Close call then.
RS: Close call that was.
GR: On the last raid.
RS: Yeah.
GR: Just going back a little bit. How did you feel about, obviously you’d been at 158 Lissett and then oh two more operations to go. Can I fly with another crew at 158? No. You can go to 10 Squadron.
RS: That’s right. Yeah.
GR: Melbourne.
RS: Go to 10 Squadron at Melbourne. Yeah.
GR: On your own.
RS: Yeah.
GR: None of the other crew went with you.
RS: No. They’d all gone. They’d all gone.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Stan Hibbert he, he went. He come back from leave to do his last few.
GR: Yeah.
RS: See. I was on leave when he, Stan finished. You see, we, we when Tom Parry went it was like they, like they took the pilot away from you.
GR: Yeah.
RS: You were spare.
GR: Yeah.
RS: You didn’t, you know.
GR: It just seems unfair to send you to a complete other squadron.
RS: It is. Well —
GR: Just to do two ops.
RS: Well they did. I did my last two.
AM: Can I ask you about, you know when you were talking when you just said they started messing about and France only counted — you had to do three France’s for one German.
RS: Yeah. They did. They started messing about.
AM: When did they start doing that then?
GR: After D-Day.
RS: It was, yeah. Way after D-Day when they started saying that they thought the French trips was easy. Well they weren’t. They were, they were just as hard as what the German trips were but they thought that, the powers that be thought it was a doddle and it wasn’t. That’s what they said.
AM: So they only counted it as a half an operation.
RS: Yeah. That’s right. Yeah.
AM: Right.
RS: That was the sort of things they did. They, they didn’t play fair with us in a way because what they used to say was Scarecrows when you used to see a lot of fire going up in front of you or on the side of you, you know. They said it was like, what can I say, like a flare which was put up and burst to look like a, you know like an aircraft or something. The Germans put it up. But it wasn’t. It was our blokes being shot down. It was. They weren’t fair. They weren’t fair to you really. We did our bit but some they, they weren’t all that —
AM: Why do you think they did that?
RS: Well, to stop people being frightened. It’s a bit harrowing when you, when you see an aircraft suddenly burst in front of you. Burst in to flame in front of you.
AM: I was going to say I can imagine but I can’t actually.
RS: It is. It’s a bit harrowing.
AM: Yeah.
RS: So they said it was, it was Scarecrows. What the Germans put up to frighten you.
AM: Yeah.
RS: And it bloody wasn’t. It was some of our kites going down.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Amazing really.
AM: So what, after that then, after the last operation, what happened then? So you’re at Melbourne then. Not at Lissett.
RS: Oh what happened then. Oh, that was great. I got sent home for three months. Sent home. Used to get my money through the post. Used to get your wages through the post every fortnight. It was great. And then, oh it, life became quite, quite pleasant. It was, I can’t think [pause] yeah what happened then was we, we was, I had to go back to Lissett for a re-assessment board. And they said, I said, ‘I don’t want to become a, to go back as a flight mechanic or anything like that. I don’t want to do that.’ So, anyway I didn’t hear any more. I got sent back home. The next thing I know I had to go down to Chivenor in North Devon. And I went back down there and we was there for about a fortnight and I got, I got posted up to Stranraer and, and I was on a fitter marines course which was, which when I, when I saw what it was I was quite enthusiastic. We was on these air sea launches. Air sea rescue launches. It was great. It was. And I was a fitter on these air sea rescue launches. And I went for, did the course. We did the course and I got posted up to Invergordon. And oh, it was great up there it was. It was lovely. And then what happened? I can tell you what happened. What was good. We had to [pause] — Alness, it was Alness, it was a Flying Boat Station which was further down, down Loch Ryan. And [pause] that, we had, they closed down and they got refuellers there which were boats filled with petrol and they used to refuel the Sunderlands. And we had to take these, these refuelers down to Dumbarton. We used to go to tow them down. Tow one down on the side of it, you know, lash it to the side of it, go through the Caledonian Canal right up to Dumbarton and come back again. That was a fortnight’s trip that was. But then, then I was engaged in a rather, an effort which I never did find out what, if it was any good to them. They filled a Sunderland up. That was before they took the refuellers away. They fuelled this Sunderland up and took it out in to the centre of the Loch and opened the taps and cocks, let the petrol out and I sat there and shot a verey light picture at it and set it on fire. And then we had to put it out. It was, we, we got these pumps and a water jet on us. Oh, it was.
AM: Why?
GR: Practice.
RS: Practice. What good it did I don’t know. What good it did, Lord knows. I don’t.
AM: I bet that was exciting though.
RS: It was. It was quite good. It was quite good. It was quite good. It’s, it was a bit dangerous and one time when they put the, they got the, put the boat out, our launch right up under the wing of the Sunderland. It could have blown up but it didn’t. But it wasn’t full up of petrol. Just enough to set it on fire and make a — because it was all around the water and everything. We used to spray, spray the water and get, put the fire out on the water. It was quite good. Quite interesting.
AM: And this, has the war finished by this point?
GR: Yes.
RS: Oh yeah. Yeah.
AM: So, yeah.
RS: It had finished yeah.
AM: So why are they doing all this if the war’s finished?
RS: Well, I suppose, I suppose it was for, what can I say? Well, I suppose they were still Sunderland Flying Boats about.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Not where we was anymore because they took them all away after that. But they was down at Calshot and at Pembroke Dock and all around there. I mean, if they had a crash and that the things we did could have been useful for them.
AM: Right. So it was —
RS: But whether it was I don’t know.
AM: It was to learn.
RS: Yeah.
GR: Yeah.
AM: Yeah. How long were you up there for then?
RS: I came out in 1947.
AM: So two years.
RS: Yeah. Yeah.
AM: After the war finished.
RS: Yeah. Yeah. It was quite good. I quite enjoyed it.
AM: And were you up there for the whole two years?
RS: Yeah. Come home. I was demobbed from there.
AM: Right.
RS: Invergordon. Went down to, overnight train down to [pause] oh near Liverpool. What was it? Padgate. And got demobbed from there.
GR: Yeah.
AM: Right. So what was demob? What was that like?
RS: Demob.
AM: What did you get?
RS: Well, a bit of a farce. What did I get? I got a suit. Which wasn’t, not really my style. And a shirt and a tie, I think it. And a pair of shoes. But it, you know, I think, I think I wore them for a little was while but then they went in the bin. Yeah.
AM: And what, what did you do after? Once you’d been demobbed?
RS: Once I’d been demobbed. Well, what did I do? Oh, I went to work at Brown and Greaves. I went in the offices in the purchase department at Brown and Greaves.
AM: What was that?
RS: Well, they used to make laundry machinery.
AM: Right.
RS: They used to make laundry presses and things, they used to make.
AM: So, I know that later on you became a chiropodist.
RS: Oh yes.
AM: How did all that happen?
RS: Well, I thought I wanted to do something else so I went to, you know decided I’d try something else so I went to one of these schools to learn to do it.
AM: Why chiropody though?
RS: Well, I don’t know really. I think it was because my late wife had a verruca and she went to this, she went to this chiropodist in Wellington Street in Luton and, you know I went with her and it looked an easy sort of job. And it was, what I thought, it was money for old rope. And so I applied to be one.
AM: So how long was the training for it?
RS: Oh, how long? About three or four months.
AM: Oh, only three or four months. Oh right, I thought it would be several —
RS: Maybe a bit longer than that at that time.
AM: Yeah.
RS: It’s two years or three years now because they turn to other things as well now.
AM: That’s, I thought that’s what I thought you were going to say.
RS: Yeah.
AM: So that’s it then. You did chiropody.
RS: Yeah.
AM: Right through.
RS: I did part one and part two of the course and that was it.
AM: Yeah.
RS: No. Part. It was a little bit longer than that. I think probably all together it was with a part one and two probably it was six or seven months.
AM: Yeah. When you talked about your late wife. What, what year did you get married?
RS: 1947.
AM: So after. After —
RS: Yeah.
AM: After demob.
RS: Yeah. No. Just before demob.
AM: Just before demob.
RS: What was I going to say? Yeah. She died. It was you who took the, I showed you a picture didn’t I?
GR: You did, yeah.
RS: And do you know I’ve lost them pictures and I can’t find them. I’ve got one on the computer. And I can’t find them.
GR: Of?
RS: Of me standing on her father’s houseboat.
GR: Right.
AM: Right.
RS: With her and her young sister.
AM: Yeah.
RS: You took, you took them off to snap didn’t you?
GR: Yeah. And there was the crew. I always remember the crew photo.
RS: Yeah.
GR: With you and Maurice in.
RS: Yeah. I’ve still got them.
RS: Yeah.
AM: You’ll find them.
RS: Yeah.
AM: And I know you went, you used to go to the 158 reunions at Lissett.
RS: Oh yeah. We used to go to that.
AM: Yeah.
RS: Yeah.
AM: Every year.
RS: Well yeah.
AM: Meet old friends.
RS: Until quite recently. Met my, it was about 1964 time. Yeah. We used to go there. Oh year after year. Used to stay in the Ransdale in Bridlington. We used to go up for a week. We used to. We used to have a week. Take a week off. Go up there for a week.
AM: Have you seen the Memorial? You know that, that —
GR: The 158 Memorial.
AM: The 158 Memorial.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Oh yeah. In the church. In the church yard. The cemetery.
AM: It’s near the, it’s, there’s another one that’s the men. A crew and it’s at the side of a field that’s got all the windmills in it.
RS: Yeah. I’ve seen that.
AM: You’ve seen that.
RS: Yeah.
AM: Yeah. Yeah. A good place to finish.
[recording paused]
RS: But at Bomber, at one of those Bomber Command signings a bloke named Ehrhardt or something.
GR: Rolf.
RS: Rolf Ehrhardt.
GR: Ebhart.
AM: Ebhart.
RS: Ebhart. Yeah. He was a German night fighter pilot.
GR: That’s right.
RS: On 110s and he said to me, ‘I might have met you.’ I said, ‘I’m bloody glad you didn’t.’
GR: That’s right. Well, I think we come and picked — me and Mick Cooper.
RS: That’s right. We went to a do, didn’t we?
GR: Yeah. And we picked you up.
RS: Yeah.
GR: And that’s it. You got talking to Rolf.
RS: Yeah. And he sent me a, he sent me a lovely picture of himself as a lieutenant in his uniform.
GR: Yes.
RS: And a picture of his aircraft.
GR: Because funny enough when I looked up your, in my little directory I’ve got.
RS: Yeah.
GR: Obviously I keep all the details. Addresses. And in brackets I’ve put, “Either friend or in contact with Rolf Ebhart,” under your name so I remembered.
RS: Well, he died didn’t he? He was a dentist.
GR: That’s right. Yeah.
RS: He died.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Oh, we used to correspond quite a lot.
GR: Yeah, see. Yeah.
RS: And he was going to come over and then all at once.
GR: Yeah.
AM: Gone.
RS: And now —
AM: And that’s it.
RS: I’m in touch with another one now.
AM: Can I, can I just ask then.
RS: Yeah.
AM: So, how does it, after all these years and you’re talking to the Luftwaffe guys.
RS: Yeah.
AM: What’s that like —
RS: Well, they’re no different to us. In fact, I have a lot of time for the German air force. A hell of a lot of time for them because towards the end of the war Adolf wanted to, they put a lot of these, now wait a minute, towards the end of the war Adolf wanted to shoot all the British airmen didn’t he?
GR: Yes.
RS: And the Gestapo was going to do it or the SS was going to do it and the German Air Force said no. They’re not going to. The German air force took them all into their bases.
GR: Yeah. Because apart from Stalag Luft III which was The Great Escape.
RS: Yeah.
GR: The Luftwaffe was still in control of all the —
RS: Air force.
GR: RAF.
RS: Prisoners.
GR: Prison camps. Yeah.
RS: Oh yeah. That was, I’ve got a lot of time for the German Air Force.
GR: Yeah. Because you met them at that first do at the Aces High when the Germans came across.
RS: That’s right.
GR: There was you. I can’t think who the others were but there were about, there were two or three Germans. Two Germans. Yeah.
RS: And the Germans have never shot, shot you know as they’ve come down in parachutes.
GR: German civilians during 1944.
[recording paused]
RS: My log got, I cut my finger, I had a big scar in my finger and it’s only just recently gone. On my little finger where I caught it on a jagged metal. And there was my, my log sheet and the folder it all got a lot of blood on it but I’ll tell you who’s got that. That’s gone to the air museum at [pause] oh where do you call it?
AM: Elvington.
RS: Elvington.
GR: Elvington.
RS: Yeah.
GR: Yes. The Halifax Museum. Yeah.
RS: Yeah.
[recording paused]
RS: Oh, he did give me a fright. He did. I really did. And he said, he said to me, ‘You can take this dog and walk it for me.’ And I had to take it on a lead and walk it around. Of course, I was, I was, you know, what can I say? They thought I was an idiot walking this bloody dog. That was —
AM: This was around the base you’re talking about here.
RS: Yeah. Around the base. Yeah.
GR: Yeah.
AM: So, just tell me again what happened on the plane? He was, he’s the group captain and he’s piloting it.
RS: Oh that was with an air test. That was an air test that was.
AM: Oh right.
GR: Yeah.
RS: That was an air test. What it was, the, the engine went, went wrong. It started spluttering so he decided, I said to him, ‘You want to feather it. Feather the propellers.’
GR: Yeah.
RS: You know what I mean?
GR: I do. Yeah.
RS: The propellers going like that they turn them into wind so the wind blew and it stopped the engine. He pushed the bloody button and instead of pushing it and letting it go he pushed it and held it down and of course it feathered and unfeathered, unfeathered and feathered, and all the oil went out the system. And of course it just flopped round and milled round. Ruined it.
AM: So what happened?
RS: Well, nothing happened because it was him. If that had happened to me I would have been, I would have been in the cart wouldn’t I? For ruining an engine. I’d have been put on a charge.
AM: And what was he? He was the group captain.
RS: He was the group captain.
AM: When I say what happened I mean how did you get back down?
RS: Well, we got another three.
AM: Oh right. So it was only one engine that he — right. I thought you meant all four.
RS: No. No.
AM: Did you, did you only ever fly in a Halifax? The Halifax. You never set foot in a Lancaster at any point.
RS: Yes. I did. I had a flight. It was either a Lancaster or a Lincoln. It was at Cranfield. I went to Cranfield with some air cadets once in Luton. From Luton. And I had a flight in either a Lancaster or, it was either a Lancaster or a Lincoln. I don’t know.
AM: So which did you prefer? That or the Halifax?
RS: Oh the Halifax.
AM: Why?
RS: There was more room in a Halifax to move about. With the Lancasters you had to crouch down and get through the spar, the main spar and all that. With a Halifax you just step over it. That’s why, that’s why I wanted a Halifax. Couldn’t get on with it.
AM: Yeah.
RS: Couldn’t get on with a Lancaster. Oh, I’ll tell you another thing. Group Captain Sawyer took me up in his Tiger Moth.
GR: Oh right.
RS: In Lissett. I was frightened to death. I was. Because he would perform, you know. Show off. He was quite a good bloke actually. He used to, he was, what can I say? Any of the aircrew blokes he, he always used to — sergeant, no matter what you was.
GR: He’d take you up and —
RS: Yeah. Yeah.
GR: He just wanted to show you how good a pilot he was.
RS: Yeah. Yeah, he did.
GR: Looping the loop and things like that.
RS: Yeah. Yeah. Well, our Wing Commander Dobson was alright as well. I can’t think, I can’t think who it was, I had a motorbike at the time and that was when there was a, there was a purge on for people using aircraft petrol in their motorbikes. It was a different colour. And when that purge had finished I had to go in to the adjutant’s office. The station adj, not the, not the aircrew adj, the station adj, and he got a load of petrol in there in bottles and he said, ‘Can you use that?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ He gave me all these bottles of petrol. It was all aircraft petrol so I used all that. Oh, it was, it was quite —
GR: Yeah.
RS: It was. The station adj and the aircrew adj was, well I don’t know. [unclear] him. The station adj, the station commander, the wing commander. They was all ever so good to you. They used to, well, talk to you.
GR: Good.
RS: And they weren’t like the army people — you mustn’t talk to the lower ranks, you know. They used to talk to you.
AM: Did you go out in to Bridlington? Did you have nights out?
RS: Oh Christ yes. I certainly did. Had lots of nights out and plenty of beer.
AM: And?
RS: Well, yeah, I had a few girlfriends but not a lot. You know, I used to go with a WAAF at one time. No, I didn’t, I didn’t have a lot of girls in Bridlington really.
AM: But you drank a lot.
RS: I used to have a few drinks.
AM: How did you get there from Lissett? On your motorbike?
RS: I used to go on the motorbike. Yeah. Or else you could go on a bus. The bus used to stop just outside the camp. I’ve been, I’ve been out there wanting to get a bus and Americans come along in a jeep and picked us up.
AM: Where were they based then?
RS: I don’t know.
AM: No.
RS: I don’t know. Oh, that, that was that was another story that was. The [pause] one night the weather was ever so bad down this, down this area and we had a load of American Air Force people. I think they was Liberators. I think that came up to, and we had, you know quite a few of them land at our aerodrome. They was there for about two days. And when they went, one, when they went to take off one, I don’t know what happened, it was a, I think his undercart collapsed or something. It didn’t crash but they couldn’t take off. They had to fetch it on a wagon and when they took, they’d got the Norden bombsight in it. And they took this Norden bombsight out and they, as the crew stood around they drew their pistols so as you couldn’t go around and get near it. Bloody idiot. That wasn’t, ours was a better bombsight than what theirs was. Yeah, I remember that. Because the people that came to us was based at Cheddington. Down here.
GR: Yeah.
RS: Yeah. Yeah, they all stood around this Norden bombsight with their pistols.
GR: Protecting it like the Wild West.
RS: Yeah. It was a load of rubbish anyway when you compared it with ours. Yeah. Right. Well that’s it.
GR: Right.
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Interview with Rex Statham
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Gary Rushbrooke
Annie Moody
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IBCC Digital Archive
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2016-06-27
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Type
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Sound
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AStathamR160627
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Pending review
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00:52:48 audio recording
Language
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eng
Coverage
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Description
An account of the resource
Rex Statham was born in Luton. His father died in a motorbike accident when he was very young. Although Rex had been very keen to join the Navy he volunteered for the RAF as a flight mechanic. When he realised that many trained mechanics were being posted overseas he decided to remuster as a flight engineer. He flew operations with 158 Squadron from RAF Lissett. On one occasion a corkscrewing Lancaster hit their aircraft. Although badly damaged, the crew managed to return and crash land RAF Woodbridge.
Spatial Coverage
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France
Great Britain
England--Suffolk
England--Yorkshire
Temporal Coverage
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1943
1944-06-05
1944-06-06
10 Squadron
158 Squadron
air sea rescue
aircrew
bombing of the Normandy coastal batteries (5/6 June 1944)
crash
demobilisation
fear
flight engineer
flight mechanic
fuelling
ground crew
ground personnel
Halifax
mid-air collision
Normandy campaign (6 June – 21 August 1944)
RAF Alness
RAF Lissett
RAF Melbourne
RAF Woodbridge
Scarecrow
Sunderland
training
V-1
V-2
V-weapon
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/340/11808/BThomasWKThomasWKv1.2.pdf
e5b0b8afc7063253cd39405680e94d56
Dublin Core
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Title
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Thomas, Ken
William Kenneth Thomas
William K Thomas
William Thomas
W K Thomas
W Thomas
Description
An account of the resource
Four items. An oral history interview with William Kenneth 'Ken' Thomas DFC (1022415 and 186493 Royal Air Force), two photographs and a memoir. Flight Lieutenant Ken Thomas flew operations as a pilot with 622 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Ken Thomas and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2016-04-01
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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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Thomas, WK
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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If you can't take a joke ........
by William Kenneth Thomas DFC
I was born in Liverpool on 19th December 1921. I have a sister namely Evelyn Gwyneth born 15th October 1920. My father and mother moved from Liverpool to Beaumaris in 1924 approximately and purchased a well established chemist business in 40 Castle Street. At that time the population of the town was approximately 3000 and there were two chemist shops.
I attended the Beaumaris Council School, both infants and seniors. Whilst at Primary School in Beaumaris, I spent quite a lot of time in the summer months on the boats and the sea shore. I also did a fair amount of swimming, and although there was a public swimming baths in Beaumaris, I preferred the end of the pier. I often swam across the Menai Straits which was very dangerous particularly at low tide when the current was flowing at some 12 14 knots. I was on occasions carried under the pier and was badly cut on the barnacles. I also did rowing, sailing and fishing, and used to know the Straits fairly well.
The end of the pier was also one of my favourite places for catching crabs and prawns. I got into a terrible state with mud and grime. I remember on one occasion being there when my mother and a very posh friend of hers, namely, Mrs Sircus waiting at the pier wall, dressed up and ready to take the small ferry boat, which in those days plied from Beaumaris to Bangor. Of course, I wanted to go with them, although I was filthy dirty with mud and had no shoes. Exactly what happened next, I do not remember, although I do recall the incident very well, and no doubt caused my mother some considerable embarrassment.
I was a poor scholar and frequently in trouble as I got in with a bad crowd, who were generally very poor and appeared jealous of my living conditions in comparison with their own. I was therefore involved in numerous affrays and mischievous pranks. I only just managed to pass the required standards for entry into the Beaumaris Grammar School as a fee paying pupil, and continued to be in trouble as I seldom did my homework, and spent many long hours playing football and cricket.
The headmaster of the Beaumaris Grammar School was a man called Frank Jones. He was a real tyrant, and was most unpopular and hated by both staff and pupils because of his general attitude. He walked in a very stupid manner, and I called him "Here's my head, my arse is
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coming!" I was always in his black books, and whenever anything went wrong, I was usually there. I disobeyed many of his rules, such as not kicking or playing football in the school yard, not wearing school uniform cap and blazer etc., throwing fireworks, snowballs, and so on. I smashed one window in the memorial hall as there was a stone in the snowball
I played a lot of football and cricket and was in the school's first eleven. I was also a strong swimmer. I carried off many prizes at local and school swimming galas.
I must just mention that in the early days all the rubbish in Beaumaris was tipped in a place called the Point. This is now a boat builders' yard, but it used to be infested with rats. Anyone could go there and catch and kill as many rats as possible and obtain a shilling a tail at Beaumaris Town Hall. Since I had a good dog, a Springer spaniel called Glen; I often went there and made a few bob. Sometimes my friend and I would take a few rats home and let them go in the yard and let the dogs chase them. Most of the money we got was spent in the liberal club on billiards and snooker.
Having failed at school in Beaumaris, my father made arrangements for my education to be continued at Friars School in Bangor, and this was where I met my first girlfriend namely Eve Bock. I used to see her every day, as we were both catching the same bus to school in Bangor each morning…More about this will be mentioned later.
I once again failed to pass the matriculation examination, and by this time, it was plain to see that the Second World War was fast approaching. Since I was 17 plus, I would be obliged to register for military service. I was completely undecided what I was going to do and finally decided to go into the Merchant Navy as a cadet. This all came about after a long discussion with a friend of my father's Captain Morris Jones who was a member of the Beaumaris Lodge of Freemasons. He was incidentally later killed in action out in the Middle East. I was measured up for my Cadet uniform and had passed all the necessary medical and educational standards required. However, by this time, the war had started, and numerous ships were being sunk by submarines. My mother decided that this was not a good idea and stopped me going. I then informed her of the seriousness of the situation, which she didn't seem to quite understand, and I finally persuaded her to let me go into the RAF on the Ground Staff, with the condition that I was not to fly! I duly passed the medical and educational standards required in Caernarvon, and since I was still under `calling up' age, was able to choose the ground course I required, that was, Flight Mechanic.
I was finally called up just after the evacuation on Dunkirk, and had to report to Padgate in Lancashire, where I spent three weeks
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confined to camp until I was conversant with RAF Regulations, and able to conduct myself as an airman. l was then transferred to Blackpool south Shore, where I was in private billets for two weeks and we were thinking we were going to have a very nice war!
I was then posted to Bridgnorth Shropshire for further training i.e. square bashing, rifle drill, inoculations, guard duties etc. I was there for approximately 3 months during which time Coventry had received its heaviest raid of the war. We could see exactly what was going on and hear and visualise all that was happening over the skyline, because Bridgnorth Camp was situated some distance from the town on the top of a very steep hill. I also remember carrying our kitbags all the way from the station to the camp, and when we got there, the billets had not been prepared for us. Therefore, we had to set to preparing and cleaning the huts, cleaning the floor and stove, and setting up our beds for the night. We were all by this time muttering a few hash words, but we had to take it, and as we went on, we found that the discipline in this camp was very strict by comparison with what we had experienced previously. The instructors and the people in charge of the various intakes were extremely crude and corrupt. One sergeant instructor immediately informed us that they called him `Slim the Bastard', and that if we crossed him, he would show us `what a real bastard was like.' For instance, on one particular day, we had three inoculations one after the other followed by rifle drill on the square. Several of the people on parade either fainted or fell down, and were merely carried away to sick quarters to recover.
From Bridgnorth, I went to No7 S of TT (No 7 School of Technical Training) at Hednesford which was situated on Cannock Chase and very high up in the hills. Consequently, it was a very cold camp. My course here lasted about three to four months. Again, there was very strict discipline and since the school had some four brass and silver bands, we had to form up and march back and forth to and from our work and technical school daily. Apart from the school we had to do guard duties, fire and air raid drills, and also gas precautions and action to be taken in the event of an attack. These duties were all done in the evening after school hours. As you can see, there was very little time for recreation and we didn't manage to get out very much. During my stay, an epidemic of scarlet fever broke out on the camp, and this further complicated matters.
However, I finally passed out as a Flight Mechanic – AC1 (Aircraftsman First class) but knew comparatively little about my trade. I was immediately posted to Penrhos Bombing School near Pwlleli in North Wales along with a number of other people on my course. Penrhos was a small grass airfield and was really too small for the types of aircraft operating there i.e. Whitleys, Blenheims, Fairey Battles and Ansons. These aircraft were used for the training of navigators and straight air
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gunners and were kept pretty busy. I was looking after the only Whitley fitted with radial `Tiger' engines and experienced considerable trouble keeping it airworthy. There were constant problems with the engine ignition systems mainly due to the exposure of the plug leads which allowed a certain amount of moisture to seep in, causing engines to cut out or lose power. This, on such a small grass airfield, described in many instances by pilots as `like landing on a saucer' proved to be very dangerous and there were numerous accidents. It was quite common to see five or six accidents daily, due to aircraft either overshooting or undershooting the airfield. Some of these were, of course, fatal and aircraft could be seen burnt out around the airfield perimeter.
I [inserted] t [/inserted] eventually became apparent that this airfield was unfit for the purpose for which it was being used, and much of the flying was eventually transferred to a new aerodrome that had just been opened near Caernarvon, namely Llandurog. Here there were proper runways and hard standing, and we finally did all our night flying from here. This meant frequent travelling in open wagons and of course it was very cold and uncomfortable in wintertime. We were obliged to exist on such occasions on pilchards, sandwiches and cocoa for many of our meals, and were glad of these. There was only one really bad accident in the whole time I can remember flying from Llandurog. It involved a couple of Whitleys which were both trying to land at the same time. One landed on top of the other causing the deaths of about sixteen personnel on board. It was, of course caused by carelessness on the parts of the pilots of the aircraft and also the people controlling the aircraft from the control tower.
I used to get very depressed with life at Penrhos, although I did do some [deleted] night [/deleted] flying on flight tests, and often flew to our maintenance depot at Hell's Mouth . [deleted] This again [/deleted] [inserted] Hells Mouth [/inserted] , was [inserted] also [/inserted] very precariously positioned, which [inserted] & also on cross country frlights with training navigator & gunners [/inserted] accounted for many accidents during landings. [inserted] & take offs [/inserted]
In view of the situation, I was frequently at home [inserted] in Beaumaris [/inserted] at weekends, and [deleted]of course [/deleted] [inserted] was often [/inserted] missing from my flight duties [deleted] and [/deleted] [inserted] I [/inserted] [deleted] i [/deleted] t was [inserted] therefore [/inserted] only a matter of time before I would have been caught. I used to break out of the camp at the back of my billet, and climb over the barbed wire entanglements in order to catch the local bus to Caernarvon and Bangor. Of course, this meant I had to get back [inserted] again [/inserted] very early on the following Monday morning and my father had to drive me to Menai Bridge, where I caught a [deleted] small [/deleted] [inserted] local [/inserted] train on a single track line to a place called Avonwen and then on to Pwlleli. The problem then was getting back into the camp without being seen and before roll call. Fortunately, for me, we had a good sergeant in charge of our flight, Sgt. Hudson, and I [deleted] got [/deleted] [inserted] managed to get [/inserted] away with it on all occasions.
In order to prevent trouble in the future, I decided to attend night school. I had a very good education officer, and managed to achieve the required standard of education very quickly. I finally had an interview
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with the camp commanding officer Group captain Williamson, and after an aircrew medical examination, was recommended for a Pilot/Navigator [inserted] /Air Gunner [/inserted] course. I was then posted to London ACRC (Air Crew Receiving Centre) where I was given a white flash for display in my forage cap. I stayed in flats in London in a place called Avenue close, St John's Wood, and had to attend various centres for tests in maths and Signals particularly Morse Code. The Morse test was carried out at Lord's Cricket Ground. We had to pass out at 12 words per minute. Fortunately, sitting close at hand were a couple of wireless operator air gunners who were in the course of remustering to Pilot/Navigators. We, naturally, got all our information from them, and so passed the course comfortably.
From London ACRC, I was posted to No 4 ITW (Initial training Wing) at Paignton for 14 weeks. Here we had more instruction on mathematics, signals, meteorology, navigation, airmanship, air force law, armaments, aircraft and ship recognition, and of course square bashing and drill. All the hotels in Paignton had by this time been taken over by the RAF, and I was billeted in the Ramleh hotel right on the sea front. The Palace hotel was close by and this was our mess. All lectures and instruction were arranged daily at a very smart country house outside Paignton off the main Torquay Road. No transport was laid on, and we therefore had to fall in and march to attention at 140 paces to the minute, which was quite a fast pace, for quite a long distance. I had to work very hard to keep up with this course as the pass marks on each subject were very high. In subjects such as Morse Code and Aircraft Recognition it was 100%. I was very lucky to get some help at weekends with my studies from a Beaumaris acquaintance, namely Hugh Williams, who happened to have been a headmaster in Manchester prior to the war and had been called up and commissioned in the RAF. He was instructing on Maths and Navigation at an ITW in Torquay where he lived with his family. Our final test in Signals was unique in many respects as [inserted] we [/inserted] were all assembled on the Paignton seafront and had to read an Aldis lamp signal flashed to us from Torbay (Hope's Nose peninsula) a distance of some six to seven miles.
During our time in Paignton and Torquay, we had frequent visits from the Luftwaffe fighters, mainly Messerschmidt 109, and Fokkerwolf 190 fighter aircraft, which roared in from the sea on many occasions and dropped their bombs and strafed the sea front and retired. However, all in all, we had a fairly pleasant time in Paignton. I missed the athletic display put on in Torquay for the visit of King George V1 by Air Commodore Critchley. The reason for this was that I got very badly sunburnt, and managed to get out of this very well. Everybody thought it was a waste of time anyway, and we were browned off in more ways than one, for having to go and prepare for this event.
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On completion of the course, I was made up to Leading Aircraftsman, and had the coveted propeller badge on my uniform sleeve.
From Paignton, I was posted to Desford near Leicester to do my [inserted] Flying [/inserted] Grading School. This was to see if I was suitable for Pilot/ Navigator/Bomb Aimer. In order to pass as a pilot, I had to go solo by day and also solol by night. [inserted] T [/inserted] His course was completed in the allotted 12 hours and again, I had no real problems, but many [deleted] people [/deleted] [inserted] students [/inserted] were then sorted out. [inserted] as they failed to achieve the required standard. [/inserted]
[inserted] All details of my flying at Desford were lost as I had no log book at that time. This was unfortunate as I particularly wanted to know the exact times I required to be “solo” day & night. [/inserted]
I then went to Heaton Park, Manchester [inserted] & slept [/inserted] under canvas to await my posting as trainee pilot to Canada. This was also the time of Gwyneth and John's wedding. John was heading for the Middle East, and they decided on the spur of the moment to marry. Under the circumstances, I was unable to attend the wedding. I only stayed in Manchester for some three or four weeks, during which time, I got engaged to Eve Bock. She was also living in the [inserted] symbol [/inserted] Manchester area, as she had not at that time been called up for the WAAF.
During my stay at Heaton Park, the Station Warrant Officer who was a bit of a bully , was thrown into the lake and almost drowned. Nobody had much sympathy for him, and I believe he was later removed from office and absolved of all responsibility for airmen, as clearly we were on the verge of rioting. I finally left Manchester late at night by train for Greenock, Clyde Scotland and was taken out to a liner, namely the Thomas H Barrie, by a steamer known to me from my days on the Menai Straits as the St Seriol, which pre war, was a pleasure steamer plying from Liverpool to Menai Bridge during the summer season.
I sailed in a large American convoy, which zig zagged its way across the Atlantic in August 1942, and after fourteen days at sea during which one boat was sunk and another set on [deleted] fore [/deleted] [inserted] fire [/inserted] , the convoy arrived in New York. The journey had been fairly unpleasant as we had very little to do and my bunk was situated near to one of the vents from the engine room and it was very hot and uncomfortable. However the food was good and there was plenty of it. Most of the lads had stomach trouble due to the richness of the food which we were not used to. I had severe diarrhoea but I didn't stop eating. There was a large 14 inch gun at the back of the boat on a special platform and this was firing from time to time. It was manned by naval personnel who were also dropping depth charges because of the submarine menace. I can well remember going through the Newfoundland fog bank off the coast of the USA and waking up in the morning on the outside deck soaking wet and very cold. I had little choice but to sleep [inserted] outside [/inserted] most of the time on deck due to the heat from the engine room. On arrival in New York, we saw the liner Queen Mary which was used at that time as a troop ship. She was speeding back to the United Kingdom full of troops and without a convoy.
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We entrained for Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, and stopped at a place called Bangor Maine on the way north. We were allowed to get off the train, and this was the first experience I had of spending American dollars. The journey took about 24 hours to complete and was reasonably comfortable. We had plenty to eat and the seats were large and roomy.
Moncton was a very large holding unit, and all RAF aircrew personnel going in and out of Canada had to pass through there. I was only in Moncton for about four weeks and was then posted to Stanley, Nova Scotia No 17 elementary Flying training School ( Royal Canadian Air Force) where all instructors were civilian bush pilots. Here we flew Fleet Finch bi planes which were fitted with a Kinner 5 R radial engine. The machine was roughly twice the size of a Tiger Moth and used for initial training purposes. It was, I think, a very good aircraft on which to commence flying. The instructors were also very good at their jobs. They were conversant with the aircraft and knew the territory over which we were flying. Seldom did they have to refer to any maps, although these were always taken on our flights. Apart from day and night flying, and aerobatics, we had to attend Ground School, and covered Navigation, airmanship, Aircraft Recognition, Meteorology, and Armaments. [inserted] & Signals [/inserted] Altogether, I did some 76.55 hours flying at this station. There were no serious accidents, apart from the occasional ground loop to which these machines were subject in [deleted] the [/deleted] [inserted] a [/inserted] cross wind. [inserted] The remedy to counteract this was a very quick & positive pressure on the rudder bar – to stop the swing to the right - which was a characteristic of this aircraft.
My next posting was to No 8 Service Flying Training School at Lakeburn, New Brunswick, another Royal Canadian Air Force station. This was a fairly large aerodrome, and in those days used by civilian aircraft on regular routes throughout Canada. All Staff in our area were Royal Canadian Air Force, and our unit was separate from the civilian sector. Incidentally, our training was carried out under the Empire [inserted] Air [/inserted] Training Scheme. (Later the name was changed to Commonwealth Air Training Scheme) and there was a large notice board to this effect at the camp entrance.
I started my training here on Harvard 2 aircraft, but only did some [symbol ] 2hrs 30 [deleted] m [/deleted] [inserted] hrs [/inserted] on these before changing over to the Anson twin engmed aircraft. I flew some 270 hours in total before getting my wings, instrument rating etc.
Again it was , hard work, and I had to attend some of the extra instruction [deleted] exercises [/deleted] [inserted] classes [/inserted] in the evening [inserted] s [/inserted]when I wasn't flying. We had no flying accidents during my time here, although the winter was very harsh and the aircraft difficult to control when landing on ice and snow, particularly in any cross winds. Naturally, we had a `Wings Parade' at the
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end of the course. My `wings' were presented by the C.O., namely, Group Captain Hubbard, and I was promoted to Sergeant Pilot.
The `wings' presentation was the subject of a telegram home, as I felt I had achieved a positive result of which I was duly proud. Many of my school friends had failed the pilot's course in the early stages, and I don't believe they expected me to pass, in view of the results I had obtained at school.
I returned to 31 PD Moncton to await my posting back to the UK, and was fortunate to meet two old school friends from Beaumaris Grammar School, namely David Prewer and Clifford Roberts. David Prewer was a sergeant bomb aimer, and Clifford Roberts was commissioned as a wireless operator/air gunner. Both were on operations late in 1944 and David Prewer was killed in action. Clifford Roberts bailed out over France and was taken prisoner of war.
I returned to the United Kingdom on a very fast liner called the Louis Pasteur. We had no escort and were not troubled by submarine activity en [inserted] – [/inserted] route. However, again it was a very uncomfortable few days at sea, and during this time we had to sleep in hammocks and were squashed into one of the lower deck compartments. Had anything happened while we were in transit, we would not have got out. We had no fresh water on board for washing etc. and sanitary arrangements were very primitive. Going to the latrines was a dangerous business since these were merely long troughs with the sea water rushing through, and any careless movement would have been disastrous.
We duly arrived in Liverpool after about seven days out of Halifax which was really good going. The customs people checked all our kit and [deleted] other [/deleted] baggage for cameras and other contraband, and several airmen had to pay up or get their goods confiscated. There were no concessions made even in those days.
From Liverpool, we went on to Harrogate by train, and were billeted in the town centre in the Majestic Hotel. My intake was settled mostly on the top floor, and we were a mixed batch of pilots, navigators and bomb aimers. There were no lifts in operation and the main staircase had been boarded up to prevent wear and tear and other damages. We were given further tests, and one which I particularly remember was to check on our night vision capacity. Mine was assessed as being above average and this was noted in my log book. We were also given further inoculations and vaccinations, and after one particular dose, I was taken ill and removed to the sick bay. There I remained for two or three days recovering. Upon discharge, I had noticed some suppurating sores occurring on my nose and mouth area. Nevertheless, the M.O. still discharged me, but by evening time, I was re admitted with impetigo.
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This meant isolation for some three weeks, and then of course a period of sick leave.
On returning home, I contacted Eve Bock who was by this time a WAAF sergeant, and based in Lewes in the south of England. I went down to see her, but obviously she had found another boyfriend. I decided almost immediately to retrieve my engagement ring. [inserted] & [/inserted] I finally returned home to Beaumaris really sad and fed up. After this, I had several more girlfriends but nothing serious until I arrived at Shepherd's Grove on a Heavy Conversion course on Stirlings. I was home on leave when I met Mary. More will be said about this at a later stage.
My first posting in the United Kingdom was to South Cerney near Cirencester, Gloucestershire to an A.F.U (Advanced Flying Unit). Since South Cerney was the `parent' unit, we were almost immediately transferred to satellite units namely Tetbury and Southrop, to do our day flying and night flying respectively. Owing to the blackouts, night flying was very difficult, and we depended on occults and pundits for determining our position when on navigational exercises. ‘Occults’ were green lights flashing a single Morse [delete] character [/deleted] [inserted] characteric and denoted an aerodrome [/inserted] , and ‘pundits' were red lights flashing a two letter character [inserted] [ indecipherable word ] [/inserted] These were changed periodically to confuse the enemy, and all details of these were given [inserted] to us [/inserted] during pre flight briefings. In the event of any air raids in our vicinity, all aerodrome lights were switched off, and when flying we had to stop all transmissions, and fly from pundit to pundit until the raid was over and the all clear given.
In the event of any emergency when flying in Training command, the code word [inserted] for aircraft in difficulties [/inserted] was "Darky” as opposed to the international "Mayday" code used by operational squadrons. All these things had to be fully explained to [deleted] all [/deleted] aircrew taking part in such exercises, and this information was given usually in pre flight briefings.
The next stage of my training took me to Cranage in Cheshire where I completed a [inserted ' [/inserted]Beam Approach [inserted] ' [/inserted] course which we had to use in extremely bad visibility, conditions where we could not see the surrounding territory [inserted] or airfield [/inserted] . This was quite a difficult procedure, and we found it almost impossible to follow when flying heavy four engined aircraft because of the frequent large course changes which were necessary to carry out the landing procedures. We therefore used a different, system namely QGH, which was a `talk you down' control through [deleted] the [/deleted] cloud, and your aircraft headings [inserted] & height [/inserted] were all given by the ground controller. A similar system is still in use today. [inserted] Another procedure in foggy conditions was called “Fido” comparatively few airfields were equipped with this system. [/inserted]
Upon finishing at AFU, I went to Upper Heyford near Banbury - No 16 OTU (Operational Training Unit) on Wellingtons. Here we had to pick a crew of five people out of numerous aircrew milling around. This
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included a navigator, bomb aimer, wireless operator, air gunner, mid upper gunner, and rear gunner. [inserted] My flight engineer was chosen at Heavy Conversion Unit they were only employed on 4 engined A/C. [/inserted]
Flying the Wellington, which was classed as a twin engined medium sized bomber, was very different from what I had been used to. [inserted] As it looked very big and of course far more sophisticated from previous aircraft flown to date. [/inserted] Fortunately most of the people I chose as my crew proved reliable and [deleted] very big and of course far more sophisticated [/deleted] efficient, or at least they did at this stage. Further on, in [inserted] training on [/inserted] the different courses, some weaknesses did develop, and more will be said about this later. First of all, Upper Heyford closed down as a Bomber command [inserted] OTU [/inserted] [deleted] OUT [/deleted] and we were all transferred or posted to No 84 OTU at Desborough, Northants again on Wellingtons. This aircraft, [deleted] as already stated [/deleted] was far more complicated to fly because of [deleted] the [/deleted] [inserted] its [/inserted] size and extra instrumentation. We did many cross country flights particularly at night, some lasting six hours or more, and under some terrible weather conditions. Consequently, there were many accidents occurring in OTUs throughout the country. Many of these flights consisted of [deleted] a [/deleted] simulated attack [inserted] s [/inserted] on various towns and [inserted] chosen [/inserted] targets throughout the country, and usually fighter affiliation and [inserted] machine [/inserted] gun firing exercises were included in these flights. Firing the guns at night particularly, is quite an experience at first as we had tracer bullets mixed in with ordinary rounds of ammunition and the idea of this is self explanatory as it enables the gunners to [deleted] fix [/deleted] [insert] set [/insert] their sights on a particular [symbol] target. [insert] and see exactly where their bullets were going [/inserted] However, when first experienced one got the distinct impression that the aircraft's bullets [inserted] when fire in the [indecipherable word] areas [/inserted] were coming straight in at us, in our aircraft [inserted] which was extremely frightening [/inserted] . However, we all completed this course satisfactorily and went on to fly Stirlings Mark I and Mark III at Stradishall in Suffolk, and; [inserted] then [/inserted] on to its satellite at Shepherd's Grove, near Bury St Edmunds. This aircraft was [inserted] again [/inserted] huge by comparison with the Wellington and was classed as a heavy 4 engined bomber, with a particularly bad reputation: Numerous aircrews were killed flying the Stirling which suffered from all sorts of problems. Operationally they were almost useless because of their limited height approximately 12 14,000 maximum with a full bomb [inserted] if you were lucky [/inserted] . The undercarriage and flaps were operated electrically, and the undercarriage particularly [inserted , [/inserted] was in two tiers making the pilot's cockpit position [inserted] when on the ground [/inserted] some 2 [deleted] 6 [/deleted] [inserted] 0 [/inserted] ft above ground level [inserted] . [/inserted] Added to this, the braking system was inefficient and during circuits and bumps many aircraft ran off the runway due to lack of brake pressure. The undercarriage was weak, as already stated, because it was in two tiers, and in a cross wind, it was easily damaged and I [deleted] f [/deleted] [inserted] t [/inserted] often collapsed. [inserted] with catastrophic results. [/inserted]
Towards the end of the Stirling course, I was obliged to take a full medical examination. This happened [inserted] to all aircrew [/inserted] every six months to ensure that [deleted] aircrew [/deleted] we [deleted] e [/deleted] [inserted] were [/inserted] in good physical condition. [deleted] On this occasion [/deleted] , [deleted] I [/deleted] [inserted] I [/inserted] t was [deleted] found [/deleted] [inserted] discovered [/inserted] that my blood pressure was. too high [inserted] & [/inserted] I was immediately sent to hospital in Ely. I was kept under observation [inserted] there [/inserted] for some two to three weeks during which time several tests were carried out, as they thought I might have a
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[inserted] ** [/inserted] kidney problem. However, nothing was discovered and I was then sent down to London to No 1 Central Medical Board where I was seen by about eight doctors. Once again nothing could be found, and I was posted [inserted] on completion of the course [/inserted] [deleted] back [/deleted] to No 3 LFS (Lancaster Finishing School) at Feltwell in Norfolk. During this time, my crew had all been on leave and had been enjoying themselves. We were lucky in one way, as we missed [inserted] our previous [/inserted] [deleted] a [/deleted] posting on Stirlings to Algiers, and were really quite pleased about this. [inserted] We were not keen on the Stirling because of its operational performance & other major problems taking off & landing due to weak undercarriage & poor brakes etc. [/inserted]
However, I still had to complete [deleted] my [/deleted] [inserted] the [/inserted] Heavy Conversion Course on the Stirling and was obliged to do a night exercise which was a simulated night attack on Bristol. This was called a `Bulls Eye' and during the exercise, it was customary to have on board a screen navigator and also a screen pilot. It was [inserted] therefore [/inserted] very important we all pulled together as an efficient crew. Unfortunately, due to a navigational error, our navigator, by the [deleted] m [/deleted] =name of Jack O' Toole, got us to the target too early, [inserted] and In stead of getting me to do a dog leg in order to waste some time, he took us straight to the target, which was enough to fail him on this particular [deleted] course [/deleted] [inserted] exercise. [/inserted]
While stationed at Shepherd's Grave, Jack Gambell and I decided to purchase an old Morris 8 Saloon for £50 at a garage in Bury St Edmunds. The car really was `clapped ' and [deleted] s [/deleted] had a hole in the roof [deleted] of [/deleted] [inserted] on [/inserted] the right hand front corner, and when it rained your legs got wet. It also consumed a large amount of engine oil. [inserted] and this was an indication of pending expensive repairs [/inserted] I taught Jack to drive on this car; and he took it home on his first leave from HC unit. Really speaking, the car served its purpose very well as Shepherd's Grove was way out in the sticks. [inserted] and we needed some transport. [/inserted]
The next car I bought was a Triumph Dolomite [inserted] ( [/inserted] Open Tourer [inserted] ) [/inserted]. This was in Littleport. I paid £50 for it from the next door neighbour of Mrs Leicester where we went quite regularly for a slap up meal. She always had plenty of eggs on the menu and made good Yorkshire puddings. Many of our Australian and New Zealand crews [inserted] also [/inserted] met here. The first time I took the Dolomite out, it caught fire [deleted] . [/deleted] I got the wiring behind the dash panel renewed on the camp [inserted] at Mildenhall [/inserted] by a corporal from the MT section. I took this car back to Coventry several times, [inserted] and [/inserted] On one particularly cold winter's day, I was just outside Daventry on my way to [inserted] Coventry [/inserted] to see Mary, when coming towards me on the wrong side of the road was a huge Scammell truck. Apparently, the driver was having difficulty getting up the hill [inserted] in the slippery conditions [/inserted] and had [deleted] chosen [/deleted] [inserted] decided [/inserted] to to try the right hand side [inserted] of the road [/inserted] . I couldn't stop because of the ice and snow on the road, and didn't want to hit the lorry, so chose to turn into the left hand hedge and a deep ditch! The car turned over and I was left upside down in the ditch. Fortunately, I was unhurt and my car was pulled out and put back on its wheels and I drove on my way. I didn't even take the offending vehicle's registration number. However, I found
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that the steering was damaged, due to bent track rods and had difficulty getting to Coventry where it was easily repaired.
I took this car with me to Feltwell and Mildenhall, but in the meantime, I had acquired a Hillman Minx, which was being sold cheap on the squadron by a F/Lt Parker. I must mention that second hand cars on the squadron were plentiful, and it was customary when crews were shot down and killed, for these vehicles to be auctioned off on the station. The Hillman saloon proved to be the best car I had purchased to date, and in it I covered a few thousand miles. I remember deciding to paint it blue while on leave in Coventry, but after hand painting it, it started to rain. What a mess! Mary's father finally got it resprayed for £20 in grey and it looked quite presentable. I kept it until the end of the war.
The Triumph Dolomite was not used much in Mildenhall as I had two cars, and one night my two gunners stole it. They drove to Littleport where the steering broke and it was finally left on the side of the road for several weeks. I finally arranged for it to be towed back by the army. The towing vehicle was a Matilda tank, and by the time it reached our base, it was a complete wreck and ready for the scrap heap.
I duly finished my heavy bomber conversion Stirling course at 1657 Shepherd's Grove on Ist September 1944. We all went through to a Lanc finishing School at Feltwell on 14th September 1944 and I did some 12 hours 50 minutes Conversion Course on Lancasters. We found the Lancaster comparatively easy after the Stirling.
On completion of the Lancaster course, I was posted to No 622 Squadron at Mildenhall, where I completed further exercises in fighter affiliation, air firing and bombing before going on to actual operations. I started full operations on 23rd September 1944.
The first trip I made was a flight with F/Lt Orton to Duisburg in the Ruhr. This procedure was followed on all operational squadrons as it was felt that the pilot required some actual operational experience before taking a complete crew over Germany. It must be mentioned that F/Lt Orton did not do many more sorties after this, and was shot down and killed along with his crew.
I did several more flying exercises in Mildenhall consisting of cross country flights, loaded climbs with full bomb load, fighter affiliation etc., before taking my complete crew over Germany. It was during these exercises that my navigator Sergeant Jack O'Toole was assessed to be incapable of navigating with the accuracy required for operations, and was `washed out.' I was therefore without a navigator for some time.
I was very lucky in Mildenhall to quickly find another suitable navigator, namely Sam Berry, as most of the spare people were doubtful
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characters, who had either come off operations because of illness, or because of other navigational discrepancies. Sam Berry was a Flight/Lieutenant and was of Indian descent. He had been taken off operations because of being ill, and had at one time been suspected of having tuberculosis. During the time he was in hospital, his original crew who were Canadian, had been shot down and killed. He was a Fl/Lt when I met him and I was a Fl/ Sergeant, but I was in charge of my aircraft, so he was obliged to carry out my orders.
Sam flew eleven operations with me before being seriously wounded on a trip to Homberg in the Ruhr on the 8th November 1944. we were flying in aircraft `L' Love. This was the nearest I got to being shot down, although we had various damage [inserted] s [/inserted] on all flights over Germany, mainly due to the accuracy of their anti aircraft fire. The Germans knew that we would normally be flying in at heights between 18 20,000 feet, and they would put up what we would call a `box barrage' between these heights , and obviously they had to hit something or somebody. As a matter of interest, I will describe what really happened on this particular visit to Homberg.
I remember remarking to Jack Gambell, my bomb aimer, that there was a very dark cloud over to our starboard side, and of course, he immediately replied that this was our target and that we would be turning right into it in exactly one minute. He was, of course, right, because the next thing I knew was a big bang and we were on fire caused by a direct hit on the starboard inner engine and aircraft fuselage. Sammy, who was sitting directly behind me at his navigating table, was of course hit in the back by shrapnel. By the time Bill Ralph had got to him, it was after we had cleared the target and he was bleeding [inserted] and [/inserted] in a bad way. My starboard inner engine [inserted] had been [/inserted] [deleted] was [/deleted] on fire. [inserted] And in [/inserted] [deleted] In [/deleted] addition, my windscreen in front of me was smashed, and in the panic, I gave instructions to my engineer to feather the starboard inner engine and stand by. Bill Ralph, my flight engineer, feathered the wrong engine, and consequently we were obliged to fly as accurately as possible over the target area on the remaining good engines, and this proved to be very difficult with an aircraft that was fully loaded with bombs and flight crew. However, we managed after losing about 2000 feet in height, and began to assess the damage. As already mentioned, my windscreen had been completely shattered, and the glass had fallen down and cut my face a little bit, but it was not serious. My mid upper gunner had suffered similar injuries in his turret. Fortunately, we all played our part in getting out of this serious situation, and Bill Ralph who had experience in first aid, managed to get Sammy to the bed which was available a mid ships. Sam was awarded an immediate D.F.C. and I was assured that mine would come later.
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My first priority was to keep the aircraft flying and try to get Sammy comfortable. It was not possible, however, to stop his bleeding, and my next consideration had to be to get down as quickly as possible on to an aerodrome on the English coast. I chose Woodbridge emergency aerodrome situated on the east coast, and [deleted] o [/deleted] after considerable difficulty [inserted] in [/inserted] getting the undercarriage down and locked, I made a reasonably good landing, despite having a further two engines pack up on the approach. Fire engines and ambulances were awaiting our arrival as we had called the station up in advance and Sammy was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment. We were all examined by the station medical officer and were all back in Mildenhall soon afterwards. My aircraft was written off, and I was obliged to fly the Lancaster that picked us up, back to base. This procedure was always adopted on our squadron whenever air crews had been involved in such actions or flying accidents, in order to restore their confidence. I was later informed that I could not have reached my home base, had I decided to remain with my original aircraft.
I didn't get my DFC until after I had left the Squadron in Mildenhall, although I had been told unofficially that I was to get the award [inserted] . [/inserted] [deleted] and could wear the ribband [sic] [/deleted] . This information was given to me by the Squadron adjutant, who contacted me at Chipping Warden, and was also confirmed by Sammy my old navigator, who had by this time returned to Mildenhall after his hospitalisation, and was working at the base headquarters. [deleted] Also n [/deleted] [inserted] N [/inserted] ormally, it would have been presented by the King, but at this time he was very ill and the medal was sent by registered post with a personal letter with his signature. I also received a letter of congratulation from the Beaumaris Town Clerk and Town Council.
I went on with my crew to complete our tour of 33 operations, which finished on 22nd February 1945. I did not fly with Sammy again after the eleventh operation and had to fly with many spare navigators who were floating around the squadron, and this was not very easy as some of them were pretty awful. One in particular Fl/Sgt McKay got me lost over Germany on a trip to Leipzig and we got back very late and had been given up as `missing' on operations. [deleted] Fl/ [/deleted] McKay proved to be a complete nervous wreck and mentally unstable. Whatever happened to him afterwards, I could not say, but I believe he was assessed as LMF (Lack of moral fibre)
I must say at that time, I had no regrets about bombing Germany, as they were bombing us and I just wanted to return the compliment.
Flying conditions over the continent, particularly during the winter, were the cause of many flying accidents and frequently many crews did not find their target. They were initially obliged to depend on D.R. Navigation (dead reckoning). The inaccuracy of aircraft instruments and in many instances lack of flying experience….. [inserted] also took their toll. [/inserted]
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[arrow headed line down left hand side of page]
Finding the target depended on evading the enemy fighter [inserted] s [/inserted], and ack ack anti aircraft barrages and searchlights which were particularly fierce in the Ruhr and around all the main towns and cities. As mentioned, navigation depended on D.R navigation initially, and later on new equipment such as radar [inserted] – [/inserted] GEE, G.H and [deleted] H25 and also [/deleted] [inserted] H2S increased accuracy [/inserted] …… Target marking was also important as Jerry often jammed radar and radio equipment. Added to this when flying through a cold frontsome [sic] of the flying instruments ie pilot head, although electronically heated, froze solid and this meant that we had no airspeed indicator or altimeter, and the ice that built up on the leading edges of the wings and on the [inserted] airscrews [/inserted] ………..used to come adrift and crash against the fuselage, which was very disconcerting, and when experienced for the first time, the noise was frightening. [inserted] T [/inserted] [deleted] t [/deleted] owards the end of the war, the main bombing force was assisted by Pathfinders, a specially trained force who marked the target in various ways, again depending on the prevailing weather as sometimes we bombed through cloud and with the GH equipment, we …:[inserted] were able [/inserted] [deleted] with this equipment [/deleted] to bomb to within 50 yards which was considered to be a direct hit.
There were occasions when bombs got iced up on the bomb racks due to the cold, and these dropped into the bomb bay when we descended to a lower altitude, usually after leaving th target. The ruling was that in an emergency bombs would be dropped "safe" in certain areas ie the Wash and the Channel but we had to drop all our load in or on enemy territory. We would not land with a bomb rolling about in the bomb bay, and in such cases where we were concerned, a secondary target was chosen on the return route.
Prior to any raid, day or night, there were many regulations and procedures to be followed. First of all security on the bomber stations was strict, but even so, it often happened that the people ` [deleted] dwn [/deleted] [inserted] down in [/inserted] the village' knew what was going on. Battle orders were drawn up usually each morning upon receipt of instructions from Bmber [sic] Command Headquarters. These indicated the names of crews affected, the target to be attacked numbers of aircraft taking part. All arrangements for bomb load, rations, fuelling aircraft and briefings of aircrew members, were given to the various sections pilots, navigators bomb aimers, gunners were briefed by their section leaders, and a general final briefing was given by the squadron C.O. and senior staff. A little later, after this general briefing, we were taken out with all our kit to our individual aircraft to carry' out further checks and await take off time. Radio silence was strictly adhered to, and orders to take off were given by means of Aldis lamp or signal cartridge from the control tower. A limited amount of time was taken for take off and taxiing and all aircraft were checked
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and lined up ready for departure. Timing was , of course, all important as all aircraft had t [sic] bomb and clear the target spot on time and on the appointed compass heading to avoid collisions. We usually bombed from 18000 to 20000feet and reduced height by 8000 immediately after releasing our bombs.
I would mention that to ensure we all bombed our target, every aircraft carried a camera in the nose, and a photo flash in the tail portion. When the bomb doors were opened over the target area and the bombs released, the photo flash would be released at the same time, and a photograph taken of the target area. The photographs were scrutinised by our Intelligence Department on our return to base and if anyone had not been to the target, they wanted to know why! This was really a .......method to ensure that we all did our job.
On completion of my operational tour (33 operations), all of my crew were posted as screen instructors to various OTUs in 3 Group. My wireless operator, Fred Charlesworth and myself were posted to Chipping Warden, and I was awarded my DFC on leaving the station. Prior to going there, I did an instructors' course at Silverstone to get me acquaint [inserted] again [/inserted] with [deleted] t [/deleted] Wellington aircraft on which we were instructing. My time in chipping Warden was very restricted and I did very few trips. The war in Europe ended, and many aircrew were then made redundant. I was not asked, but was posted on a Tiger Moth course at Birmingham Airport. I was not very pleased about this. However, whilst on holiday in Beaumaris, I met Lady Megan Lloyd George at a garden party and would mention here, that my father knew her pretty well. When I explained my situation, she promised to do her best to get me into Transport Command. Shortly afterwards, I had a posting, not to Transport command, but to Ferry Command, which was the next best thing, and I did a short course on airspeed Oxfords at [deleted] Boscombe [/deleted] [inserted] Aston [/inserted] Down.
I was then posted to No 5 Ferry pool at Silloth. I flew many different types of aircraft, most of them twin engined and four engined types. On the twin engined aircraft, we carried no crew, but on the four-engined aircraft, we always carried a flight engineer. We were supplied with crystal [inserted] s [/inserted] for the radio transmitter unit and had to tune this equipment ourselves.This was quite an interesting job as we flew all the different types of aircraft arriving on our station. Most of these were taken to the north of Scotland or to Ireland to be put in storage. We were given no instruction on the aircraft we flew. [deleted] We [/deleted] [inserted] But [/inserted] were given a little blue book containing details of all types of aircraft and were obliged to study the respective performance figures prior to take off. Surprisingly, we had only one fatal accident the whole time I was with this unit.
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I was demobbed in August 1946, and completed a course for a `B' flying licence, as I intended to do some civilian flying. However, pilots were very plentiful in those days after the war, and there were problems finding a suitable job. Also, there was my high blood pressure which always came to the fore during the regular six monthly medical examinations, so I decided to seek work elsewhere.
First of all, I made a bad mistake and joined the Coventry Police force, serving as a police constable for some twelve months. During this time, I got married, and found the money in those days very tight. I earned £5.00 per week plus a boot allowance, and had to work on shifts. I finally handed in my resignation after twelve months. Again, I experienced considerable difficulty in finding suitable work, as I had no real qualifications apart from flying aircraft.
I finally got work in the Standard Motor Company in Canley. I had no wages for the first year as I was a student. I then went on to Service Reception, and was eventually allocated a territory as a service representative. This territory included the whole of the Midlands, South Wales as afar as Aberystwyth and right across to the Wash and East Anglia. This job entailed being away from home quite a lot. However, there were other advantages, such as having a car which was change [inserted] d [/inserted]. frequently every 10,000 miles, and of course, all the maintenance, insurance and running costs were paid for by the company.
Eventually, I had the opportunity of going abroad, which was a step forward, and an increase in status and salary, so I jumped at this. My first trip abroad was for three months, and included most countries in Europe and North Africa plus a visit to the oil wells of the Middle East which were at that time operating the Standard Vanguard. On my return,a great deal of service reorganisation and company changes were taking place, and I was posted on a permanent basis with my family to Brussels in the 1950s. This again, meant a great deal of time being spent away from home, and although Brussels was a very good centre, the job, to say the least was a little bit inconvenient, and threw a lot of extra work on my wife Mary.
After three years, I was again recalled to the United Kingdom [inserted] because of reorganisation [/inserted] and given the territory comprising Spain, Portugal, all of North Africa, as far as Angola and the Belgian Congo, and the Mediterranean countries as far south as Egypt. These changes of territory were taking place the whole time I was with British Leyland, and I finally ended up with a territory comprising the whole of Asia, Australasia, south America, central America and the Caribbean. This meant going round the world practically every time I did a trip. For this, I was promoted to Service Executive, and awarded an increase in salary for the extra responsibility and inconvenience involved. However, it meant a lot more work for Mary and
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the children. With all the problems it caused at home, the move was not really worth it, but work was difficult in those days.
I finally finished up at Land Rover at Solihull. I had by that time completed 33 years service with the company which was then known as British Leyland. The final crunch came when I had reported sick with prostate gland trouble. I was instructed by the company to get the operation completed quickly and they would pay all my expenses. This I did, but the company did not want to pay, and I finally had to foot the costs myself. I was in BUPA, but because I had previously had similar problems, they refused to accept the expenses involved.
I felt that the company had let me down, and even the trade union to which I belonged was useless. I felt that nobody had appreciated my effort s over the past years and I got out as quickly as I could. I did manage to buy my company car - a Dolomite Sprint at a special price. Apart from that the company paid nothing and the pension in those days was extremely poor by today's standards.
I would also mention that life during my working days in the motor trade was extremely precarious, as the unions were always going on strike and fighting for better conditions and better wages, but the quality of the final product was poor, and often disgusting. As a consequence, our sales, in overseas markets in particular, suffered. This deterioration became more noticeable in later years. The people in top management were most incompetent, and got their jobs not because of what they knew, but because of who they knew.
During my whole service with Standard Motor Company, Land Rover, and British Leyland, I can only remember going on strike once, and I vowed I would not do it again regardless of the consequences. It was a waste of time and money.
On retirement, Mary and I went to live in Portugal. We had a nice little two bedroomed villa situated some 3 km from Tavira, in a kind of cul de sac. We had all facilities including a swimming pool measuring some 8 x 4 metres. Most of the neighbours were English, and we got on with them all very well. We carried out various modifications during our time there including converting the top floor into a self contained flat with full facilities and capable of accommodating 3 4 people. This flatlet opened on to a flat tiled roof and overlooked the swimming pool. We were very happy living there although we did find the medical expenses there. high, and had always feared the day when we might need to pay for expensive medical treatment and hospitalisation.
We were very happy, until Mary became very ill with lung cancer and on her return to the UK, died after only two weeks in Walsgrave Hospital where she was receiving treatment. Unfortunately, she had a bad fall in the hospital ward just prior to her death and smashed all her front
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teeth, and was badly bruised. I often wonder how much this fall affected her life span, and sometimes wish that I had complained more to the hospital authorities.
However, Mary had been a heavy smoker all her life. She would not go to see the doctor because I do believe she knew what he was going to say. Being sick in Portugal was very costly, and I am sure she was avoiding medical attention over there because of the conditions and expenses involved. Being back in the UK would have improved her chances of survival, but I feel that she had left it too late to do anything about her problem.
When Mary died, my real life seemed to end and can never be the same again. She was wonderful, always so kind and considerate, not only to me but to everybody she met. Everybody I have spoken to held her in very high esteem. I feel that my life is over now and if it wasn't for my children and grandchildren, I don't think my life would be worth living. They have all been truly wonderful.
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Dublin Core
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Title
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If you can't take a joke...
Description
An account of the resource
A detailed account of Ken Thomas's life from his early years at school, through his ground crew technical training followed by his aircrew training, operational tour, short post war service and his civilian career, he revised the account in 2005.
Creator
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Ken Thomas
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2005-02
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19 typewritten pages
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eng
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BThomasWKthomasWKv10001 to 10019
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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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Pending review
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
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Peter Bradbury
David Bloomfield
16 OTU
1657 HCU
622 Squadron
84 OTU
Advanced Flying Unit
Anson
Battle
Blenheim
briefing
Distinguished Flying Cross
flight mechanic
Flying Training School
Fw 190
Gee
ground crew
H2S
Harvard
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
lack of moral fibre
Lancaster
Lancaster Finishing School
Me 109
mechanics engine
military service conditions
Operational Training Unit
Oxford
perception of bombing war
RAF Bridgnorth
RAF Cranage
RAF Desborough
RAF Feltwell
RAF Heaton Park
RAF Hednesford
RAF Llandwrog
RAF Mildenhall
RAF Paignton
RAF Penrhos
RAF Shepherds Grove
RAF Silloth
RAF Silverstone
RAF South Cerney
RAF Stradishall
RAF Torquay
RAF Upper Heyford
sanitation
Stirling
strafing
training
Wellington
Whitley
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1222/12028/PSpencerGC1901.2.jpg
8083fea68b27ab2d47336859883af7a0
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1222/12028/ASpencerGC190123.2.mp3
836491e6db78df25fa3408cce2d0955e
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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Spencer, Geoffrey Charles
G C Spencer
Description
An account of the resource
An oral history interview with Leading aircraftsman Geoffrey Spencer (b.1925, 1735606 Royal Air Force). He served as a flight mechanic and fitter with 49 Squadron at RAF Fiskerton and 189 Squadron at RAF Fulbeck.
The collection was catalogued by IBCC Digital Archive staff.
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IBCC Digital Archive
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2019-01-23
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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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Spencer, GC
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Transcription
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HB: This is an interview for International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive between Harry Bartlett and Geoffrey Charles,
GS: Spencer.
HB: Spencer. We’re at Sutton Coldfield. It’s the 23rd of January 2019. Right Geoff, the floor’s yours, so I understand you come from this sort of area anyway, before the war.
GB: Well I were born in Birmingham and I lived in Erdington before I moved to Sutton Coalfield.
HB: Right.
GS: But I joined the RAF from when I lived in Erdington and the first place I went to was Cardington for eight weeks’ square bashing and then they moved me to Cosford, RAF Cosford and I did a flight mechanic’s course.
HB: You know before you joined, did you actually go to school in Erdington?
GS: Oh yeah, when I was in Erdington, from when I was fifteen, I joined the Air Training Corps and I did three years with the Air Training Corp prior to going in to the RAF.
HB: So did you get called up or did you volunteer?
GS: I volunteered.
HB: Why did you volunteer?
GS: I don’t know, because they called me, one day after me eighteenth birthday, which I thought was a bit naughty! But that’s it, they sent me there. But anyway -
HB: Sorry, where was your ATC unit?
GS: At Dunlop, Erdington, Dunlop, the big Dunlop factory there, which is still there, part of it and we did all our Air Training Corp training which was a Sunday parade and whatever we did in the week, taking exams and things to get what they call PNB status which was pilot, bomb aimer and bomb aimer and you had to take various exams to pass that exam and you were given a proficiency badge then, when you’ve acquired that, and then you had to wait around and we went to various squadrons, RAF squadrons, Swinderby was one, you know Swinderby, don’t you.
HB: I do, I do.
GS: And we also, oh where else, oh, Fradley, RAF Fradley.
HB: Don’t know Fradley, no.
GS: Litchfield.
HB: Oh right!
GS: 27 OTU that was. I went to that one.
HB: Ah, right! So when you did the ATC training, did you get to fly?
GS: Yes, we did fly. Actually we flew from, in Wellington Bombers when we were at Fradley, time expired Wellington bombers, the wings flapped, they were terrible things, and we went up without chutes. we used to just go down to the airfield at night and cadge flights. And then after that I flew a lot when I was on the squadron at Fiskerton, and I also flew in York aircraft. When, when we flew out to, to Singapore, we flew out by York aircraft from Lyneham, which is still going apparently, but it took five days.
HB: Yeah, I can imagine. So you did your ATC training, you got called up, what were mum and dad doing at the time?
GS: My father was a toolmaker and I worked for him as an apprentice.
HB: Ah right. Had he got his own business?
GS: He’d got his own business, yeah. Not a very big business, but it was a business, then in 1950 he sold it all and moved down to Cornwall, farming.
HB: So your mum and dad are there, you’ve been called up a day after your eighteenth birthday.
Nicola: He’d volunteered to go. Wasn’t called up.
GS: I volunteered for the RAF, yes. I’ve got a sister but she was in the ATS.
HB: Right. Is she older than you, is she older than you?
GS: Yes, three years older than me.
HB: That would explain it. So you go and report, and they say here’s your travel warrant.
GS: Yep, I volunteered at Dale End in Birmingham, right in the centre, that’s it. Then, I say, went to Cardington, eight weeks square bashing and then I went to Cosford and did a flight mechanics course. I don’t know whether you know, but in the RAF there were five trades starting with Group One which was the expert and Group Two which my lot, flight mechanics. Three, four and five you finished up with the bog cleaners, you know, yeah, that was group five, they didn’t do anything. Well from Cosford I went to Fiskerton, 49 Squadron. And I was put into the hangars there servicing the Lancasters, I did a fifty hour service. And from there I was sent out on the flights, B Flight I was on, servicing the Lancasters before they flew on ops. You’re okay, getting all this down are you?
HB: Yep, it’s, I just have to keep an eye on the batteries, that’s all, Geoff.
GS: At Fiskerton. And I used to fly there, used to fly at night time. You had to sign a form, Form 700, to say that you’d serviced the aircraft and you were satisfied. And the pilots invariably said have you signed the 700, yes I have to, said right go and get a parachute, you’re flying with me, if you’ve serviced the aircraft, I want to make quite sure.
HB: His guarantee then!
GS: That was the guarantee. I used to fly that was it. Anyway I used to watch them go out every night. Count how many came back and there was always a few missing.
HB: How did you feel about that?
GS: Not very happy. And then, from Fiskerton, they had FIDO. Do you remember that? You remember FIDO?
HB: Well, I remember it, but some people don’t, what was FIDO.
GS: FIDO was two pipelines joining along the runway which they set alight, which cleared the fog.
Nicola: With fuel dad, was it? Did it, was it fuel?
GS: Hundred octane fuel they used, I don’t know how many thousand gallons every time. One time we went to nearby Waddington, you know that don’t you, doing engine change on a Lancaster and then the pilot said well I’m on ops tomorrow so I’ll fly you back, and during the time from Waddington to Fiskerton, which was only about ten mile, the fog came down and the pilot said - he phoned down the ops tower - and they said well we’ll light FIDO for you, which they did. But the thing is when the fog clears it creates a heat haze, and the pilot said it’s gonna be a bumpy landing.
HB: Oh no!
GS: So we made the approach and he said the alternative, he said, I shall have to crash land it. And the sergeant that was with me at the time, he said, if you do that, we’ve just done an engine change, he said you’ll have to change the bloody lot! [Laughter] Which was quite true. Anyway, he made a very bumpy landing, the brakes failed, so we turned off the runway at about fifty mile an hour and he says hold on we might not be able to stop, but he stopped right in front of the watch tower. And at that time, back at Fiskerton the squadron split up. 49 Squadron went to Syerston, you know Syerston, and 189 Squadron which I was seconded to went to Fulbeck, which was south of Waddington. That’s where you’ve got that bit mixed up I think. [Sounds of paper rustling]
HB: And that was with 189 Squadron.
GS: Yeah. Who were also at Bardney.
HB: Yeah, that’s sort of, answered that sort of little hiccup there.
GS: Well from there they sent me on a Fitter One course at Henlow, which puts it in the right order.
HB: I’m just interested in that Geoff. When you went to RAF Cosford, they would train you as a flight mechanic on all the various engines, the Merlins, the Hercules, you know, all those engines. So when you actually got posted out, you were working on, what sort of engines were you working on then, with the Lancs?
GS: Merlins.
HB: You were working on the Merlins.
GS: Merlin 20s.
HB: So what was the difference between doing your training as a flight mechanic and your training as a fitter?
GS: I don’t know, it was just more sophisticated, more intricate details on the Merlin engine. For instance, I can remember doing a block change on the Merlin engine, which if you’d been a flight mechanic was unheard of. We were in, one of the aircraft came into the main hangar and we did a, and a V12, and we did a block change, which is quite intricate.
HB: So the block is the bit where the pistons go up and down.
GS: That’s right, that’s it, six on each, which was quite a big job doing that. Which we managed okay and that’s when after Fulbeck they sent me to Henlow on that Fitter One’s course. Where did I go from there?
HB: Did you have, obviously you passed the course.
GS: Yeah, I did, I passed with honours on that actually, I did quite well.
HB: Did you get promoted and more money?
GS: I got promoted; I got my props. I was an LAC, so I was quite chuffed with that. And then I went to Holmsley South, now that’s a place in the New Forest, right down the south. I was only there a month, then I went to Duxford for about a month, which was on Spitfires.
HB: Was this all the while working on the engines?
GS: Yes.
HB: For just like a month.
GS: I was a Group one Tradesman then see, I was more useful to them. And then, now where did I go, oh, I went to a place called Hinton in the Hedges which is in Oxfordshire. And when I go there - no aircraft - and the whole airfield was full of airc – of lorries and all the maintenance stuff and what they were doing, they were, all the airfield’s completely covered in all sorts of lorries and all sorts, aircraft carriers and all this sort of business and they’d bring them round into the main hangar, which was still there, service them and put them out back into the airfield and eventually they were dispersed to the place that they wanted them. But, I was wasting my time there, of course.
HB: I was going to say what were they using you for then Geoff?
GS: Well they were using me for, to going out on my bicycle to any of the lorries that were, various types of lorries, bring them into hangars, spray them, blokes spraying, and going out again.
HB: Group One tradesman doing that.
GS: I was a Group One tradesman.
HB: Just slightly moving that cause it’s just making a bit of a noise.
GS: That’s better. Absolutely fine. Yes.
HB: I’m just. So you’re only there a short time then, I presume.
GS: Yep, and then from there, I went to Lyneham and they posted me out to Singapore.
HB: How much, how much notice did you get of that?
GS: Well I don’t know really, I never took time of notice.
HB: So what year do you think that was about?
GS: That was late ’44, because, or late, that’s right, because at that time I as posted out there, went to Lyneham, they dropped the bomb; the atomic bomb.
HB: So that would be ‘45 then.
GS:’ 45. That’s it, that’s it. They dropped the bomb and I flew out to Singapore.
HB: Just take you back to you know, Cosford, Fiskerton and all them. What sort of leave did you get?
GS: Well the usual leave thirty six hour pass, forty eight hour leave. I think I had exp, expo leave before I flew out to Singapore. I think I had fourteen days.
HB: Expo?
GS: Yeah. What do they call it?
HB: Debark? De, Debarkation?
GS: Embarkation!
HB: Embarkation leave. Oh right. So what did you do with your leave, did you come home?
GS: Oh yeah.
HB: Came home. You go to the local dance hall.
GS: Local dance hall and all that.
HB: In your uniform.
GS: I met my wife there, at the local masonic, you know. I had an incident when I were flying out to Singapore. There were two York aircraft went out and there were twenty blokes in each aircraft and we knew each other, forty odd blokes, and we tossed up which aircraft we’d go in. We went to Malta, Habbaniya, what’s, I forget the one in northern India, and then Calcutta. Dumdum, Dumdum airfield, and I elected to go on the first aircraft, on the York that was going to Singapore and the second aircraft didn’t get there: it flew into the Indian Ocean. So that was why, sheer luck, is why I’m still here. And then I did twelve months in Singapore. I had to remuster again then because they didn’t want aircraft fitters then, so I had to remuster as a Fitter Marine and I was on high speed launches wandering around the East Indies, which was quite a good time.
HB: So you went from Lyneham, you flew down through Malta, Middle East, into,
GS: Singapore.
HB: The northern India one and then Singapore. You’re based at Singapore. So you were in what, were you in tents or in quarters?
GS: In quarters, I’ve got some pictures of them actually. We were initially sent out, when we’d gone from Lyneham they told me I was on what they called Tiger Force, which was going to Okinawa which was the nearest point for bombing Tokyo, but because I was in Singapore I didn’t want that because the war had finished with Japan then.
HB: So they just literally took you off aircraft fitting and said -
GS: Fitter marine!
HB: Fitter marine. That’s, what was the big difference with the engines then?
GS: Phew, terrible. There were three Peregrine engines inside the high speed launches, one either side and one at the back of you and it was a hundred and forty degrees in there, so you could only spend ten minutes at a time. When they were going at full throttle, which was thirty knots, you hadn’t got much chance, so you had to come up after ten minutes. It was horrible.
Nicola: What about it, do you remember when you fell in the water dad.
HB: You went overboard did you?
Nicola: You were on, someone backed in to you. Go on.
GS: Well what happened, I was on the quayside, there was a drop in the water of about thirty foot. Some western oriental gentleman I called them, didn’t call them that, backing a lorry up to me he must have seen me, I was looking out to sea and the next minute [slap sound] it hit me and I was in the sea and fortunately there was an officer standing there and he galloped down into the water and dragged me out. Cause it was only about eighteen inches of water.
HB: You were lucky.
GS: It knocked me out virtually. I came round and he said you had a bit of luck there, didn’t you airman. I said yeah, did, I’m glad you got me out. He said look down there, you see all those snakes, he said, they’re all bloody poisonous. [Chuckle] So, sick quarters, and I was okay.
Nicola: You never saw the guy, did you from the truck.
GS: No, the bloke took off, never saw him again.
Nicola: He knew he was in trouble, didn’t he.
HB: So you’re working round, all round Singapore, so you must have had a few trips out to the islands.
GS: Oh yes. Up into Malaya, Penang and Java, Sumatra of course they’ve all changed their names now, haven’t they. So I had twelve months. When I was demobbed, they, I came back by sea. I had to go to a transit camp in Malaya and then came back by sea and it took a month! [Paper shuffling]
Nicola: A month’s cruise then.
GS: I came back on that!
HB: So that’s the, I’ve done it again, I’ve take them off.
GS: Can you spell that?
HB: The Johan van Barneveld.
GS: That’s it.
HB: Looks like bit like an ocean going cruise ship, doesn’t it!
GS: It was only about sixteen thousand ton!
HB: Oh, small!
Nicola: Dad, didn’t you see one of the little boats that you’d serviced, didn’t you see somewhere recently.
GS: Oh yes, I went to Henlow, you know, to the museum there. As you went in, to go in to the museum, on the front was an air sea rescue and the actual [emphasis] one that I sailed in when I was at Singapore.
HB: The same boat?
GS: The same boat, same number: 2528.
Nicola: You didn’t tell them though did you.
GS: No. I knew.
HB: Wow! That’s, so there was a group of you there, you obviously got on well, you know, and so you’d have had to take your leave while you were in Singapore, if you had leave.
GS: I don’t think we did. I was at Seletar, in Singapore. There’s the -
HB: Of course it’s got the flying boats, hasn’t it.
GS: Oh yes. There was a Sunderland. That’s a high speed launch, those sort of things.
HB: So these, this photograph album, we’re going to need to copy all this.
GS: Are you?
HB: There’s one you’d broken.
GS: Yeah, that’s a spit that crash landed. There I am again.
HB: Yes. We’re going to need to copy these I think, Geoff.
GS: These are the -
HB: They are the quarters.
GS: They are the quarters. The Japs had them before we, after, before we got there, first thing they do took all the doors off the bogs so you had no privacy at all. [Laugh]
HB: Ah, right. So, we’ve got you to Singapore, you’ve been on your high speed launches, I think what we’ll do, we’ll just have two minutes pause, right, in the interview, just while get our breath back and then we’ll come back to them. Right, we’ve switched back on, we’ve had a little bit of a break and Nicola, Geoff’s daughter’s just gone off to work, so we’ll just recommence the interview and so we’ve got to the demob in Singapore and all that business, but can we just take you back, back to your airfields, because at one point you did something a bit.
GS: When I was at Fulbeck, we moved from Fiskerton to Fulbeck and I was on duty crew and we had a Stirling bomber come in to be refuelled, and me, being completely new to Stirling bombers, went up in the cockpit, turned the fuel line which I thought was the one, an elephant’s trunk came down and deposit about a hundred gallon of fuel on to the tarmac. [Sigh] And we had a bomb happy, as we used to call them, flak happy, sergeant flight engineer, saw what I’d done, he came up, he said don’t worry about it, so I shoved this fuel line back up into the aircraft and screwed the cock on. I said what about all the fuel on the deck and he said don’t worry about it, so he started the engine up, which in itself was bad enough, it blew the fuel away cause we were way [emphasis] out on dispersal, miles from anywhere you could say, but when Stirling bombers with Hercules engines start up, flames come out, and if it, that bloody aircraft had gone up in bloody flames, so would I!
HB: Blimey! You’d have still been paying for it! Good grief Geoff!
GS: We were on dispersal which was about as far side of the airfield from the Headquarters from about a mile and a half away, this was near Newark, Fulbeck is quite near Newark, and that’s what happened and that was an incident. I told my daughter about it and she was amazed, and I got away with it.
HB: You must have had a few close shaves though.
GS: Oh yeah, I did. Flying the aircraft, we did land with one Lancaster, when we were, where were we? I think it was at Fiskerton, and the undercart folded up and it broke the Lanc up actually, broke the imagine what it did to the props and that.
HB: Was that landing on the main runway or did you get on the grass?
GS: On the main runway, we were going along the runway and the undercart, hydraulics, it just collapsed, and that was dead dodgy. I remember that., but apart from that.
HB: So where would you have been, when that happened, in the Lanc, where would you have been sat?
GS: Usually on the flight engineer’s place because, usually, the flight engineer nearly always went with the pilot on, what do they call it? Air test or fighter affiliation and [cough] that’s when that happened, the undercart folded up, just the one wheel. It did a lot of damage. Props of course went on the port side and that was it.
HB: You got away with that one as well.
GS: I got away with that one as well. But then, from that one as well. And then from then on I made sure I picked the time I went, flew, went on the air test. [Chuckle]
HB: Why was that?
GS: I was getting scared to be quite honest. Yeah. There was another incident we had, I’ve forgotten what it was now. Something to do with Lancasters, but normally was a wonderful aircraft, you know. We had several crews that did a full tour of ops at Fiskerton.
HB: Yeah. Did you, when you were at Fiskerton, did you always maintain the same aircraft or was it just parade in the morning and get one allocated?
GS: When I was servicing them in the hangar, which was called the maintenance hangar. Different aircraft came in to be serviced. Fifty hour service, hundred hour service, hundred and fifty and then a major, major, but when I was on the flight, when you’re on the B Flight, which I went out on, I had to do the flight and, and sign the Form 700 which was meant that you, they didn’t all [emphasis] say you come, you can come fly with me, that was preservation by the pilot, if I’m going to die you’re going to die with me sort of business!
HB: Good incentive to keep you up to speed.
GS: Up to scratch. Cause I can remember quite well, I serviced one Lancaster, I remember it even now, I was on the port engine which you had to get a, you had a big service ladder to get up to it, and I had to fill it, the Lancaster engine got an oil at the back, thirty six gallon, and I went up to check the height of it, put the cap on as I thought and came down, thought nothing of it. And then the regular B Flight mechanic, he said, “everything all right?” I said yeah, he said, “I put that filler cap on properly for you.”
HB: Ooh.
GS: And there’s another incident. I thanked him profusely, I obviously hadn’t locked it properly.
HB: Oh wow!
GS: That could have been trouble. If he’d gone up, flight, and the filler cap had come off -
HB: Difficult.
GS: And I didn’t go on flight affiliation as they called it. They’d have a Lanc going up on air test and they’d have a Spitfire or Hurricane doing aerobatics, simulating getting at the rear gunner. Well I went, I only went up once on that because for the only time, I was sick, sick as a dog and I thought bugger flight affiliation from now on!
HB: So fighter affiliation wasn’t one of your favourites!
GS: No it wasn’t!
HB: So this is when they practiced doing, did they call it corkscrew?
GS: That’s right.
HB: And you were in there when they did that.
GS: I was in the back, I was in the rear turret at the time. It was horrible.
HB: Right, so we’ve gone through, we’ve gone through the squadrons and you’ve gone to Singapore and you’re going to be demobbed and they’ve put you on the troop ship, in Malaya, how long did it take you to get home?
GS: One month. I can remember it ever so well. We went from Singapore to Ceylon as it was then, I’ve forgotten the name of the town, and from then on we flew, we sailed from Ceylon up the Red Sea to Port Said and then across the Med and it was four weeks, and of course all the, everybody’s being demobbed on board that ship, so I can’t remember any details.
HB: Was it, so it wasn’t like one big long, month long party then?
GS: Oh no, oh no. I slept on deck, everybody else was, well most of them, slept in hammocks. And I couldn’t get on in a hammock, so I slept on deck and that was it and I went to East Kirkby and was demobbed.
HB: So you landed back in England.
GS: Southampton.
HB: At Southampton, bunged you on a train.
GS: Train. Up to East Kirkby. Demobbed and I was a civilian.
HB: Did you get your suit?
GS: Yes. Got me suit, and a yellow tie. [Laugh] I remember that ever so well.
HB: Were you still a single man at this time, Geoff?
GS: Yes, oh yes. I was twenty one going on twenty two.
HB: But you’d met your wife before you went out to Singapore. Sorry, what was your wife called?
GS: Hazel.
HB: Hazel, right. So you met Hazel when you were in your uniform looking smart in the dance hall. So you’d obviously been writing, in the force.
GS: Yes. I was running two women at the time! [Laugh]
HB: Were you! Were you now!
GS: I got rid of the one.
HB: Ah right. Was that, that was another one back here was it?
GS: Yeah. They were both back here. I remember I had the two photographs on the side of me bed, on the side of me billet in Singapore, and I used to say to the bloke which do you think’s the best out of those two and they always pointed to Hazel, she’s the homely type they used to say.
HB: Oooh!
GS: And that was it, I married her. We were married sixty three years.
HB: That’s good.
GS: Good going isn’t it.
HB: It is, it is. So you came back to East Kirkby, you’ve been demobbed, back home to?
GS: Back with my father in engineering.
HB: Yep. That’s still in Erdington.
GS: Yeah, and then, that’s right, my dad sold his business moved down to Falmouth as a farmer which didn’t work out: you’ve got to be born into farming and he did ten years before he came back north again.
HB: So what did you do. I mean he went down there in 1950 did he, did you say?
GS: Yes.
HB: You’d stayed in till 47, hadn’t you?
GS: Yes.
HB: So, once he went down there what did you do, did you?
GS: I went. We’d got another, one of dad’s younger [emphasis] brothers, he was in the shoe trade, and I had the option then and I went into the shoe trade for three years. It wasn’t very pleasant because he wasn’t a very pleasant man to work for, so I stayed with him for three years then I went back into toolmaking. I worked for Cincinnati, the big American company, making milling machines and all that.
HB: You obviously enjoyed that.
GS: Yeah. Better it was, yeah.
HB: And that was you till, what, through to retirement I suppose.
GS: Yes, I suppose it was. No! I stayed in the tool making trade, I worked for a company just down there on the estate for twenty seven years.
HB: Wow!
GS: Tool making.
HB: So out of your, you know, I mean it was a difficult time, I mean the war had been running for three, nearly four years when you went in, when you actually got called up, and you’re living in Birmingham which was a big target.
GS: Oh, it was!
HB: So what was it, what, before you joined the RAF what it like living under this threat, really?
GS: Before I went into the RAF, well Birmingham was bombed quite badly, like Coventry. If they missed Coventry it was Birmingham, because all the car industry as you know, is in this area and we were a real target because at that time dad worked for Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory, which is just down there, making Spitfires, building Spitfires and he worked in the tool room there before he started on his own. That was quite a job.
HB: So where you were living at Erdington, I mean they had bombing in that area, didn’t they.
GS: Oh yes, quite a bit of bombing yeah. We were actually, there was only bombs locally, but none actually where I lived in Hollandy Road, there wan’t much. You’re going back seventy years now you know.
HB: That’s right.
GS: Trying to remember all these things.
HB: Yeah, I mean mum and dad obviously, you know, you’ve got your sister, yourself, you know, there’d be that worry wouldn’t there. What did you do in the evening? Did you ever do fire watching or anything like that?
GS: Yeah. When I was fourteen, when I left school, I was fire watching in the centre of Birmingham. I’d got a job, just a normal job in the, in tool making, er in the shoe industry and they got me fire watching. They gave me a stirrup pump and a bucket of water and go up on the top floor of this building and if they drop incendiaries: put ‘em out. Fourteen years old.
HB: Good grief!
GS: I remember that quite clearly.
HB: Did you leave school, cause obviously you’re at work then, at fourteen, did you leave school with any certificates?
GS: No, I didn’t get School Certificate. I left, I elected not to go to secondary school, which was from fourteen to sixteen, so I left at fourteen from the ordinary council school. I lived at Yardley then, on the south side of Birmingham.
HB: Right, right. Of all your time in the RAF, in Bomber Command Geoff, what do you think was your best time, what was your best bit of being in the RAF?
GS: Well, the activity when I was at Fiskerton. Oh yes, definitely. The fitter’s courses and flight mechanics courses was a chore. Just hard work it was really, but when I get, when I was at Fiskerton and also Fulbeck, and Waddington, which I was there. Waddington was the place to get to because it was an peace, it was an established squadron none of this nissen hut business or anything of that, and that was the place to go. But I wasn’t there long enough to appreciate it. It’s still there, isn’t it. I noticed that when I went to – yeah.
HB: So what, we’ve said that was something you enjoyed, was being busy, and you’ve got all your mates and whatnot, so what did you do, when you weren’t on leave, what did you do for entertainment when you were on the squadron?
GS: We used to go to the camp cinema and, thing I noticed mostly [emphasis] about the camp cinema, you went in there and you couldn’t see the screen for the smoke, cause everybody smoked at that time and I didn’t smoke and me eyes come out and they were watering permanently after that.
HB: Oh right. So that moves us on. What was, what do you think was the worst bit of your service?
GS: When I was at Holmesly South in the New Forest it was my twenty first birthday and I wanted a forty eight hour pass because me wife, me mother had got a big party organised for me. So I went to the SWO, Station Warrant Officer, and asked for a forty hour pass and he refused it. And I remember then I thought, when I get back into civvie street I’ll have you. [Laugh] Never did of course, but I remember it ever so well. He refused me a forty eight hour pass. He knew what it was for but didn’t show any compassion whatsoever.
HB: And what did you think after the war, when the war ended, what did you think the sort of feeling was about Bomber Command?
GS: [Sigh] Well, they lost so many men, in ’42 onwards to the, till D-Day, fifty five thousand men were killed, weren’t they. I, I thought that was absolutely terrible. All the aircrew, I got to knew them, when I was at Fiskerton, by name and they’d go on ops and didn’t come back. It was a horrible feeling all the while. Because at the time, when I was, now where was I, oh yes, at the end of my fitter’s course, yeah, you fixed for time, at, on the fitter’s course at Hen, Hendon, that’s right, near Bedford it is.
HB: Halford?
GS: Henlow, not Hendon, Henlow, near Bedford. I applied to go on a flight engineer’s course, which was accepted, at St Athan. I was posted and I got there: what have you come for? I said I’ve come to do an FE’s course. They said we don’t want any more, so they sent me back. Which was just as well because if I’d have done a flight engineer’s course, I’d have been there and gone on ops, I wouldn’t be here now, would I? There were so many casualties. I can remember one time we lost ninety eight aircraft one night, on ops. Lancasters, mostly.
HB: Hmm. That’s a lot of men.
GS: Well Lancaster aircraft, they’d only got, they’d got four guns in the rear turret, two on the upper turret and two in the front, but they were pathetic compared with German aircraft which had got canons. Twice the fire power. So that was the thing about Lancasters. But apart from that they had the biggest bombload, they could fly at twenty two thousand feet and none of the others couldn’t. If you had a relative that was on Halifaxes, they weren’t a patch on Lancasters, during the war. And Stirlings, they were a joke they were. The rear gunner in a Stirling his expectation of life was about a fortnight. [Whistle] It was awful, wasn’t it.
HB: Hmm. Yeah. So the, when, did you ever do any sort of like Cook’s Tours when you came back? You did?
GS: Yes, I did the one, over Germany. It was a revelation that was. When you flew at about ten thousand feet, something like that, and the debris, there was nothing left, of any of the towns. We didn’t fly over Berlin, but we did all the other ones.
HB: How did you feel about that?
GS: Terrible. You know, you thought why was this, all this necessary? That’s the way you looked at it, you know, because Nazis were the pigs, but an ordinary German, he was just another bloke to me. And that’s the way I feel about that.
HB: Difficult.
GS: Was difficult wan’t there. Is there anything I’ve missed on this?
HB: I was going to say do you want to have a look at your list Geoff, is there, see if we’ve covered what you want to talk about.
GS: [Pause] Karachi was the place I went to in India, on the west coast and then Calcutta on the east coast. Yes. I enjoyed me time when I was in the Air Training Corps 1940 to ’43. Fradley, Cosford. I did a week at Cosford in the Air Training Corps. Swinderby and Bovington. Bovington were, I’ve forgotten what aircraft they were. Twin engined, and I know that you had to wind the undercart up, ninety eight turns, I remember that because they hadn’t got hydraulic, retracting. Hinton in the Hedges was the place that really was a waste of time, with all those aircraft, all those, all those lorries and things. I can remember once, I had to go out on dispersal to bring, bring a lorry in for servicing and I got in it and started it up. I noticed it was in front wheel drive, so I moved out and it dropped on the deck – there was no back wheels on it! [laughter] I just got out and left it. So that’s another place I’d have, could have been a naughty boy! [cough]
HB: Perhaps you were as well you didn’t stay there that long!
GS: It was. Only there about a month. I got promotion while I was there. I remember ever so well. The sergeant, I was after me props, I’d got me one and I was after me LAC, and he asked a question. He said, “What do you know about errors of articulation?” Tell you, I remember this, and I said yes it was there, the Hercules, aircraft where the con rods were in a different position every stroke of the engine. “Good,” he said,” you’ve got that.” And that got me me props.
HB: Did it?
GS: Yes!
HB: So that made you a Leading Aircraftsman.
GS: Group One Leading Aircraftsman, which was quite good. But I should have got me tapes when I was doing the flight engineer’s course. But that was it.
HB: Well I think, it’s quarter past twelve, and I think we’ve sort of come to bit of a natural conclusion Geoff.
GS: Yes.
HB: So, I’m going to terminate the interview now while we just sort your photographs out and how we’re gonna handle them. I want to thank you, honestly, it’s been a really [emphasis] enjoyable interview. You said to me in the break, oh we’ve been all over the place. It doesn’t matter.
GS: It’s very disjointed.
HB: What you’ve told us is important, and it’s also interesting. And we’ll forget quietly about pushing the wrong button for the fuel for the Stirling! So thank you very much.
GS: Well, I wonder about that flight engineer, he was flak happy as they called it during the war. And the fact that we got away with it, I said to him afterwards, I said, what about if, we’d have had flames out the Hercules, we must have had some, but didn’t see them, well that would have been curtains, I said bloody will and I’ll have been with you!
HB: Oh dear! Right, well thanks ever so much Geoff.
Dublin Core
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Title
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Interview with Geoffrey Charles Spencer
Creator
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Harry Bartlett
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2019-01-23
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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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Sound
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ASpencerGC190123, PSpencerGC1901
Description
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Geoffrey Spencer grew up in Birmingham and worked with his father in tool making, carrying out fire watching as a youngster. He joined the Air Force aged 18 in August 1943. After training he served as a flight mechanic and fitter with 49 Squadron at RAF Fiskerton and 189 Squadron at RAF Fulbeck. He worked in the maintenance hanger and on the flights and describes a crash landing in a Lancaster after an air test and an accident while refuelling a Stirling. He was posted to Singapore in 1945 serviced engines on high speed launches. He was de-mobbed in July 1947 and worked in the tool making industry in the UK until he retired.after the war.
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eng
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Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
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Great Britain
Singapore
England--Bedfordshire
England--Birmingham
England--Lincolnshire
England--Shropshire
England--Warwickshire
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1944
1945
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00:53:04 audio recording
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Anne-Marie Watson
189 Squadron
49 Squadron
bombing
civil defence
Cook’s tour
crash
demobilisation
entertainment
FIDO
fitter engine
flight mechanic
fuelling
ground crew
ground personnel
home front
Lancaster
love and romance
RAF Cardington
RAF Cosford
RAF East Kirkby
RAF Fiskerton
RAF Fulbeck
RAF Henlow
RAF Swinderby
Spitfire
Stirling
training
York
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/1122/19948/BSharrockRSharockRv2.1.pdf
1f7f1c8901c36dd903c87e4757a4c783
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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Sharrock, Bob
Robert Sharrock
R Sharrock
Description
An account of the resource
Six items. An oral history interview with Flight Sergeant Bob Sharrock (1924 - 2019, 2210141 Royal Air Force), his log book, a photograph and documents. He flew operations as a flight engineer with 428 Squadron.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Bob Sharrock and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2018-03-19
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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Sharrock, R
Transcribed document
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Transcription
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Memories and Reminiscences of Bob Sharrock
I was born in 1925 at a small village called Digmoor in Upholland near Wigan. My father, Joshua, known as Jos, was a coal miner working at a coal mine in Bickerstaffe.
Mother, Alice worked hard looking after the house and the children.
I had an older brother called Eric and a younger brother called William or Billy who died when only three years old. I went to school at the age of five.
We lived in a small terraced cottage in Spencers Lane, which had two bedrooms, a parlour (front room), a living kitchen and a back kitchen. It had a back yard in which Daddy had a wooden hut in which he carried out his hobby of fretwork and other woodwork. The living kitchen had a coal-fired range, which had an oven on one side and water heater on the other. Alongside the fireplace was a brick built boiler for washing clothes. The back kitchen had a slopstone and a cold water tap. All hot water came from a kettle, which was permanently on the fire or from the wash boiler, which was only used on washdays.
Daddy would come home from work covered in coal dust and would wash all over in a galvanised bath in front of the fire or, if the weather was warm, in the backyard.
Sundays were spent going to chapel and Sunday school. We had no transport and Daddy went to work on his bike having to go over a fairly large area called the Moss. He fitted a seat on the crossbar of his bike and would take me for rides on it.
Times became hard when the Bickerstaffe pit closed and father was out of work. He and some other miners went to work in Kent but the conditions were so difficult that they came back to Lancashire. In 1935 he got a job at Cronton colliery and the family moved to Whiston, renting an end terrace house in Brook Street.
I went to a primary school in Prescot, in the final year class.
At the age of 11 I went to Whiston Central School until Easter 1939
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when I left school at the age of 14. I then started work as an errand boy at the Rainhill branch of the Whiston Co-op Society. I earned 11 shillings per week and gave my mother 10 of these and had one shilling as spending money. I could get to a cinema show for 9 pence.
War broke out on the 3rd Sept 1939, and we were then living in a small semi-detached house 121 Dragon Lane. Whiston, from there, over ensuing months, we could see the effects of air raids on Liverpool, about 9 miles away. A few stray bombs fell on Rainhill but did no significant damage.
Some communal air raid shelters were built in the streets but as they were brick built and had concrete roofs it was doubtful if they would have been very effective. We were issued with an Anderson shelter, which Dad installed, in our back garden. He dug a pit about 3 feet deep, installed the corrugated shelter in it and covered it with the displaced earth. We only spent time in it when the air raid sirens went off. It was cold, damp and cramped.
Men were getting called up to the forces and as a result I changed to milk delivering. This meant being up at 5-30 a.m. 7 days a week. Loading a handcart with half a ton of milk bottles and pulling it around Rainhill. It was hard work but I think it did me some good physically. Eventually I was equipped with a pony and milk float, which made the job easier.
One day I met an old school acquaintance who was working for the local Gas Company. He told me that they were short-handed and it may be worthwhile making enquiries about a job. I followed this up and called at the office. The Manager interviewed me, asking a few questions on maths and general knowledge and then asked if I would like to start as a laboratory assistant. I accepted willingly and was soon involved in doing routine lab tests on calorific value, flue gas analysis, retort temperatures and other similar jobs. I started night school classes on maths, physics and chemistry, which lasted for two years until it was time to join the armed forces.
With a war going on these early teenage years didn't give much
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opportunity for normal teenage activities. In addition to my three nights a week at nightschool time was taken up by joining, with my friends, the Air Training Corps and the Police Auxiliary Messenger Service and it was the A.T.C. that stimulated my interested in flying.
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The A.T.C. took up one night per week when we did aircraft recognition, elementary navigation and drill. There were two occasions when we went on a week's camp, once to Blackpool airport and once to Crosby on Eden. One day at Crosby I was hanging around aircraft that were being serviced when a pilot told me that he was taking a Beaufighter on a test flight and did I want to join him. I sat in the observer's seat and we flew over the Lake District, I was thrilled.
When it came the time for registering for the armed forces. I made it clear that I wanted to join the RAF as a flier. I was eventually called for interview at the Aircrew Selection Board at Padgate, Burtonwood, near Warrington. I was asked what job did I want to do in aircrew and I said PNB or Flight Engineer.
PNB stood for Pilot, Navigator, Bomb Aimer. They all started their training together, the latter part of this in Canada or Rhodesia. As they went through their training selection was made. The best continued as Pilots, the next Navigators and the rest Bomb aimers.
When I mentioned Flight Engineer there was little further discussion. I was told I could train for this job. Whether it was because of my vaguely engineering background or because they were desperately short I don't know.
I joined the Air Force in June 1943, aged 18, and reported to the Lord's Cricket Ground in London. We were billeted in blocks of flats nearby. Here we were issued with uniform, given numerous inoculation jabs, initiated into drill exercises and introduced to canteen food. Not a bit like home cooking.
About 2 weeks later we were posted to Torquay for Initial Training. Here we endured physical training, some theoretical training into navigation, drill, Morse Code, even skeet shooting on Daddy Hole Plain. When we moved from one site to another it was either running or at a marching pace faster than the army used. This lasted for about six weeks and we were fortunate to have good hot weather Most of the time it was very enjoyable.
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The next posting was to St Athan in South Wales. Here we started our technical training. Most of us were allocated the Halifax bomber, others the Stirling, the Lancaster and a few to Sunderland flying boats. I was disappointed not to be one of the latter. All these were four engined aircraft and it was only these that had a Flight Engineer. Most of the time was spent in lecture groups and my notebooks give an idea of the type of information we were given. We also had drill, P.T. swimming and other recreational activities
It was about this time that, when on leave, I went to a dance at the Parish Rooms at Prescot and met Dorothy Marsden.
The following March (1944) I was posted to 1664 Heavy Conversion Unit at Dishforth. This was where we met up with aircrews that had trained on two-engined aircraft and were moving on to heavy bombers. In this case they were Halifax bombers. We had further practical training and were attached to a crew. They were all Canadian with a pilot by the name of Willard MacKeracher. The unit was in 6 Group, operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force, which occupied the area of North Yorkshire.
We did six exercises of Circuits and Landings. These were a series of take off, fly round the airfield and land. They were mainly to familiarise the pilot and engineer with handling the aircraft. This took about 10 hours. A further hour was spent doing three engined landings. Three further trips were made to give the Gunners and the Bomb Aimer some practice but it was on this third trip that we crashed on landing. It was apparent and subsequently reported that we had suffered an engine failure which slewed us over to miss the runway.
It was a miracle that not one of the crew was killed. All I remember is being knocked about and then opening my eyes to see that I was a few yards in front of the nose of the aircraft.. [sic] The first person to reach me was an Italian prisoner of war who helped me to get out my parachute harness. Help soon arrived and four of us were taken by ambulance to Northallerton hospital.
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Examination showed that I had a compressed fracture of the vertebrae in the lumbar region. A plaster of Paris jacket was applied which extended from the groin to the neck. I had a few days in bed while the jacket hardened and dried and then I was able to walk about fairly normally. The only difficulty was that I could not bend down. I was then given a couple of week's leave, which I spent at home.
I was then posted to a convalescent home in Hoylake on the Wirral. This was called The Leas and was previously a girl's school. It was provided to recuperate injured aircrew and there were a number of chaps wearing plaster jackets similar to mine.
We were made to keep quite active and spent most of the time doing exercises, playing games such as softball, (an easy version of baseball), tug'o war, football, cycling, etc. I was there for just short of three months. I was fortunate in that in weekends off it was quite easy to get home.
Whilst I was there the Normandy invasions took place.
In August 44 I was posted back to Dishforth and joined another crew. The skipper was R. Anderson. We knew him as Andy.
Over a period of about four weeks we did 98 hours of flying time in Halifax Bombers.
Then we were told that future flying would be in Lancasters so, after a few lectures and 10 hours flying time in three days we were considered to be fully trained.
The next posting was in October to 428 Squadron based at Middleton St George, which was where we were to do our operational flying. In the 6 months that we were operational I did 28 ops and was “screened” on the 17th April 45, some three weeks before VE Day.
My flying logbook lists every flight that I made, including training flights and operational trips. The operational flights were mainly at nighttime, bombing German cities. We were fortunate to evade being attacked by night fighters and being hit by flak. Only on one occasion did I find, on
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returning, a piece of shrapnel embedded in the fuselage.
With the war in Europe ending in May 45 and operational flying finished it was apparent that the authorities had to find something for aircrew to do before demob and I was posted, along with other Flight Engineers, To Credenhill, near Hereford and put on a Flight Mechanic’s course. After that I was posted to Kinloss where we spent time inhibiting engines on bombers in case they were needed again.
Whilst I was there the manager of Prescot Gas Company applied for my release from the R A F and I was demobbed on the 1st Feb 46 on a “B”class release. I had served 2years 8months.
Some time later I learned that the Institute of Gas Engineers had arranged some courses for employees who had their technical education interrupted by war service and I made application.
I went to Aston Technical College for 6 months to get my Ordinary Grade Certificate in Gas Engineering (Supply), then to Liverpool Gas Company for 6 months practical training followed by a further 6 months at Birmingham Central Technical College to get my Higher Grade Certificate.
On 19th July 1947 Dorothy and I were married.
Soon after finishing the course and going back to Prescott Gas I got an invitation to apply to Liverpool Gas Co. for a job in their Industrial Sales Department. This I did and started with the company later in 48. The job involved visiting manufacturing firms and getting them to use gas for their heating processes. These included space heating, water heating and various manufacturing processes such as furnaces, tank heating etc.
From getting married we lived in shared accommodation in various places, usually the homes of widows and consisted of a bedroom, a ground room and shared kitchen and bathroom. Whilst working at Liverpool we bought a small semi in Cable Road, Whiston. This cost
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£900 and we lived there for about a year until we moved to Burnley.
The Gas Industry at that time was formed from towns having a gasworks run either as private companies or mainly as Departments of local councils.
In 1951 the Industry was nationalised and these undertakings, apart from bigger towns like Manchester and Liverpool, were formed into small groups. This gave the opportunity to create special departments specialising in a particular activity. One of these was sale of gas to Industrial and Commercial premises. One of the Groups was known as the Burnley / Colne Group and I got the job of Industrial Engineer, starting in June 51. This also coincided with the arrival of Robert, our firstborn.
We bought a house in Sycamore Avenue, Burnley. Finances were tight but we managed. It was here, in 1953, that John was born.
My job involved selling gas to Industrial and Commercial customers and I had to get around in a small van but after a while I got my first car, a Ford Prefect.
In 1954 The North West Gas Board reorganized and larger Groups were formed. One of these was The Northern Group which took in Lancaster, Morecambe, Kendal, Barrow-in Furness and other smaller undertakings in the Lake District and as far away as Millom. Harry Robinson, the Manager of the Burnley/Colne Group was made Manager of the Northern group and I got the job of Industrial Gas Sales Engineer. Among the customers that I had dealings with were Jas. Williamsons and Storey Bros. of Lancaster, K Shoes of Kendal, Vickers Armstrong, Barrow Steel, Barrow Iron works and Millom Iron works.
The Gas Board bought a house, which I rented, in Beaufort Road, Morecambe and I got a decent increase in pay. Life was comfortable.
Whilst living in Morecambe Jeremy and David arrived and I got involved in various activities including the Masons, Round Table and Scouts. Also whilst there I bought a second hand dinghy, a GP 14, called
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William Younger with the sail number 347. I joined the Morecambe and Heysham Yacht Club and took part in races with Dorothy as crew. This lasted some time and the boys also took part. John and I sailed together at the Southport 24hr race as part of the MHYC team a couple of times, one year using our boat as the team boat. One year we took part in the Race Across the Bay to Gibraltar (the one near Jenny Brown's Point) and managed to come last as our launching trolley had broken the previous day so we were loaded down with the canvas cover and all sorts of other heavy gear. John was the keenest sailor and eventually he decided I was too slow to act as his crew so he got various girls to crew for him, including Dorothy's niece, Patricia. His main crew was Rosemary Cole with whom he won many trophies. We did do some work on the boat, when we first got it it had a jib and mainsail in white cotton, this was changed for red terylene sails including a genoa.
I joined the RNLI as crew on the inshore lifeboat and acted as survivor on more than one occasion to give the holidaymakers a thrill.
We spent several holiday [sic] at Fell Foot Park a National Trust site on Lake Windermere. We would travel towing the boat with all the camping gear in it and two canoes perched on top of it. We had a wonderful French six berth frame tent which seemed the size of a small marquee.
I also had a go at gliding with a club near Tebay. This didn't last very long though. Dorothy, Robert and John used to hang around whilst I was doing circuits.
I tried all sorts of activities golf, various musical instruments and even started to build a hovercraft, up to the point where I needed an engine.
The church of the Ascension in Torrisholme had a well-organised rambling club. Every month they had a day in the Lake District, travelling by coach, and splitting into three groups. Hard, Medium and Easy. Dorothy and I enjoyed these outings.
I was very keen on walking and kitted myself up with light weight camping gear and did a few long distance walks.
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After living in the house in Morecambe for 12 years I realised that to be financially secure we ought to own our own property so, in 1963, we bought a house in Bolton-le-Sands. This was an old stone built semi-detached in St. Michael's Lane named Thistlebrake. I spent about 6 months getting it into reasonable shape for living in. I rewired the electrics, and with help installed central heating and got a contractor to install a water closet and drains to a soakaway in the rather big garden. Each bedroom had a sink and there was an upstairs bathroom and a downstairs toilet in the utility room. For a few years we retained the copper under which you could light a fire to do the washing. We put in a solid fuel rayburn which heated the water and did the cooking and it was wonderful producing the most wonderful food, Dorothy helped of course.
Robert went to Lancaster Road Primary School as did John. For John's final year we were living in Bolton-le-sands so he was taken there every day. Jeremy and David both went to Bolton-le-sands Primary School. Unusually John and David went to Lancaster Royal Grammar School whilst Robert and Jeremy went to Morecambe Grammar, no-one can remember why this was the case.
It would be about 1972 that further reorganisation took place and the Northern Group expanded to take in the Blackpool and Preston areas. The headquarters was based at Blackpool and I was put in charge of a sales department dealing with Industrial and Commercial customers. I was given the title of Technical Sales Manager.
I was given the opportunity to be provided with finance for removal expenses but to avoid disruption of the education of the boys I decided to stay ay Bolton-le-Sands and commute. This meant doing about 50 miles a day in the car. It was during this period that Robert, John and Jeremy left to go to university.
It would be about 1975 that Dorothy got a job at Preston Hospital as a phlebotomist so we were both commuting, in two cars. We needed to move nearer to our jobs but it would have upset David's way of life so
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we continued to live there until he went to university.
We moved to Garstang in 1982.
At some time in the eighties some of my colleagues invited me to join them on a sailing holiday on a thirty-five foot sailing yacht owned by the British Gas Sailing Association.
We set sail from a port on the south coast in the evening for an overnight passage to Cherbourg. The weather deteriorated and progressed into a storm. We sailed under heavily reefed sails, secured ourselves with harnesses and tielines and suffered seasickness. We eventually reached France, about a hundred miles east of Cherbourg, and found a sheltered port where we sorted ourselves out. The rest of the week was in good weather and we visited the Channel Islands. There were many more trips. Later we sailed around the Western Isles of Scotland. I was enthusiastic and attended evening classes at the Fleetwood Nautical College to learn navigation. These sailing trips went on until the Sailing Association folded on privatisation of the industry.
In 1986 the Gas Industry was privatised and I was made redundant. I got redundancy pay and could also be paid my pension. Dorothy continued to work for a couple of years.
I was not very involved in politics but had voted for the Liberal party. I got to know a few people in Garstang and learned that there was a particularly active Liberal group so I went to their meetings and in 1987 put my name forward for election in the town and borough elections. Five of us gained seats in the Wyre Borough Council and I was elected to Garstang Town Council. The following year, 1988 I was made Mayor of Garstang. Elections were held every four years and I was re-elected on the next two. In the last year, 1998/99, I was Mayor of the Borough of Wyre and with Dorothy, who was Mayoress, had a wonderful time, being entertained by many organisations and making many friends. May 99 saw the end of my time in local politics and, at the age of 74, just as well.
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In June of that year Dorothy and I celebrated by taking a lovely holiday doing an Alaskan Cruise.
Some three months later I was diagnosed with cancer of the stomach and had a gastrechtomy [sic] at Chorley Hospital. Recovery from this was slow but with great care from my dear wife I made gradual progress.
In August 2005 Dorothy died of cancer of the pancreas.
The commemoratory address given at her funeral by her sons gives a better record of her life than I can give
“Dorothy did many things throughout her life and looking back it seems that nearly all of them carried a sense of public or private duty and that in doing them she gave real pleasure to those around her.
She was, perhaps above all, a mother and a wife. She somehow found time even during the busiest years, when she was raising four sons, to channel her energies into other activities.
But she never lost sight of a belief that her primary responsibility was to her family. I suppose that everybody believes that they have the world's best mum: and I am no different.
Dorothy was born eighty years ago in February 1925, not far from here, in Longridge. She trained as a confectioner – which probably accounts for the fantastic scones which we will all now miss so badly – but with the outbreak of the war she moved into war work.
She used to tell us great stories about those times, some of them involving a dashing Lancaster Bomber flight engineer called Bob. She met this young man at a dance in the Parish hall in Prescot while he was on leave from the RAF.
They married shortly after the end of the war and, with Dad making his way in his new career as a gas engineer, there began a peripatetic
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period during which they lived in Birmingham, Whiston, Burnley, Morecambe and Bolton-le-Sands.
Dorothy gave birth to four sons, the first in 1951 and the last in 1962. It's true to say – because she did and why not, she was proud of the fact – that she taught each of us to read and write BEFORE we started primary school.
I think that says it all about her determination to give her children the very best start in life, in which she succeeded. Thanks mum. She gave us all a well-rounded view of life and the world and she did it with a real enthusiasm, which was truly infectious.
We were all inveterate hillwalkers, often even before we had taken our first steps! Mum must have walked every fell in the Lake District ... and run back down every one of them as well. She was still walking her beloved mountains well into her seventies – and giving her fours [sic] sons, six grandchildren and three great grandchildren a run for their money.
But she was also active in other areas, dinghy sailing and scouts among them as well as working as a volunteer with the Citizens Advice Bureau in Lancaster.
As her boys grew up and learned to fend for themselves, Dorothy decided she wanted to resume her working career. She trained as a phlebotomist and worked in hospitals in Lancaster, Morecambe and Preston. I think that she got a lot of satisfaction out of this valuable service – especially when she was mistaken in the hospital wards and corridors for a doctor because of her white coat!
In the mid-70s Bob and Dorothy moved to Garstang, nearer to Dad's job in Blackpool, and her job in Preston, and a new era began in their lives, now that their sons had all left home for university. David refused to move from Bolton-le-Sands until he went to University so the move to Garstang was delayed. I suppose you might call this their “Golden Age”, because they have had such a wonderful time living here and making such good friends.
13
[page break]
She supported Dad in his political and civic roles, becoming Mayoress for Garstang and Wyre Borough Council. She also threw herself into a host of activities, including support for the Leonard Cheshire Home and the St John's Hospice and Meals on Wheels with Cabus WI.
Dorothy was active in the bowling club, she swam once a week and she continued to walk. She was fit and active right up until the end, her enthusiasm for life undimmed.
As we remember her this morning, the word, which most aptly comes to mind, is “selflessness”, because she always put the needs of others above and before her own needs. She was the least selfish person I know, she was always ready to help in any way that she could. She was – and is – our mum, Dorothy,”
That gives a summarised account of our lives, which, on the whole was a happy one. Good fortune, in many respects, came our way. My career started modestly as a youngster from an elementary education but a series of events led to me having a well-paid job and a comfortable retirement. Family life was pleasant, bringing up four boys who have done well in their careers and kept in close contact with us.
Another part of my life was my association with Scouting.
This started with Robert joining Cubs and me offering to assist with transporting the pack members to their various activities. The Scout Group was attached to Church of the Ascension at Torrisholme and I joined the Parent's Committee.
About 1964 the Senior Scout Unit needed some help so I took the necessary training and became the Senior Scout Leader, my scouting career was as follows.
March 65 Senior Scout Leader 16th Morecambe
Oct 67 Assistant District Commissioner (Venture Scouts)
14
[page break]
May 71 District Commissioner – Morecambe & Heysham District
April 74 District Commissioner – Lonsdale District
June 80 Assistant County Commissioner – West Lancashire
In 1984 and then living in Garstang, I had retired from the Lonsdale District and was appointed Assistant County Commissioner (Personnel) for the West Lancashire County Scout Council. The County had two full time campsite wardens and I made arrangements for improvements to their conditions of employment including salaries and pensions.
June 93 Assistant District Commissioner (Venture Scouts).
I took an active part in training these teenage lads in various outdoor activities such as Rock Climbing, Hill Walking, Orienteering, Sailing and Canoeing, some of them gaining the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
My scouting involvement was for about 28 years and I enjoyed it immensely.
ROBERT SHARROCK C.Eng .. M.I.Gas E.
D.O.B. 12 February 1925
Whiston Central School Left 1939 aged 14 years
Started work as an errand boy Whiston Co-op Society.
1941 Started work at Prescott Gas Co. Jumior [sic] on general duties in the laboratory, works and distribution Dept
June 1943 Joined R.A.F. Trained as Flight Engineer (Aircrew) complted [sic] one tour in Bomber Command. Attained rank of Flight Engineer then Flight Sargeant [sic]
March 1944 Crashed in Halifax Bomber on training flight and ended up with a broken back
Sept 1944 Resumed training
Posted to 428 Squadron (Canadian) Ghost Squadron at Middleton St George. Flew 28 operational flights
Feb 1946 Released from R.A.F. on a B Class Release. Returned to work at Prescot Gas Co. manager of gas works applied for Bob's release
Jan 1947 Started intensive course in Gas Engineering at Aston in Birmingham Technical College sponsored by Institute of Gas Engineers
Nov 1948 Joined Liverpool Gas Co.
15
[page break]
June 1951 Appointed Senior Industrial Engineer – Burnley following Nationalisation
June 1954 Appointed Group Industrial Gas Sales Engineer – NWGB North (Lancaster)
Feb 1971 Appointed Technical Sales Manager, West Lancs (Blackpool)
April 1986 Early Retirement due To impending privatisation of British Gas 42 years' service in Gas Industry
FAMILY
16
[page break]
Married to Dorothy 19th July 1947
Children – Robert Eden 16th June 1951
John James 18th May 1953
Jeremy Mason 1st June 1958
David William 19th Feb 1962
Stomach cancer Aug 1999 stomach removed
Moved to Abbeyfield House 2011
d:\sharrock family\dad bob documents\memories and [inserted] 17 [/inserted] reminiscences\memories and reminiscences of bob sharrock v5 31-8-14.doc
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Memories and Reminiscences of Bob Sharrock
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Bob Sharrock's story. He was born near Wigan, his father a coal miner. He worked locally until old enough to sign up. He trained at Lords cricket ground, Torquay then St Athan. Posted to Dishforth, he suffered a compressed spine during a Halifax crash. On recovery he returned to Dishforth, followed by Middleton St George. He completed 28 operations unscathed. After the war he continued at Credenhill then Kinloss as a flight mechanic.
He got his old job at the gas works back and married Dorothy. They had four boys and he spent a lot of time dinghy sailing.
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Bob Sharrock
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17 typewritten sheets
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eng
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Text. Memoir
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BSharrockRSharockRv2
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Civilian
Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force. Bomber Command
Royal Canadian Air Force
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Great Britain
England--Wigan
England--Warrington
England--London
England--Torquay
England--Hoylake
England--Hereford
England--Liverpool
England--Burnley
England--Morecambe
England--Bolton-le-Sands
England--Garstang
England--Yorkshire
England--Cheshire
England--Devon
England--Herefordshire
England--Lancashire
England--Preston (Lancashire)
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IBCC Digital Archive
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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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Roger Dunsford
1664 HCU
428 Squadron
6 Group
aircrew
Beaufighter
crash
flight engineer
flight mechanic
ground crew
Halifax
Heavy Conversion Unit
Initial Training Wing
Lancaster
RAF Credenhill
RAF Dishforth
RAF Kinloss
RAF Middleton St George
RAF Padgate
RAF St Athan
RAF Torquay
recruitment
shelter
training
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/694/22456/OBarrettR1863228-170515-01.2.pdf
26203d68a2457282cc676cfb427287aa
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Barrett, Raymond
R Barrett
Description
An account of the resource
30 items. An oral history interview with Leading Aircraftsman Raymond Barrett (1924 -2017, 1863228 Royal Air Force) a memoir, diary, documents and photographs. He served as an engine mechanic in North Africa, Italy and India.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Raymond Barrett and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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IBCC Digital Archive
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2017-05-15
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Barrett, R
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Raymond Barretts RAF form 2520A
Description
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1863228 LAC Barrett, R. Service and Release Book from RAF Kirkham. Serving in RAFVR from 11 November 1942 until 31 January 1947, as a Flight Mechanic Engines. Contains very brief details of his service.
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Great Britain. Royal Air Force
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1947-01-31
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Printed booklet with handwritten annotations
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eng
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OBarrettR1863228-170515-01
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Royal Air Force
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Great Britain
England--Lancashire
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1947-01-31
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IBCC Digital Archive
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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.
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
mechanics engine
RAF Kirkham
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/694/22598/BBarrettRBarrettRv1-part1of2.2.pdf
1d04f723752e73b328696c946776c566
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/694/22598/BBarrettRBarrettRv1-part2of2.1.pdf
38a676dcea87901508e00ddf094632d8
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Title
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Barrett, Raymond
R Barrett
Description
An account of the resource
30 items. An oral history interview with Leading Aircraftsman Raymond Barrett (1924 -2017, 1863228 Royal Air Force) a memoir, diary, documents and photographs. He served as an engine mechanic in North Africa, Italy and India.
The collection has been donated to the IBCC Digital Archive by Raymond Barrett and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
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2017-05-15
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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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Barrett, R
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Transcription
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[underlined] MY OVERSEAS SERVICE [/underlined]
[underlined] PART 1. [/underlined] [inserted] – 5 [underlined] 2 [/underlined] [/inserted]
BY
[underlined] R. BARRETT [/underlined]
[page break]
The Writer trusts that readers of this book will associate many of the instances described with their own experiences during war time service.
This book is dedicated to all service men and women of [underlined] ALL [/underlined] nationalities who left their homeland never to return, during the period of the Second World War.
[page break]
There is not one word of fiction in the following pages.
This book is just the simple story of one person who spent part of his life overseas and which is similar to how thousands of other airmen spent their lives in the very different countries during the war.
[page break]
[inserted] PART I – PAGE 1 – 25 – 94
- II PAGE 26 – 84 [/inserted]
[underlined] MY SERVICE OVERSEAS [/underlined]
How well I still remember that morning of Thursday the 15th of July 1943.
It was pouring with rain when I awoke that morning to do my last minute packing. After parading with my kit outside the billet, myself along with the other fellows in the same billet were marched to the Astoria Theatre where we joined hundreds of other airmen who had come from other billets in the town. After forming up in our respective drafts, each draft in turn were then marched out of the Theatre and along the sea front. Although we whistled cheerfully as we marched along, I expect everyone of those fellows were wondering what the future held in store for them. One could hardly feel happy knowing that you are spending your least few hours on English soil and carrying a heavy pack on your back, wearing webbing and ammunition pouches containing 50 rounds of rifle bullets and over one shoulder carrying a large kit-bag and a rifle on the other one.
By the time we reached Morecambe [deleted] from the [/deleted] [inserted] PROM [/inserted] Railway Station I was feeling utterly miserable, my back was aching and the kit I carried seemed to weigh twice as heavy as it did when I left the theatre, and as it had poured with rain continuously since I had set out, my great coat was soaking wet and rain drops kept dripping off my hat on to my nose, this was annoying me in itself. All I can say is how would you have felt under those conditions, luckily my other kit-bag had been sent on the day before, if I have had to carry that one as well I should have staggered on to the platform. At the entrance of the station I was met by Betty where, with tears in our eyes, we had to say a hurried goodbye.
As we marched on to the platform to board one of the long troop trains that were waiting for us, we were each given a bag of rations to eat during the rail journey. Each bag contained sandwiches, cake, fruit, mars bars etc.
I was very much relieved when at last I had got myself settled in a compartment along with my kit which took up twice as much room as myself. It was a good job there were only four of us to a compartment as we filled it as it was.
I had my last glimpse of Morecambe at approximately 9.30 a.m. I think I shall remember that view for a lifetime. I had my head out of the carriage window waving to Betty with tears streaming down my cheeks. I was very lucky having someone to see me off. Most of the other fellows contented themselves by poking their tongues out at the S.P.S. [inserted] (SPECIAL POLICE) [/inserted]
cont’d…..
[page break]
- 2 –
Then came the view of the Amusement Park on my left hand side, with its Scenic Railway called “The Cyclone” towering above evrything [sic] else on which I had had many rides and a lot of fun during the previous week. The view to my right was of the Winter Garden Theatre.
When the station had become no more than a speck in the distance, I sat back in my seat to enjoy my last glimpses of the Lancashire countryside.
We stopped at Carlisle and were given a cup of tea in the station NAAFI Canteen, it went down very well with our rations. I managed to dash over to a bookstall situated on the other side of the station and bought some books and papers to read during the rest of the journey. The rest of the trip was quite uneventful. I spent it reading my books and watching the Scottish scenery and waving back to the many people who waved to us from railside houses as we passed by. A few of the fellows threw their last letter to be written in England out of the carriage window as we passed one of the many stations, hoping that someone would pick it up and post their letter for them.
Early afternoon we arrived at Gurrock, [sic] near Grenock [sic] in Scotland. On descending from the train on to the platform, we were lined up and a roll call was given to see if anyone was missing. We were then each given a Berthing Card (see opposite page) before we boarded a large steamer that was nearby. Carrying our kit once more so I stepped off British soil.
In peace-time the steamer did Pleasure Trips to Ireland and back, I wished it had been only a pleasure cruise that I was going on. As soon as we were all aboard off we steamed until we were in the centre of the Clyde, where we drew up alongisde [sic] and were transferred to a d the S.S. “Volendam” it was of approx. 17,000 tons. It was a Dutch boat and most of the crew were made up of Dutchmen. Early in the war the ship had been torpedoed. One torpedo landed on the bows but failed to explode but unfortunately, another one hit her that did go off, but the damage was repairable and here she was still doing a useful job. With the aid of my Berthing Card and after a long search I at last found the correct deck that I was to live on, the the [sic] correct mess followed by the correct table. My next move, as was everyone else’s was to stow away all of our kit into the racks that were above the table.
Two fellows from each table in the mess went down to the galley and fetched back the meal for their respective tables and then they split the lot into 14 portions or however many fellows that there were living at their particular table.
Cont’d…..
[page break]
- 3 –
Two different fellows fetched the meals each day and did the washing up and cleaning and sweeping etc. That was the only duty that I got caught for during the voyage. Some of the chaps got caught for many jobs.
By the time we had finished our first meal on board ship everyone began to think of sleep as we had all had a very tiring day. There were 100 fellows in our Mess and five tables. Some had to sleep in a hammock slung on hooks above the tables and others on matresses [sic] on tables and on the floor. I had a hammock and what a time I had putting the blankets in and climbing myself into that first night. After about four attempts I finally managed to get in and stay in. It was just like a comedy act. By the time everyone of the 100 were settled there was not much room to spare as the Mess was only approx. 30 ft. x 25 ft. But as I said before, I was feeling very tired and consequently I was soon fast asleep.
After breakfast, whilst the other chaps were cleaning up the Mess decks ready for the ship’s daily inspection carried out by the Captain and when the other fellows had to help out in the cookhouse bakery etc., I used to go up on to the top deck and hide myself away along with a book in some obscure corner.
Our first throughts [sic] when we awoke on the first morning were whether we had moved during the night. So after dressing and folding up my hammock and blankets I went up and took a stroll around the promenade deck before breakfast. It was a very pretty sight that met my eyes when I reached the open air, we were still anchored in the middle of the Clyde and on both sides the green hills of Scotland dotted with small woods and houses, sheep and other cattle rose up to meet the bright blue sky. To my left situated on the waters edge was the town of Gurrock, [sic] from where we had embarked. Three or four destroyers were tied up alongside the jetty. Anchored in front of us was the giant liner the “Aquitania” and astern were anchored the great and mighty battleship “Howe” and a large cruiser along with two aircraft carriers and six converted ones. All had aircraft on their top decks.
I spent my first day on board watching supplies being taken aboard from small ships that drew alongside. I also wrote a letter and read a book. During the afternoon we had a sing-song amongst the troops made up of R.A.F. and men from the Royal Artillery, the Argyle and Sutherland and the Black Watch Regiments. There was also an Ensa Concert Party on board and the full Royal Artillery Band which consisted of 60 players. The band gave a musical concert every afternoon on the top deck and every evening an impromptu concert was given either by members of the R.A.F. Army, Ensa or Officers. A talent competition and a Brains Trust was also held during the voyage and a dance band was formed from amongst the troops.
Cont’d…..
[page break]
- 4 –
During one of these concerts we suddenly noticed that we had begun to move. At that moment a great cheer went up from us all. The time then was 8.20 p.m. on Monday 19th of July. As the sun set it was making the hills look blueish and the water silvery [deleted] and [/deleted] we steamed out of the Clyde into the open sea and the coast of Britain gradually diminished in size and from sight in the growing darkness. By the morning we were steaming just off the coast of Northern Ireland and our convoy was made up of 1 Cruiser, 8 Destroyers and 25 Ships.
Everyday we had a lifeboat drill, we had to wear our lifebelts at all times and sleep with our clothes on. As soon as the alarm signal was given each day we immediately made our way to our various boat stations where we formed up ready to lower a life boat. As each day went by so everyone reached their action stations in shorter time. I had to climb from B deck up to A deck on a very thin iron ladder to get to my point.
It was very warm at night in the Mess deck. All the portholes had to be closed because of the black-out.
On a few of the evenings members of the ship’s crew gave boxing displays. The game of housey-housey was played quite a bit during the voyage.
In all we put the clock back 2 hours and then on 2 hours. At one time we must have gone half way to America. The ship zig-zagged continuously during the trip to fox any would-be submarines. We completely changed course on two occasions because an enemy U boat was following us and at three separate times depth charges were dropped by our escort destroyers, but whether or not they sunk any U boats I do not know, but we could see the destroyers circling around and great spurts of water shooting skywards. Also, once the cruiser opened fire at an unidentified aircraft, but it soon made off.
On the 23rd we changed into our new tropical khaki kits. Everything misfitted as usual. It felt very funny at first with our persil white knees showing, but I soon got used to it. When it was sunny during the day I used to sun bathe and go to sleep on the deck. It was whilst I was attending the evening service held on deck on the 23rd that the convoy split in two. We changed our course to Eastwards and the rest of the convoy continued steaming Southwards. We were left with the cruiser, 6 destroyers and 15 ships.
There was a NAAFI Canteen on the ship, but to be able to purchase anything from it meant queueing up for at least two hours.
Everyday the [inserted] SEA [/inserted] seemed to differ in the shade of green or blue when we reached the Med.
Cont’d…..
[page break]
- 5 –
On the 24th whilst walking around the deck I heard someone call out my name and when I turned round I found it was Arthur Holloway who worked at the same firm as I did before joining the forces.
That same evening at dusk we sighted the coast of North Africa. I could just make out its dim outline in the growing darkness. At 10 p.m someone shouted lights to the Starboard side of the ship. Everyone rushed to that side and eager faces looked across the waste of water towards the coast where a series of light-houses circled their bright beams of light on to the sea. We were passing at that moment just off the neutral town of Tangiers. It made a lovely sight with its twinkling lights, streets and neon lighting. Such a vast contrast after living in a black-out for the past 4 years.
As I stood by the rail I felt a thrill that I had been hoping for since I had embarked on the voyage. Thoughts flashed through my mind of new lands, adventure and I wondered what experiences lay ahead for me. Memories of my school days came flooding back, sitting at a small desk in shorts listening to geography lessons and there I was seeing places that in those school days had just been a name on my atlas.
On the following day we kept near to the coast zig-zagging all the way. The only thing worth mentioning for the day was the flying fish anything up to 3ft 6 in. long that kept jumping in the wake of our ship.
Next morning we were each issued with rations and when I went up on deck the first thing that caught my eyes was the first glimpse of Algiers. In front of us lay many ships of all types lying at anchor, then came the great dock installations built at the waters edge and behind the docks the town rose up built on the side of a hill which rose up hundreds of feet, or rather I think that is well over a 1000 ft. to the summit. From the sea the town looked very impressive with its mass of white buildings glistening beneath the scorching sun, above and behind the town up to the hill top was made up of green grass and scorched earth.
As the convoy formed into single file each ship followed the one in front through the submarine boon that protected the harbour. Most of the ships at anchor had a silver barrage balloon flying above them in case the harbour and ships were attacked by dive bombers. As we entered the outer harbour and ships were attacked by dive bombers. As we entered the outer harbour we could distinguish the traffic passing along the dock front. Beneath the sun it looked a very sleepy and lazy town and made you feel the same yourself. By 1.45 p.m. we finally managed to tie up in one of the many shipping berths. I remember that along the quayside by the ships were stacked thousands of big bombs. It was a little later when I staggered down the gang plank beneath the weight of my kit and set foot on African soil. I loaded my kit onto a waiting lorry and we then formed up in three’s and we then set off along the coast road.
Cont’d…..
[page break]
-5- 1 –
[underlined] THE MEDITERRANEAN. [/underlined]
The full understanding of North Africa and its place in the war will come [underlined] after [/underlined] the importance of the Mediterranean has been perceived.
Little more than a century ago it was in the grip of pirates who successfully flouted the European States, Christian slaves were at work on the coasts, and the Turks had power.
About 12,000 years ago, according to some authorities, it was not a sea at all, but a stretch of swampy land, with some small lakes and several peaks. The peaks remain as islands, and the main flood that then broke through the Strait of Gibraltar was halted only by the mountains that practically surround the sea.
The Mediterranean divides almost evenly at the shallow narrows between Tunis and Sicily.
European civilisation flowed from East to West. The Phoenicians from Tyre and Sidon explored the Mediterranean, hugging the coast, and discovered the Strait of Gibraltar (which secret they kept from their neighbours), passed through and voyaged to Cornwall and Liberia.
Tyre and Sidon gave way to Carthage, whose loosely held and shallow empire was confined to the coastline, save for deep penetration into Tunisia. The Greeks came along the northern coasts, and laid hold on Sicily, which still possesses some of the best relics of Greece, Rome, taking her turn, flowed back from West to East; The Republics, Genoa, Venice, Pisa, flourished and did great commerce.
For centuries the Mediterranean was the only commercial sea; other countries were largely uncivilised when the Mediterranean peoples were of advanced culture.
When men became blue water sailors, other territories were discovered and the Mediterranean diminished in importance. The Suez Canal restored that importance.
The Mediterranean is said to be tideless, but that is only figurative. In places the tide is normal and regular, at others practically non-existent. There is no change at Gibraltar worth mentioning, off Tunisia the tide is slight but regular. There is no tide in the Black Sea.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
- 5 – 2 –
Fed by the Atlantic, on which it draws for an inch a day over its whole area, the Meditteranean [sic] loses more by evaporation.
In places it is 1,200 feet deep, in others 12,000, while in the sea of Azof the masts of foundered ships show above the surface.
The Mediterranean is of prime strategic importance, and Malta is the key to the Eastern half. Had Axis forces been able to neutralise Malta, the Allied effort would have been gravely hindered. Possession of Malta would have facilitated the Axis effort to sweep along the coast, close the giant pincers, open the Russian flank, and expose India to grave peril.
Allied strategy prospered in the North African and Libyan campaigns, giving greater control of the southern coast, which, with the command of the Strait of Gibraltar, now exposes what the Prime Minister called the “underbelly” of the Axis. Southern Europe is brought into more economic range for attacking bombers. The menace to Allied convoys is reduced by the easier provision of fighter protection. What other headaches this occupation of North Africa will give to the dictators will be felt as the war develops.
The Allied nations struck for initiative, not for territorial extension. Compare the North and South coats [sic] of the Mediterranean and you will see that from Tangier to Derna (excluding Spanish Morocco) Allied forces control most of a coast as long as the coasts of Spain, France, Italy, Albania and Greece, which lie to the north. And, along the southern coats [sic] are good, well spaced ports.
[underlined] NORTH AFRICA [/underlined]
North Africa, so far as this section is concerned, is divided into Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Tripolitania. French Morocco (Spanish Morocco is a narrow strip on the Mediterranean coast covering some 13,000 square miles) is a Protectorate. Algeria is part of Metropolitan France. Each department is normally represented in the French Chambers by one senator and two deputies. Tunisia is a French Protectorate. Tripolitania with Cyrenaica, until the Axis forces wre [sic] driven back, was an Italian colony, under a Governor.
North Africa has figured largely in history for nearly 3,000 years; woth [sic] remembering when first contact is made with the present native population.
The strength of ancient Rome is probably better grasped by following the Roman road across North Africa than by wandering in Italy. At Timgad, Algeria, for example, there is a complete Roman town, whose plan is as perfect as the day it was finished. The streets run at right angles in the modern fashion of the New World, the forum remains, broken
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but suggestive, there are still the evidences of amusements, and little shops where the garrisons made their purchases.
Many of the place names in the country are corruptions of the ancient names. For example: Tunis was Tounes (and much earlier was called Libya). Carthage was first Kart Hadash and then Carthago. Tebessa was Theveste, and Teboursouk was Thurbursicum Bure.
The language is Arabic, but the spoken language varies widely. Written, it can be understood by all who can read, although the spoken language of Southern Morocco is unintelligible in Algeria or Tunisia. It is easy to pick up the few really essential words in each district and a few of the formal polite phrases will make good feeling. The Arabs are extremely sensitive to all acts of courtesy.
Just as the language differs, so does the land and outlook. North Africa, although one land mass, is not a unity. You will find variation in tribal customs, habits and force of character.
[underlined] PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS. [/underlined] Physically, North Africa is broadly divided into three zones: the Tell, or coastal plain (Sahel in Tunisia), the High Plateaux, which lie between the mountain ranges and the desert, and the Sahara.
From about Agadir, stretching diagonally across the country to the Algerian-Tunisian border, the Atlas ranges rise behind the coast. Subsidiary ranges, such as the Aures (between Constantine and Biskra) strike inland. The Atlas Mountains in Morocco are divided into the Middle Atlas, the Great Atlas, and the Anti Atlas. The Algerian range is known as the Little Atlas, behind which, on the desert side, rise the hills of the Saharan Atlas. Spanish Morocco is dominated by the Riff, a continuation of the Atlas.
[underlined] COMMUNICATIONS. [/underlined] Road and rail communications, up to the outbreak of war, had been progressively improved. A main line stretches from Rabat (Morocco) to Tunis, with branches and extensions serving the most important areas. In Morocco, from north to south there is a railway from Tangier to Marrakech, following the coast as far as Casablanca and then striking inland. There are branch lines from Quercif to Medelt; Sidi bel Abbes and Algiers to Djelfa. A line from Constantine runs to the Saharan outpost of Touggourt, and from Tunis standard or narrow gauge railways connect all the coast towns and much of the interior.
The railways were never very well services, [sic] and rolling stock could well be improved.
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Considerable attention was given to roads. It is possible to travel in fair comfort by the coastal road from Agadir to Gabes and beyond. The main roads are quite good; secondary roads are poor, particularly in the rainy season.
The heavy rains – and they are heavy – which occur between mid November and the end of February play havoc with roads and railways. The roads become almost impassable, parts of the permanent way are sometimes wrecked and bridges broken by floods.
Inland, travellers may see massive and well-tended bridges standing derelict. They are there to bridge the seasonal floods that sweep down from the mountains during the rains.
[underlined] ALGERIA. [/underlined] Algeria went through all the tides of ancient history, but its real story begins with Turkish rule in the 16th century when the Barbarossa brothers, pirates, helped to defeat the Spanish and claimed Algiers as the perquisite. Kheir ed Din then made it the base for corsairs, who plied their trade along the coast for centuries, defying expeditions from Europe and America, until temporary peace was enforced by Lord Exmouth’s mixed squadrons in 1816. France took drastic action in 1827, after the Dey of Algiers smacked the French Consul with his fan. That outburst of temper cost the Dey his power, a reparation of £2,000,000 and his country. Pacific action was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian war and final control only came about in 1900, since when improvement in conditions has been rapid.
French colonists have prospered in agriculture and trade; the native population are well understood and humanly treated, allowed much independence and freedom.
[underlined] THE PEOPLE. [/underlined] The population of Algeria is about 7,000,000 including 1,000,000 Europeans of French, Spanish, Maltese and Italian origin.
Native races are many and mixed. The majority of the Arabs are nomadic, living on the plains either in tents or earth huts. The Berbers are settled in the hills of Kabylia (on the coast about 50 miles from Algiers) where small houses, with sloping tiled roofs, are clustered together on the hill sides. They are a short, stocky people, fiercely independent and suspicious.
The M’zab, an area of burnt and arid desert about 125 miles south of Laghouat, is peopled by a race which may be Berberm driven south by persecution in the 11th century. A rocky, forbidding zone which nobody wanted, has been made fertile, with hundreds of thousands of palm trees, an irrigation system fed by wells, and seven cities relatively gay with flowering plants, shrubs, fruit trees and vegetables.
Moors and Jews, mostly traders, are seldom far from the towns. Negroes are scattered from the coast to the heart of the Sahara, and come mainly from the Sudan.
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[underlined] PRODUCTS. [/underlined] The fertile coastal regions produce large crops of cereals and es3/8arto [sic] grass. Market gardening is lucrative. In the south are vast plantations of date palms watered by artesian wells sunk by the French engineers. There is considerable olive cultivation. The same profusion of trees and flowers is to be found as in Morocco.
Before the Axis Commissions got to work, Algeria possessed vast herds of poor quality domestic cattle, sheep, goats and camels.
Mineral deposits include iron, copper, lead and manganese.
[underlined] PORTS AND CITIES. [/underlined] Algeria has several large and modern ports, in addition to a number of useful harbours. Oran is a purely commercial city, once a Spanish penal settlement. It has good harbourage and port facilities. Algiers, second only to Port Said as a Mediterranean coaling station, has ample accommodation and safe harbourage for large vessels; Bougie, well sheltered and modern, anchorage for vessels of any size. Phillippeville is one of the best harbours in Algeria and Bone (Bona) is smaller but modern.
[underlined] ALGIERS, [/underlined] is a city of about a quarter of a million people, beuutifully [sic] situated. It divides almost naturally into the native and the French quarters. The French town is cosmopolitan, there are several good hotels, cafes and restaurants (suffering now from Axis occupation).
The native town centres on the Kasbah. Should you be lost in the narrow streets, turn down hill, keep going down-hill towards the sea, and you will reach one of the main avenues of the French town.
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We set out in perfect order with an officer at the head of each party. Just[deleted] er [/deleted] after we had set out my blanket that was tied on top of my back pack became loose and kept dropping down. By the time we had marched approx. one mile down the road, the sweat was pouring from me with the heat from the sun which was then at its height. My back pack got heavier with every step that I took. The parties by then were all mixed up and everyone was having a rest when they felt like one.
At one place I stopped an African soldier who came out of a nearby building and gave me a drink of ice water. Never have I appreciated a drink so much as I did then. The thing that struck me most whilst resting at that spot was the natives dressed in rags walking along bare-footed on sharp stones and not feeling them. My feet at that moment were burning and aching like hell.
So on I went continuing on my journey passing the wrecked harbour buildings caused by an ammunition ship full of German mines blowing up or by our shelling of the city by warships before it fell. I then passed by a half sunken oil tanker which was still on fire. At that moment a loudspeaker van came along telling us to keep moving as we were blocking the road and that transport was waiting to pick us up two miles further along the road.
As soon as I heard that, I sat down for another rest and watched the hundreds of other airmen staggering along the road. Whilst sitting there more Arab children passed by in their rags and tatters, bare feet with their eyes and face covered with flies.
When I finally reached the picking up point, there were still about 2,000 chaps waiting, so I had one big long rest. After about an hour had passed my turn came and I clambered onto a lorry and along with others we were driven 17 miles round the bay to the Transit Camp where we would stay until we were posted to a unit.
On arrival there we were put into tents. As we walked around the camp to find our tents we kicked up so much dust that we nearly choked ourselves, also the flies were very annoying., they would keep settling on me and I would knock them away but they would just come back and settle on me once more. They were very quick and artful, it was quite a job to kill one. I often used to crawl under my mosquito net to get out of the way of them.
After tea on the first morning that I was in the camp I spent [inserted] A CONSIDERABLE TIME [/inserted] [deleted] finding [/deleted] [inserted] LOCATING [/inserted] [deleted] out [/deleted] my kit-bag from a great pile of thousands of them. We finally laid all the bags out in rows. It reminded me of a graveyard as everyone was slowly filing down the rows of kit-bags looking at the name on each in turn until they found their own and carried it away.
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The camp was situated by a small wood by the sea, so that it was nice and shady around the tents during the daytime. Beside the camp there was a nice sandy beach from where you could see the town of Algiers across the bay.
At night the town looked life fairy-land with all the twinkling lights on the hillside.
I often used to sunbathe on the beach and go for a dip in the deep [inserted] BLUE [/inserted] waters of the Med. At times the sand became so hot, that if you walked on it barefooted it burnt them.
I found sleeping under a mosquito net strange at first and I also found out that the sand was very hard to sleep on after being used to a nice soft bed. Sometimes, during the night insects came in bed with me, it was also very annoying if you happened to shut a mosquito in with you at night. Just as you got settled down he would start to dive bomb and zoom around in circles just above your ear, but everytime [sic] you struck out at him he would dodge your hand and you would be striking out at him until you fell asleep. In the morning when you could see him your first thoughts is to kill him and get your own back, and on squashing him you would find that he is full of your blood that he has taken out of you during the night.
It took me a little time to get used to the currency, which was all in francs, 200 to the £1. and nearly all the notes which were very bright and colourful were in denominations of 5: 10: 20: 50: 100: 500: & 1000’s. One day whilst riding on a tram I was given 20 coins for 2d change. Each coin was a centime and 100 centimes equals a franc.
In the undergrowth around the camp there were plenty of large coloured lizards and frogs that were about ten times the size of English ones. There were also many wild canaries living in the trees.
About a mile from the camp was the village of Fort-de-Laue (fort-of-water) which contained a few small shops and one out of every two was a wine bar. Wine was very cheap indeed, the chief drinks were Muscatelle, Veno and Cap-Bon, Vin Blanch and Vin Rouge, all of which were made from grapes. Fruit was also plentiful and cheap, melons, grapes, peaches, oranges and tangerines, lemons figs and dates etc.
There was also a small cinema in the village that used to show English films, but they were generally very ancient, ones that I had already seen years before.
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I remember one night when one of my friends and myself decided to raid a tangerine grove nearby the camp to pick some fruit to send back to England. We had to tread around very carefully as there was a native guard in the grove with a shot-gun. A short while after plunging into the grove I lost my friend in the dark, and when we reached each other a little later we both thought that the other was the guard, as a result we bolted from the grove. I came away with my shirt, pockets, hat etc., filled with tangerines. When I put them on the scales they weighed 10 lbs.
We had to wash all our own clothes. Oh’ how I hated doing it. [underlined] I always swore that when I married I would see to it that my wife would never had to do any washing [/underlined].
Each week we were issued free a bar of chocolate and 50 cigarettes. Cigarettes cost us 1/6d for 50 whereas in England the cost was 6/3d.
For the first two months that I was at the camp I never saw it rain at all.
I used to go to the village cinema on an average of once a week and sometimes a concert was given there either by Ensa artists or by airmen from our camp.
Some nights we used to sit in a clearing in amongst the trees around a fire and have a sing-song accompanied by fellows who owned musical instruments.
Another nearby village was called Maison Carrie, it was a bigger place than Fort-de-Laue. This village possessed two cinemas and quite a few shops and a Y.M.C.A. canteen and a kind of Arab Covent Garden market and Pettycoat Lane combined. Half of the twon [sic] [symbol] had been demolished through a munitions train which blew up on the outskirts.
I remember one night when there was an air raid on Algiers, the barrage put up by the shore batteries and from the ships in the harbour was terrific and we could hear the enemy planes begin their bombing glide just over the camp. What with the noise of the H.E. shells exploding, bombs going off and streaks of tracer and incendiary bullets in the sky it seemed more like Guy Fawkes night. It was very exciting when the searchlights caught a plane in their beams, every gun seemed to be concentrated on it, they made the ground tremble, but he somehow managed to get away from the beams before the gun-fire could shoot him down. Anyway I bet the pilot had a few anxious moments and I was glad that I was not where he was.
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Three planes were brought down during the raid in which not very much damage was done. The State Prison was partly demolished.
One Sunday I went to Maison Blanche Aerodrome nearby to work, helping to handle 200 tons of smoke bombs which were to be used to cover the invasion of Italy five days later.
There were hundreds of British and American aircraft on the field, Spitfires, Beaufighters, Lightning fighters and Douglas & Liberator Troop carriers.
On 3rd September the fourth Anniversary of the war and the day Italy was invaded and surrendered, I met my cousin in Algiers. He worked at General Eisenhower’s Allied Force Headquarters. He landed in Algiers by air the same [inserted] TIME [/inserted] as I arrived by boat.
On 13th September I was posted temporarily to 351 M.U. Hussan Dey, which was about 5 miles along the coast road from Algiers.
On arrival at the M.U. we had to erect our own marquee before we had anywhere to sleep. There was hundred of us in all that came from the transit camp.
Whilst at the M.U. we worked from 7.30 a.m. until 6.0 p.m. with an hour for dinner and one day off a week, either a Friday or Sunday. The camp was situated half on the beach and half on the other side of the main coast road. The place had been a French Calvary Camp at one time.
I spent my first day at work making a bed for myself. It was a good job too as the same night it poured with rain and we were flooded out in the tents. The water rushed in one end and out of the other into the next tent down the slope, floating everything that we kept on the floor, then to crown it all a part of the side of the marquee collapsed. It was very amusing – chaps waking up and saying “where am I” when they saw the stars above them and felt the rain coming into their mosquito nets and on jumping out of bed they landed in inches of water. Luckily, my side of the marquee was not the one that fell in. The chaps on the other side did not see the funny side at all.
We had a cinema on the camp which showed two different films each week. The admission was free to us.
During my work I came across quite a lot of equipment made at my old firm of P.B. Cow & Co. Ltd.
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On 18th of September I was lucky enough to draw a ticket to go to a concert that evening. I was taken by lorry to an open air theatre situated in an Army Petrol Dump Camp about 8 miles away. The theatre holding about 2,000 was nearly filled to its capacity when I arrived. The seats were set out in a half circle and in tiers around the stage. It was a very impressive scene and overhead the sky was cloudless and it was pitch dark except for the light given off by the stage footlights and by the twinkling stars above.
Among the artists, was the first visit of Gracie Fields overseas during the war. She was given a tremendous welcome and sang a great variety of songs. Trying to find our lorry amongst 200 or more all of which were very similar after the show had finished, reminded me very much of trying to find your coach after the Aldershot Tattoo.
I paid many visits to Algiers on my days off. As soon as you arrived in the [deleted] tram [/deleted] [inserted] town [/inserted] you would be surrounded by shoe-shine boys who would pester you until you paid one of them to clean your shoes. When I was there prices of goods were excessively high. If we saw something that was very very [sic] expensive, we used to go into the shop or stand at the stall if we had a few moments to spare and argue and argue about a quarter of an hour then the shopkeeper would finally agree to a reasonable price that we offered, we then said thank you we do not want it and walk away leaving the Arab or Frenchman standing there.
One day whilst I was in the town it started to rain and I can say it was not very nice as at that moment I was in the native quarter roaming around. In a few minutes the torrential rain swept down the narrow alley ways, [inserted] x [/inserted] [inserted] [underlined] ADD [/underlined DRIVING ALL WAY [indecipherable word] [/inserted] beggars etc., from the streets [deleted] came [/deleted] [inserted] AND [/inserted] into the nearest shelter they could find under old crumbling archways and derelict buildings. I soon made my way down the hill back into the main part of the town and into a picture house feeling like a half drowned rat. By the evening the pitiless rain which had been driving in from the sea since early that afternoon showed no signs of abating. If anything, the wind had increased in violence, causing terrific squalls and solid sheets of rain to sweep across the open spaces and spend themselves up against the shops and buildings. I certainly did not linger out in it more than was necessary.
Whilst I was in North Africa it was the time of the Ramadan. For one night the gates of Heaven are said to be open and the prayers of the Faithful are heard. It is the twenty seventh night of the Feast of Romadan, [sic] Laylat El Kadr, the night of power which comme[deleted] nced orated [/deleted] [inserted] morates [/inserted] the first Koran revelation to the Prophet.
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Ramadan, which means “the month of Intense heat” is the ninth month of the Arabic calendar. It is movable, following the phases of the moon. It derives its name from the first Islamic year when it happened to fall during the height of summer. The name remains, though in a 33 year cycle the Fast runs through all the seasons. Ramadan begins when the crescent of the new moon is first sighted. It begun on September 1st 1943.
Throughout September Moslems abstain from eating and drinking during daylight hours. Only after midnight are they permitted to eat two meals, knows as Aftara Shoor. During this solemn period the Mosques are crowded with rich and poor. The rich go by car and the peasant takes his family in a donkey cart.
On the thirtieth day the Fast ends and the Feast begins, the Feast of Fetre Bairam. Now the melancholia turns into a Bank Holiday spirit. It is a season of spring cleaning and buying new clothes and sending presents to friends. The poorest native Arab buy Gaudy-Galabicks, the long shirt-like garment worn by the natives. The richer Algerians or Egyptians buy new clothes in the fashionable stores in the large cities.
In Algiers at dawn and dusk a gun is fired from the Citadel each day during the Feast to tell the Moslems when they must stop and when they can begin to eat. The natives are very faithful to their religion. I have seen food offered to starving natives and they have refused to eat it, no matter how hard the person tried to tempt them. If you gave them anything eatable during the day, they would keep it until dusk came.
One day I decided to go on an organised tour of the city run by Cook’s Tour Agency. A party of twenty to thirty servicemen [inserted] x [/inserted] [inserted] [underlined] ADD [/underlined] FROM ALL COUNTRIES [/inserted] set out at 3.0 p.m. from the Agency. We first boarded a trolley-bus that took us to Government Square. A French interpreter came along with us. From the Square we walked to a nearby Mosque. We had been given special permission to venture inside as long as we took care not to walk or step onto the carpet with our shoes or boots on. If we had done so we would have been turned out as it would have been an insult to Mohamid [sic] in the eyes of the worshippers that were there at the time. From the Mosque we walked to a nearby Princesses Palace, which was built by a Turkish King for his daughter. From outside the building it looked more like a prison, but on passing into the small courtyard situated inside there was some wonderful workmanship and carvings to be seen. Nearby we passed one of the old Turkish King’s Palace, then used as the Native French Troop H.Q. and into the Roman Catholic Cathedral which was next door to the Palace. The Cathedral was built on the site of an old Arab Mosque that had fallen into ruin. Here again much marvellous workmanship was to be seen.
From the Cathedral, we walked back to Government Square and took our seats in the tram again and as soon as everyone was settled we set off.
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As we twisted and turned up and up the road which led to the top of the hill we left the European part of the town behind and found ourselves in the native quarter which was called the “Casbha”. We stopped outside the “Casbha Fortress” and got out and toured the Fortress which contained the city’s museum and there we had a commanding view of the whole of the bay of Algiers. Looking down, directly beneath us was the native quarter made up of ramshackle houses made of wood, bits of tin, sheeting, tin petrol cans and others made of brick and which were nearly falling down. Then there were the narrow alleys and passageways winding downwards and from the whole area rose a very bad odour. It is very unadvisable to walk anywhere in the “Casbha” unaccompanied. In fact it is best not to go without being amongst a huge crowd of friends. Many a man has ventured into that maze of alley-ways never to be seen alive again and some[deleted] how [/deleted] [inserted] [indecipherable word] [/inserted] just disappears in there. These conditions continue half-way down to the sea, where the European part of the town commences and the wide roads and big modern buildings continue down to the Dock area. The Dock can accommodate the largest of ocean going liners and battleships.
The port was first used years ago by Pirate Ships operating along the North African coast. The ships that were anchored in the harbour at the time, looked like toys from where we were standing in the Fortress. To our left the buildings run right around to that end of the bay and looking to our right we could clearly see Cape Materfue which formed the other wing of the bay. It was on this Cape where the big naval guns were housed that had to be silenced by our troops before the invasion of Algiers commenced.
Nearby to where we were standing were a row of guns pointing over the town that had been taken from a Turkish Pirate vessel many, many years ago.
On leaving the Fortress we walked through parts of the “Casbha’s” outskirts. We found it advisable to light a cigarette before starting on this little walk as it camouflaged the smells a tiny bit. In the native bazaars there is a market for everything. I even saw one fellow that had rusty bent nails for sale and also old bits of moth-eaten rags.
We walked passed the State Prison which was in the process of repair, after being damaged in a bombing raid.
We next visited an old Moorish house which was very similar in design and architecture to the Princesses House, but it was nowhere near so elaborate.
We than [sic] continued our walk through those twisting alleyways and down stone stairways and along the Street of Shoemarkets into the Arab main Shopping Street, which was situated just behind the big Opera House where our tour came to an end.
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In the town there were quite a number of cinemas that showed English speaking films and the American Red Cross had a cinema of their own to which we were allowed to enter free of charge. Canteens were in good supply, 2 NAAFI’S, 2 Y.M.C.A’s and 2 Salvation Army ones, where we were able to get tea and cakes. The only place that I know of where I could get a meal was the R.A.F. Malcolm Club, I often went there also for a game of draughts, table tennis, darts etc., before catching a lift home. Lifts received were all kind of vehicles, from jeeps to 60’ 0” trailers.
As a sequel to my tangerine picking trip, one evening a friend and myself set out to go lemon picking. It was pitch dark when we finally thumbed a lift on a lorry. The driver said he was going in the direction that we wanted so we climbed on board. When we finally stopped we found out that he had taken us up the wrong road and we were stranded out in the wilds. We decided to make the best of a bad job and started to walk along the road. After covering a distance of two miles we met a couple of soldiers walking in the opposite direction and on enquiring, we found out that we were walking away from our objective instead of towards it, so we had to turnabout and retrace our steps along the road and then we walked over hills and across fields until we finally same [sic] to a spot which we recognised. As it was too late to continue on our expedition we started to thumb a lift going back in the direction of the M.U. After a while two American Officers picked us up in their jeep and the driver told us that he was going past the M.U. After he had dropped off the officer that was with him. After driving for a full half hour we stopped to drop off the officer and where should the place be but exactly the same spot where the other driver left us stranded earlier in the evening.
One day I had to go out and work at a farm where the M.U. had dispersed some of their equipment. The farm was only a few miles from the foot of the Baby Atlas Mountains at a place named Reva. The farm comprised of hundred of acres of vineyards that stretched as far as the eye can see.
The equipment that we had to move was stored on top of wine vats in a large building. Each vat was full and held 5,000 gallons of wine and in all there was seven of them. Each was completely enclosed except for a kind of manhole at the top. Some of these were open and we could see the wine fermenting and bubbling away. Some of the vats had been sealed for more than 3 years.
Whilst on the farm I saw how true the old saying “as stubborn as a mule” was. I watched a mule being put into harness for the first time. His back legs came up in the air time and time again nearly kicking the cart harnessed to him into bits and when he calmed down it took the mules owner half-an-hour before he could get it to budge an inch.
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Another job I had was in charge of seven Italian prisoners and a lorry. We had to take six propellers each trip from the M.U. to a garage at El Bier situated in a town at the top of the of the hill above Algiers.
On November the 5th I was posted back to No. 1 Base Personnel Depot at Fort-de-Laue. It was back to an easy life comprising of sleeping, sunbathing, and swimming in the Med. Also reading books and playing cards every day. One disadvantage was having to sleep on the ground once more. Although it was late in the year we still had sunny weather for a week. By then my skin was beginning to turn from red to brown as a result of all my sunbathing. Then the rains came and often I would sit in my tent and watch a small pool of water gradually form itself into a small lake in the large clearing amongst the trees. For three days I worked at the 96th General Hospital in Maison Ca[deleted]wies[/deleted] [inserted] RRIE [/inserted]. I was very glad when the job came to an end.
To celebrate my 1st year’s Anniversary in the R.A.F. we discovered fleas in our tent and I spent the afternoon hunting them down.
The less said about Friday November the 12th the better. I went for a walk into the village with a few of my friends. On arrival there we were feeling very thirsty, so we went into one of the many wine-bars to buy some lemonade. As they never had any left in stock we decided on a Muscatelle & Cap Bon drink. It tasted quite good and first [inserted] DRINK [/inserted] was followed by a second and so on until we had each drunk 15 of them. By this time I felt very lightheaded and a bit merry and the other were well passed the merry state. What a job I had getting them back to camp. One of the fellows got up next morning for breakfast and as soon as he had drunk a cup of tea, he was staggering around again. He went straight back to bed and never rose again until the following day.
One night it rained exceptionally heavy and the edge of that small pool I spoke of a few moments ago reached our tent at about 3.0 a.m. in the night. Then a little later one of my friends on the other side of the tent fell out of [inserted] HIS [/inserted] bed and touched water under it, luckily just as the edge of the pool reached the foot of my bed it stopped raining and the flood water started to recede from the tent. My bed then was a large sheet of wood raised on four petrol tins. The chaps on the other side of the tent spent all the following day drying out their kits.
Every day we had to parade at 9.0 a.m. and 1.0 p.m. to see if our postings had come in. Fellows had gradually been posted day by day to units all over North Africa. I was one of the last remaining ten airmen to be posted out of the thousands that came overseas in the same convoy as myself.
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As I was on a day off on the 22nd of November I decided to spend it in Algiers, a pal out of the tent came along with me and we spent the morning looking around the shops and stalls, bazaars and stores. There was quite a number of civilian cars and traffic on the main roads, most of the cars were owned by Frenchmen. A common sight in the streets were mules covered and matted with dirt, being tormented by flies, dragging an old ramshackle waggon. Sometimes I would see two mules of very unequal size together in an old leather harness which was nearly falling to bits and tied up in places by bits of string or wire etc. Sometimes a mule would come along carrying such a big load that only the bottom of its legs and its nose are visible.
After we walked to the trolley bus stop where we boarded a tram that took us [inserted] FROM [/inserted] outside [deleted] a [/deleted] [inserted] THE [/inserted] big impressive Post Office building, along the main road that runs to the top of the hill. The trolley buses were very much like our old English type trams. They were always packed by people of all nationalities, young, middle aged and old Frenchmen or European or native dressed Arabs wearing the old fez hat and the native women wearing their yash-mak over their nose and mouth, then there were servicemen from many of the Allied nations. When it gets so that you cannot move an inch the bus moves off and the natives left behind jump and hang on the sides of the vehicle so as to get a free lift. Then at each stop one is jostled around by the people wanting to get out and it is worse still when the women are carrying big baskets as they generally do.
On reaching St. George’s Hotel way up the hill we descended from the bus ourselves and walked into hotel grounds passing the sentry at entrance. As we walked up the drive boarded by orange and lemon trees we passed by many high ranking officers of the Allied Army, Navy and Air Force. This was the Allied Expeditionary Force H.Q. On entering the hallway I was given a form to fill in stating who I was, where I had come from and what I wanted and after showing my identity card the form was signed and I was allowed to enter and roam around. I made my way to the Signal Section where I met my cousin and he showed me one of the radio units that was in direct communication with London. It was not much bigger than a normal set. We all then walked to the nearby English Library next to the English Church of St. George’s. We had tea at the library and talked over old times before it was time my cousin to go back to work. My friend and I then caught a trolley bus that took us back down to the Post Office.
We then went to the “Empire” which was the American Red Cross cinema where we saw a picture named “Happy Go Lucky” I had seen it once before but it took me a long while before I could remember where it was that I saw it. Then later I remembered it was in Cardiff while I was waiting for a train to take me home on my Embarkation leave, but I was hardly in the mood to appreciate the film then, but during the second time I saw it I do not think I had laughed so much since coming overseas. The film was in technicolour.
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When we came out of the cinema we walked to the R.A.F. Club for supper and a few games of draughts before thumbing a lift back to camp which was quite a job to get to where we lived. Anyway we did the journey eventually in three stages, and arrived back in camp in pitch dark well after eleven-o-clock. On reaching our tent the other two occupants informed us that, at last, my posting had come through during my absence. I went up to the Movement Office and received my Movement Order which was to 242 Squadron Gioia, Italy, and I was told that I was on the move at 6.30 a.m. on the following morning. My pal was posted too, but to another part of Italy.
The next step for us to take was to pack up all our kit, which we had to do by candlelight. I was at it until just after 1.0 a.m when I went to bed. I was up again at 5.30 a.m. and after doing my last minute packing I went to breakfast. Just then it started to rain and whilst I was waiting for our transport a thunderstorm developed and the rain then came down in torrents. By then we were all pretty wet, a little later 5 lorries, 3 of which were open ones turned up outside the Movement Office. We loaded the rations and our kits on the open lorries. You can guess how wet our kit-bags were.
All of us then crammed on the two remaining lorries. There was over thirty of us in the lorry I was in and the space was no more than 7’ x 12’. We very near had to take it in turns to move. Luckily it stopped raining and the sun came out just before noon. Some of the chaps then transferred to the open lorries, we were then able to ride a little more comfortably. By lunch-time we had travelled across the coastal strip leading up to the Baby Atlas Mountains and had begun the first stage of the journey over them.
I was very surprised with how much ploughed land that there was in the area around the foot of the mountains. In places the road we travelled on was flooded as a result of the trains, but nowhere was it deep enough for us to stop. It was a marvellous journey. The convoy of lorries going up and down all the time, twisting first one way and then the other just like a worm. We stopped for dinner on quite a flat stretch of cultivated ground, but not so far away we could see snow on the peaks of the mountains. We took some of our rations to an Arab house or rather it was a stone barn near the roadside where we obtained some wood which enabled us to start a fire on which to heat some water to make tea, to go with our tin of Bully Beef and hard biscuits. After the meal had been consumed we continued on our upward twisting journey. Sometimes there was a drop of hundreds of feet on one side of the road and on the other was solid rock stretching up to a height of hundreds of feet and the road would be only just wide enough for two lorries to pass.
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At times we would pass a gap in the sort of fence or wall when there was one, where something had gone off the road and crashed into the depths below, not a very reassuring sight.
For a long time that day, alongside the road ran a dried up bed of a river about a hundred yards in width but as we ascended higher into the mountains, it started turning into a small stream, which a little later in the year would be a mighty river as the rain water rushes down the mountainside. It was a lovely sight with the road and the stream winding side by side and with sheer rock of many beautiful colours rising up on either side of us and in places water was cascading from crevices into the stream a 100’ 0” or more below. In a few places the roadway had to be tunnelled through the solid rock.
Also during the journey, we passed by a few camels. I had only seen a couple up until then since I had arrived in Africa. The most remarkable thing was, that everytime we stopped for a few moments way out in the wilds there was not a soul in sight and yet within a few minutes hundreds of Arabs seemed to appear from nowhere out of the hills wanting to buy anything at all that you would like to sell them. Many Arabs stood by the roadside waving a stack of currency notes in their hands as we went by. In places we could look into the valley and see parts of the road that we had travelled along half-an-hour previously. Also at times we could see the tail end of our own convoy below us.
For a time we were driving along in the clouds that enveloped us like a mist and when we came in the clear again we could see smaller clouds floating in the valley below and the rocks 50’ 0” above us were covered in snow. It was hellishly cold travelling along this part of the road.
By evening we were in the first range of mountains after being up at a height of 6,000 ft. at times. We were then between the two ranges that separate the coast from the Sahara Desert.
Darkness had fallen when we stopped for the night at a few Nissen Huts built on the roadside about ten miles east of the twon [sic] of Setif. First we lit two petrol fires, one to make the tea in and the other to heat the meal which was a bit of a mixture. We opened a dozen tins containing an assortment of things and mixed them all in together, as by that time we had all acquired a terrific appetite [deleted] and [/deleted] it tasted fine. We then settled down to sleep, personally, I would not recommend a concrete floor to sleep on, especially up in the mountains with only two blankets with which to keep yourself warm in. Once when I awoke during the night wild dogs were howling away near to the hut and they did not make a very comforting noise.
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When I arose next morning, fires were already on the go and breakfast was nearly ready. Now that it was daylight I was able to see what my surrounding looked like. Except for the hut, a small Arab dwelling and the mountains in the background, nothing else was to be seen. It was very bleak and desolate in whichever direction I looked. There was also quite a lot of frost on the ground which made the atmosphere a bit nippy. I was very glad to wear my greatcoat. Once again the usual crowd of Arab natives were gathered around us wanting to buy anything and selling oranges, tangerines etc. Although I do not know how they managed to get hold of their goods being miles from anywhere. One chap was selling sheep-skins at 15/- each and another was selling knives. I nearly bought a skin with which to line my battledress tunic with but I changed my mind. A few children were there selling eggs, these did interest me as I had not had a real egg since leaving England, so I bought a couple to go with my bacon and biscuits. I then lit my own little petrol fire in a cigarette tin and proceeded to boil the eggs in my mess tin and after consuming same we got away to an early start to continue on our journey.
The building of the railway, road and bridges were built over the mountains, a feat of marvellous workmanship. In a few places the road became no more than a wide gravel pathway. During the course of the morning an aeroplane made our lorries a target, for practice, diving and straffing. We passed through many native villages and a few small towns. Once we felt so cold that we stopped and had a game of football with old tin cans by the roadside until we felt warm once more. Round about noon we reached the ancient town of Constantine where we stopped for lunch. The town was quite modern in parts, in others it was the usual dirty native hovels. As the place was built on a hillside it was very much like a miniature Algiers. The parts that stick out most in my mind was the large suspension bridge built over a 200’ 0” gorge and the flocks of sheep and goats wandering all over the rocky hillside. The spot where we stopped was just outside the town.
Our meals consisted of much the same things as the day before except that we had tinned fruit to follow our bully beef. Whilst waiting for the meal to be prepared we discovered a small stream the water of which was quite warm, in a few moments everyone was having a bath in it. I felt very much refreshed after I had been in. A little later our convoy became a worm once more only this time we were descending towards the direction of the coast. It was just on 3.0 p.m. that same afternoon when feeling very travel weary we drove into our destination town of Phillipville, after covering a distance of well over 300 miles since leaving Algiers. We travelled a further six miles along the coast to an Army Transit camp where we were to wait for a boat to take us to Italy.
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There was a hundred of us airmen altogether and we had one Flight Sergeant in charge of us. The camp was so packed when we arrived that for the first night we had to sleep 17 in a Bell tent plus kit. What a night it was. Once I had set myself in a position I had to stay in it, as there was no room whatsoever to move and around the centre pole was just one pile of feet. Things were better next day when an Army Regiment moved out leaving us plenty of tents to move into. As it was an Army run camp, us R.A.F. Fellows did not get troubled very much. During the whole 12 days that I was at the camp we only had to go on parade once and that was to draw pay. I mostly played cards or read a book and as we were right by the sea-shore I went into the sea quite a lot. Once I went in when I did not want to. I was walking along the sands by the waters edge with my thoughts miles away when all of a sudden a huge wave came along which I had not noticed and before I knew what was happening I was up to my knees in water. I looked like a fish out of water as I was floundering to get back onto dry land.
Quite often I did not get out of bed until nearly dinner time. I shall always remember the camp because of the very nice 1 lb. tins of steak and kidney puddings that we used to get for dinner every other day. I nearly always had second helpings when that meal was served, then feeling so full up I would have to go back to my tent and sleep. I always used to get a second tea and then keep it for supper time when I used to light a fire of twigs and then make toast to go with my cheese and jam etc. I used to enjoy those evenings sitting by the firelight beneath a clear starlight sky. There was a hill about 100’ o” [sic] in height just behind the camp and at night I used to like climbing to the top of it and look down on the whole of the camp and see about fifty or more flickering fires dotted all over the place and then behind the camp I would see that light of the moon casting its silver rays upon the sea and hear the soft lapping sound of the waves rolling up the beach.
One day about a hundred Americans came into the camp, they were survivors from a ship that had been torpedoed the day before between ORAN and Phillipville. Many of them had been in the water for hours and just had the clothes on that they left the ship in. A very great number of their comrades were not so fortunate and were still missing.
Altogether I went into the town about a half dozen times. There was nothing special to see there. The place is built on the side of a hill facing the bay, population is approx. 30,000 (including all natives). The town possesses Docks in which can berth six or seven good size ships.
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[underlined] PANTELLERIA ISLAND NEAR LAMPURDUSA. [/underlined]
[photograph of Pantelleria Island]
[underlined] ITALY’S [indecipherable word] – WHICH SURRENDERED AFTER IT HAD BEEN NEARLY SUNK BY BOMBS 1943. [/underlined]
[two symbols]
AS SOON AS WE WERE A FEW MILES OUT TO SEA LIFE BOAT DRILL AND GUN FIRING PRACTISE WAS HELD. WE WERE THE ONLY SHIP TO SAIL AND HAD TWO DESTROYERS AS AN ESCORT. [symbol]
I FOUND OUT LATER WHY WE WERE ON OUR OWN. THE REASON WAS THAT THE SHIP WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE FASTEST LINER IN THE US & AT THAT [indecipherable word] AND I THINK SHE PROVED THAT [indecipherable word] ON THIS JOURNEY. BY TEATIME WE COULD SEE BIZERTA ON OUR STARBOARD SIDE WITH ITS BARRAGE BALLOONS THAT PROTECTED THE HARBOUR. THEY FLEW HIGH ABOVE THE HUNDRED OR MORE VESSELS ANCHORED IN IT. ONLY A COUPLE OF MONTHS BEFORE THIS SPOT HAD BEEN HELD BY THE [indecipherable word] AND WAS THE SCENE OF A LANCS BATTLE.
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On Sunday the 5th of December we were told to pack up our kit as we were moving off that afternoon. We sent our two kit-bags to the Docks on a lorry. The hundreds of soldiers that moved off that day had to march the 6 miles down to the Quayside. I felt very sorry for them as they had to carry a rifle and full pack with them. Our Flt/Sgt. told us we could hitch-hike down. So after thmbing [sic] for 1/2 an hour I managed to get a lift in an ambulance all the way.
After retrieving my kit-bags and forming up for roll call I found myself walking up a gang plank once more. At the top I was given a Berthing Card, what a job it was getting along the narrow passage ways carrying kit bags & rifle and pack. I was very glad when I found my mess deck. The boat which was of some 15,000 tons was a French one named the ‘Ville de Oran”. This time I had no trouble slinging and getting into a hammock.
Next morning we sailed at 8.30 a.m. so I said good-bye to North Africa as the coast line gradually receded into the distance and then from sight.
[inserted] [symbol] ADD [symbol] [/inserted]
I spent that evening standing at the bows of the vessel which continuously dipped and rose, just like nodding to the sky. It was breath-taking standing there on deck with the very strong wind almost reaching gale force blowing through my hair and in my face as we headed straight into it. As darkness fell the ship increased its speed to what must have been just on 30 knots. She seemed to skim the top of the water as she went along. As we ran into the storm the sea became a bit rough and the ship began to roll which made a good number of chaps sea-sick. Later when the storm cleared all became calm once more. I was up on deck when on our Starboard side we passed the Island of Lamperdusa which loomed out of the water, and was just a dark patch in the darkness which was slightly illuminated by the thousands of twinkling stars, which in the cloudless sky of the East shine much brighter than they do in England.
Next morning after rolling up my hammock I went for a stroll on deck to breathe in some lovely fresh morning air. On emerging into the daylight I discovered that on our Port-side, the South West coast of Sicily was to be seen, but it was only a thin line on the horizon. As time went on we could make out the cliffs, then the fields followed by the houses and roads, then finally moving objects such as cars etc. At 9.30 a.m. we slid through the entrance gap in the submarine boom and by wrecks of sunken vessels, some half submerged and some with only just their mast heads showing above the water. The sunken vessels included two hospital ships. As we steamed alongside the Quayside ropes were thrown out from the ships and we were secured to the shore and a few moments later the ship dropped anchor and we found ourselves looking upon the town of Syracuse. Around the harbour the houses looked like buildings of a 17th Century English fishing village.
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I shall remember for a long time the lovely tone of the peal of bells that rang out from the quaint little ancient church. As the sun set it was just like a picture painted by an expert artist. There was the harbour as I have described with its sunken ships and the village fishing vessels, the peasant houses surrounding the harbour area and the church rising up above it all, and in the background. In the distance we could see Mount Etna and other mountains looking mauve and purple in colour with their white snow tops and the sky was one mass of glorious colours of red, yellow, orange around the deep red fire ball of the setting sun.
We stayed in Syracuse until 4.30 p.m. when we weighed anchor, cast off from the quayside and made for the open sea. As soon as we left the harbour our faithful destroyer escort came up on each side.
On the following morning I was up early once again and I found that we were then sailing in the Bay of Taranto. With Taranto (the great Italian Naval Base) itself in sight. No wonder that we could not get at the Italian Fleet from the sea. It is virtually impossible for any enemy craft to get near to the Base from the sea.
First comes the Bay itself in the shape of a horse-shoe, with an anti-submarine net right across the bay centre. Then 8 miles further towards the coast came a second net, which forms the entrance to the outer harbour and to get into the Naval Base which is the inner harbour each ship has to travel through a canal approx. 150’ 0” wide by 300 yards long. At one point one of the town’s main road’s leads over the canal which is bridged by a movable bridge. Which when closed allows traffic to go over it and when open allows big ships to enter the inner harbour. This strip of water divides old Taranto from modern Taranto.
After sailing passed more sunken ships we docked in the outer bay at 9 a.m. after gliding by the statue of the Pope standing at the harbour entrance. Completing our journey from Africa to Italy in 36 hours sailing time. It was noon before we disembarked on the quayside and loaded most of our kit onto a lorry. Now that the battle front was less than a hundred miles to our North my thoughts were that I shall now be able to do a job of work in helping to win the war. I was hoping to go right through Italy as the Germans fell back and then perhaps across Germany and then Home (the only place that I looked forward to going). Anyway we formed up and started marching around the outer harbour. After passing two more ships we came to one with equipment being loaded on it belonging to [underlined] 242 Squadron 322 Wing [/underlined] (the Squadron that I was joining). We continued on our march and thousands of army chaps were also marching away from the Docks in parties. Each party had to be at least 100 yards apart in case an enemy aircraft appeared overhead and start to machine gun the columns.
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Our march took us through old Taranto and over the swing bridge into the newly built part of the town and then on another 300 yards to (or what used to be) a big Hotel overlooking the Naval Base. The R.A.F. were using it as a Transit Camp. We were put into rooms after we had gathered our kit that had been dropped outside the building. My room was situated seven floors up and I was feeling very exhausted when I had finished carrying all my equipment up all those stairs. All the rooms were fully furnished except for beds and there was a wash basin in each and also four bathrooms on each floor. What a vast difference it was from the other Transit Camps that I had stayed at, but my luck, as always, never lasted for long. Within an hour of being there I was told that my Squadron were leaving Italy on the following day. After getting settled in we had a meal (what a meal). The cookhouse was situated on the roof top. I shall always remember my meals in Italy, every meal consisted of cold Bully Beef and dog biscuits. It was hardly worth climbing the stairs for. From the roof we had a commanding view of the inner bay where a large proportion of the great Italian Navy that would never come out and fight lay at anchor. Now it had all surrendered to us, Modern Cruisers, Light Cruisers, Destroyers, and Submarines all anchored side by side stretching as far as the eye could see. Some of the Italians had been in the Navy for 3 years or more and had not yet been to sea. Also from the roof top I could see damage caused by our torpedo raids on the Harbour.
Early afternoon I watched units of the fleet steam pass the bridge into the outer bay, the crew of each vessel were lined up to attention on the deck all the time that they were going through the channel. On reaching a few miles out in the bay the ships would drop anchor and come back on the following day, when other units of the fleet would go out for the night following. This was as far as they ever went and the trip that I have described above was only done to keep the ships in a seaworthy condition. During the afternoon, transport arrived to take some of the airmen that were posted to Squadrons in Southern Italy to their units. I spent quite a good while of the afternoon saying goodbye to many of the fellows that had travelled all the way from Algiers with me.
Most of the civilian population in Italy were nearly starving at that time and they would pay any price for food. Some of the poorer people came around the hotel begging for something to eat. Most of the inhabitants were very well dressed and had plenty of money, but the Germans had taken away all the food that they could lay their hands on. , when they had retreated before our armies. Early evening I crossed the bridge once again with some of my friends and explored the narrow streets in which the tops of the houses on either side nearly touched one another, but we did not come across anything worth seeing so after coming to a dead end turning, we about turned and retraced our steps along the cobbled roadways. We sat down for a while on a seat on a little bit of green outside the old Town Fortress what had been taken over and being used by the British Admiralty.
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[inserted] [symbol] VERY MODERN BUILDINGS, [/inserted]
We then decided to have a look at the new part of the town which turned out to be much more interesting, with its [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] green parks and the very large and up to date Town Hall. It was very enjoyable walking in the parks under the moonlit sky. Of course all but a few shops were closed for the night at that time. After a little more wandering we came across a NAAFI Canteen which we entered. In Italy the currency was in Lira 400 to the £1 and at the time we only had French francs on us, but after talking nicely to the Manageress she changed a little of our money for us to enable us to have a good feed of cakes and sandwiches. The canteen was very nicely furnished with easy chairs and all the time light classical music such as “Ava Maria” etc., was being played by an orchestra made up of Italian musicians. All were professional musicians and their playing received a good ovation after each [deleted] time [/deleted] by the audience. I enjoyed the concert very much indeed. As we came out of the door it was crowded with children asking for cakes as they were hungry. We then went back to bed at the hotel. Before I got to bed I had to put [inserted] TO BED [/inserted] one of my mates that was in the same boarding house as myself at Morecambe. He had wandered off somewhere during the evening and I am afraid that he had been visiting too many wine bars as he would persist on using his boots for a pillow. So you now know that the Italian drink called Veno does to you.
We were up early next morning and consumed the proverbial breakfast of Bully Beef and biscuits! Next I had to lug all my kit down that narrow stairway again. A little later a lorry arrived at the hotel from 242 Squadron to pick myself and the other three airmen that had been posted to 242 Sq. it conveyed us down to the docks and to the same jetty that we had disembarked from the day before. Out of the four of us two were Flt/Mechanics (Airframes) myself FM/Engine and the remaining chap was a parachute packer. The whole of 322 Wing (were moving) which consisted of 4 Squadrons 154, 232, 242 & 243 and No. 108 Repair & Salvage Unit and also Wing Headquarters Unit.
After wandering around a bit we found the [deleted] airm [/deleted] [inserted] AIRMEN [/inserted] of 242. You will find the History of Squadron up until then on the opposite page. After an hour of waiting, our turn came to go on board. So I found myself walking up a gang-plank for the third time after coming down one only the day previously. I do not know how I managed it, but I succeeded to get all my kit on board in one trip.
This time the boat was called “SS” Neauralia” and was a British one. It had been a troopship during the war of 1914-18 and had a displacement of approx. 18,000 tons. We sailed at 3.0 p.m. the same afternoon and I said goodbye to Italy after a very short and pleasant stay in the country of 26 hours.
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There were many guesses going around as to where we were going to but the only thing that was definite was that we were to be on the sea for five days. We slowly made our way through Sub-booms out into open sea where we met five other troopships and our escort of seven destroyers. We were issued with life-jackets and an Emergency Ration containing 1 lb slab of chocolate and we were told to carry all three things with us constantly. It was always a great temptation to eat the chocolate and at the end of the journey when the time came to hand back the ration quite a few of the fellows had conveniently lost it.
Later on all of a sudden a series of short blasts of the Klaxon horn sounded throughout the ship which was the action station signal and once again it was boat drill. On my first day with the Squadron I received mail, very much to my surprise, it had been sent on from Algiers whilst I was at Phillipville.
One day whilst sitting at my Mess table at a mealtime the fellow sitting next to me showed me some photos of his son. I happened to glance at the back of the envelope and saw a Slough address. It turned out that his home was in Twingners Lane, Slough, and that he used to work at Ken acres in Windsor Road. It just shows what a small world it is. My activities on board were very much as before, dodging fatiques, [sic] reading and sleeping, playing cards and housey-housey. By our amateur navigation (very much so) by the sun each day we could tell that we were heading South., South-East and then due East. On our fourth day at sea we sighted land on the Starboard side and we followed along its dim outline for most of the day. The same morning we had split away from the convoy and were proceeding on our own with an escort of two destroyers. At 4.0 p.m. we had a big scare, our escort was ahead of us when suddenly on our starboard side a conning tower appeared above the surface of the sea followed by the body of a submarine, but it was a British one, luckily for us.
Next day which was a very misty one, we entered the entrance to the Suez Canal and dropped anchor there by the town of Port Said. So it was back to Wog land as we called the natives – [underlined] Western Oriental Gentlemen. [/underlined] I had hoped that I had seen the last of them when I set foot on European soil a few days previously. When the mist cleared from over the canal area we could see familiar advertisements on the quay-side buildings, Johnny Walker, Variety Theatre and there was even a Woolworth’s to be seen. A little later “Z” boats drew alongside our ship and in turn we carried our kit down the gangway and transferred ourselves to the “Z” boat. Each boat held about 350 men with full kit. We chugged across to the East side of the canal and down a few waterways and finally came to a stop at an Army Transit Camp. The “Z” boat was built very similar to an invasion barge and as soon as the ramp was let down we stepped out on the sand once more. After carrying my kit about so much I felt like throwing it into the canal.
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The worst trouble with the camp was if you did not get in the queue early at mealtimes you had to wait for over 2 hours before you were served, as the whole Wing consisted of some 1,250 men they were all served at the one cookhouse. There was a very nice NAAFI on the camp which sold chocolate, tins of fruit, sweets, beer and suppers of eggs and chips, which were all a thing of the past to myself. We had plenty of money on us but were unable to spend a penny of it as it was all in the wrong currency. In Egypt they are Pesatos, 100 to the £1. The coins were of all shapes and sizes, some were square other had serrated edges and others had holes in the centre. Our mouths certainly watered as we watched the chaps stationed on the camp eating all those good things and as we were confined to camp that night, we were unable to take the ferry boat that ran every ten minutes from our side of the Suez over to the town side.
Next morning, we were all up at 4.30 a.m. and later on we boarded the old “Z” boat once more and were taken back along the waterway and passed the big liners and merchant ships to the Western side of the canal where we boarded large lorries and were driven through the town of Port Said and the bits I saw of it were the now familiar [deleted] site [/deleted] [inserted] SIGHT [/inserted] to me of a shamble of dwellings and smelly filthy alleyways. We travelled along by the sea shore and then parallel with the railway and the Suez Canal which was extra busy at the time, with ships going through [deleted] camping [/deleted] [inserted] [indecipherable word] [/inserted] supplies to reinforce our armies in the Far East. The road railway and canal in many places run in a dead straight line. We saw many Egyptian sailing boats and barges, they are still exactly the same design as they were hundreds of years ago. The same applies to their way of living in wooden or tin huts or tin shacks. The state that they live in really is appalling and has to be seen to be believed. Most of the kiddies were covered in sores which in turn were covered in flies.
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[underlined] EGYPT [/underlined]
Winter in Egypt is healthy. During peace time many people travelled there to reap the benefit of the climate. During the period of hostilities, only the fortunate will enjoy winter there, but it should be remembered that from November to February, Cairo itself is not so healthy for invalids. There are frequent changes of temperature, nights are cold, and call for heavier clothing. Chills often result in intestinal disturbance, particularly diarrhoea and sometimes an intermittent fever.
One popular handbook to Egypt makes a comment that should not be taken too literally, however encouraging it may seem. This is to the effect that Nile water has a slightly aperient effect on some people, who consequently find it necessary always to take a little brandy with it.
There are other, equally effective, antidotes.
At all times remember that flies are a plague. Once you have seen Arab children standing round with a dozen flies in the corners of their eyes – not an unusual sight – it will be understandable why eye trouble is one of the scourges of the country.
Mosquitoes are also plentiful. Both insects are disease carriers, and every precaution should be taken against them.
Flies disappear like magic as the sun goes down; but not so the mosquitoes.
Climate: The most pleasant period of the year in Egypt is between October and April, with the qualification already mentioned that conditions between November and February are not quite so good in Cairo itself.
Until the end of December, heavy dews fall in the Delta, Cairo, and the Nile Valley, and there are frequent heavy morning mists.
The Khamsin begins in April. This is a hot wind that lasts usually for stretches of about three days.
Money: The Egyptian pound (£E) is worth about £1.0.6d in English. It is divided into piastres and milliemes (100 piastres and 1,000 milliemes).
Tipping: - bakshish – is a habit. Give little, because the recipient will not be satisfied anyway, and when an argument starts the slightest increase can put an end to the protest.
Clothing: Light for summer. Tropical kit will be heavy enough. Medium is for the between seasons, and heavyish for the cold nights of winter. A light overcoat is necessary.
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It is an old traveller’s advice to keep the kidneys (called the “kitchen” in the traveller’s vernacular) warm and protected against chill. There is not much need for a topee except in summer and in the desert, but it is always advisable to keep the back of the neck protected.
For convenience, Egypt is divided into Upper and Lower districts. It has been so divided from the time of the Pharaohs. Lower Egypt stretches from the Mediterranean to Cairo. The rest is Upper Egypt.
Egypt is dependent on the Nile. The silt from the river in flood makes the fertile stretches, which vary from a few yards to 10 or more miles in width, and the regular inundation is the basis of all profitable crops. Irrigation has added to the fertile area. The natives use irrigation streams for water for washing, bathing and cooking. Often they use it as it comes. The European must not, for it is full of potential disease.
Water must always be purified. The normal practice is to filter the water first through porous jars, usually large called Iziers) boil it, and then pass it again through a really efficient candle filter. When this is not possible, the water should be first filtered through porous jars, boiled and chlorinated.
The European should never bathe in canal or river water. That the natives do so is immaterial; they catch certain diseases from the practice which would be far more harmful to service peronnel [sic] than they are to the native population who acquire a certain immunisation.
Dysentry is dangerous and should not be neglected. At the first sign of acute diarrhoea, see the M.O.
Make it normal practice to keep the bowels open, and avoid too much sun; heatstroke is not uncommon in the summer months, nor is it unknown in the winter.
In Egypt avoid alcohol until the sun goes down.
The People. You will find the Fellah, or farm labourer, a good, solid individual. He has his own code, that is to say he counts certain things as ‘perquisites.’ We might call their acquisition pilfering; but the outlook is not the same.
The fellah is a hard-working individual, tough and loyal to his master. He is especially loyal to the European master.
The town-bred Egyptian is of a different character. He has acquired a certain amount of Western culture; sometimes superficial; although there are very many who have assimilated real culture and learning. The town Arabs are a somewhat mixed crowd. Many are in the towns for the purpose of making a living by one means or another out of the visitors.
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The destruction of two ME.109’s a few days ago by an RAF Spitfire Wing brought the Wing’s total victories to 300 1/2 enemy aircraft destroyed in less than a year.
The Wing was formed for the North African invasion, and its ground parties were the first of the RAF Squadrons to land at Algiers. The C.O. of the Wing, Group-Captain Appleton. D.S.O., D.F.C., led the first formation of Spitfires to land at Maison Blanche aerodrome, Algiers, and put down when it was still in French hands, and had not been captured or surrendered to our ground forces.
The RAF Ground parties landed at 0300 hours on November 8th, 1942 and the Spitfires landed at 1100 hours. That same afternoon they flew defensive patrols. The Squadrons had an encouraging start in North Africa, for the next day, the 9th November, the Luftwaffe carried out a heavy dusk raid on Algiers. The Wing’s Spitfires and Hurricanes together with Naval ack-ack, brought down seventeen of the enemy. The German radio admitted the loss of twenty-seven, indicating that many of the probables and damaged never reached their bases.
Three days after landing, a detachment of the Wing moved eastwards to provide cover for the advancing First Army. Wing-Commander (now Group-Captain) P. H. Hugo, D.S.O. D.F.C, and two bars, Croix de Guerre and two Palms, of Victoria, South Africa, flew this detachment to Djidjelli, and this field was also still in the hands of the French – in fact, it was thirty hours later that First Army Units appeared.
The Motor Industries Squadron remained at Djidjelli, while the rest of the Wing moved forward to Bone on November, 13th, only five days after the initial landing. At Bone, a U.S.A.A.F. Spitfire Squadron was attached to the Wing, and remained there until 11th January, 1943.
Operations during November, December, and January, were carried out under extremely difficult conditions, yet the scale of effort was maintained. The air war over Bone was a battle to ensure the survival of the strung-out ground forces. Vital supplies and reinforcements had to get into the port. Outnumbered on every occasion, the Spitfires never let up in their defence of this key supply position.
On one occasion, as many as two hundred enemy aircraft raided the harbour, docks and airfield in a period of twenty-four hours. Despite the Luftwaffe’s large scale efforts to knock/ [inserted] out [/inserted] the Spitfires, the ground crews worked without sleep in mud and rain, and kept the aircraft fit for flying, and the pilots kept on knocking the enemy out of the sky. For instance, on January 2nd, the Wing claimed seven destroyed, five probables, and four damaged, without loss.
On November, 28th, the C.O. Group-Captain Appleton, was badly wounded in an air raid, and lost his foot. Wing Commander Hugo assumed command, and the post of Wing Commander Flying was taken up by Wing-Commander R. Berry, D.S.O., D.F.C., and Bar.
On March 15th, the Wing moved to Souk-el-Khemis, and Group-Captain Hugo handed over to Wing-Commander Berry, as he was transferred to an assignment with the U.S.A.A.F., and later to a RAF Fighter Group. After the fall of Tunis, the Wing moved to Protville, and then on May 31st, moved to Sousse for embarkation to Malta, the Squadron-Leader Flying being Gus Carlson, D.F.C, a New Zealander from Wairapapa, Wellington Province.
From Malta, the Wing took part in the brilliantly successful air cover to the invasion of Sicily, and the command was again taken over by Group-Captain Hugo, Wing-Commander Berry having returned to England. The Wing-Commander Flying was now Colin Gray, D.S.O., D.F.C, and Bar, the top-scoring pilot in North Africa. Before his tour was completed during the Sicilian campaign, Wing-Commander Gray had 28 1/2 victories to his credits. During the Sicilian campaign, the Wing had its greatest day. On July, 25th, the Spitfires intercepted a formation of German Ju. 52 transports, which were trying to fly in supplies to German forces. In the one sweep, 25 Ju’s, together with four escorting fighters, were destroyed. In the afternoon, another four Me.109’s were shot down, making thirty-three victories the total for the day. The transports were bringing in petrol and troops.
The Wing-Commander Flying who took over from Wing-Commander Gray in Sicily was a South African, Lieutenant-Colonel Wilmot, D.F.C., of Capetown, who had flown in East Africa and Abyssinia, and in the Western Desert.
After operating from Lentini during the final assault on Cetania and Messina, the Wing moved to the North coast of Sicily – to Milazzo. It was from here that one of the most difficult assignments in the Wing’s history began. With long-range tanks, the Spitfires covered the landing at Salerno in Italy, and as soon as the Servicing Commandoes and the advance Wing ground parties were ashore, the Spitfires landed on hastily prepared strips on the narrow bridgehead.
P.T.O.
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Here they were refuelled and re-armed, and during this period the landing strips were under enemy shellfire. The whole wing operated under conditions which never have been paralleled before in warfare; Allied artillery was located between the airfield and the beach, and the guns were firing over the field at enemy strong-points in the hills. Similarly, enemy shells were ranging out the beaches over the Spitfires as they re-fuelled. It was lierally [sic] a case of operating in the middle of a battlefield. Group-Captain Hugo, in discussing the Wing’s 300 1/2 victories, said that the highest praise was due to the ground crews. He pointed out that while very few of the original pilots are still in the Mediterranean zone, the ground crews are the same men who landed in North Africa a year ago. “Day in and day out,” he said, “they have done their work in cold and heat, mud and dust, and have never lost their energy and enthusiasm. Without their efforts, the Wing’s success could never have been achieved.”
The Wing has been fortunate in its leadership. Group-Captain Hugo, who had been in command during the greater part of the Wing’s existence, has had a brilliant record. At the beginning of the war, he went to France, and began his career as a fighter pilot. After the evacuation, he was engaged in the hazardous task of shooting-up enemy flak ships. Then came the Battle of Britain, in which he fought with distinction, after which he led fighter sweeps over France. The Tunisian campaign was next recorded in his log book, followed by Sicily and now Italy. He has a total of 520 operational hours to his credit. Group-Captain Hugo has destroyed twenty-one enemy aircraft, and on many occasions, his un-selfish leadership has enabled less experienced pilots to secure victories that could have easily been secured by the Group-Captain.
Up to the 23rd October, 1943, the Wing’s record is:-
North Africa……………………..205 1/2 destroyed
Malta……………………………….34 destroyed
Sicily………………………………..55 destroyed
Italy………………………………… [underlined] 6 [/underlined] destroyed
[underlined] 300 1/2 [/underlined]
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Some will act as dragomans, other will peddle various ‘curiosities’ reputed to be of archeological [sic] value (but generally imitation) beads, walking sticks and various oddments. Others are the counterparts of our own city workers, working hard to make a living, doing the ordinary jobs of commercial life.
In Cairo itself, and in most places from Alexandria and Port Said through the valley of the Nile to the border of the Sudan and Abyssinia you will find members of what may be called the upper classes, who are as cultured and aware of the world as any people you may meet anywhere. It is unwise ever to judge immediately by appearances.
Many of the student class have been educated first in their own country and then in Great Britain or other European countries. That they have a nationalistic outlook is to be accepted. Some of the enthusiastic outbursts on the part of the students may be discounted; but they must be understood. The Egyptian yields to no one in patriotism. At the same time, most of them are aware that they do owe a debt to Great Britain. We have many friends, although we undoubtedly have a number of critics there. It is a part of our job to develop the friendship and accept, while tempering, the criticism.
The religion is chiefly Muhammedan, [sic] although there are many Copts. Muhammedanism [sic] in Egypt demands some study. It dates from the early years of the seventh century, and is a missionary, or proselytising religion, which arose in the first place as a protest against the corrupt forms of religion then current. The Muhammedan [sic] is a fighter, he derives inspiration from his faith and is a redoubtable adversary. He can also be an excellent co-worker and a good friend.
Formerly, the position of women left a lot to be desired. Much improvement has taken place in recent years, and although polygamy is permitted according to the tenets of Muhammedanism [sic] it is not so frequently practised.
The Copts, although their Churches has suffered a spiritual decline, are in the main quick and shrewd. In the early days they suffered considerably for the sake of their religion, and were steadily persecuted by the Muhammedans. [sic]
In common with the Muhammedans, [sic] they enforce seclusion on their women.
In the greater cities, French, English and Arabic are fairly generally spoken. Cairo is essentially cosmopolitan, and practically every language can be heard there at one time or another. The telephone operators, for example, are usually efficient in four or five languages.
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Along the coast are many pleasant resorts, mostly with a long history, stretching from Mersah Matruh – Cleopatra’s playground – to Port Said and beyond. Bathing is good, but there is a strong undertow, and none but really strong swimmers should venture beyond their depth. Certain approved beaches have been established.
Egypt offers many opportunies [sic] for sport, and there is much interest to be got from the remains of what was a great civilisation.
The beginnings of Egyptian history are indeterminate. Scientists differ, so that it is impossible to say, with certainty nearer than a thousand years, when civilisation reached the country. It probably came from the East, perhaps from India, although this is not certain. Roughly the period may be placed between 6,000 and 5,000 B.C.
The Dynasties, which grew from the consolidation of various districts under one energetic tribal chief, begin with Mena, the founder of the first Dynasty. Mena began at or about Abydos, and extended his domain to Memphis and Aswan; which means that he united Upper and Lower Egypt.
The pyramids date generally to the time of the Fourth Dynasty, Khufu (or Cheops), the most spectacular of which stand just outside Cairo, facing the desert.
A vast storehouse of antiquities remains, some have been excavated, and almost everywhere you may go in Egypt you will find the signs of archeologists [sic] who have been at work.
Many of their results – if they are still on view – will be found in the Museum at Cairo, including Tutankhamen’s treasure, one of the outstanding treasure discoveries of our time.
Merely as a point of interest, it is always worth while, when other duties do not prevent the relaxation, to scout around, for there are certainly many more discoveries to be made.
Any handbook on Egypt will provide interesting reading, and the knowledge so gained will be profitable.
After the Dynasties, which had varying fortunes – from rise to decay and rise again, Alexander the Great ruled over the country. He is reputed (and it is probably true) to have travelled to Siwa to consult the oracle, at the temple of Jupiter Ammon.
Alexander was followed by the Ptolemies, fifteen of them. Incidentally, there were six queens who bore the name Cleopatra. The Ptolemies were in power for the 300 years which ended the pre-Christian era.
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They were followed by the Romans, who had control until the beginning of the seventh century, when the Persians reigned for another short spell, to be replaced by the Romans and later by the Muhammedans [sic] who more or less dictated their own terms. The Turks were masters by the sixteenth century, when Egypt was governed by the Mamelikes.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Egypt was the battle ground of Turks, French and English. Napoleon took Alexandria, intending to cripple the mercantile expansion of Britain. Nelson knocked out the French Fleet in the Battle of the Nile, Great Britain made a treaty with Turkey, and Napoleon’s men were finally forced out of the country. The English withdrew at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
The next hundred years were marked by uprisings and intrigue. Muhammed Ali murdered the remaining Mamelukes, conquered Syria and destroyed the Turkish fleet. Russia and France intervened, and Turkey again was put into power, with a reversion (under tribute) of the governorship of Egypt to the descendants of Muhammed Ali. Ismail Pasha who succeeded was ineffectual, and 1879 was deposed after pressure had been put on Turkey. Tewfik succeeded, and, had he been surrounded by men who were willing to co-operate, a period of prosperity and quiet might have followed. Instead, the factions created further disturbance. English and French forces were gathered off Alexandria in support of Tewfik. The French, however, believing perhaps that a demonstration should be enough, took no further action and the British took on the job alone.
Action followed. Sir Garnet Wolseley defeated the dissident army at Tel el Kebir. British officials were put at the heads of departments. The Sudan, still in revolt, remained so until Abbas succeeded his father. Then a joint Anglo-Egyptian force reduced the Sudan. This force was led by Lord Kitchener, who completed the operation in September, 1898, but reports came of a French force under Major Marchand at Fashoda being attacked by natives. After successful operations, against the native troops, negotiations between France and Britain led to the withdrawal of Major Marchand.
Further disturbances led to the ‘occupation’ becoming a Protectorate.
Now, by recent changes, Egypt is self-governing, although certain protection rights are still retained by Great Britain.
THE SUEZ CANAL. This highway, connecting the eastern oceans with the Mediterranean, gives Egypt its chief strategic importance. The two ports (Suez and Port Said) commanding the Canal, serve as bases.
Before the canal was cut, the route along which it runs was in use by trading caravans, and was the highway of invasion along the Sinai Peninsula.
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The Canal is a key highway, undoubtedly one of the prizes that the Nazis would be glad to win. Its defence is of primary importance, and Von Rommel’s campaign was launched in the hope of breaking through after the Italians had failed. The armies under the Italian leader Marshall Graziani were first engaged, and in a two months’ campaign lost 133,000 men taken prisoner, in addition to the killed and wounded. One thousand three hundred guns and over 400 tanks were taken in the same period.
German stiffening introduced another phase of war.
Most of the action has taken place in the western desert, where life, under service conditions, is more strenuous than it is in the more leisurely times of peace.
To make the most of it, it is necessary to get some idea of the particular desert, and to have an idea of what desert means in general.
First of all, it must be rememberred [sic] that the Libyan Desert is as large as a continent, stretching over 1,200 miles from Cairo to the Tunisian border, and south for more than a thousand miles to the woodmen’s tracks that run into Abyssinia. Only a cluster of massifs, rocks that might reasonably be called mountains, separate the Libyan Desert from the Sahara.
The desert is not completely waterless. Rain, it is true, falls only occasionally, but in the depressions, sometimes near the surface, sometimes deep down, are water deposits. Small oases are gathered around shallow wells. Large oases, such as Siwa have a fairly constant and reasonably plentiful supply of water.
Desert is not all sand. There are long stretches of broken stone; others are pebble-strewn, pocked by eroded hills. The ground may be hard, or it may be carpeted with a thick layer of dust.
From the ‘high’ desert it is often possible to look down a steep cliff-like formation to the ‘low’ desert, with a panorama of sand dunes which slope gently on one side and fall away steeply on the other.
Transport in the desert is not essentially difficult from the mechanical point of view. It is far more difficult from the point of view of direction. It is easy to move, but easy to lose the way, and travel becomes a matter of navigation just as surely as is the case with sea-borne traffic. In fact, the desert is very much like the sea, save in the one particular that the desert is dry.
That dryness imposes sever restrictions. Water fit for human use is precious and rate. Most of it has to be transported, especially in a campaign. It must therefore be husbanded most carefully, and used sparingly.
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All suffer alike, and there is no sense whatever in pretending that discomfort, dirt and shortage must not be accepted.
The discomforts are increased by the changes, often great, in temperature; from hot days to cold nights, and the farther inland you may be, the greater will be the extremes.
Strong winds raise sand and dust storms, according to the nature of the particular bit of desert. The finely powdered sand gets into everything that is not hermetically sealed. Don’t walk barefooted. Wear the Arab desert boots, made of camel skin.
In the Western Desert (so called to distinguish it from the Sinai Desert), which runs from Egypt through Cyrenaica, there is a strip of country which may reach 5 miles in width that occasional rains turn into a ‘sea’ of mud, as happened during the later phases of the push against Rommel.
Although sand will generally defeat nearly every precaution taken against it, it is better to take those precautions.
Goggles should be worn when possible, as a protection against sun and sand. When drinking water is short-rationed, take a little at a time, and hold it in the mouth – this revives the tissues – before swallowing it. Water should never be gulped down in quantities. The thirstier you may be, the slower you should drink. Near wells there are scorpions. A few snakes can be found, usually harmless.
Avoid strong spirits, not necessarily because of any objection to the reasonable use of alcohol, but because spirits dry up the natural moisture of the body. The simple illustration of that truth is to be found in the almost feverish desire for quantities of water ‘the morning after the night before.’ Beer (if, and when you can get it) is not in the same category; but spirits and drinks with a high alcohol content are not worth the aftermath.
Use some of your precious water to wash your eyes, and if you can get a little boric lotion, so much the better. Keep flies out of your eyes, never stay longer than you must in the neighbourhood of any pollution, whether it be malarial bit of a lake or decaying matter. Where the flies are thickest is a danger spot.
Neglect no small abrasions, sores or cuts. A quick application of iodine or other first-aid dressing will often save serious trouble.
Avoid sudden chills as the sun goes down. This is a word worth repeating.
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When travelling on foot in the desert, take a compass if you can. If you have no compass, do as the natives do who are used to the desert – mark the course you have taken.
Marks, particularly the marks of vehicles, last for an incredibly long time in the sand. Explorers have found the tracks of forerunners who went along their route ten or more years earlier.
A very simple, but often useful, trick is to mark each turning. Just drag the toe of your boot deeply in the loose sand at the base of a rock, to show which way you turned; mark any right or left turn as you go, again by deep scuffling of the sand. It will often enable you to retrace your steps with accuracy, and prevent you being lost.
Don’t trust the desert at all until you know it. It is full of surprises, full of similarities. The sand dune that you may be tempted to take as a landmark is all very distinct and individual – until you have travelled on for a few miles and learned that it is only one of many, all bearing the same outline.
Practise self-control on all journeys. It is better to arrive with a slight thirst and water in the bottle than to have been thoughtlessly extravagant on the early stage of a journey that took longer than you expected. Begin to ration yourself when you think you have plenty to spare.
It is our custom to take clothes off when we are hot. The natives, quite as often, cover themselves even more completely. This is particularly noticeable among the Bedouin. There is a good reason for each of the practices. We perspire more than they do, and so keep our temperatures down. Follow the M.O’s advice. When water is short and perspiration retarded, many practised explorers and desert workers have learned to use wraps as protection against the sun.
One of the first essentials in hot dry countries is to eat and drink moderately; better little and often than large doses at longer intervals. Keep the bowels open, regard constipation with almost as much apprehension as you would diarrhoea. Never lie naked on a bed during the heat or you may experience ‘Gyppy tummy.’ Take a good dose of castor oil – and make it a [underline] good [/underlined] one. Gyppy tummy generally arises from chill on the stomach.
[underlined] Political Considerations. [/underlined] Only the very wise, the very old, and the very inquisitive can appreciate all the political undercurrents in Egypt. There are some wise counsellors, there are some place-seekers, there are many highly educated, fervently patriotic people, and there are packets of people who want to make trouble; why, there are not always sure. Demonstration is a characteristic. Just as the workers in remote places like to put on a ‘fantasia,’ so in some of the more thickly populated places there are those who treat demonstrations as a bit of fun.
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It is not always fun, however.
There is still a certain amount of ‘clearing house’ business going on in the cities. Not every man in Egypt is Egyptian. The cafes and the hotels are by no means innocent of people there to collect and disseminate information. It is a good rule to leave politics and the discussion of military subjects alone.
That does not mean that agreeable social contacts cannot be made, for the good Egyptian is an excellent host. He is lavish but ceremonious. Many may wish you the pleasure of a very large family…and mean it. Don’t laugh. It is the formula for saying ‘I wish you well, and that you may be blessed of Allah.’ It is, in fact, what they say to each other.
Treat all their formality and ceremony with respect, it has grown up with them, is part of their culture, and all take pleasure in it, even in the lengthy greetings and farewells.
Finally, watch the amusement question with care. The women of the country are mostly jealously guarded. Some, but not all, not so guarded may have lost standing.
When women do lose standing they can degenerate into extremely careless – to put it as gently as possible – representatives of the people. In many ports women are exploited for amusement, and somebody is reaping the profit, without reference to the amused who may not reap any profit at all.
In these matters straight disipline, [sic] good sense, and an appreciation of responsibility will serve well.
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[underlined] MY OVERSEAS SERVICE
PART 2. [/underlined]
BY
[underlined] R. BARRETT [/underlined]
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We stopped once during the journey at a roadside Y.M.C.A. canteen, where we had tea and cream cakes (another thing of the past to us). At one point we saw two surrendered [inserted] ITALIAN [/inserted] battleships in the canal. The further we travelled the more it became real desert scenery, miles and miles of sand dunes dotted with scrubs and cactus and near water there would be seen palm trees.
We arrived at Kabrit R.A.F. Station in the afternoon after having travelled 60 miles by road. Here we were put into wooden huts with concrete floors and we had palliasses filled with straw on which to sleep. We were delighted when we found that the huts possessed electric lighting and that we were able to buy almost anything we needed at the camp’s NAAFI. We stuffed ourselves mostly with cream cakes and fruit drinks. The camp was situated at the Southern shore of the larger of the two Bitter Lakes that link up the busy Suez Canal.
We were 60 miles South of Port Said and 90 miles North East of Cario. [sic] I spent most of my six days stay at Kabrit playing football, reading etc., and twelve days before Christmas I went swimming in the Bitter Lake. One day I sat down and wrote four long letters and was I mad when I was told that they had all been rejected by the censor, after all the time I had wasted whilst writing them. On another day I obtained a pass to enable me to go out from camp until midnight the same day. A friend and myself set out early morning and started to take a short cut to the main road by walking about two miles across the sand and on reaching it we started to thumb a lift into Ismailia 30 miles away to our North. A jeep being driven by an Army Officer stopped in response to our signals and said that he could take us 12 miles up the road and as every little helps we went with him. I do not think that I have ever covered 12 miles so quickly on the ground as I did on that trip. We had no sooner got in the jeep than it was time to get out again, we must have averaged 75 m.p.h. The officer dropped us off by the two Italian battleships anchored in the lake. From here we were soon able to get another lift that took us a further two miles up the road. Then we had a wait of well over an hour before anything would stop. We were just going to abandon our trip and go back to camp when a lorry drew up and took us the rest of the way into town.
I was very disappointed with the town. As soon as I descended from the lorry I was besieged by a swarm of Arabs trying to sell me souveniers [sic] of some sort or wanting to change something. “Want to buy a wallet” “Shoe Shine” “Any Broken Watches” “Fountain Pen” these remarks rang in my ears from all sides. They followed us along the road and as fast as we got rid of one another fellow would come up to us. It was the worst place I have been to for being pestered. I think they thought that Lord Nuffield had arrived in town instead of A.C. Barrett. After having a meal in the Y.M.C.A. we took a stroll around the town and we thought it funny after wandering around for half-an-hour or so and not seeing a single European in that time and when we did finally meet up with another serviceman and asked him where the cinema was we also found out that we had been wandering around the worst native part of the town that was out of bounds and that we had not been in the town proper yet.
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There was not much even in the main part of the town to speak of. Native music blared out from their dark and dismal cafes and there were two main streets of old shops with their windows full of mostly souveniers [sic] for visitors to the town to buy. After a visit to what the town called a cinema we picked up a lorry once more that took us back to the battleships once again. As there was not any traffic along the road we decided to start walking along the road back to camp, hoping that a vehicle would come along and pick us up. As we had covered the distance so quickly in the jeep coming down we did not think it was very far back to camp. A few cars passed us from time to time but none of them would stop. One minute the Suez Canal lake edge would be alongside the edge of the road and a little while later there was nothing but sand on either side of us. There were rows of bright lights on the horizon as we walked along which illuminated a large prisoner-of-war camp. We were still plodding along when all was silent and still except for the sound of our own feet on the road when all of a sudden we caught sight of a black blob about 8’ 0” off the ground and bobbing up and down, growing bigger and bigger as it advanced towards us. I was just getting ready to run and was wondering what the hell it was, when a greeting in Arabic rang out at us and then an Arab dressed in a flowing cloak and riding on a camel. We could only see the black cloak and the camel did not show up or make a noise moving across the sand. We hailed the rider who pulled up and we made him understand that we wanted to know how far it was to the cross roads by saying Kilos and making crosses in the sand and he told us it was two kilos up the road by putting two fingers up at us. By then it was 10.30 p.m. and we dare not sit down or we would never get started again, but we promised ourselves a rest at the cross roads when we reached them. Anyway after covering another 4 kilometres we still had not reached them and by then we were feeling very tired and weary and in not too good a temper and our feet were very sore. It was 12.30 a.m. when we arrived in camp after well over 12 miles.
I shall not forget in a hurry either the day we left the station. We first went on parade at 5.30 p.m. with out [sic] kit and some of the chaps were taken by lorry out to a desolate spot miles from anywhere, in the desert and dropped beside a single line railway track and then the lorries came back to the camp to pick up more men. Everytime the lorries came back we paraded once more to see if it was our turn to go, but no such luck, we waited and waited. After the lorries had done three trips and had taken about 250 airmen away some bright officer decided that they were all to be brought back to camp for supper. We were then all dismissed and told that we would be called out when needed. I had just settled down in the hut and on the point of dropping off to sleep whilst lying on my paliasse, [sic] when someone shouts “on parade outside quickly” so out we went once more dragging our kit and then a roll call for the fourth time that evening and were then told to load our kit on the waiting lorries and it would be taken down to the track before us. Then it was back to the huts again and we were all asleep when called out for the fifth time. By then it was past 11.0 p.m. and getting cold and to put it in a polite way we were all very fed up but this was not the end of it all.
Cont’d…../
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When we arrived at this out of the way spot there were approx. 1,000 men’s kits spread over a wide area. Unfortunately, that night there was no moon and there we were roaming up and down the line following the Adjutant like lambs as he tried to locate the Squadrons kit with the aid of his troch and as we went along we all made a sheep bleating noise. What a chaos it was. We eventually found our pile of kit and sorted it out with the aid of matches, then we sat on the sand and waited by the railside. Dead silence descended over the area for a while. None of us knew what was happening and there was the W/O roving up and down muttering to himself “It is all very well keeping these moves secret but someone should know something”. I was just dozing off to sleep again when a train whistle in the distance pierced the silence. Of course, everyone jumped up but as sound travels such a long way it was a full 1/2 hour before the train pulled up alongside. We then had to drag our kit along to the 242 Squadron carriage and long after I had settled in, some of the chaps were wandering up and down the train trying to find a seat.
We moved off at 3.30 a.m. in the morning. This was my first experience of travelling on the Egyptian State Railways and I would have been glad if it had been my last. The carriages were very similar to our old trams and they had narrow wooden seats which were lovely and comfortable to sit on (like hell they were). All the small luggage racks and the whole of the gangways between the rows of seats were filled with kit. So we had to sleep sitting upright. That first night my head kept dropping and dropping until it was nearly in my lap and then I would wake up with a start.
When daylight arrived we were still travelling alongside the Suez. I saw two weird sights during the morning. You all know the old saying “camels being the ships of the desert” well here is another version. The Suez was about 1/4 of a mile from the carriage so we could not see it, as the water level is beneath the tip of the sand, we could only see 5000 tonne Merchant Ships which appeared to be gliding across the sand. The other sight which sticks in my mind was when we passed a Arab graveyard in the desert I saw a great big vulture with its wings outspread sitting on top of a stone cross of one of the graves and there were many more vultures circling overhead. At approx. 10.0 a.m. we crossed a bridge and on to the East side of the canal and started our trip across the Northern end of the Sennii Desert where there was nothing to be seen except sand and more sand and a few shrubs.
We stopped for dinner near to the Egyptian/Palestine Frontier. The following scene was the same at every station, we stopped for meals throughout the journey. As soon as the train pulled into the station, a thousand or more men clambered out carriage doors, windows and all started to run hell for leather across the railway tracks, with their eating utensils rattling in their hands towards one spot (where they were issuing out the food). If you happened to get caught up in the window or were late getting off the mark, you had an hour’s wait in a queue. The following procedure was usually adopted if you arrived there at the beginning, at anyrate it was by me. As soon as the queue dwindled down to nearly nothing, I would join on the end again ready for a second meal.
Cont’d…../
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[underlined] FACING 27 1.A [/underlined]
[four cartoon drawings]
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- 1b –
[underlined] MEN YOU MAY MEET. [/underlined] [inserted] [underlined] BY CAPTAIN. (W.E. JOHNS.) [/underlined] [/inserted]
Egypt is the hub around which are set the vital aerodromes of Iraq, Palestine, Transjordania. Aden and the Sudan. On one of these aerodromes a large proportion of cadets will one day find themselves, so now let us glance at the local inhabitants, the Arab, or Beduin. [sic] There is a vast number of them scattered over the millions of square miles that lie between Turkey and Arabia, between Persia and the Western Desert; and as they have been there a lot longer than we, they have certain fixed ideas which are well to know, for an understanding of the Bediun [sic] may not only save trouble, but may make life a lot easier. Of course, no European really understands the subtle working of the Arab mind, but it is possible from time to time to get a glimpse of it.
Probably more hooey has been written about the Arabs than any other race on earth. Incredible romances have been woven about the sheikhs of the desert. The first thing to do is to forget that. The next thing in trying to understand the Arab is to discard European standards of judgement. What is a sin in London may be a virtue in Baghdad.
First of all, the Arab is a realist. He has to be, for to him life is, and always has been, a grim business. Quite a number of Arabs live perpetually on the verge of starvation. There are some those who dwell in the desert – who hardly know what it is to drink to repletion. Against this state of affairs the Arab has no complaint. It has been with him so long that he is hardly able to comprehend any other mode of life. But he knows what he wants, and to him any means to that end are justified. He will lie with such barefaced yet engaging effrontery that against one’s better judgment one is often taken in. Perhaps the most shattering lies of all are those which he tells to please you. So charming, courteous and hospitable is the Arab that he simple cannot bear to tell you something that he knows will cause you disappointment or pain.
For example, if you say to an Arab postman “Are there any letters for me?” he will invariably answer “Yes” knowing perfectly well that there are none, because he hates to disappoint you. If he says there are many letters for you, you can reasonably expect one. As a guide, the average Arab is utterly unreliable for this same reason. Admittedly, he has no idea of time or distance. Rarely having anywhere in particular to go, with all his life to get there, this is not surprising. But if he sees you are thirsty he will shorten the distance to the nearest water rather than see you downcast by being told the bitter truth. Thus, if he says there is a water-hole one hour’s march away, you would be wise to reckon that it is at least six hours.
Cont’d…../
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- 2b –
The next important thing to remember is: an Arab will take any amount of punishment without a murmur. If he knows the punishment is deserved he will expect it, and bear no malice; in fact, hard though it is to believe, if he does not receive the punishment he knows is warranted he may feel insulted, and hate you for it. He does not regard this as leniency on your part, for leniency is something he does not understand. To him it is weakness, and once an Arab thinks you are weak he has no further use for you. No, he takes the view that you think so poorly of him that he is no worth punishing. This is “loss of face” and to lose face in the Orient is the most frightful thing that can happen to a man. For this reason never try to be funny at the expense of an Arab. Above all things, never hold one up to redicule. [sic] Hit him if you will, and he will get up smiling; but to make an Arab look foolish in front of his people is to make a deadly enemy. The next point is manual labour. The true Arab has a rooted objection to anything in the nature of work. Arabs who work for cultivators of the soil or fishermen, for example, are looked upon as the scum of the earth by the desert Arabs, who consider that the only honourable calling in life (apart from fighting) is the breeding of camels. They even regard breeders of goats and sheep as people far down the social scale. Work is a low and degrading business, for the Arab cannot conceive of anybody working unless compelled to do so by utter poverty. In the Middle East a white man who carries his own bag or digs his own garden at once loses face. He sinks at once to the very dregs, and is treated accordingly. No Arab could believe that a man goes for a walk, or digs in his garden, because he never likes that sort of thing.
Nevertheless, the Arab can be a very lovable character. I once had a batman who was a liar, a thief and a rogue; a more plausible rascal never lived, yet I couldn’t help liking him. Arabs affect you like that. We need not say much about religion. The Arab has his own religion; he takes it very seriously, and expects you to respect it. It would be in the worst possible taste not to respect it.
In my experience a white man has nothing to fear from any Arab wherever he may meet him. If you have a forced landing, or are stuck somewhere in a car, you will find his behaviour exemplary. He will be polite, and do his utmost to help you. This is the ancient law of the wilderness, where help and hospitality are offered automatically. In such circumstances an Arab will rarely steal anything. He might “borrow” something out of your tent because he knows it will not seriously inconvenience you; but he would not take anything if he found you in a bad way, stranded somewhere. Nor does a desert Arab expect a tip for his assistance. The town Arab is different.
As a worker the Arab is a failure, often a fool. It may take ten Arabs to lift a case that two white men could handle, because Arabs have no idea of team-work. Each man lifts when he feels like it. The white man who one day persuades ten Arabs to lift together will have performed a miracle.
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- 1c –
[underlined] THE MIDDLE EAST [/underlined]
Before proceeding to notes on the various countries which lie within the active zones of the Middle East, it should be realised that everything possible has been done for the welfare and comfort of personnel proceeding there.
In the established bases all medical protection has been provided. There are comforts that you will perhaps be surprised to see. For instance, billets, food, recreation, rest and amusement are all good.
At advanced bases, comfort is naturally less; but even there it is probably better than the old campaigner will expect.
The following detailed notes are intended as an introduction to countries with people whose ways and speech, whose outlook on the world at large, differ considerably from ours.
Palestine, because of its religious significance, has long been a battle ground. It has been a battle ground for much longer because of its geographical significance.
It makes contact with Syria, Trans-Jordan and Egypt, and consists of an irregular strip of country which rises gently by foothills from the sea to the hard core of higher ground (from Nablus to Beersheba) and slopes down again to the boundary, which runs almost due south through the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba.
The Coastal Plain varies greatly in width, diminishing to a mile or two at Acre, nothing at Mount Carmel and steadily widening along the coast to Jaffa, through to Gaza to Egypt.
This coastal region has figured in history as one of the great military roads for the invaders, who swept down through Syria, by Mount Carmel and along the plain of Sharon to the south.
Palestine has also its desert region, stretching south of a line roughly drawn from Gaza to Beersheba and terminating at Rafa, near the Egyptian border, where the Sinai desert begins.
After Biblical times, Rome held power, disturbed by revolt until final subjugation in about 135 A.D. Rome governed Palestine for about 300 years. On the division of the Roman Empire, Palestine fell to the Byzantine rulers. Who were overthrown in the seventh century by the Arabs, on the upward surge of Muhammedan [sic] expansion.
Cont’d…../
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- 2c –
Until the middle of the eighth century it was ruled from Damascus.
The Crusades began towards the end of the eleventh century, with a religious backing to political and mercantile adventure, and had fluctuating fortune until the early part of the thirteenth century. Then Turkey took over. The Turks of that period were expansionists, and although there was schism, they contrived to get a very strong hold on much of the Mediterranean.
Thereafter the history of Palestine follows to some extent the history of Egypt, with Napoleon playing a considerable part at about the end of the eighteenth century.
The British mandate, following the brilliant campaign of 1917, saw the end of the Turkish period.
It also saw the revival of the ‘national home’ movement for the Jewish people who had clung to the idea since their dispossession by the Romans.
Lord Balfour pronounced himself in favour of the movement, and a considerable migration followed. The executive body (Palestine Zionist Executive) derives its funds from Jewish people throughout the world. Much has been done; but there is still a considerable body of antagonistic Arabs who do not look with favour on the transfer of their lands, either by sale or otherwise.
The friction that has persisted for the last twenty years on this ground has not disappeared. Population figures show a total of 1,435,285 of whom 900,250 are Muhammedans, [sic] 411,222 Jews and the 111,974 Christians. The prevailing language is Arabic, and many of the Jews in Palestine are of relatively recent migration.
The Arabs include a considerable percentage of nomads, who live in tents and move their flocks much as did the early peoples. Some are cave dwellers, and there is little association between tribes, many of which are merely small clusters of people, closely related.
This is not the place to enter into a discussion of the various religions, or the various shades of religion in the country; nor is it immediately necessary to discuss the complicated political situation. The best advice is to leave both alone, and by example of forbearance, with firm justice, to avoid adding to the fires that are certainly there, whether smouldering or in flame. Time may bring about a quiter [sic] period and skilled leadership reduce the difference to a good working basis.
As may be expected in a country of such contrasts, the flora and fauna are extremely varied. Tropical and subtropical flowers add colour to the landscape.
Cont’d…../
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The larger animals have disappeared or been reduced in number by the introduction of the sporting rifle, so that the remnants are now protected, and the shooting laws are moderately strict. They should be referred to on the spot.
Palestine is on the migration route of many birds familiar to us, and the bird population is constantly changing. Few birds are really resident, but nearly all the migratory birds will be seen there, on their journey south or north according to the season.
Many survivals will be observed in the agricultural life, such as sowing the seeds by hand, harvesting with the sickle and treading out the grain on the threshing floor. These practices persist in the small farms of almost all districts in this part of the Mediterranean.
But, although there are survivals from the past, it does not necessarily follow that no modern ideas have percolated.
Political stresses have made their inroads. The Arabs and the Jews have absorbed many ideas; not all well founded, but many leading to a certain violence of expression. Beware of them.
Other modern ideas have taken hold: there is an advance in fruit farming, prospecting for minerals (including oil), education and culture.
Tact will be strained sometimes. It is not the task of service personnel to decide on the various rights of majorities or minorities. It is, however, the task of personnel to push the war effort forward. That is the first job; interest, minor and major researches into the great history and archeological [sic] remains can only be secondary. But, in the leisure moments, when they come, there is a great deal to be seen and learned. Just as in the last war many people went to Palestine and Trans-Jordan and came back with a new and personal interpretation and understanding of age-old truths, so now it will happen again. Any man who is willing to keep an open mind and a kindly spirit will benefit from the mission on which he is sent.
[underlined] Climate. [/underlined] There is an extreme difference between maximum and minimum temperatures according to seasons. The differences in one day are equally marked. It may be freezing at night and roughly 75 degrees (Fahrenheit) by day in winter in certain parts.
According to the Bible a young man slew a lion on a snowy day. That is neither a miracle not necessarily unusual 9except [sic] that lions are now scarce). In the vicinity of Jerusalem there is snow often enough in winter. The city has been snowbound for days.
Cont’d…../
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- 4c –
Summer can be hot.
During the winter months such clothing as is worn in England at the same period is right; stout underwear and overcoats. In summer, semitropical (or even tropical kit) should be worn with a little extra clothing after the sun goes down.
The winter months are either rainy or snowy. Spring is slow, but from May to October there is constant fair weather.
Generally, the precautions to be taken are the same as for Egypt; beware of flies and mosquitoes, drink no defiled water. Take no chances with dogs. Approximately 12,000 animals were killed in one year in a campaign against rabies.
The Muhammedan [sic] Calendar will be a little perplexing, but does not enter into commercial affairs. It is a calendar dominated by the moon (as ours is by the sun) and is divided into twelve lunar months, so that the religious calendar moves on more swiftly.
The Financial calendar is according to the sun, as is the Hebrew calendar.
The dates are unlikely to worry any service personnel, but the differences may be noted as a matter of interest.
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[inserted] [10 Piastres Lebanese Note] [/inserted]
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- 29 –
During our first stop I changed my money into millions (1000 to the £1 sterling) at one of the money-change stalls on the station, of course, we lost a small percentage on the transaction which the fellow kept for changing it for us.
Early that afternoon we started travelling through Palestine. The country is very much the same as Egypt with regard to the living conditions. The most select town in the country is Tel-Aviv. Around the costal [sic] plain the ground was well irrigated and the sand disappears and the green trees, waving palms and fig trees and orchards of orange and lemon trees loaded with fruit and tangerine groves appear.
Whilst playing a game of cards in our laps in the candle-light the train pulled up with a jerk in Gaza railway station. Cards flew everywhere, mess-tins, knives, forks and spoons appeared from nowhere. Some of the chaps who were sleeping arose with a dozed half sleepy expression on their faces wondering what the trouble and row was about. Then they too would rummage through their kit for their eating utensils and in a few moments not a sole [sic] would be left in the carriage. Everyone was stampeding towards the platform in the dark. It was a wonder that none got hurt, what with the falling out of the windows and tripping over railway lines etc. We received such a small meal at this stop that I had to buy a pile of sandwiches to fill up the empty spaces in my tummy at the railway canteen.
It was 10.30 p.m. by the time we drew out of Gaza continuing on our trip. I soon started to try and find a space in which to sleep as I did not want to spend another night like the previous one. I chose the floor space between the seats which was just wide enough for me to lie on my side. It was a bit hard on my hip bone as the floor was not smooth as a series of wooden strips about 3” apart ran accross [sic] it and it was chilly lying there with just a greatcoat over me and if I had tried to find my bed roll I should have had to disturb at least a dozen other chaps. Also as they were only 4’ 0” long I could not bend myself at all and the extra two foot of me stuck out in the passage-way with my head and shoulders resting on my bumpy kit bag packed with tin hats etc., and to crown it all above me two other fellows were sleeping with their legs on one seat and their bodies on the other one. You can guess how I felt not being able to move, getting cramp etc. I had just dozed off when I was awoken by the train coming to a halt with a jolt and found myself half suffocated and gasping for breath through lack of air, after that every so often I had to ease myself up a little more into the open. Then every so often someone would climb over my head or step on my face when climbing over the kit to get to the lavatory. Eventually I did get fully off to sleep and the next thing I knew was of being awakened by everyone scrambling about in the dark and as the train was at a stand-still I immediately grabbed for my mess tin etc., only to be told that we were changing trains there.
Cont’d…../
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So, in a semi-stupor, by the aid of matches, I gathered all my kit together (God only know’s how I found [deleted] them [/deleted] [inserted] IT [/inserted] all) and began to evacuate same and myself through the carriage window. It was then pitch dark and 3 a.m. in the morning. My next step was to put my kit in one of the 10 tonne cattle trucks that were stationed on the next rail alongside our train. We did not wait to be told where to go, we just piled in the near [deleted] side [/deleted] [inserted] EST [/inserted] truck. There were about 20 of us in the one that I scrambled aboard. It was every man for himself and after grabbing myself a bed space, I went along to one of the station building’s where meals were being dished out and it was there that I found out we were at Haifa North. I spent the rest of the night in comparative comfort, except for a draught coming in from where the sliding door would not close properly. I could not even move [deleted] to [/deleted] [inserted] AND REALLY [/inserted] stretch my legs full length without kicking somebody on the head. The floor, which was made of wooden sleepers was smooth.
When I awoke next morning we were travelling along beside the deep blue water of the sea, with its golden sandy beach leading up from the waters edge to the railway track and to the other side of us were more fruit groves along with tiny native villages scattered about the green and rocky hills which reached up to a height of some 1,500’. We were also nearing the border line between Palestine and the Lebanese States and at 10.30 a.m. we pulled into Beruit [sic] which is their capital, which shortly before had been the scene of many riots. It was here that I had breakfast. I should have said breakfasts which is more accurate and I also bought some egg rolls from a stall nearby the station. I managed to have a hurried wash beneath a water pump before we moved off once more.
As the following part of our journey was to be mostly uphill our train was split into two halves. I think I enjoyed this stage of the trip most of all. As we drew out from Beruit, [sic] banana plantations were to be seen and hardly anything else. There were millions of plants each laden with thousands of bananas. At one point the train slowed down so out from the truck I jumped armed with a knife and made a dash to the nearest plants. I had only covered a little over half the distance to them when I heard a blast from the train’s whistle that told me that it was on the move again. As I had got so far [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] I [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] stopped at the plants long enough to enable me to slash off [inserted] CONTINUED MY DASH AWAY [/inserted] a few bananas with my knife before making my sprint back to the train. When I started the train was a good way from me travelling at a good speed and there was I running along the track with my hands full of bananas. I was just about on my last legs and gasping for breath when arms stretched out towards me and I was hauled into the truck landing on my face. All my trouble was in vain, as the bananas were not quite ripe and tasted like a cucumber. During the rest of the trip the train stopped at posts stationed at every few miles along the line. At each post the driver received information that the next station of the line was clear.
Cont’d…../
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We were still travelling by the sea around many beautiful bays that would make natural harbours, if ever needed, also passes cut in the rocks. Later on that day we were passing by rugged, rocky mountains situated a little inland which rose in parts to approx. 5,000 ft. and most of their peaks were covered in snow. Next we came to the Bay of Tripoli and at dusk we drew into Tripoli railway station where dinner was consumed at 6.0 p.m. in a nearby Army Camp. We had a stop here of over three hours, so during that time I ventured a little way away from the station, but I only came accross [sic] a few dingy fruit stalls lit up by little oil lamps. At one of them I bought a supply of oranges, tangerines and bananas, but I thought it unwise to venture any further in the dark.
The front half of the train had arrived at Tripoli two hours before us. As the time drew near for us to leave I started to look for my truck. At first I could not even find the train and when I did come accross [sic] it I could not find my truck in the darkness. The two halves of the train had now been joined together and all the truck positions had been altered. There were at least four trains in the station at the [deleted] town [/deleted] [inserted] TIME [/inserted] and they all looked alike in the dark, and the truck that we cam in on was empty.
After walking up and down the 40 odd trucks four times, looking in each of them, I at last discovered the one I was travelling in a little way out of the station. It had not been shunted on to the train.
As soon as we moved off at 8.30 p.m. I lay down on my blankets and the next thing I remember was waking up for tea in Hormes in Syria at 4.30 a.m.
When daylight arrived we were travelling in the wilds. Everywhere there was flat and stony, rocky, ground. The area’s around the few villages that comprised of a series of stone eskimo huts had been ploughed where it was not rocky by an ox pulling some queer implement held by a native which makes a single furrow as it goes along. It was a wonder that anything grew in such a desolate spot. There were many hawks to be seen with wing spans anything up to 5’ 0”.
As mid-day neared we could see more white topped mountains and at 12.30 p.m. we reached our destination which was Alleppo. [sic] In the station we could see waggons loaded with guns, tanks, supplies etc., bound for Turkey and trains leaving for Baghdad, the capital of Persia.
After detraining we were taken by lorry for a 30 mile ride in a slightly North Westerly direction along a road full of hair pin bends which led through very open rocky country.
As we left the town of Alleppo [sic] behind us the road led upward and we could look down and get a birds eye view of the town, which from there, looked very modern with its mass of white buildings.
Cont’d…../
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The population of the town is approximately 1/2 million and it is the gateway to Turkey, the border of which is 20 miles to the North. Alleppo [sic] is a very important town as it is the nearest one to Turkey and it was especially important during the war time as Turkey was neutral and next to her is Bulgaria which was enemy territory and the frontier between Turkey and Syria is only a marked line without any defences on either side whatsoever and is only patrolled by French Guards stationed at posts every few miles. Therefore, it was very easy for enemy spies to slip accross [sic] the border into Syria and so to any part of the Middle East. Naturally, it worked both ways as we sent Agents through neutral Turkey into Bulgaria so to anywhere in the Balkan countries.
At that time this was the only spot in the world where we had direct contact by land with each other. Alleppo, [sic] naturally, became a spy centre and whilst we were there at least 4 were shot to my knowledge. Anyway our 30 mile ride took us to a spot called Affisse North, I do not know where it got its name from as there was only the aerodrome there stuck in a very bleak spot. There was only room for 16 aircraft which were dispersed around the taxying track which ran right around the runways, which were made of concrete. As we drove past these bays I caught sight for the first time, the Squadron’s aircraft which were 12 Spitfire fighters Mk 4 & 5 armed each with 2.20 mm cannons and 4 machine guns, all of which were situated in the wings.
We were put into and lived in tents erected in little stone compounds about 3’ 6” high and on a concrete base as follows:
Tent on concrete floor [symbol]
Stone wall [symbol]
[drawing of stone compound]
Each tent and compound was situated near to an aircraft bay. So that we were able to just pop out of the tent and be at work. The drome had been built for 3 years and had not been occupied since, it was used against our troops by the French during the Syrian Campaign. So you can guess how damp our concrete floor was after being exposed to all weathers since that time. There was still French bombs scattered about the drome when we arrived there. We were the only Squadron at Affisse North. The other Spitfires of the Wing were stationed on other aerodromes around Alleppo [sic] and along the Turkish border. The only people on our aerodrome when we arrived were the advanced party that had been flown there by transport planes all the way from Italy and a small detachment of R.A.F. Regiment airmen who acted as aerodrome defence.
By the time we had settled down in our little pens it had become very dark and cold and we had no lights whatsoever and it was Christmas Eve. The R.A.F. Regiment possessed a small canteen to which I went to in the evening. I passed time by playing a few games of cards and we all sung carols to the accompaniment of an accordian [sic] played by one of the airmen.
Cont’d…../
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I had intended to go to the midnight carol service that was to be held that night, but by 8.30 p.m. I was feeling so cold and miserable that I walked the mile back to my tent and crawled into bed. I can safely say that this Christmas Eve was the worst night that I have ever spent in my life. I could not get to sleep or keep warm. The concrete floor was not at all comfortable and was very damp and the wind was howling across the open bleak rocky land and our pen only broke the wind slightly. I only had my ground sheet and one blanket beneath me and one on top. I was very glad when daylight dawned on Christmas morning after what seemed an endless night. All I found in my socks that Santa had left me were two lumps of solid ice (my feet).
Another thing that I did not like about the place was the distance between my tent and the cook-house. I had to walk at least six miles a day for meals, unless we were lucky enough to catch a lorry going up that way along the taxying track. Some of the fellows who lived in the tents near the disposal bays at the other end of the taxying track on the other side of the drome had at least 12 miles to go each day for meals. Most of them never ventured out in the cold morning wind and severe frost to go to breakfast.
On that first morning I first wrote a letter and then we paid [deleted] several [/deleted] [inserted] SOCIAL [/inserted] calls on some of the other chaps. At 12 noon a waggon came round the taxying track stopping in turn at each pen and picked up its inhabitants [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] for dinner. [inserted] [symbol] AND TOOK US ALONG TO THE COOKHOUSE TENT [/inserted] We were waited on throughout the meal by the officers of the Squadron. It consisted of the following; Turkey, Pork, baked Potatoes, Stuffing, Apple Sauce etc., Christmas pudding and Custard. Oranges, Nuts and Bottles of Beer, with second helpings of anything if you wanted it. I managed to pick the remains of a complete turkey and two lots of pudding as extras. Everyone turned out in the afternoon to watch the football match between the Squadron team and the R.A.F. Regiment. Despite our lusty words of encouragement, our team lost the game. We all had the following day off as well and on the day after that I joined “B” Flight.
For the first few days I did not do much except watch the other fellows working on the engines and starting the aircraft etc. As soon as I got used to the way of things I was given my first aircraft. It’s letters were LE-Y LE., being the Squadron’s code markings. It was a Spitfire MK. 5.
The only flights done during those weeks were training trips. Each day a different Squadron did stand-by in case enemy aircraft appeared in the vicinity. Every fourth day from dawn to dusk we had to stand by our aircraft at the end of the run-way in readiness for a quick take-off. We took it in turns of about 3 hours each to do the duty and the pilots did the same. Luckily dusk arrived very early in the afternoon at that time of the year. We had plenty of time to ourselves as on most days we finished work between 4 and 4.30 p.m. and on some afternoons we never had to go in at all.
Cont’d…../
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The football team played quite a few games against the local service units and we used to hold inter-section games. For the help of my readers who are not familiar with the R.A.F. I have drawn out a little plan of how [deleted] a bus [/deleted] [inserted] OUR [/inserted] Squadron was split up.
[underlined] Squadron Commander [/underlined] Sqdn. Ldr. M.C.D. Bodington D.F.C. D.F.M
Adjutant
Sqdn Etchelon
Warrant Officer. – Discip Office. – Orderly Room. – Signals Sect. – Parachute Sect. – General Duties. – Stores. – Pay Accounts.
Inspection Flight. – Engr. Officer. – [underlined] As “B” Flight. [/underlined]
“A” Flight – As “B” Flight.
“B” Flight. – Flight Sgt. – N.C.O’s. – Fitters. – Riggers. – Instruments. – Wireless. – Electricians. Armourers (Tech. Trades)
Motor Transport Section.
Medical Officer.
The only entertainment that we ever had on the station was the mobile cinema that paid us a visit about once every ten days, which showed a film that we had generally seen years before. By then I was feeling much happier as we had been issued out with three extra blankets, a felt lined leather jerkin, a black mackintosh for when it rained and gum-boots to enable us to plough through the mud. It was quite cosy and homely in our tent after it was installed with electric lights and a Valor stove. One did not feel like venturing, far during those cold evenings if we did walk up to the canteen it was to listen to the wireless there. The waterproof equipment certainly came in handy during the times that it teemed with rain and left the ground a sea of red mud. The soil in the area was quite deep red in colour and it was not at all rocky.
Cont’d…../
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Ten miles away to the North East a range of snow topped mountains were to be seen along with the peaks of a second range situated behind the first. This second range of mountains were on Turkish soil, the rest of the surrounding country consisted of rocky hills.
I remember on one occasion during a terrific storm we all had to get out of bed during the night and hang on to the poles of the tent otherwise the wind would have lifted it up and away in the air. Another unpleasant thing that happened quite often was whilst patrolling on guard during the dead of the night, when all was silent except for the rustling of the tall weeds that covered the surrounding ground, all of a sudden and without warning a jackal would start howling, and a few moments later an answering howl would ensue from a nearby relation. As sound travels so far in the open, it appears that they are only a dozen or so yards away from you and in the dark the howl made your skin creep and would make you go cold all over. Usually jackals run away from you during the daytime. One night jackals cum wolves that must have been on the point of starvation attacked a nearby village and killed 4 natives. In my opinion, the natives lived in much better conditions in Syria than either Palestine or Egypt. I by far preferred the look of those stone or mud eskimo huts to the huts of bits of tin, tree branches and palm tree leaves etc. The majority of the Syrian huts were of mud which had been compressed into square bricks and left out in the sun to dry solid before being put together.
In other ways the kind of living conditions were the same as everywhere else in the Middle East, dressed in smelly rags etc. The currency in Syria was pesetas, 100 to the Syrian £1 which is worth 2/3d in England. It was very confusing at first as in Egypt we were used to the peseta equaling [sic] 2 1/2d and in Syria the peseta equaled [sic] just over a farthing. It seemed strang [sic] being able to draw £15. per week but in actual fact was worth only 33/9d. there are no coins at all as everything is paid for with notes. Our issue of cigarettes whilst in the country were the world famous “V’s” that tasted like camel manure. In our tent each week we would put them into a pool and traded the cigarettes for eggs with the local Arabs. Every morning we used to cook the eggs and fry bread in a mess tin on top of our valor stove. Our cooking fat consisted of margarine smuggled from the cookhouse table and to obtain the bread we used to ask for an extra slice at each meal time. I could be seen walking back to my tent with a suspicious bulge under my battle dress tunic. If it was very cold of if we arose too late and did not have time to walk to the cookhouse and back before worktime, we cooked more eggs for ourselves.
Once a week we could go on a day trip into Aleppo if we wanted to and quite often I took advantage of this opportunity. As I have said before about 60% of the town is comprised of modern buildings and the rest were of the usual native shambles of dirty dwelling houses of stone and narrow alleyways. Nearly every passageway is alike and it is easy to lose oneself as I did on one occasion and it took me well over an hour to get out of the maze and during that time I did not see another Englishman or even a European. At times I feared that someone would jump out of one of the many dark places at me with a knife in their hand.
Cont’d…../
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It would have been easy to have robbed me as it would not have any use to shout for help in that area. In the main few streets there was a very good shopping centre where there was much more to buy than there was in Algiers although the prices were just as high. I expect things will be changed now that the war is over. As I reached the cosmopolitan market in the square of Aleppo, I negotiated a difficult passage, forever being pestered by crowds of would be guides, shoe shine boys etc., and on through into the main road jostling along amongst the mixed crowd of Arabs, Jews, French civilians, British and Allied soldiers and airmen. In the back streets and alleyways native music ensued forth from tiny dirty half hidden shops, while dirty ragged hawkers and equally dirty foreign shopkeepers jabber away in broken English both eager and anxious that you should purchase all kinds of souvenirs for the people at home. Some of the goods had probably been exported from Britain, but for all this, it was very interesting viewing the genuine Eastern work.
The town possessed six cinemas where English speaking films were shown. It was very queer to see translations in French, Arabic and Greek on a small screen either side of the main one. I used to visit either the Y.M.C.A. or NAAFI for meals when I was in the town. I did not like the look of the native restaurants and I like to know what I am eating.
During one week whilst at Affisse I had five innoculations. [sic] My arm felt like a pricked sausage by the time the M.O. had finished with it. I will now give you a rough idea of the description of work I was doing.
Generally, the crews are made up as follows:
1) Pilots and one each of the following trades to each aircraft:
Fitter, rigger, armourer, electrician, wireless and one oxygen man to every four aircraft.
My first job on reaching the plane each morning was to take off the engine and cockpit covers and then fetch an electric trolley from one of the other disposal bays and plug it into my aircraft and then clear any stones away from under the propeller so that it will not get damaged, and see that there is nothing directly behind the aircraft, I would then climb into the cockpit:
a) Put on the brakes and see that:
b) Switches are off.
c) Undercarriage light reads down.
d) See that gun firing switch is in the off position.
e) Switch petrol on.
f) Flap in up position.
g) Open throttle lever open 1/4".
h) Prop lever is in increase revs position.
i) Close air intake shutter.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
[inserted] 36 (A) [/inserted]
[underlined] ALEPPO.
DECEMBER – 1943 [/underlined]
[head and shoulders photograph of R. Barrett]
[photograph of four airmen, one sitting on a mule]
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j) See that Boot and Oil pressure gauges read Nil.
k) Pull control stick right back and keep the rudder control level and then shout “All Clear” to the fellow out at the starter trolley under the wing and if no one is in the way and everything is O.K. he will reply “All Clear”. I would then prime the engine with petrol as required and switch on the magnets and then shout out “Contact” and press the starter buttons and the other fellow presses the button on the trolley.
When the engine starts the other fellow would take out the plug and I would run the engine at low revs for 1/2 a minute, then I would note the oil pressure and see that it is not too high and then open the throttle until the engine is running at 1200 r.p.m. and when the Coolant Temperature reached 600 Centigrade and the oil is 150C. I open throttle wider and run the engine at 1600 r.p.m. and check each magnetos [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] [underlined] ADD [/underlined] [symbol] IN TURN & TEST THE SUPERCHARGER, IF ALL WAS WELL, I THROTTLED BACK & PULLED THE SLOW RUNNING CUT OUT & WHEN THE SINGING STOPPED I SWITCHED OFF THE MAGNETOS. [/inserted] and the petrol and then I would undo the cowlings and check the engine itself all over to see if anything was wrong.
All of what I have written is called a “Daily Inspection” and it had to be signed for every day. I also had to sign after my plane had flown each time to say that the petrol, oil and coolant tanks were full.
When the D.I. had been signed for the aircraft was put service-able to fly the following 24 hours when my signature expired [deleted] and [/deleted] another inspection [inserted] WAS [/inserted] carried out.
When the pilot came along to take off I had to put his parachute and rubber dinghy into the aircraft and then strap the pilot into the parachute harness and then into the aircraft harness, then close the cockpit door and turn the oxygen supply on before plugging in and pressing the starter button on the starter trolley. Then on the engine starting I would pull the trolley away and jump onto the wing and direct the pilot whilst taxying from the dispersal point to the end of the runway where I would jump off the wing and take off the [deleted] petrol [/deleted] [inserted] PITOT [/inserted] head cover. If this was forgotten, the pilot would not be able to tell his correct speed in the air and would most probably crash on landing through coming in at the wrong speed.
[inserted] I WOULD THEN CRAWL UNDER THE WING AND CARRY OUT A LAST CHECK OF THE AIRCRAFT TYRES. TAKING CARE TO KEEP CLEAR OF THE PROPELLER. IF ALL WAS WELL I WOULD [indecipherable word] AT THE WING TIP & GIVE THE PILOT THE THUMBS UP SIGN.
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I remember one day when I was not going to the runway with the aircraft that I was seeing off, I let it go out of the bay with the pitot head cover on, then I suddenly remembered it. You ought to have seen me running after the plane. All that you would have seen would have been a cloud of dust. I do not think that I have ever run faster in my life. I reached the plane just as it was swinging out onto the runway to take off. After attracting the pilot’s attention I whisked off the cover. I then had to sit down for the next 1/2 hour to enable me to regain my breath. Luckily for me I had a decent pilot or I would have been up before the C.O. the next morning.
When the aircraft returned and was circling the drome before landing, I would go down the runway and meet my aircraft put on the pitot head cover and guide it back into it’s bay whilst sitting on the wing. After unstrapping the pilot the aircraft had to be refuelled.
Of course there were lots of other things I had to do when the engine went wrong during inspections etc., but I will not bore you with details of oil, petrol and coolant leaks, plug changes after every 10 hours flying etc.
After every 20 hours flying the aircraft went into the Inspection flight where it received a minor overhaul. Spare time was spent on polishing and cleaning the aircraft to make it glisten in the sun.
During the morning of the 26th January, one of the A flight Aircraft landed short of the runway and went up on it’s nose. Luckily the pilot was unhurt but the plane was a write-off. That same afternoon I was waiting to see my plane in and watched it make a perfect landing. Then all of a sudden it seemed to skid off the runway and then it’s tail came up in the air and hovered there for a few seconds before it turned right over on it’s back. Once again I did the flying hare trick down the runway hoping all the time that the aircraft would not catch fire, but before I had gone halfway the crash tender sped past me and by the time I reached the crash the tender crew were on the job of smashing the perspect [sic] hood to get the pilot out who was still strapped into the cockpit upside down. The nose of the plane I noticed had burrowed itself into the ground. After lifting up one wing and the tail together the pilot was able to crawl out and the first thing that he said “what a so and so position to be in.” Luckily he was extra small and received no injuries whatsoever. Of course, the plane was another write-off. So ended the life of my first Spitfire, and the next day I had to work on another one.
Cont’d…../
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On the 3rd of February I started on a four day course on Field Training, consisting of firing on the range with a Sten gun and rifle, learning firing orders, Field signals and formation, unarmed combat tactics, hand grenade throwing etc. It made a change from the usual routine and really [inserted] IT WAS [/inserted] a good scrounge.
This will give you some idea of what it is like sitting on the tail of a Spitfire when it is being run-up. After every [inserted] ENGINE [/inserted] repair or plug change the aircraft had to be run up to its fullest revs, which was 3000 r.p.m. and while this is being done at least 4 men are needed on the tail to stop it coming up into the air and the nose and propeller from touching the ground.
Anyway one day I was lying across the tail, resting on my chest and I had my spectacles buttoned up in my battledress pocket. As the throttle was opened it felt as if a giant hand was clutching my clothing and pulling and pulling. It took all my strength to hang on, all of a sudden I saw a flash and realised that the slip stream had got under me and had opened my breast pocket and the suction had pulled my specs out and swept them away. After a big search by us all after the engine had stopped someone found my specs unharmed at least 30 yards away from the aircraft tail.
During the third week in February I was due to go on six days leave to a lumber camp up in the mountains and live in a big log hut and go wild bore [sic] shooting and do what I liked for those six days or go on leave to Beruit [sic] for 6 days. I chose the lumber camp, but as it turned out I went to neither.
On the 13th February all of the aircraft left Affisi and flew to Palestine. I spent the rest of that day and the next packing my kit and packing and loading the Squadron’s equipment onto lorries. I expect everyone remembers that round about this time there were all sorts of conflicting reports and a lot of mystery concerning Turkey. Then it was suddenly announced by the Government that the Allies had stopped sending supplies to the country. Well, here is the story behind that announcement. Turkey was trying to play a two way game by getting supplies from both the Germans and the Allies. She said that if we sent her enough equipment she would come into the war on our side which would have helped Britain immensely at that time. We had sent her substantial supplies when she said that the equipment that we were sending her was not modern enough. I know from a good source that the Army never sent their latest weapons as they guessed the game that Turkey might be playing.
Cont’d…../
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Our Wing 322 or the Invasion Wing as it was known was one of the 5 fighters wings that operated on the Italian Front and it was specially withdrawn out of the battle and sent to Syria. It stands to reason that a famous wing engaged against the enemy on the only front that we had against Germany at the time is not withdrawn for nothing.
Every day we saw big guns and army units passing the drome moving up towards the border
.When Turkey saw that we were sending out our best fighter and army equipment with the personnel to look after it, she got cold feet and backed out of the bargain. She thought she was going to get all the latest war weapons for herself at our expense. When it was definite that she would not participate in the war, minor supplies were stopped and our H.Q. that went into Turkey in civilian clothes was recalled and our movement order came through.
Now to continue. After watching a final football match between our Squadron and the R.A.F. Regiment we loaded our kit onto waggons and left camp at 6.30 p.m. on our journey to Aleppo Station. On nearing our objective we found ourselves amongst a congestion of hundreds of vehicles. The sing-song we all held during the two hour hold up until it was our turn to unload must have awoken the whole neighbourhood. When we did finally unload the waggon it took us quite a while to sort our own kit out. As soon as I had gathered all my belongings together I staggered onto the platform dropping bits of kit every few yards until I had reached the cattle truck that I was to travel in. After having a sandwich and a cup of tea which was being served to everyone on the platform we settled down to try and sleep.
We pulled out at midnight. At the time I was lying near the door and was still awake and I could not stretch my legs without getting them entangled with somebody else’s. I had a lumpy big pack, but what with the hard floor, the draughts and being trampled on by chaps trying to reach the door during the night I more or less got used to it [inserted] ON THIS RETURN TRIP [/inserted] as it did not bother me [deleted] on our return trip. [/deleted] [inserted] DURING THIS JOURNEY TO SYRIA. [/inserted]
By 10 a.m. the following morning we had reached Hormes, where we had breakfast. I managed to break my fast twice. I also bought 13 bananas cheap on the platform to eat during that day which I spent reading a book, playing cards, sleeping and watching the scenery. One consolation on doing the trip a second time was that we passed the scenery during the day [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [deleted] and also during the nighttime. [sic] [/deleted] At 6.0 p.m. that evening we reached Tripoli where we could see all the oil plant installations and the ending of the pipe lines that ran all the way from Iraq. It was here that we had to change trains back to the Egyptian State Railways and their hard narrow wooden seated carriages. Whilst the other fellows were crammed in the doorways of the carriages I dashed from the cattle truck and through the
[inserted] [symbol] WHICH WE HAD PREVIOUSLY PASSED DURING THE HOURS OF DARKNESS & VISA VERSA. [/inserted]
Cont’d…../
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window of a coach where I managed to grab a seat. After stowing my kit on the seat and under it, on the rack and in the gangway, I went back onto the platform for something to eat and then for a stroll along the dark road leading from the station. I walked about 200 yards and bought 2 1/2 lbs of oranges, 2 1/2 lbs of tangerines and 2 1/2 lbs of bananas, whilst walking that short distance I must have looked like a bag of fruit as I made my way back to the carriage as fruit stuck out from each of my pockets and everytime I picked up a tangerine that had fallen out of my battle-dress tunic, another one would slip through to the ground.
I once again made a valiant effort to sleep on those terrible seats but it was no good. I was awake at 1.0 a.m. when we drew into Beruit [sic] Station. The Squadron’s cooks who had gone on earlier in the first part of the train had tea ready waiting for us, so that started another rummage through the kit for our mugs and on putting them out of the window into the darkness they were immediately filled. I finally fell asleep that night on top of a pile of kit bags.
We had breakfast next morning at Haifa. Here I managed to be quick off the mark and I must have done the 100 yds sprint down the platform in 10 secs. I was sixth out of a thousand in the queue. I also managed to get a look in at a water tap and get a bit of a wash. We arrived at Gaza 3.30 p.m. where we had dinner and we crossed the Palestine/Egypt border at 5.30 p.m. with a sand storm beginning to blow up.
During out [sic] stops, if we felt hungry, we traded a packet of the famous “V” cigarettes for 10 oranges. By the end of the journey I think I must have looked like an orange. At 1.30 a.m. that night I did another fine sprint through the window for supper, the sandstorm was then at its height and I had to batter my way across to the barn where the meal was served. The sand would have cut my face if I had not put up my hand to protect it, as it was sweeping along with such force. Our supper consisted of a cup of tea and a little packet containing a sandwich, cake and a chocolate bar. After eating my packet I still felt so hungry, that I went out of the barn’s back door and back into the front one again and received another packet which I took back to the train. I expect you will think that I was very greedy but the fact remains that I was very hungry at the time. I also queued up in the sandstrom [sic] at an Arab stall which housed a money changer to change my last Syrian 2/6d into Egyptian pecetas. [sic].
By the time I arrived back inside the train everything was coated with sand and we were also breathing it. I distinctly remember that we moved for about 1/2 hour and then stopped for over an hour. It was impossible for me to get to sleep. All the carriage windows were shut tight, but still there was sand everywhere. It was beating on the windows and outside the wind howled for all it was worth. The next thing I remember was waking up in the morning and it was the reverse of the night before.
Cont’d…../
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Everything was deathly quiet and still as we travelled Southwards alongside the Suez Canel [sic] and for so far on either side were green fields of bamboo, and here and there was an Arab settlement or a water-well being worked by camels, mules, donkeys or an ox harnessed to a pole and by walking round and round in a circle they drew up the water from the ground which irrigated the surrounding land by running along in little channels dug in the ground. Often a big camel could be seen harnessed to a tiny mule and overhead on constant patrol were flights of storks which intermittently swooped down on unsuspecting insect victims, big hawks were doing the same, except that they swooped on and chose small birds as their prey.
At approx. 1.0 p.m. we drew into the suburbs of Cairo which consisted of the usual dirty, filthy habitations that must harbour all sorts of disease and their inhabitants were [underlined] all [/underlined] dressed in rags and looking as if they had last washed a year or so previously. As we reached the centre of the city the scene changed and became more like modern England. Masses of railway lines ran in all directions, new well designed buildings surrounded us and even the railway stations were more up to date than many English one’s. We stopped at one of these stations about 4 miles from the heart of the city and transferred our kit from the train onto lorries lined up and waiting on the platform. We were taken through the famous town of Heliopolis where Cleopatra’s needle, now standing on the Embankment in London originally came from [deleted] hundreds of years ago. [/deleted] But the Heliopolis of today is one mass of modern blocks of flats and impressive buildings, shops and cinemas etc., it is a film stars holiday resort these days.
A great attraction is the lovely race course situated on the edge of the town, also it’s swimming pool which is the biggest one in the Middle East. We passed the town’s large airport during our journey on the lorry to 22 P.T.C. (Personnel Transit Camp), Almaza which was a mile further along the road. Here we were housed in tents, needless to say they were erected on sand and when we arrived at the camp a minor sand storm was blowing but it soon abated. We spent the rest of that day making ourselves as comfortable as we could.
Next day (Feb. 18th) was a Red Letter day in our family history, as I knew that my brother Cyril was stationed somewhere in Cairo and I was very anxious to get out and try to find him. I finally succeeded by dinner-time in obtaining a pass that lasted until 1.15 a.m. on the following morning. I thumbed a lift from the camp gates on a lorry that was going into Heliopolis where I caught one of the fastest trams in the world. One could not call the wooden seats exactly comfortable to sit on, in each coach there is a separate compartment for women to travel in. Instead of using a bell as a starting signal, the conductor wearing their fez hat with a tassle attached blew a little horn which gave out a very peculiar sound. Tram fares were about the cheapest thing that there was in Cairo. The journey used to cost me 7/10ths of a peceta [sic] (1 3/4d) in return for the money I received a ticket covered in Arabic writing.
Cont’d…../
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For a time we travelled through the streets halting at regular stops until we reached the swimming pool, and the tram then went on to one of the railway tracks and gradually increased speed until we were travelling along as fast as a London Underground train, through the poor district and not stopping until we came to Cairo’s main station, the museum and then a little farther on we started to travel along the road once more, pass the famous Eastern night clubs and on into the centre of the city where the line comes to an end and where I descended from the tram.
Here is a brief description of one of the clubs at which I had a look at. It was named “Sweet Melody” the entrance of which was brilliantly lit with coloured electric light bulbs. I think I had to pay one and sixpence admission fee. On passing the pay desk I went along a corridor into the main hall which was approximately as big as a normal size cinema. The centre of the floor was used for dancing with any of the many hostesses that inhabited the hall and were seated with partners at tables set out around the edge of the floor. High up on a stage at the front of the hall an oriental band consisting of Arabs playing all sorts of queer looking musical instruments that certainly emitted peculiar sounds. The hall also contained two balconies that run in a half circle up above and were each divided into small cubicles with a small table at each. If you were a “sucker” (as the Americans would say) as soon as you stepped into the hall you would be grabbed by one of the girls that could not be truthfully called a beauty queen and taken to one of the cubicles or on to the floor to dance. At the end of the dance you would sit down at one of the tables and order a glass of beer for yourself and a glass of wine for the girl which incidentally would be coloured sweet water and both would cost you 6/6d. The girl has the drink and a commission on all that she makes you spend in the club. So as long as you like to throw your money away they will stay with you but immediately you stop they find some else [sic] who is silly enough to be taken in again. At 10.0 p.m. the caberet [sic] commenced and the artists comprised of girls clad in next to nothing doing the native [inserted] SEDUCTIVE [/inserted] dances to the tune of Arabic music. Well so much for night clubs. I will now get back to my story.
On descending the tram at its terminal I found that I might easily have been in the West End of London except for the native dress, Arabic writing and native boys pestering my life to have the privilege of giving me a shoe shine and the Arab wanting to act as my guide on a trip out to the Pyramids. Once I had shaken the latter two away I had time to look at my surroundings. I did not linger long as I only had one object in view that afternoon and that was to find my brother, so I immediately set about the task. At times during that afternoon I had to act something like a spy to acquire information. Just then I caught sight of two red capped army military policemen in the distance so I ran after them and I think that was the first and only time during my service that I ran [underlined] after [/underlined] the police, it was generally the other way round. When I caught up with them I asked if they would direct me to the Army Post Office as I thought that would be the best place to get information from. I followed their directions which led past the English Cathedral and
Cont’d…../
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on to a large building that faces the River Nile. I arrived at the back entrance and went in and showed the first person I saw [deleted] with [/deleted] [inserted] IN THE [/inserted] A.P.C, Cyril’s address and asked him if he “could tell me where it was to be located” to which he replied “we are not allowed to divulge the location of any unit during war time” I tried all sorts of arguments, but all he would say was that he was very sorry that he was unable to help me. I was not giving it up as easily as that so I nipped around quickly to the front entrance and went in but I received the same replies to my question as I did at the rear entrance. I came out of the building feeling very disappointed and not knowing where to try next. At that same moment an oldish Egyptian came out and said to me that he had heard my question and wondered if he could help me as he worked for the A.P.C. as a messenger so I showed him Cyril’s address. He then told me that he did not know exactly where it was but directed me to the area where he thought it might be, so I thanked him and set off once more feeling in better spirits. I managed to find the Polish Army H.Q. and many other H.Q’s, but not the British G.H.Q. After unsuccessfully exploring twenty or more roads, streets and avenues, I asked a British soldier coming along the road if he knew where G.H.Q. was and I was very pleased when he replied “I am just going there myself” so I fell into step with him until we reached a huge building surrounded with barbed wire entaglements. [sic]
I then went into the Enquiry Office and asked the receptionist where Weapons Technical Staff Department was to be found and the reply was “go down the road opposite the Enquiry Office and it is number 34 building left or right of that road, so off I went only to find the numbers jumped from 31 to 35. Both of these were Government Buildings and on enquiring at each none had ever heard of a No. 34 Building. I noticed quite a number of chaps coming along the road who served in the R.A.S.C. the same as Cyril, so I stopped at least twenty fellows and asked them if they knew where W.T.S. was getting a reply of “Sorry I do not” each time. I then trooped back to the Enquiry Office and told them that there was no number 34 in the road. The fellow checked up his file once more and said I should have [underlined] turned] [/underlined] left or right at the railway at the bottom of the road opposite. I then went back along the road and turned right at the railway line as directed. The corner building was No. 78 and the one next to it 77, so I went on in high spirits only to have my hopes dashed to the ground as No. 34 turned out to be a dirty tumbled down house in an Arab quarter. I then came to the conclusion that G.H.Q. were deliberately giving me wrong information, not wanting to disclose whereabouts similar to the A.P.O.
By then darkness was falling so feeling very dejected I retread my steps lost in thought and when I came out of my kind of trance I found myself to the left turn part of the road and outside another building No. 60 so I quickened by steps and finally breathlessly arrived at No. 34 and sure enough over the doorway hung a big board with Weapons Technical Staff painted on it. Up the entrance steps I went three at a time and saw in front of me a notice and read Staff/Sgt Major C.C. Barrett and an arrow.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
[two newspaper cartoons regarding the Cairo campaign]
[page break]
[underlined] CYRIL’S OFFICE CAIRO FEB 1944. [/underlined]
[photograph of R. Barrett’s brother Cyril sitting behind his desk]
[photograph of a Musky Bazaar in Cairo]
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I walked or rather ran in the direction that it pointed and found myself in my brother’s office and on that spot we held our first meeting for more than 3 years.
Cyril finished work straight away and after showing me the Department’s museum of captured enemy weapons we went out into the town and had a celebration dinner in a select restaurant. After talking over old times for an hour or so Cyril showed me around the main part of the town and we looked around the shops along Soliman Pasha the famous main street of Cairo.
The many roundabouts that I saw were called Midan’s in Egypt, and many beautiful cars and horse and carriages could be seen on the road every day. At 10.0 p.m. that evening Cyril saw me off at the tram terminal where I caught a tram back to Helleopolis, [sic] where if lucky, I would generally catch a taxi-cab to take me back to the camp gates. The more chaps that piled in the taxi, cheaper became the fare. So you can guess it was not always a comfortable ride but it was definitely better than having to walk 2 1/2 miles.
I only went to breakfast twice during my whole month’s stay at Almaza and on both occasions I was on guard the previous evening. We had a continuous guard over the Squadrons motor transport of 50 vehicles, most of which were loaded with equipment and one could not sleep very well in a cab with a steering wheel sticking in your back.
I used to arise at 8.45 a.m. and only then because we had to be on parade at 9.0 a.m. and a further reason for not going to breakfast was that the cookhouse was well over a mile away from our tent and it was hard going plodding through soft sand just for a bit of bacon and fried bread etc.
Situated midway between the cookhouse and our tent was the stone Y.M.C.A. building which was very comfy with its tea, recreation and writing rooms and at almost any time of the day one could obtain tea and cakes there. The Wing’s transport vehicles numbering at least 350 were lined up all around the building. There were lorries, trailers, jeeps, staff cars, cranes, motor cycles, power trailers, mobile cokkhouses [sci] etc.
On another day I met Cyril by arrangement outside Isavitches where we used to obtain lovely ice cream and rice puddings, which the shop was famous for. From there we caught a tram and had a sight-seeing tour around the town. We passed the King of Egypt’s Palace, and the lovely Opera House and visited the English Cathedral. Whilst we were there the choir made up of Service men and women were practising and their singing sounded very beautiful.
I also toured the famous and ancient Blue Mosque and the Kings Mosque which still shows the marks on its walls where cannon balls had hit when the building was stormed centuries ago. I also paid a visit with Cyril to the old Muskee [deleted] Bagmars [/deleted] [inserted] BAZAARS [/inserted] (the Petticoat Lane of the East) touring down narrow streets of
cont'd…../
[page break]
[underlined] PLAN DRAWN BY CYRIL SHOWING US WHERE TO MEET HIM FOR SECOND TIME IN CAIRO [/underlined]
[sketch drawing of street map]
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tiny shops and stalls. There were some good bargains to be had, if you have the knack of knocking down the shopkeepers price. They generally quoted a price three times the article’s real value to start off with. During this tour I saw many articles of fine workmanship. We also paid many visits to the Alemain Club, which was presented to the British Forces by the Egyptian people in remembrance of saving them from invasion by the Germans.
We saw many a good football match on the club’s football ground. The club is situated on an island in the centre of the Nile. Incidentally, it was on this island that Cyril used to live. Next door to the club was the large Cairo Gizra Horse Racing track. Nearby was the bridge where the King’s Boat House was to be seen moored to the bank of the Nile. This bridge (see page 448) connected the island with the mainland at Kasranil Barracks. There were also many other lovely house boats belonging to wealthy people to be seen along the banks of the Nile, a vast contrast to the ancient sailing boats and barges owned by the poor.
We also paid another visit to the zoo, which is another lovely spot in Cairo. It is built on the style of the London Zoo and is a bit larger and it is better set out also very much more modern. On yet another occasion I visited the Wax Works Museum, but this was nowhere near the standard of the ones to be seen in England. Of course, there were many other places we went to on various days which are hardly worth mentioning, such as roller skating rinks, painting exhibitions, cinemas etc. All of the cinemas in the city are modern and one or two are up to Leicester Sq., standard. Most of them possess a sliding roof so they can be converted into open air during the hot dry tropical summer nights. There were many service clubs in the city. I mostly used the Victory Club which was slightly select for meals, and then there was the Tipperary Club, Wesley House (Toc.H.) Y.M.C.A. and the Empire Services Club and I occasionally visited a private hotel or café.
Whilst in Cairo, Cyril and myself made a record together to commemorate our meetings and to send home to our family.
I decided one day that sand was not the best company in bed and I was tired of sleeping on it so I bought myself a folding bed. I arrived back at camp with it about 10.0 p.m. and woke everyone up in the tent when messing about in the dark putting it up. I had been in it for no more than 5 minutes when the deathly silence was broken by a terrible crack and I suddenly went a couple of inches downwards. After carrying out a search by the aid of matches I found that one of the legs of my bed had split in half. This was repaired or partly repaired by binding string around the crack. The whole operation was carried out amid giggles coming from the other chaps. I saw saw [sic] funny side of it later, but not at the time.
Cont’d…../
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My brother and I spent another afternoon out at the Pyramids. We caught a tram from the bottom of Soliman Pasha which conveyed us over a bridge across the Nile River and along the straight and wide road leading to Gazera where we descended and walked up the hill leading up to the Great Pyramid. To our right stood “Mena House Hotel” where the Great Cairo Conference was held between Mr. Churchill and Mr. Roosevelt. We walked from the Great Pyramid to the second one and then down the slope leading to the Sphinx. We also explored many other tombs that were underground. One could spend a full day exploring and still not see everything. There must be much left, still to be unearthed in the vicinity. Who know’s [sic] what buried treasure lies there, at the time of our visit excavations had ceased owing to the war.
On Monday the 20th of March we had to parade at 7.45 a.m. dressed in full marching order. It was the usual R.A.F. procedure (parading 2 hours before necessary). The Wing Transport had left the day previously and the convoy stretched for miles along the road leading to Alexandria. At 9.45 a.m. lorries rolled up and took us to the same railway station as we arrived at when coming to Cairo. The train drew out of the station at 10.30 a.m. and we stopped at Ismailia for a short while roundabout 5.0 p.m. By that time we were all feeling a little hungry after not having had anything to eat since early that morning, so we welcomed the cry of “eggs and boiled eggs” by Arabs coming along the platform. I had hoped that we would be going to Alexandria, as I should have liked to have seen the city before leaving Egypt, but alas, it was not to be. Everyone had just about fallen off to sleep when we pulled in to Port Said roundabout midnight. By the help of the harbour arc lights we transferred from the train onto the awaiting “Z” craft and were taken across the Suez and along various waterways until we reached the same Transit Camp that we stayed in before.
I was too tired to wander around to find a place in a tent but after getting something to eat I put my blankets down on the sand and went to sleep. It was then 2.0 a.m. in the morning and we were on the go again at 7.0 a.m. the following morning and after breakfast we boarded the “Z” craft again and were taken into the Suez and up to one of the many big ships lying at anchor. The one which we went aboard was called the “Circasia” a boat of some 10,000 tons. Whilst walking around the deck that evening I bumped into my friend who I had last seen in Algiers and who was in the same billet and room as myself when I was at Morecambe.
Everyone’s worst fear was of going to the Far East and the boat was anchored facing across the canal so we had no indication of which way we would be going. I shall never forget the look of anxiousness of everyone’s faces when we weighed anchor at 4.0 p.m. on the 23rd of March and looks of relief when the nose of the ship turned towards the Med.
Cont’d…../
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On reaching the open sea the convoy of 7 more big troopships and 6 escort destroyers formed up. I have no need to describe life aboard ship again as this trip was very much the same as my previous ones. The only thing of interest on the second day was when one of the ship’s barrage balloons broke loose. It gave the gunners a chance of target practice and with their fourth shot they scored a direct hit at a height of approximately 5,000 ft. The sea was very rough during the day following and the ship had a roll of 200 or more. I think at least 75% of the passengers were ill, I was not feeling so good myself. I know that I found a nice quiet spot on deck and laid there until darkness came.
Next day (Palm Sunday) was worse as we ran into a gale. Up on deck wind howled away and it was teaming with rain and the boat creaked as it rolled. I roused myself in the evening long enough to listen to Mr. Churchill’s speech. Next morning all was quiet when I went up on deck. At 7.30 a.m. and I found that we were in Augusta Bay (Sicily). I could see the top of Mount Etna rising above the morning’s misty haze. There were at least 50 merchant ships anchored in the bay around us. Later on when the sun broke through, Mount Etna stood out in its full glory towering up into the clouds. We stayed at anchor all that day. There were many rumours going around, the best one was that a fast trooper was coming in from Malta to take us to Algiers where we were going to be transferred to a boat going to England and that we would take part in the invasion of the Continent. Sure enough just before dark we could see smoke on the horizon which gradually grew into a big ship, By the time it arrived darkness had fallen and at 11.0 p.m. it was announced on the ship’s loudspeakers that we were going to change boats.
We were transferred from one to the other by an old Italian ferry boat and by the time I had got myself settled in a hammock it was 2.0 a.m. When daylight came I discovered I was back on the ss [sic] “Ville de Oran” for a second time. That afternoon came the usual boat drill and we sailed at 4.0 p.m. on the 28th of March. It was certainly an Allied Convoy. Englishmen on a French liner escorted by a Greek and [inserted] A [/inserted] Polish destroyer. Alas all next day instead of steaming South towards Algiers we steamed Northwards at a very fast speed. We passed through the Straits of Messina during the night-time and steamed Northwards off the Eastern coast of Sardinia, all next day and towards the evening we were sailing in enemy waters. That night we passed through the Straits separating Sardinia and Corsica and then continued to steam northwards off the Western coast of Corsica.
On going on deck the next morning a very beautiful scene met my eyes, we were going into Ajjeccio [sic] harbour in South Western Corsica. The quaint old town stood on the waterline surrounded by lovely green hills and above and behind the hills I could see the snow capped mountains that laid inland.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
[inserted] 48A [/inserted]
AJECCIO – CORSICA
[underlined] 30-3-1944 [/underlined]
[photograph of the island taken from the sea]
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We disembarked at 1.0 p.m. onto the small quayside where many little trawlers were moored and from there we were driven Southward, for 8 miles along one series of hairpin bends on American lorries and dumped in the middle of an empty field. We were then told that we would be stopping there for a few days and that we would have to make the best use of a bad job until the Squadron waggons arrived with the tents in a couple of days.
The next two hours were spent collecting wood and branches from the surrounding area so that the cooks could get a fire and a meal started. Then we made our beds down out in the open, we propped our mosquito nets with four sticks, one at each corner. When we got under them and into bed we all prayed that it would not rain during the night. If it had, we would have all been drenched as there was no shelter whatsoever for miles around. I had just fallen asleep when I was awoken by the Squadron Warrant Officer who told me I was one of the unlucky ones who had to go back down to the docks and help unload rations off the ship. We had a hair-raising ride back, as we bunted a waggon that had broken down all the way around those hairpin bends into the town, which has hardly changed since the day [deleted] of [/deleted] [inserted] when [/inserted] Napoleon [deleted] who [/deleted] was born there. It was 1 a.m. when we arrived back at camp with the lorry load of tinned food.
Next morning (April Fool’s day) I had a bath and did some washing in a small stream that ran through a nearby field, at least, I did my washing until I dropped my soap and was not quick enough to catch it before the swift running current swept it away. That afternoon I went for a walk, it was one of the prettiest I have ever been on. What a contrast after the sand of Egypt and the wilderness of Syria. The scenery was beautiful, it was a treat just to see green fields once more dotted with daisies and buttercups. I walked along by streams whose banks grew violets, forget-me-nots and wild miniature daffodils etc., through vineyards dotted with Cherry trees with their glorious pink blossom in full bloom. I used to like to lie down on a nice grassy bank and close my eyes and listen to the singing of the birds and the tinkle of the tiny bells hung around the sheeps necks as they grazed in the grass under the watchful eyes of an old sheep dog. Four days later the ship carrying the Squadrons vehicles arrived at the island and from 12.0 p.m. until 3.0 a.m. I was up directing traffic along the road to the camp. What a job we had next morning sorting out the equipment, as all the different Squadrons tents etc., had all been mixed up. Anyway we had a tent to live in.
Up until 5th of April we amused ourselves as we liked for most of the time. Some of the very energetic fellows climbed a 2,000 ft. nearby mountain, others played cricket, cards, or went for long walks.
Cont’d…../
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Of an evening we used to light a big fire and hold an impromptu concert. I was on the advance party which set out in convoy early morning on April 5th. We travelled across Central Corsica and over the mountains. At one stop we made tea with the aid of boiled snow which we had to use as water. As I was travelling in the ration waggon I did not go hungry during the ride, cheese, herrings, sausages, tinned fruit, jam and biscuits disappeared at various times and all the fellows received was a tin of bully beef for dinner.
The scene during the journey that sticks out most in my memory was when we were travelling through a large pine forest high up in the mountains. The trees and ground were covered with snow and the sun was shining brightly over the whole scene, at that moment we were passing houses and cabins made from pine logs. What a wonderful painting it would have made.
As we approached the North Eastern coast we came to the first signs of warfare. This was the edge of the line which the Germans held whilst they withdrew the main part of their troops from the Island. Every type of bridge had been blown up and nearly every house had been turned into a fortress and stood in a shamble of ruins caused by shell-fire. Here and there would be over-turned and burnt out vehicles, cars, guns or armoured cars and a few small tanks and a few mounds of earth beside them with just a plain wooden cross sticking up. After taking a wrong road for about 10 miles we found out that we were going south once more on the other side of the Island. We about turned and eventually arrived at the small field which was to be our new camp at 6.0 p.m.
We did not take long to erect our tent and I was soon in the big stream that lay at the bottom a bank that sloped away from the field. The water was ice cold and came winding rushing down from the mountains above.
The village situated just up the road was name Foleli and consisted of half a dozen cottages and a couple [inserted] 2 [/inserted] of wine bars. The airfield, which had only just been made was called “Auto Airport”. The Squadrons aircraft all brand new Spitfires MK IX’s had already arrived when we arrived there. We were only at Auto Airport for 14 days until a new drome a bit further down the coast was finished. Beside’s [sic] our wing, American Thunderbolt aircraft operated from Auto. Regularly like clockwork twelve of them bombed up took off every hour. On Friday the 7th one came back with, [inserted] ONE OF [/inserted] the bombs still aboard, which dropped off and exploded a few seconds after the aircraft had touched down. At that moment I instinctively dropped to the ground and after the explosions a large hole appeared on the runway. The plane got away in time and was undamaged.
Cont’d…../
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I was bombed for a second time that week, when a few days after the first time the same thing happened. It was a bit too close for my liking that second time, as the aircraft I was standing by was damaged by shrapnel along with two other of our Spitfires. We only did one operation from “Auto” and that was to escort bombers on a raid over N. Italy and after the raid fires could be seen burning 15 miles from the target area. The only entertainment we had whilst at that camp was a film show every few days given by the Yanks in an old bombed Italian factory.
On the 19th April I saw my Spifire [sic] off along with 11 others from our Squadron on escorting 36 Boston bombers on a raid over N. Italy. On returning they all landed at our new drome (Poretta Airport). As soon as all the aircraft were airborne we packed up all our equipment and were moved by lorry to our new camp site at Cassermoza. Incidentally, when the C.O. landed he taxied into a steam roller. During the following few months I must have seen at least 50 Spitfires crash and yet not a single pilot was killed in any of them and only one caught fire, which goes to show how well the safety precautions are designed on the British aircraft. Many of the aircraft overturned through a burst tyre whilst either landing or taking off. Others landed with their wheels up or their engines failed during take-off and others taxied into each other and the rest were caused by various other reasons. The worse crash I saw was when one of our pilots burst a tyre when landing and the aircraft ran off the runway and overturned on its nose and then on its wing tip. The under-carriage was snapped off and both wings broke away from the body of the plane which broke its back. Yet out of the remains we extracted the pilot who had only received minor injuries.
Our camp site was approx. 2 1/2 miles away from the drome and although it was a bind going back and forth 3 or 4 and sometimes 5 times a day, it paid us to do it in the long run as you will see later on. The field next to our camp was full of grape vines, peach and cherry trees, so we had plenty of fruit to eat during our stay. Nearly always when travelling down to the drome we would pass broken down cars (or which were called cars once upon a time long, long ago). It was amazing the amount of goods and the number of people that travelled in each vehicle. Heads seemed to stick out from everywhere and there would be two or three others tinkering with the engines or messing about trying to mend a puncture.
Whilst at Poretta I was given my second Spitfire so I then had Q & R to look after. I was certainly busy when both went up together, which they nearly always did. The next two and half weeks were spent mostly on escorting Boston and Maurader bombers coming up from Sardinia on bombing raids on railway stations, viaducts, bridges, factories, supply dumps and other vital targets in Leghorn, Florence and others at Northern Italy. Very, very seldom was fighter opposition met, but flak (anti-aircraft fire) was pretty heavy. The lack of enemy fighters over the area was very surprising as we were operating in a line which was [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] still at Cassino in Italy and our airfield was very near in a straight line level with Florence. It was a very nice sight when zero hour arrived for a raid. As soon as the bombers were sighted the fighters took off two at a time and circled round
[inserted] [underlined] ADD [/underlined] OVER 300 MILES BEHIND THE FRONT FIGHTING LINE WHICH WAS, [/INSERTED]
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and round gaining height all the time. By the time all of them were airborne the bombers were overhead steadily flying along on their course. The fighters would then take up their positions above, below and around them gradually disappearing from sight, then there would only remain the throb of the engines, followed by silence broken only by the song of the birds.
The method of American bombing was as follows:-
When approaching the target the bombers pack in as close to each other as possible and when No. 1 (the master bomber) give’s the word they all drop their bombs and so saturate the area, but if No. 1 misses – they all miss the target.
About that time nearly everyday was a glorious one. I used to work dressed only in my shorts, shoes and socks, except when I sat on the wing to guide the aircraft to and from the runway, as the propeller was apt to pick up little stones and throw them back and if they hit your bare-skin you certainly knew it.
As I have said before, two aircraft kept me busy with a daily inspection to do on each, refuel and refill with oil and coolant and rectify minor engine snags and see them out and back in again. Take for instance April the 28th, my diary reads Q up on escort at dawn, saw R & Q off on escort work later on in morning. Q and R up at 5.0 p.m. escorting Bombers and Photographic reconnaisance [sic] aircraft on a low bombing attack at 200 ft on a bridge north of Rome. For this last mission the petrol overload tanks on my aircraft had to be changed from 90 gall. to 30 gall. ones.
That same night I was on guard at the aerodrome and between 4 a.m. and 5.30 a.m. I had run-up 7 aircraft ready for dawn patrol. Every so often we had an occasional change by way of fighter sweeps reconnaisance [sic] and straffing missions but we got plenty of those missions after the 15th of May.
On the 2nd of May, after 2 1/2 hours of intensive questioning by the Engineering Officer, I was given my A.C.1. Next day [inserted] [indecipherable word] [/inserted] was one of the Red Letter days of my overseas tour. That evening, R & Q along with 4 other aircraft went up on a straffing mission [inserted] TO SOUTH OF FRANCE [/inserted] during which they ran into 10 Focker Wolfs 190’s. After many dog-fights over the Florence Area the Germans made for home, but not before the Wing Commander had shot one down. Our C.O. [deleted] after a head on burst of fire from his guns got one, making his total 13 1/2. His [/deleted] plane received a cannon shell which burst in one of his machine gun bays. That necessitated a wing change, but that was the only damage sustained to our aircraft.
[inserted] AUSTRALIAN NELSON MYERS [deleted] [four indecipherable words] [/deleted] LATER LOST RETURNING FROM STRAFFING TRIP F/SGT [indecipherable name] SOUTH OF FRANCE
BLONDIE MILLER (SOUTH AFRICAN) S HARDY A FW 190, AUSTRALIA [indecipherable words] ANOTHER [/inserted]
Cont’d…../
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[inserted] BEST OF ALL WAS [/inserted] [inserted] BLONDIE MILLER [/inserted]
When I saw R in and the pilot told me all about the scrap I learned that he had [deleted] also shot one down [/deleted] [inserted] [indecipherable word] FW 190 [/inserted] and two more of the enemy were also damaged. It then made me think it was worthwhile working all the hours that I had done on the engine.
On Wednesday the 10th, it was “A” Flt. that had the luck when they ran into two M.E. 109’s and shot them both down that afternoon. R & Q were up at the time, but they were sweeping another part of Italy and did not see anything.
The Yanks had another cinema near to me but I did not go to a show there very often, as the show was held in the open-air and did not start until it became dark and when we arrived back to camp it was nearly always midnight and often we found that there was an early call-[deleted] off [/deleted] [inserted] IN. [/inserted] for us at 3.30 or 4.0 a.m.
The nearest big town to us was Bastia, 12 miles to our North and once again it was the Yanks that made it worthwhile going there. Sometimes they had a show on in one of the towns two cinemas and there was the American Red Cross Restaurant where one could obtain coffee, cakes and ice cream. Apart from what I have mentioned there were no more than six shops open and they were either barbers shops or wine bars. But it must be remembered that for just on 5 years no ship had arrived at the island carrying civilian supplies and as a result there was a black market for anything in the town. It was a very dreary place with everything being closed down and empty shop windows everywhere. In the small harbour were a few sunken or scuttled ships.
On the shore was a wreck on an Italian sea-plane that had been shot down and had crashed into the harbour. The railway station area had been badly damaged by bombing attacks, no doubt it would be a much brighter town in peace-time. The Germans had used the cemetery as an ammunition storage dump, so it had to be bombed by the Allies. When I saw it, the place looked terrible with its overturned and uprooted tombstones.
To pass the time away we formed an inter-section league of cricket, football, and soft ball. We marked the pitches out between the aircraft bays and we played whilst our aircraft were up flying, until it was time for them to return. Nearby to my disposal bay was what used to be a big old farm house and was then empty. Often when my birds were up I would sit in one of the old low ceiling and stone floor rooms. It was lovely and cool and I was able to write my letters there when I did not get much time up at the camp. Just outside the farmhouse was an old fashioned pump and trough and over and on it grew big bunches of grapes. When I was on late flying we had only half an hour up at camp for dinner (no time for a dip in the stream) so after seeing the aircraft off on its last trip I used to fill up the stone trough with water, get stripped and then have a bath sitting in it, out in the open air getting a sun bath at the same time.
Cont’d…../
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The dust thrown up from the runway and taxing track was terrible and one got covered in dust and blinded in a fog of it everytime we saw an aircraft in or out, therefore, it was essential we had at least one bath every day.
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[inserted] 55 [/inserted]
[underlined] MY OVERSEAS SERVICE PART 3 [/underlined]
The only large flat piece of country in Corsica that I know of is just South of Bastia and runs for approx. 12 to 15 miles around the bay. At the time we were there it was virtually an aircraft carrier. The whole of the flat was covered with a network of airfields on which were housed every conceivable type of British and American aircraft. All farm-houses etc., in the area found themselves in the midst of an airfield.
On Friday night of the 11th May, the C.O. called us all together and gave us a lecture on a big hillside. He told us that for the few weeks following we would be very busy working from dawn to dusk. As at 5.0 a.m. the next morning the big Italian push was to commence. He explained to us that the bombing raids and bombers that we had escorted during the previous few weeks has disrupted the enemy’s rail and supply lines, causing him to draw from his large supply dumps that he had built up all over Italy. Our job was to cover the whole of Northern Italy, way behind the front lines and stop any further supplies from passing down southwards and so make him continue to draw on his dumps until he was forced to withdraw to enable him to shorten his supply lines.
We were also told the exact location of every British, American, Polish, Indian and other allied divisions and how many tanks and guns etc., they had against the estimated German strength in men and arms. It was estimated that we outnumbered the enemy 10 to 1 in guns. We were also told the objectives of each division and it was explained to us how the Indian division had to swing around Cassino hill and what our forces in the Anzio beach-head were to do if the Indian attack was successful, also what they would do if it was not.
The final objective was to reach a line around the Florence area and then just be content in holding same and keeping German troops in Italy who were badly needed on the Western and Russian fronts and also they would have to feed the population in Northern [deleted] Ireland [/deleted] [inserted] ITALY [/inserted] instead of us. As you all know, this is what happened, everything as it was planned except for our part in the push for the first few days.
The whole of the time that we were in Corsica we were under American Command. Next morning we were up long before dawn and as the first rays of light, R & Q and others were up on a dawn patrol and sweep, R came back with an oil cooler leak that made it u.s. (unserviceable for the rest of the day but Q did two more sweeps before darkness and did not see anything during the trips. That evening, just after I had got into bed a few big burtss [sic] of gunfire rang out and when I looked out of the tent it was like daylight outside. The whole sky was lit up by strings of flares that were slowly floating earthwards and the red, white and green balls of fire that rose up from the guns trying to shoot the flares from out of the sky. The heavy guns were concentrating on the bombers which we could hear quite clearly circling overhead and then a few moments later came the sound of bombs bursting. The raid lasted for just on half-an-hour. A further raid was carried out on the airfield next to ours at 4.0 a.m. Jerry certainly chose a good time for the raid (when we needed every available aircraft up flying).
Cont’d…../
[page break]
[inserted] 55 (A) [/inserted]
[underlined] PORETTA AIRFIELD
MAY 1944. [/underlined]
[photograph of a Spitfire with R. Barrett stood next to it]
[underlined] “Q” FOR QUEENIE.
MY SPITFIRE AND MYSELF TAIL BLOWN OFF IN GERMAN AIR RAID WHILST IN SAME SPOT
REPLACED A FEW DAYS LATER [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 56 [/inserted]
- 2 –
Next morning we were all up early and arrived at the ‘drome just as dawn was breaking. We were unable to move about at all until it was fully light because of the many unexploded bombs that were scattered around us. It was a pitiful sight that met my eyes when I toured our aircraft bays. Every aircraft that I came to was absolutley [sic] riddled with shrapnel which had pierced the oil, fuel and coolant tanks, the contents of which were spilled all over the ground. Some had their air bottles hit and on exploding they had blew away great chunks of the aircraft. Wings, bodies and tail units were riddled with holes. One aircraft I came to had burned itself out and a bomb must have landed directly on the tail of Q as the whole tail unit had been blown off. Both R and Q looked like nut-meg graters. Even my oil jug and my tool box that I kept at the side of the bay were full of holes and the boxes of cannon shells at 303 machine gun ammo lying near ready for re-arming the Spits’ guns had exploded.
When it was decided that not one of our flights aircraft were repairable we marked off all the unexploded bombs that we could find by ringing them with stones. There were three in my bay and there were many others along the taxing track which was covered with minute pieces of shrapnel. One bomb had gone off to approximately every 2 sq yards, everyone had to be very careful for a long time afterwards when walking through the long grass.
“A” Flight came off [deleted] better [/deleted] a little better than us, they had one aircraft left un-damaged which incidentally was the Squadron’s bogey, as it was always having trouble of some sort, they also had two others that were repairable.
Out of the 84 aircraft in our wing only 17 of them were able to take the air that day. I do not think the other wing fared any better than us. The American drome that received the 4.0 am. raid had many of their Thunderbolts destroyed and we learned later that 36 Mitchel bombers were also destroyed on another drome in Southern Corsica that same evening.
One of our Squadron’s petrol bowsers was also hit by shrapnel, luckily it was not the storage tank of the vehicle.
The only casualty on our Squadron was one of the guards and he was hit by shrapnel in the leg. You would not believe what the guard tent looked like after the raid unless you saw it. It if had one hole in it, it had ten thousand, even the mosquito nets and blankets of the guards were riddled. Luckily the flight was only a few yards away and we had dug a big trench nearby under a large fallen tree trunk. It most certainly saved their lives. The other Wing who had their camp site on the drome were not so lucky and the Australian Squadron suffered many [deleted] face [/deleted] [inserted] FATEL [sic] [/inserted] casualities. [sic] So you see it paid us to make these hundreds of trips between our camp site and the drome.
Cont’d…../
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[inserted] 56 A [/inserted]
[picture of the Italian coast line with Corsica and Sardinia]
[underlined] AREAS PATROLLED BY OUR SPITFIRES. [/underlined]
[symbol] LANDING SPOT
[symbol] LOCATION OF OUR AIRFIELDS.
[page break]
[underlined] DESTRUCTION OF MONTI – CASSINO [/underlined]
[aerial photograph of the Abbey at Monti Cassino]
[underlined] MONESTARY [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 57 [/inserted]
- 3 –
On the whole the enemy could not achieve better results if he had walked around and had thrown the bombs into the bays. During the following few days the bomb disposal squad were busy letting unexploded bombs off every so often. Between the guard tent and our flight tent approx. 25 to 30 yards they dug out 17 unexploded 20 lb bombs. Most of the bombs used in the raid were fragmentation, they were a little larger than a hand grenade and they had a tail fin on them. They are dropped from the aircraft enclosed in a big container shaped like an ordinary big bomb which were about 5 ft long and held approx. 200 fragmentation bombs in each. One container that we picked up near to our stores tent was 14 ft long and must have held at least 500. A short while after the container leaves the aircraft it is electrically split in two with a result the small bombs are showered over a large area and explode on impact.
It was estimated that 50 planes took part in the raids and I think three were shot down. The aircraft were specially brought from Northern France to the South for the raid. One of our night fighters tagged onto the bombers and followed them back and discovered where they set out from and next day our bombers went out and gave them a hell of a pasting with fragmentation bombs just as they were about to fly back North. The rest of the following day the raid we spent working on, one of the repairable aircraft and made it serviceable after changing the propeller and riveting 50 odd patches onto it. For the following 3 days we worked from dawn until dusk salvaging another aircraft which was repairable. We had to take a wing off the aircraft (a hell of a job) and then take another wing off another Spitfire that was left with only one good wing and swap them over. Airalions, wing-tips had to be changed along with the prop and the radiators and oil cooler. It was really a job for Maintenance Unit and usually a Squadron was never allowed to touch such a big job. We also had to rivet on over a hundred patches of all shapes and sizes. When the job had been completed the aircraft looked as if it had a touch of the measles but it flew and that was all that mattered. Instrument men helped the riggers and the electricians helped the fitters in fact, everyone in all trades mucked in and did their bit to help someone else.
One morning the Group Captain landed and burst a tyre and as he thought a piece of shrapnel had caused the prang he had the whole personnel in the wing picking up shrapnel on the runway which was a mile and a quarter long and 200 yards wide during the afternoon. By this time replacements were arriving fast and on the 18th of May I was given a new Q and on its first day with me it carried out two sweeps. On May 20th our Flight Commander was shot down by flak in enemy terrority [sic] just North of Leghorn whilst on a 300 mile reconnaissance trip. We learned later that he had got out safely and had been taken prisoner of war. On Thursday the 25th whilst out on patrol the Squadron’s aircraft ran into some F.W. 190’s and an “A” Flight pilot managed to bag one and our Flight got three. Our new Flight Commander Flight Sergeant Skinner shot down one after a dog fight at the completion of which he found himself over an enemy airodrome [sic] and on going down lower to take a look at it he was able to destroy another German aircraft by straffing it as it took its run along the runway to take off.
Cont’d…../[page break]
[inserted] 57 A [/inserted]
[hand made poster for a Concert Party to be held on 8th June]
P.T.O.
[page break]
[programme of events for the Concert Party]
[page break]
[inserted] 58 [/inserted]
- 4 –
He then found that he had gone too far South during the chase and that he would not have enough petrol to get back, so he made for the Anjio beach ahead and just reached our lines as the petrol gave out and he managed to crash land in a field on friendly soil. He was back flying with the Squadron two days later. I saw the film of his combat which he managed to salvage from the plane’s camera gun, it was all very clear and interesting.
On the 28th we lost another aircraft through lack of fuel, only this time the pilot was not so lucky: he discovered he was short of petrol just after leaving the enemy coast line, he then panicked and turned back and crash landed in enemy terrority [sic] and was taken prisoner.
On Saturday the 3rd of June “A” Flight lost another good pilot when F/O Haggerty crashed into the sea in flames and three days later one of our “B” Flight pilots had to bale out when his engine over-heated and caught fire, but he got out and into his dinghy O.K. and was picked up by the Air Sea Rescue Service a few hours later and was back with us on the following day.
Saturday the 10th was a successful day when our aircraft straffed trucks, lorries and armoured vehicles badly needed by the Germans at the front, but once again they cut it fine and two of our aircraft had to make for our lines South and finally crash landed through lack of petrol and flying one of the Spitfires was Flt/Sgt Skinner who had previously done the same thing. One aircraft arrived back with not enough petrol left in its tank to enable the pilot to do the customary circuit before landing, he had to ask for an emergency landing and came straight in. When the pilot stepped out he only had 5 galls left. A new overload tank was immediately fitted when the engine was switched off and the tanks were filled and tested, oil was checked and the aircraft was up on another trip inside 1/2 hour.
The overload tanks were either 30, 45 or 90 galls and were fitted to the belly of the aircraft and they use the petrol from the overload tank first and then if the pilot ran into enemy or heavy gun-fire etc., they were able to drop the tank which enabled them to travel at extra speed and their main tanks were still full. It was hard work when the pilots dropped their tanks three times during one day as they often did.
On the 10th of June, we held our Squadron Concert, which was a 3 hour show and included 10 acts of sketches, tunes etc., it went off very well considering the little time we had to ourselves for rehersals. [sic] We built our own stage and rigged up curtains etc. I was in 3 of the sketches and in one of them along with 3 other chaps I did a sand-dance. I was dressed in satin brassiere and pretty flowered silk knickers, silk stockings held up with fancy coloured garters and on my head I wore a coloured turban and the lower part of my face was hidden by a yash-mak. The C.O. bought and brought all the clothes, make-up etc., in Cario [sic] and flew them into the Island for us. Two fellows painted some marvellous scenery on the backs of lorry covers. During the following weeks we staged the show at nearby units and at the local field hospital.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
[inserted] 59 [/inserted]
- 5 –
During the whole of the time that I had with the new Q, my pilot was F/O Robertson and on my birthday I was very pleased when he received his second bar which made him Ft/Lt. he was vastly different from the other officer pilots. I liked him best out of the lot. The other Flt/Lt’s. P/O and F/O’s expected their crews to do all the cleaning but my pilot when he was not flying would often come and help me clean and polish up our aircraft and make it look spick and span. He also appreciated all the work that I did on the aircraft. I used to be proud of it when it took off and how it glistened and shone in the sun. I could pick it out from all the others a mile off when it was on the runway. The life of a Spitfire was 240 flying hours and during the whole of Q’s life I only knew my pilot once to fly in another aircraft and that was when Q was in on a inspection, he also would not let any other pilot fly in Q. Often he did two trips on the same day. In just over 100 days Q had finished it’s life of 240 operational hours and had done well over 125 trips, so you can see how busy I was. When any other aircraft went U/S at the last moment, it was always Q that took its place. During its whole life I think the worst trouble that I had with it was a couple of coolant leaks.
Flt/Lt Robertson had just finished his flying hours and he told me that he would finish flying when the old Q came to the end of its life and he did to [sic] except for one trip and that was when the Squadron flew its last trip before breaking up and on that occasion he paid me a tribute by flying in my new Q.
Now for more extracts from my diary. On June 11th lorries straffed during two of the trips carried out that day.
On June 12th Flt/Lt Robertson straffed lorries during his first trip of the day.
June the 13th (my 20th birthday) Q up on sweep. Bomber escort and straffing trips. On guard at night and warmed up aircraft ready for dawn patrol. That day we lost another aircraft (letter Z). It was last seen straffing a convoy of lorries near Florence. The pilot came back to us two months later, he had managed to escape capture and work his way down Southwards through the enemy’s lines and back into our own.
The following days were very much the same. Evenings spent attending concert rehersals, [sic] doing washing in stream or walks to the nearest village for a drink at the wine bar.
On Saturday the 17th of June I had Q away at 4.0 a.m. It was pitch dark when it became airborne to cover the landings during the invasion of Elba. Monte Christos Pianosa Islands. Elba was only 15 miles away from us and was the island Napoleom [sic] was exiled to. All three islands were in a parallel line along the coast of Corsica and they looked very picturesque when the sun set behind them.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
[inserted] 60 [/inserted]
- 6 –
Our Wing carried out a constant patrol of the island of Elba during the following few days until the whole of the island had been propped up. During one of these patrols one of our “A” Flt pilots shot down 2 ME. 109’s in less than 40 secs and then in the excitement he fired another short burst at another aircraft that came into his sight during the following few seconds and he did not know until the aircraft peeled over to go to its doom and he saw the white star on its side that it was an American aircraft. The mistake was quite understandable as the Arncobra and the NE. 109 were very similar. The same pilot had previosuly [sic] shot down 3 enemy aircraft in one day during the siege of Malta. He had been shot down by an American aircraft when he was in North Africa but he managed to bale out. Later he was awarded the D.F.M. and a commission.
The invasion of Elba was postponed twice through leakage of information and in the subsequent fighting the French received heavier casualties than was expected, 90% of the invading troops were Frenchmen or men from the French colonies. I remember during the nights the ambulances driving past our camp carrying the wounded to a nearby field hospital after they had been brought back from Elba and landed at Bastia. The island had no real airfield but it possessed a small flat strip from which an occasional German aircraft carried out reconnaisance [sic] work over our airfields in Corsica. I was on guard one night a couple of evenings after the big raid when one of the aircraft came over to see what damage had been done. When the telephone rang and we were told that enemy aircraft were approaching (I was in bed at the time) I soon got dressed and ran to the slit trench under the big fallen tree trunk and put on my steel helmet. A few moments later we could hear the drome of an aircraft which began to circle our airfield. I thought that we were in for anothe [sic] big raid and the Jerry was after our replacements, then all of a sudden the aircraft dropped a magnisium [sic] flare and it became daylight for a couple of seconds. After about ten of these flashes the aircraft made off and I breathed a sigh of relief. I bet they got some good pictures of the pile of aircraft that they had destroyed during the raid
On the 20th of June Q went up on its own to do reconnaisance [sic] over Leghorn Harbour but it did not see anything of interest and there was no shipping in it so it was not worthwhile sending a bomber force over there. Although they did not know, I expect many of the people living on the harbour edge owe their lives to that aircraft of mine, as that trip saved them from a big bombing that had been planned. During the following days it was straffing sweeps and bomber escorts once again and my evenings were spent playing cricket or cards, reading a book or going to the cinema.
[underlined] June 24th – A Rest Leave in Corsia [sic] [/underlined]
After coming off guard on Saturday morning I packed the necessary kit that I would use during the week following and then I helped to load the rations onto the lorry that was to take us to the rest camp. There were six of us in all, one fellow from each flight or section of the Squadron.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
60A
[photograph of shoreline with boat in front]
[symbol] RIVER GOING OUT INTO SEA [symbol]
[underlined] SITE OF REST CAMP [/underlined]
[photograph of road going through mountains]
[underlined] ROAD TO REST CAMP [/underlined]
[page break]
[symbol] AT SUNSET MOUNTAINS TOOK ON A PURPLE HUE
[photograph of Hotel du Pont in Porto]
[underlined] 1/2 MILE FROM REST CAMP [/underlined]
[photograph of the road lined with trees]
ROAD TO HOTEL [symbol]
[symbol] ROAD TO VILLAGE
[symbol] REST BUNGALOW
[symbol] RIVER.
[page break]
[inserted] 61 [/inserted]
- 7 –
Our instructions from the C.O. before setting off were that there were no restrictions whatsoever and that we could do just what we liked as long as we enjoyed ourselves and did not get shot or drowned.
We finally set off at 8.30 a.m. on our 4 hour journey across Corsica. There were very few main roads on the Island and what there were could no means be called good ones. All of them wound back and forth, up down and around the mountainside, except for the first part of our journey which was across flat country. After about 1/2 hour after setting off we passed the camp housing the Germans that the French troops had taken prisoner on Elba. They did not look very much like the supermen of the super-race that they thought they were. In fact, they looked a sorrowful crowd standing behind high barbed wire fences with machine guns trained upon them at every corner of the compound.
Most of the villages that we passed by or through were built high upon a hillside miles from anywhere and away from the malaria danger areas on the flat land at the foot of the hillsides. We stopped at a wine bar in one of the villages where we had a drink along with sandwiches that we had all brought with us, then we continued our ride and passed through a pine forest in which many lumber camps were situated. On the other side of the road at various times we could see trees that already had been cut and rolled down to the roadside where they had been piled up ready to be transported away to the saw mills. Then in places we could see the trees that were marked denoting to the lumber jacks that they were next to be felled and the trees unmarked were to be left alone. In some areas in the forest all the trees had been felled and only a mass of tree trunks sticking out from the ground remained to be seen. The lumber-jacks lived in log cabins that were built near to the road.
During the whole 4 hour journey we passed through no more than seven or eight villages and when we were approximately half-way to our destination the road became a stone track and at the time we were over 5,000 ft above sea-level and were feeling a little cold. A little higher up the mountain was snow and ice formations which we could see clearly when we were not driving through a cloud which seemed to envelope us like a fog each time we entered one. At times we were able to look downward into ravines and valleys and see the road that we had passed along 1/2 an hour previously. At the bottom of each ravine one would be certain of seeing a stream of some sort and sometimes a river rolling peacefully along and looking like a piece of silver ribbon a long way below us. These streams were formed by rain-water and water from the mountain springs which had found there [sic] way down to the base of the mountain. At various points I saw the water cascading from the rocks directly into a stream hundreds of feet below. The scenery was truly wonderful and no words of any person on this earth can fully describe its beauty. One grim reminder to make one drive carefully were the many wrecks that we saw of vehicles that had gone over the road edge into the depths below. On reaching our destination which was a village named Porto, we found that the bungalow at which we were to stay during our leave was situated on the waters edge on the opposite side of the river to the village.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
61A
[underlined] ROAD TO NEXT VILLAGE [/underlined]
[scenic photograph of mountain road]
[underlined] CALACASS DE PIANA [/underlined]
[scenic photograph of mountain road]
[page break]
[photograph of mountain road]
[underlined] ROAD TO NEXT VILLAGE. [/underlined]
[photograph of local Corsicans with goats and mule]
[page break]
[inserted] 62 [/inserted]
- 8 –
We left the lorry on the road and carried the rations and our kit down to the waters edge. By this time one of the fellows whose leave ended that day had arrived at our side of the river on a raft made of split tree trunks lashed together resting on four 50 gallon empty petrol drums. We loaded the raft until it was only a few inches above the water line and then one of the fellows took the raft back to the other side of the river where it was unloaded and then he brought back the raft and fetched us. The raft was guided by the fellows on it pulling on a wire that stretched from one side of the river to the other. We had to be very careful that the raft did not stray too far from the wire whilst on board.
On reaching the other side we carried our kit up to the bungalow a few yards away. Two of the rooms had been rented by our C.O. Four of us settled in one room and the other three in the next one to us. Number 7 in the party was the permanent cook who stayed at the bungalow until recalled back to the Squadron. In the rest of the building was a wine bar and a Corsican and his wife and their 8 year old daughter who lived there.
Here is a description of the scenery that I looked out upon as I sat at a small table with a glass of wine before me, surrounded by other tables and wicker chairs placed on the big veranda in front of the bungalow. Overhead was a trellis work of caculiptus [sic] leafy branches.
All would be silent and still except for the singing of the birds and the rustling of the leaves above, waving in a gentle breeze and the sound of the waves breaking on the seashore and the rippling of the nearby stream. Also a crow would occasionally break this peaceful quietness caused by one or more of the many cockerells [sic] that were around me or a dog would bark somewhere over in the village. In front of me as I sat there a small stream ran past to join the river on my right, behind the stream ran the pebbly beach for 30 yards where it joined the strip of golden sand that swept down for a further 20 yards where it joined the deep blue sea of the Meditteranian [sic] which, in turn, on the horizon met the light blue sky showing up the vast contrast in the two colours. The sky would be cloudless and empty except for the massive red and golden ball of the sun that radiated its heat over the whole scene helping to make it a glorious day.
To my rear stood a wood of Eauculiptus [sic] trees intermingled among them on the ground grew masses of ferns which were inhabited by brown and green lizards and a few snakes of which were approximately 4 ft long and around the many stagnant pools in the wood were millions of mosquitoes. A tamed wild boar was tied up to one of the trees with a piece of rope at the other end which was tied to one of the boar’s rear legs. It was being fattened up ready to be eaten by the French family. Every time I passed by it gave a grunt either as a greeting or a sign of recognition.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
[deleted] 63 [/deleted]
[inserted] 62A [/inserted]
[photograph of rock formation]
ON ROAD TO NEXT [underlined] VILLAGE. [/underlined]
[coloured photograph of rock formation]
[underlined] A FEW MILES FROM REST CAMP [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 63 [/inserted]
- 9 –
To my left was the continuation of the wood, river and beach until it reached the rocks which gradually sloped upwards forming themselves into the mountain-side that encircled the bay. The mountain-side was not barren at all but was covered with one mass of variety of green trees, shrubs, bramble, ferns and here and there were dots of various colours where wild flowers grew. On the other side of the mountain was a valley, then came the second range of mountains which rose above the first, their barren rugged rocks towered up into the sky. Lastly, on my right across a 60 ft wide river and at the top of which stood the quaint little village of Porto which comprised of a few stone-built cottages and houses. The most recent addition to the village at that time was the hotel which was quite a modern one. In front of the village facing the sea on a large rock formation stood what I presume was used as a Watch Tower in Napolion’s [sic] day. The brick built building was approximately 30 ft x 30 ft x 60 ft high. The only entrance was through a hole in one of the walls near to the top of the structure, so, in olden days they must have used a ladder of some kind to get inside it. I was unable to explore the interior myself as there was no means of getting up to that hole and it was impossible to climb up the wall without risking breaking my neck, and as I had no wish to die I never attempted to get in. The walls were over 6 ft in thickness but they were all badly cracked caused by the heat and their age. It looked as though the whole tower would come crumbling to the ground if a very strong gale blew up. To the rear of the village rose more pink and yellow rock formations mostly covered with green shrubs and which also formed themselves into a mountain-side.
At the moment that I am thinking of as I sat at that little table sipping my wine the stillness was broken by the woman who owned the bungalow starting up her gramaphone [sic] which would persist in sticking and therefore was continually playing the same few notes over and over again.
I will now describe the main events of my weeks leave, some of which I found quite amusing and I hope that you do to.
On the Saturday that I arrived in the afternoon the village dance was held on our large vernada [sic] in front of our rooms. People attended from all the neighbouring villages. The music was supplied by an old boy with one leg who played an ancient italian accordian. [sic] the only thing wrong was that he only knew two tunes, so after he had played them over and over again about five times straight off we were all fed up with hearing them and we knew them note after note. As far as I could see the Corsican way of dancing consisted of not much more than shuffling around. All the children enjoyed themselves immensely, to go to a dance was quite an occasion and a day off from school and a day’s outing for them. Some of the older girls invaded our bedrooms to see what they could cadge off of us and their parents would buy anything that we had to sell. Of course, we had all been forewarned and brought things along with us. The only food the villagers saw was what they grew themselves, therefore, we had no difficulty in trading our rations of Bully Beef and other things that we did not like, for eggs.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
63A
[symbol] [underlined] WE WALKED ALONG TOP [/underlined] AFTER LEAVING WINE BAR LATE AT NIGHT.
[photograph of Hotel du Pont and bridge]
[symbol] ROAD FROM REST CAMP & VILLAGE
[photograph of Hotel du Pont]
[page break]
[photograph of Hotel du Pont taken from under the bridge]
[underlined] UNDER BRIDGE LEADING FROM HOTEL TO VILLAGE. [/underlined]
[photograph of road and road sign]
[page break]
[inserted] 64 [/inserted]
- 10 –
Bully-beef was a luxury to them and eggs were the same to us. When the dance had ended and the families had set out to walk to their various villages we went across the river on our raft and walked through the village and along the road bordered by huge trees until we reached the hotel where we stayed drinking wine until 11.30 p.m. Lovely big plums and cherries were offered free with our drinks. Whilst we were in the hotel we made friends with some American airmen who were staying at a rest-camp run by their Squadron. Those fellows were the best set of Yanks that I ever met, we got on fine together. Our friendship started by myself offering to buy them a drink and then they returned the compliment after which we joined the two parties together. We had a jolly evening and a sing-song and agreed to meet again on the following evening. When we arrived back to the riverside it was pitch dark and we took a quarter of an hour scrmabling [sic] and stumbling over rocks in finding our mooring stage. Admitted, we were all quite merry at the time. With seven of us aboard, the raft was nearly below water. I should not have been surprised if it had sunk at any moment during the crossing. We eventually arrived at the other-side just as it struck midnight quite safely. I jumped ashore first and after a big splash I found myself knee deep in water. The tide had come in during the evening and so the mooring post was then out in the river. I thought as soon as we grounded on the raft that we had reached dry land but I found out my error to my cost, so as I was already wet I carried the rest of the chaps on my back from the raft to the dry land.
Sunday morning we were awakened by a nanny-goat hawing outside our window, someone threw a boot at it and it was quiet for a time but it soon started up again and caused us all to get up early. The fellow who threw the boot was sorry he did it when a little later he found out that the goat had chewed a lump out of his boot whilst it had been quiet. Of course, it was late to what time we were used to getting up. After breakfast we made a landing stage with big rocks to make sure we would not land in the water again at night. We had just completed the job and I was standing on the raft when suddenly I started to lose my balance, after about a minute of waving my arms about like a windmill trying to right myself when I finally fell backwards into the river which created a good laugh among the other fellows.
Besides the raft we possessed a small boat or rather I called it a floating coffin as it was shaped and it was the same size as one.
That afternoon another dance was held with the same two tunes for music. I went for a walk along the beach to get out of the way of those master-pieces of music.
In the evening as the raft and boat were at the wrong side of the river we had to go another way round to get to the hotel. Our route took us through the wood and before we could get onto a small road leading one way to the hotel bridge and the other to the village of Piana, we had to climb up a 150 ft cliff of sheer rock. If we had been ordered to do that climb we would have moaned like anything but as it was we tackled it in good spirits.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
[inserted] 65 [/inserted]
- 11 –
When we reached the top we had walked along the road for a little way we found a path leading up the cliff that we could have come up. That evening there was seventeen of us in the party. We came back to the river the village way and when we arrived at the waters edge there was no raft and no boat, so we had to steal or rather borrow one of the villager’s boats and take ourselves across in it and then one of the fellows undresses and rowed the boat back in the nude and then he swam back to the bungalow side. The water must have been icy cold as it was then well past midnight.
On Monday morning we were again woken up earlier than we wanted to. This time it was by the woman of the house jabbering away about a petit boat, we eventually discovered that she was trying to tell us that the small boat and the raft had drifted away during the night. We found the raft 150 yards away down stream in a waterway leading off from the river but the small boat was nowhere to be seen. It had drifted down the river and out into the open sea in the Bay of Porto.
After salvaging the raft and returning it to the mooring post, we had breakfast which the cook had just finished preparing for us, then we all went up to the old Watch Tower high above the sea. From here, whilst I was looking at the wonderful view of the whole bay I caught sight of our boat which had been washed ashore two miles or more around the bay, so that meant more salvage work for some of the boys that afternoon. I contented myself sitting in a chair reading a book when the stillness of the afternoon was suddenly broken by a series of piercing sqeals, [sic] snorts and grunts issuing forth from somewhere at the rear of the bungalow. On rushing found we found that six wild boars had ventured out from the wood and were attacking the one tied up. We drove them off by throwing stones, the dog went after them until one turned round and bit him in the back.
As it was the Yanks last day at the Rest Camp we held a farewell party in the hotel that evening. We put all the tables together in a line and sat around them, everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. In the middle of our sing-song we held quite a good cabaret. In our party we had a singer and a tap dancer and a professional comedian. The Yanks had two good singers and there were nineteen of us in the party that evening. Later an old man came in, if it had been a hundred years previously, he was just as you would have expected a Corsican bandit to look like. We made him join in the fun, you should have seen him with the huge cigar which one of the Yanks had presented to him, even the old French landlord did his bit of entertaining, he gave us imitations of Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo, he had us holding our sides with laughter. The landlady used to like us to hold our parties as we had a jolly good time. All the previous parties held there the people started fighting etc. She used to look after us very well keeping us suppled with fruit to eat etc.
After saying goodbye to each other we made for the bungalow and arrived this time without anything eventful happening.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
65A
[symbol] [underlined] VILLAGE. BUNGALOW ON OTHER SIDE OF THE HIL [sic] [/underlined]
[photograph of village of Porto]
[underlined] GOLFE DE PORTO [/underlined]
[photograph of Hotel du Pont de Porto in the valley of the mountains and woods]
[page break]
[inserted] 66 [/inserted]
- 12 –
On Tuesday morning I was woken up at 6.0 a.m.by a nanny-goat coming into the bedroom, I shoo’d him out but not before he had left traces of his visit on the floor. During the morning I managed my first few strokes of swimming with the aid of a Mae West life-saving waist-coat. After that I took my rifle onto the beach and did a bit of target shooting at bottles at a range of 150 yards but every time that I fired, the report sounded like a land mine going off as it echoed and re-echoed throughout the mountains. It was so loud that I finally gave it up because I was frightening nearby cattle. I then tried my hand at fishing but I did not meet with any success and when one of the old boys from the village came along and caught a 10” fish within 5 minutes I gave it up. In the evning [sic] we all decided to go for a nice walk which finally amounted to stopping and having a rest and a drink at every wine bar that we came to.
Wednesday morning we were all up early as we were going for a hike around the mountain-side, I had the job of cutting the sandwiches, by the time we had finished them they looked like doorsteps. Two other Yanks whom we had made friends with and who were spending their last days leave at Porto, came along with us. We walked round and round, up and up, passing by a mixture of rocky ground and green shubbery [sic] and in places it was cultivating grape vineyards, orchards of pears, apples, peaches and plums so we did not go short of fruit during our walk.
At noon, after passing roadside family shrines, we entered a village called “Ota” I think we must have been some of the first Englishmen to pay a visit to the village since the war had begun as nearly all the inhabitants turned out to have a look at us and we were followed all the time by a flock of children, and when the Yanks started to give them lumps of milk chocolate and handfuls of boiled sweets etc., the flock grew to a multitude. We stopped at the village wine bar whilst we ate our sandwiches and refreshed ourselves at the village fountain spring before retracing our steps back to Porto. It was a little easier going back as it was a downhill all the way. We were all so tired on arrival at the bungalow that we all went to sleep, after we had partaken a meal. In the evening we held another farewell party at the hotel. Just outside the hotel was a spring from which emmitted [sic] lovely cool drinking water (see photo). During the famous songs of the R.A.F. were sung by us and in return the Yanks sang their Air Force songs and all sorts of wine was flowing – Cap Corsa, O’de Ve, Muscat, Veno, Cognac etc., They all went down with cheese and biscuits that we had brought along with us.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
66A
[photograph of a village in the hillside]
[underlined] VILLAGE THAT WE WALKED UP TO [/underlined]
[photograph of mountains]
[underlined] CALANQUES DE PIANA [/underlined]
[page break]
[photograph of man on donkey beside a spring]
[underlined] SPRING OUTSIDE HOTEL [/underlined]
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[inserted] 67 [/inserted]
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One amusing incident was as follows: To summarise the landlady to order another round of drinks we used to clap our hands together, but during that evening we clapped after someone had sung a song, therefore, our glasses were filled up again and someone had to fork up 200 francs. We found it amusing after a few rounds and we were clapping approx. every five or six minutes and the party lasted for over 3 1/2 hours. When the party finally ended the Yanks had said a farewell speech, it was 1.30 a.m. We parted after doing a ring-a-ring-a-roses whilst singing Auld Lang Syne in the middle of the village. We did a lot in strengthening Anglo/U.S relations during the week even if it was not physically. I do not think that such a good time has ever been had at a party representing two countries. Everyone seemed to have one leg shorter than the other during the walk home, except for one and we had to carry him half the way. It took six of us to lift him as he was a tubbish fellow. I had a good laugh when we were getting the chaps across the river on the raft, what a time it was and when we arrived at the bungalow, one of the fellows went to lean against the door which was not closed and he went clean through the opening. We kept finding different bits out of his watch on the veranda all the next day, we also found one of the fellows wallet floating in the river next morning and someone’s handkerchief on the other side of the river but everyone enjoyed themselves and it was the first leave since coming overseas for all of us.
I spent a quiet day on Thursday going for a walk in the woods and a swim in the river during the morning and wrote letters and read a book during the rest of that day. The only event of interest was when the small boat capsized and sank, three of the fellows were in it at the time, two dived overboard but the captain went down with his ship, luckily the water was not too deep where it went down. In the evening we tried our luck in fishing again only in the dark this time, four of us went out, split in two parties, we went up-stream and the others down-stream. I did not have any success and after 1/2 an hour the other fellow knocked my bait of wet bread and flour off of the rock and into the river so we had to pack up. The other party did not fare any better, once we heard a lot of shouting and splashing coming from down-stream but we learned later that one of the fellows in the other party had over-balanced when throwing out his line and followed it into the river. Once they did get a bite but the fish had bitten the line into two so they lost their hook and had to give fishing up as a bad job. Some of the younger villagers when they wanted fish threw a hand grenade into the river, the force of the explosion stunned all the fish and they came floating to the surface.
Next day we arose at 9.0 a.m. and I began to tackle a big pile of washing (after I had had breakfast) and if there was one thing I hated doing it was washing clothes – but as soon as I had commenced the 8 year old girl from the bungalow came out and gave me a hand or rather she did most of it for me. She managed to get the clothes far whiter than I could just by rubbing it together. At that time we were without bread to eat as half of what we had brought along with us had gone mouldy and we had to throw it all away on the Wednesday. Also, someone had accidentally mixed the sugar with the salt.
Cont’d…../
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That afternoon I think the villagers must have thought an invasion had started when we built ourselves a 75 yard range and five of us firec [sic] over 300 rounds of rifle and sten gun ammunition in less than 1/2 an hour. My rifle was red hot after firing 60 rounds. When we all did a bit of rapid firing together the noise was terrific. Our net bag for the afternoon was a dozen tin cans with big holes blasted in them. By this time none of us had any cash left and as we wanted to hold a farewell party for ourselves, we took all the rations that we had left and what we did not want along with us to the hotel that evening and traded with them for wine.
Next morning we did not get up until 10 a.m. as we were unable to have a meal as we had no milk, sugar or bread left, so we set to and cleaned up the rooms and packed our kit and then we sat down to wait for the following week’s rest leave party from the Squadron to arrive. When they did we gratefully helped them to carry their rations across the river and then we helped ourselves to a couple of their loaves of bread and made some tea for them and ourselves with their milk and sugar.
We started our homeward journey at 3.30 p.m. and the villagers gave us a royal send off. We stopped in one village for a sandwich and cup of coffee. One village that we passed through must have been expecting a very important visitor as every inhabitant were lining the roadsides and were dressed in their Sunday best and all the children held a big bunch of wild flowers in their hands. The village bell was ringing for all it was worth and Free French flags flew from every house and cottage. If we had been travelling the other way, I bet we would have got bunches of flowers thrown at us, but alas, as the old saying goes “all good things must come to an end” as did my week’s rest leave, when our lorry rolled into camp at 8.15 p.m. [underlined] that same evening. [/underlined]
It was back to the old routine next day (2nd July) when I saw Q off after fitting a bigger overload tank to it. It went on a bomber escort trip to near the French Italian border. The target for the bombers were fuel dumps which received many hits with bombs. When the aircraft left the target it was burning well and smoked reached to a height of 5,000 ft. Five days later a similar raid was carried out on ammunition, bomb and fuel dumps near Turin when 36 fighters from our wing escorted 108 Mitchells. Smoke from the fires started reaching a height of 11,000 ft. Next day our Spitfires did an extremely long trip to a spot near to Venice. The trip was a 3 hour one, we had to fit a 90 gallon overload tank which gave each aircraft a total load of petrol of 175 gallons and the consumption rate was just under a gallon a minute, so you can see almost every gallon of fuel that it could carry for the trip. That night the pilots were due to start practicing night flying but just after I had warmed up the first aircraft ready for take-off, the flight was cancelled so I did not lose a night’s sleep after all. It was lovely running up during the night when all was pitch black except for the illuminous dials and instruments in the cockpit and the lovely blue flames coming from the exhaust stacks.
Cont’d…../
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[inserted] 69 [/inserted]
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On Tuesday (11th July) I was up early and helped to take down our tent and load it onto a lorry along with our kits. We then climbed on top of both and then we set out in convoy for a 70 mile ride, once more along narrow twisting roads and up steep climbs and down declines through many quaint and picturesque villages and countryside. We arrived on the N.W. side of the island at noon and proceeded a couple of miles inland to a village named Callenzana. Much to our delight we found out that our new camp site was right outside the village, sitauted [sic] in a few fields dotted with nice shady trees. The village itself was at the base of a mountain that rose up into the sky behind it and the streets which were no more than alley-ways except for the main one which was comparable with an English lane. Chickens, goats etc., roamed freely along the alley-ways. The village was bulit [sic] on a big slope and rose up in layers. All the houses were built of stone and were very old and quaint. Our arrival was greeted by a village turn-out and smiles from pretty girls and the waving hands of children.
After erecting our tent we went to our new strip about 3 miles away and we arrived there just in time to see our Squadron aircraft arrive and land at their new base. We immediately re-fuelled and did a Daily Inspection on each of the 21 aircraft that landed. It must have been very hard for the pilots coming from a wide runway 1 1/4 miles long to a very narrow one only 700 yards long. Our strip was the smallest of the three in the area. One of the Squadrons on our strip had to taxi their aircraft across the main road on their way to and from the runway.
The road to the drome from the camp was one of the worst in Europe, we nearly got shook to pieces every time we did the ride as it was so rough and uneven.
Next morning at our new camp we had 12 aircraft flying on a bomber escort trip to a sopt [sic] 80 miles North of Spazia. That same evening we explored the village and discovered many wine bars, fruit and barbers shops. To climb from the bottom of the village to the top was quite a breath-taking task, but the scene that met one’s eyes on reaching the end of those cobblestoned streets made it well worthwhile. Two of my pals and I made friends with one of the families in the village, an old woman and her grand-daughter and we were always at their house for an evening when we had no-where else to go. Of course, the language question was a little difficult but between us all we managed to keep the conversation going all the time. The girl named Andre was 16 years old and was a cripple. The woman in peace-time used to import many things from France to sell in the village. She bought quite a number of things for us to resell. Of course, when war broke out her business was no more, as no goods whatsoever came into the island during the whole 6 years of war. The prices that we could get for second-hand clothing etc., was terrific but so was anything one wanted to buy, our service pay did not go very far. It was a good job we received money from other sources.
Cont’d…../[page break]
[inserted] 70 [/inserted]
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We had many crashes on the strip through aircraft running off of the narrow run-way after getting a burst tyre when landing on the very stony ground and through over-shooting because of its shortness. One good thing for us was that all the aircraft were parked in bays very near to each other, so we did not have to walk 1/4 of a mile or more each time we went out to our aircraft from the flight tent.
I soon found on exploring the camp’s surroundings on my first day off a nice little pool about 50 ft in diameter and it was reached after a little climb and walk about half a mile from camp. The stream which ran into the pool came directly down from the mountain high above. Once the pool reached a certain level the water ran out at a certain point forming itself into a stream once more continuing its journey down the mountain-side. The water was as clear as a crystal, was lovely and ice cold, I think that I used to enjoy my bathe there after finishing work each night more than anything else at that time. I used to get so oily and even if it was 10.0 clock at night when I finished work I would get my torch and go for a daily climb and dip in the pool. It was lovely there on a moonlight night when all was quiet except for the sound of splashing water as it rushed over the rocks. I used to love to go there on my day off and have a bathe and then do some washing whilst standing in the pool on one of the big smooth rocks that encircled me. Then I used to sun-bathe in the nude for a while and read a book at the same time. After an hour or so of this I would get dressed and do a bit of climbing and work my way back to camp in time for dinner.
Things went on as usual but flying eased off a little, every so often of an afternoon half the flight managed to get a trip down to the sandy beach at Calvi, a few miles away for a dip in the sea.
After we had been at our camp for a few days the Germans began to get interested in us as at dusk two or three evenings running a reconnaisance [sic] aircraft approached the Island, but the warning was given in time on each occasion and it was driven away. As we were the only Squadron on the Wing with high altitude Spitfires it fell to us to have two aircraft in immediate readiness. That amounted to having two aircraft being ready to take off at a moments notice. The aircraft was parked near the end of the run-way with a starter battery plugged in and the pilot sitting strapped into the cockpit. Throughout the day different pilots, aircraft and crews took two hour shifts at being on readiness. The signal to take off used to be a yellow vary pistol cartridge which was fired from the control tower as soon as they received the word from the radio location unit that enemy aircraft were approaching. On top of this job through having the high altitude, Spits we had to maintain a constant patrol of two aircraft over a convoy that was forming off Cape Corse (The Northern tip of Corsica). Whilst we were on these jobs the personnel on the other Squadrons had one long holiday.
We took every piece of armour plating and the four machine guns out of the aircraft that we used for readiness, leaving them with an armourment [sic] of just two 20 mm cannons. This was to be able to make them be able to climb at a much faster rate.
Cont’d…../
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70A
[underlined] AUGUST 1944 [/underlined]
[photograph of men on the beach]
[symbol] ME.
[underlined] SOME OF OUR PATROL ON THE BEACH AT CALVI [/underlined]
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We took every piece of armour plating and the four machine guns out of the aircraft that we used for readiness, leaving them with an armourment [sic] of just two 20 mm cannons. This was to be able to make them be able to climb at a much faster rate.
With regard to the patrols, two aircraft would take off before dawn 40 minutes later two more would take off and when they met up with the other two they took over and the first two came back to base and so it went on throughout the day and if they went U/S we had to work hard and get them serviceable in time for when they were due to take off on their next trip.
You can guess what Tuesday the 22nd of July was like Q alone did four trips and after each I had to refill it with petrol, oil etc., and do my daily inspection between one of them. That day our Squadron did twenty operations. At 6.0 p.m. I went on readiness with Q. Dusk was gradually turning into darkness when the stillness of the evening was broken by the sound of a report from a pistol and a yellow ball of flame went soaring up into the sky in an arc over the runway and burnt itself out on the other side. I never had time to see it land, the pilot was busy priming the engine whilst I ran round and took off the pitot-head cover and then I pressed the battery button. Luckily the engine fired and picked up first time. Before the propeller had turned a dozen times I had the starter plug out of the engine and had given the thumbs up sign to the pilot, within half a minute the pilot had taxied out and was opening his throttle to take off but unluckily by the time the two aircraft had reached the altitude the enemy had turned tail and made for [deleted] its [/deleted] [inserted] THEIR [/inserted] base. It must have heard our aircraft were coming up after him over his wireless. Whilst on readiness we never had let the engines get below a certain temperature otherwise the pilot would have to wait until the engine had warmed up before he could take off.
Another thing that happened, if we let the starter batteries go flat then the engine would not start and we would have to run to another dispersal sometimes 200 yds away and drag another very heavy battery trolley to our aircraft and plug it in. By that time all the other Squadron’s aircraft perhaps had taken off and another Squadron’s aircraft would be landing so that your pilot would have to wait all the longer before getting off. This only happened to me once and that was enough. By the time I had fetched another battery I was sweating and snorting like a pig.
We lost one aircraft during this patrol work. What happened is still a mystrey. [sic] The loss was put down to the pilot switching on his oxygen supply for 10,000 ft and not altering it when he climbed to a height of 15,000 ft as a result he must have blacked out and crashed into the sea.
Cont’d…../
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On the 30th of July I saw Q off when the bombers appeared overhead from Southern bases in Sardinia and escorted them over Southern France where they dropped leaflets.
On the 1st of August work was started on new dispersals far away from the runway and up in the hills, we did not want a repeat performance of the Poretta raid. I was up at 3.45 a.m. that morning and I was driven along with two of our pilots to another aerodrome and saw them off in two of our Squadron’s aircraft that had landed there U/S a few days previously.
Later on in the day I saw Q off on its last trip from our drome and by the time we had finished dispersing our aircraft that night it was 10.45 p.m. and although I was feeling very tired I went to my pool for my nightly bath as soon as I got back to camp.
Next day we put our concert on at an American camp and it went off without a hitch and was a big success. On the following day Q went off to North-Africa for a major inspection. I was very sorry indeed to see my old faithful go. She was still as good as when I first received her when new. I certainly think she did her bit in th- [sic] war and was worth every penny that she cost to make. It was a pity that she never shot any enemy aircraft down but then many Spitfires have crashed on their first trip. My Q was the first aircraft to finish its full life and whilst I was on the Squadron, all the rest were lost before they had flown 240 hrs.
On the 6th of August I fetched my new aircraft from the inspection flight after it had received an Acceptance check and saw it off on its test flight. My new pilot was Flt/Sgt Connor who was a Scotsman. The aircraft was a brand new one but it had a very rough finish on it and no matter how hard I tried I could not get it to glisten like the old Q. Its maiden trip was helping to escort 200 bombers on a raid on Milan, it came back with an oil leak from one of its engine pumps and I spent the rest of the day taking off the propeller, mending the leak and replacing the propeller once more.
The next day “A” Flt who were the advanced party on our [deleted] recent [/deleted] [inserted] NEXT MOVE [/inserted] move off to the staging assembly point near Calvi and the following day was one of the most hectic days of my life. Now that “A” Flt had leftm [sic] six of us Flight Mechanics remained to look after the Squadron’s 21 aircraft. The flight was split into two parties, and we went to meals at different times so ensurring [sic] that someone was always on the drome to look after the aircraft. This applied the same to the other trades.
I was up at 3.45 a.m. that morning as I was on the early party, so three of us F.M’s saw the first two aircraft off at dawn patrol and also the next two 40 minutes later. During the 40 minutes interval we directed other aircraft down from the dispersal bays in the hills. After the second two had taken off I just had enough time to walk from one end of the runway back to the flight tent (mid-way up the run-way) when it was time for the first patrol to land and that meant walking to the far end to guide them back to their dispersal points.
Cont’d…../
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By the time I had refuelled and checked the oil and coolants, airframe etc., two more aircraft had to be seen out – then it meant walking to the other end of the runway and see the 2nd patrol in and so it went on. I was certainly glad when the second party arrived at 8.0 a.m. to take over and relieve us for breakfast. After which we immediately went back to the drome and things went smoothly until a strong wind came up and put our runway U/S for landing. To keep up the patrols it was decided that the aircraft would take off from our drome and land on a near by [inserted] ONE [/inserted] which possessed a much wider runway. By that time the late party were due to go up to camp for early dinner so that meant splitting half the flt in half. Two F.M’s stayed to see the patrols off and went to the other drome along with one each of the other trades and we took with us a few tools, oil cans, oil, coolant, spare wheels etc. When we arrived one patrol had already landed there and I had to check and refuel them immediately. As the hours went by we gradually received more and more of our aircraft landing on the new drome. I was just about feeling fed up when Q landed with another oil leak which took me half an hour to rectify. At 4.0 p.m. the wind dropped and our strip was serviceable, therefore, we had to reverse the procedure and let the aircraft take off from St Catherines and land on our own strip. By dusk we had gathered all of our flock together at base. Was I glad when I saw the last patrol of the day land, dispersed and checked. I never want to spend another day like that, I was so tired that as soon as I got back from my [deleted] pad [/deleted] [inserted] POOL [/inserted] and my head had touched my pillow I was fast asleep.
On the 12th of August we sent ten of our aircraft to Straff a Radar Station at Nice. First of all they dropped their overload tank on reaching the target so interfering with the enemy’s wireless for range finding etc. also to create panic by making the Germans think that they were dropping bombs. 45 gallon tanks were shaped very similar to a 1000 lb bomb and being full of petrol and air some would explode and burst into flames on hitting the ground after being dropped from a great height. On return from the raid we had to fit the aircraft with new 45 gallon tanks then fill and test them – this took us until 11.0 p.m. that night. At midnight the order came through to change them again and replace with 90 gallon overload tanks. As a result we were draining the 45’s long before dawn on the following morning. At 10.0 a.m. twelve aircraft from each Squadron of the wing took off to Straff the Radar Station near Marseilles. Q was to be last to go in and over the target out of all the aircraft taking part in the raid. My pilot took a dim view of his position for straffing as by the time he went on all the guns would be trained on him. Our Intelligence must have been very good as all the pilots were informed of the exact location in the surrounding hills of every one of the twelve anti aircraft gun sites that defended the area. Once again tanks were dropped during the raid but they did not create much confusion in the enemy camp as the gunners shot down four aircraft taking part in the raid. Our Squadron lost two of the four, both were shot down into the sea by ack-ack fire. The pilot of one [inserted] MR STRUTT [/inserted] was last seen [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] [symbol] IN HIS DINGHY [/inserted] floating towards the Spanish coast but the pilot of the other aircraft never got out of it.
Cont’d…../
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[inserted] 74 [/inserted]
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When I met Q on its return I found that it had been hit by flak and a piece of the leading edge of the wing had been shot away. I saw the film of the raid and of others which were very clear indeed. The raid earned a mention on the B.B.C’s 9-o-clock news that evening.
As soon as we had refitted new tanks the aircraft took off to raid the same target once again, of course, Q was not amongst them as the riggers were working all out to get her serviceable as soon as possible.
I do not know whether one of the pilots was telling the truth or not but when he landed he claimed to have flown beneath the radar masts.
Next day there was no flying so after fitting new overload tanks I helped my pilot to polish up our aircraft.
The following day Tuesday the 15th of August I was up at 3.30 a.m. Soon afterwards the sky was filled with red and green lights and the roar of engines as wave after wave of bombers passed overhead travelling in a North Westerly direction.
The night before the wing Intelligence Officer gave us a lecture and told us that at 4.0 a.m. the following morning British Commandos would land from the sea on two small islands just off the coast of Southern France opposite St Raphael and then at 6.0 a.m. 150 Transport aircraft towing gliders would drop 3,000 airborne troops by parachute and cast off the gliders carrying a further 1,000 troops and supplies over two large hills situated either side of the main road running down the Rhone Valley to the coast at a point approximately 12 miles inland and 6 miles North of Freyus. The object of these troops was to fight their way to the main road and hold it along with the hills on either side and to stop enemy reinforcements coming South to help their brothers along the coast to stop enemy troops in the coastal area from retreating Northwards up the Rhone Valley. Also if all these tasks were successfully accomplished, units were to advance along the main road and try to link up with the main landing party. We were also told that on the dot of 8.0 a.m. the first wave of assault boats would hit the coast of Southern France at points between St Raphael and Cannes to the East and their job was to create a bridge-head and drive inland and link up with the airborne troops. Then he went on to say that our aircraft patrols had been covering and protecting the enemy from seeing the 2,000 ships that had been massed off the coast of Northern Corsica ready for the invasion. Also the R.A.F. were the only British ground forces taking part in the bridge-head invasion. The rest of the invading troops were made up with two Divisions of the Free French Army and General Patch’s 7th American Army. It was also estimated from Intelligence reports that the Germans had no more than 25 aircraft in the whole of the South of France. Ten were fighters and 15 bombers.
Cont’d…../
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[inserted] 75 [/inserted]
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As dawn broke we could see the grey silhouettes of the hundreds of bombers. Two continuous streams passed overhead, one travelling towards France and the other which was made up of bombers returning to their bases after having dropped their bombs on the invasion area. Long before 8.0 a.m. Q was up in the air on its way to patrol over the troops as they went ashore, but on its return the pilot had nothing to report. He told me the troops seemed to be landing without much opposition and not a single aircraft appeared over the beach-head to try and interfere with the landing operations.
You can only guess what a hectic time we had for the next seven days keeping the aircraft up on constant patrols over the front line. It was up at 3.0 a.m. in the morning and down to the drome where we had to direct the aircraft from their dispersal bays in the hills and along a narrow rough track onto the main drome in the dark. Then at night we had the job of dispersing them again after a busy day, but it was worthwhile working so hard and such long hours as each day we saw from the I.O. (Intelligence Officer’s) maps that the bridge-head was growing larger and larger. I thought of all the fellows in it who were working harder than myself and were being killed every minute.
As soon as the beach-head troops had linked up with the airborne forces the bulldozers were hard at work making a landing strip for us. This was completed within a few days and our advance party had arrived there.
On the 23rd of August after packing my kit, I fitted, filled and tested a 45 gallon overload tank to Q and saw it off on its journey to France where it was to land on our new strip and operate from it for future patrols. As soon as Q became airborne and had formed up in the air with the rest of the Squadron’s aircraft, we all started to pack up the flight equipment and load it on to a waggon. The drome looked very deserted as we left to go up to the camp for the last time to take down our tents and pick up our kits. The villagers turned out and waved to us as the Squadron’s convoy of waggons rumbed [sic] through the cobbled High Street. So we said goodbye to [deleted] the [/deleted] [inserted] CALENZANA [/inserted] and were driven to the transit staging area nr Calvi. I spent the following day resting, reading and swimming in the sea and we also changed our money from Algerian francs into specifically printed invasion bank notes. We were told “to be ready at a moments notice that evening and not to stray far away as the moments notice would come through as soon as a boat arrived in Calvi harbour for us”.
Dusk arrived and still no word so I found a flat piece of ground and put my ground sheet and blankets down on it, then I spent the next half hour erecting my mosquito net successfully after which I undressed and got in between the blankets to keep the ants company. I had just about got settled comfortably in a dip in the ground when we were told to get on our respective lorries and be ready to move off. There was certainly some bad language around as the boys crawled out from under their nets as
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they started to gather their kit together once more and to pack their bed roll, then everyone was staggering around trying to find the lorry that they were to travel in. All this was finally accomplished by approximagely 11.0 p.m. when the waggons that had been dispersed all over the camp area formed up in convoy order, [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] [symbol] AND WAS MOVED OFF. WE HAD TRAVELLED [/inserted] no farther than a 1/4 of a mile we halted once more. All the other Squadrons transport was lined up in convoy order nearby to 242 Squadron. The information then came through that we would be the 3rd one to embark and that our boat had not yet arrived in the harbour, but we were told that we were not to make our beds down again as we might be ordered to move to the dock area at any moment. There were 14 of us in our covered waggon along with all of our kits, so we did not have a very comfortable seat, what with the rifles, tin hats etc., sticking in one’s back and we had no room at all in which to move about. Everytime I dozed off to sleep sitting there I woke up a few minutes later with cramp in my legs. At 1.0 a.m. I got out of the waggon and climbed on top of it and tried to go to sleep on the tarpaulin covering but the hoop bars were not very comfortable to my back, I stuck it until 2.30 a.m. when it began to get cold and I begun to shiver. There were still no signs of having to move off so we all got our bed rolls out once more and laid them down around the lorry. I was woken up at 7.0 a.m. and told that the cooks were making some tea, so I made up my bed for the second time that night before having a mug of tea and a big hunk of bread and jam, both of which were very welcome as we were all feeling famished.
We finally moved off at 8.0 a.m. and we all arrived at the docks safely except for the C.O’s house which was a hut built on a big trailer. The driver of the truck that was towing the trailer during the journey drove under a low branch of a big tree that overhung the roadway and which was [deleted] on [/deleted] [inserted] LOWER THAN THE [/inserted] top of the hut with the result that the hut was swept to the ground and the lorry was left just towing the bare trailer. The boys certainly had a good laugh about it when we heard the news, we all saw the funny side of it except for the C.O.
At the dockside lay four L.C.T. (landing craft, tanks) and they just about filled the place to its capacity. Our lorry backed up the [deleted] road [/deleted] [inserted] RAMP [/inserted] (the front of the ship that is lowered down) so that it would face the correct way for disembarking quickly. Vehicles such as water and petrol bowsers and power trailers etc., had to be towed on board and then turned around inside the ship and there was just enough room [inserted] TO DO THIS [/inserted] with no more than a foot to spare. After turning them we had to attach each back to the lorry that was going to tow it off. During these turning operations we broke many of the ship’s overhead lights, many of our lorries were taken up on lifts and parked on the top deck. Each vehicle had to be lashed down with a chain from each wheel to the deck. This was to stop them pitching around and perhaps go over the ship’s side.
We sailed at noon and as the coast line and mountains receded into the distance I took my last glimpse of Corsica. The ship’s escort consisted of of [sic] a single corvette which sailed along in front of us during the whole of the trip.
Cont’d…../
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76A
RESTRICTED
A POCKET GUIDE
TO
FRANCE
[inserted] ISSUED TO US BEFORE LANDING ON FRENCH [underlined] SOIL [/underlined] [/inserted]
War and Navy Departments
Washington, D.C.
Reproduced by Morale Services Section
S.O.S. NATOUSA
[inserted] [underlined] AS WE WERE UNDER UNITED STATES COMMAND [/underlined] [/inserted]
[page break]
76A
[blank page]
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CONTENTS
Page
I. Why You’re Going to France . . . . . 1
II. The United States Soldier In France . . . 2
1. Meet the People . . . . . . . 2
2. Security and Health . . . . . . 2
3. You are a Guest of France . . . . 7
4. Mademoiselle . . . . . . . 8
III. A Few Pages Of French History . . . . 9
1. Occupation . . . . . . . . 9
2. Resistance . . . . . . . . 11
3. Necessary Surgery . . . . . . 11
4. A Quick Look Back . . . . . . 12
5. Churchgoers . . . . . . . 13
6. The Machinery . . . . . . . 14
IV. Observation Post . . . . . . . 15
1. The Provinces . . . . . . . 15
2. The Cafés . . . . . . . . 16
3. The Farms . . . . . . . . 17
4. The Regions . . . . . . . . 19
5. Work . . . . . . . . . 21
6. The Tourist . . . . . . . . 22
V. In Parting . . . . . . . . . 26
VI. Important Signs . . . . . . . . 27
[inserted] [underlined] AS WE WERE UNDER UNITED STATES COMMAND. [/underlined] [/inserted]
[page break]
[inserted] 77 [/inserted]
- 23 –
At 7.0 p.m. we could see the coast of France in the distance and the destroyers which were patrolling the coastal waters and to our left I could see a big convoy which was making its way in the same direction as ourselves. At 8.30 p.m. the bottom of our ship scraped against the earth of France. The ramp was immediately lowered and a smoke screen was set up to cover our landing. We piled aboard our lorry and the vehicles were driven down the ramp one by one and then along the beach for 300 yards where they waited until the last lorry had disembarked and had formed up in line.
We landed on one of the original invasion beaches, at a spot 13 miles West of Toulon. To the left of our landing point lay a burnt out L.S.T which had been hit and had grounded itself on the beach in the first assault wave. We drove up from the beach and through a small wood that still showed the sign of the bitter fighting that had taken place. It was so deserted, quiet and desolate as we reached the main coastal road (what was left of it). At this point we turned westwards and drove along by the coast. To our right by the roadside ran the main coastal railway. The track was one mass of huge holes and the twisted rails stood uprooted high into the air at many points. Eevery [sic] so often built on the hillside over-looking the sea, we passed by big concrete gun positions and defence posts. Many of them were well camouflaged and those that were still in the process of being built showed up white against the background of green grass and the reddish brown soil. A great number of these posts had been hit by bombs as was every house that we passed by in this coastal sector, from the small dwelling houses up to the huge lovely Riviera mansions of the idle rich. All these coastal buildings had been commandeered by German troops as a defence measure since they had invaded the country.
The bombing that I have described was a tribute to the accuracy of the bombers that we had escorted on bombing raids. In a way it was a terrible sight to see such wanton destruction, but then war is war and the Germans occupied all of the targets.
It was just getting dark when we reached the town of St Raphael where the harbour was full of [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [deleted] ships [/deleted] [inserted] WARSHIPS, TROOP CARRIERS, MERCHANT SHIPS ETC [/inserted] etc. Each was flying a silver barrage balloon. The dock area was one mass of activity. The decks of the ships that were being unloaded were illuminated by big arc lamps and the dockside was ablaze with lights. At various points along the shore amphibious ducks were coming up from the sea onto the coastak [sic] road, their bases were glistening in the lights and dripping with water. They had all been loaded up from the big ships out in the bay and after joining us on the road they continued their journey up to the front line carrying supplies and food for the troops in the forward area. Also, in the procession were many large tanks along with lorries and jeeps, field guns and ambulances etc.
The town of St Raphael had suffered very badly from bombing and shelling but the dock area which once consisted of warehouses, works and repair shops, factories and railway systems etc., had been raised to the ground. We continued our journey along the same route that the invading troops had taken to link
Cont’d…../
[page break]
[inserted] 78 [/inserted]
- 24 –
up with the airborne men. The next town we passed through was the main communication centre of Frejus, where the coastal road linked up with the main inland roads. One of these roads led to the well known town of Grasse, where most of France’s perfumery supplies are produced. We took the main road North which eventually reached the Rhone valley. Frejus also showed many scars left as a result of warfare, but the next small village named Ruget had had only a few bombs dropped upon. [inserted] IT. [/inserted] After passing through this village, the road was lined on either side and the nearby fields were dotted with tiny one man slit trenches, which the paratroopers had dug for themselves, with their little shovel which each man carried along with his equipment when he was dropped by parachute. It was fully dark when a little later we turned off from the main road so we could not see much.
After travelling up this branch road for approx. half-a-mile we came to a village named Roquebrune-sur-Argens and after covering another mile we reached our new camp site after a further short ride along a very bumpy and narrow lane which had been made up by a bulldozer into he surrounding countryside to where our camp was situated on the side of a small hill or a large slope (I did not know which to call it).
The first thing I did on arriving was to locate the cook-house and scrounged something to eat and drink. Next I unrolled my bed and slept beneath a waggon for the night. We pitched our tents first thing the next morning before going down to the new strip to take over our own aircraft once more. After giving [inserted] Q [/inserted] a check-over she went up on patrol work along the coast and over the troops driving towards “Marseilles”. Our new strip was situated on what had once been a huge vineyard. The bulldozers had to tear up tens of thousands of grape vines when making the runway and taxiing tracks and dispersal bays. So whilst waiting for Q to come back from a trip, I used to sit at the end of the runway and I could just reach out and pick large bunches of either lovely juicy green or black grapes. Whilst at the drome I must have averaged eating at least 7 lbs of them each day. I often used to think of you at home where at that time grapes cost £1. per pound to buy.
As a tribute to the American engineers, I would like to mention the fact that within a few days of us arriving they had built a pipe-line all the way from the coast to our strip and our petrol supply was pumped directly to us from the dock. For the first few days our petrol was flown in to us by Dakota transport aircraft. As soon as one had taken off another fully loaded one landed. In fact they arrived in a continuous stream throughout the day.
On the second day the Squadron only flew on one mission and that was an offensive patrol over Lyon. As a result we finished work early. After dinner, I had a bath in the river that ran alongside the strip. I often used to go in for a dip whilst Q was up flying. After my bath I continued my walk across the grape vineyards and on to the village of Ruget.
Cont’d…../
[page break]
78A
[coloured photograph of village]
ROAD TO CAMP. [symbol] [underlined] ROQUEBRUNE-SUR-ARGENS. [/underlined]
[aerial photograph of Roquebrune-sur-Argens]
[symbol] OUR AIRSTRIP SITUATED BETWEEN ROQUEBRUNE AND [underlined] RUGET [/underlined]
[page break]
[underlined] ROQUEBRUNE – VUE DU ROCHER [/underlined]
[photograph of hills through a bridge]
[symbol] [underlined] ONE OF FIRST OBJECTIVES OF THE AIRBORN DROP [/underlined]
[photograph of a bridge across the river]
[underlined] ROQUEBRUNE LE ROCHER ST LA PONT SUR L’ARGENS [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 79 [/inserted]
- 25 –
All the fields that I passed through were dotted with slit trenches dug amongst the grape vines. Remains of rations and containers which had been dropped to the airborne troops littered the surrounding area. In the centre of this scene stood what had been a big wine manufacturing factory. It then lay shattered, caused by shell-fire from our troops when they were capturing the building so as to be able to hold the place as a strong point, as it held a commanding view of the area for miles in each direction. On reaching Ruget I hitch-hiked to Frejus and toured the town before making my way back to camp.
I remember one night our aircraft were late coming back from patrol and had to land in the pitch dark except for a chance light at the beginning of the runway. I was at the other end waiting for Q. After three approaches [deleted] that [/deleted] the first aircraft touched down and went [inserted] PAST [/inserted] [deleted] passed [/deleted] me at quite a speed. With the aid of a torch we went after it and found it amongst some grape vines with its wheels up against the petrol pipeline which had brought the aircraft to a final stop and most probably saved it from a lot of damage. We turned it around and pushed it a few yards until it was back on the runway so that the pilot was able to taxie [sic] back to his dispersal. The next two aircraft, after many approaches, touched down one after the other and both started to run off the side of the runway but at the last moment managed to correct themselves. By this time the other two that were still waiting to come in were getting short of petrol. The next one touched down and at the last moment the pilot must have thought that he would not be able to pull up in time as he opened up his throttle and took off once more so as to be able to make [inserted] ANOTHER [/inserted] [deleted] the [/deleted] attempt at landing. The moment that his engines leaped to life as he opened up, the aircraft was heading straight for us fellows at the end of the runway. I did not know which way to run for the best and I thought my last moment had come as I threw myself flat on the ground as the plane passed over no more than 10 ft above me. Was I scared.
On the last day of August when I arose at 3.30 a.m. I found that I had missed the lorry so I had to walk down to the drome. Later on that morning our Flight Commander came up and asked me if I would like a trip out, to which I quickly replied that I most certainly would, so I clambered aboard the lorry and our journey took us back onto the main road where we turned northwards and travelled along the lovely super wide concrete road which runs through the Rhone Valley and it was banked at every bend. Alongside of us ran the railway track which was in a sorry looking mess and the telephone wires were either cut between each post or the pole itself had been cut down.
After travelling for approximately five miles along this road we came to a village name St Lucia or something like that, I cannot recall the exact name.
[page break]
79A
[underlined] ROQUEBRUNE VUE DES PORTIQUES ST LA PLACE [/underlined]
[photograph of street with buildings and men playing boules]
[underlined] ROQUEBRUNE UNE VUE DES PORTIQUES ST AORLORE [/underlined]
[photograph with church in background]
[page break]
[underlined] ROQUESBRUNE VUE GENERAL [/underlined]
[photograph of village]
[underlined] ROQUEBRUNE VUE DE L’EGLISE. [/underlined]
[photograph of a church]
[page break]
[inserted] 80 [/inserted]
Anyway we turned off the main road and onto a country one and after travelling along for a few minutes an awe-inspiring sight met our eyes. It was a scene that throughout my lifetime I shall always be able to recall in detail and picture before me.
Over the whole area which was then still and quiet lay hundreds of gliders. The small American type with their white star markings on. A few had their stars missing and only a round hole in the fabric remained. These had been cut out be the gliders occupants to keep as souvenirs of their landing. Then there were the bit British type gliders intermingled with the American ones. Some of the gliders had made perfect landings and were intact, others had landed in fields that were studded with anti landing posts sticking up all over them and consequently many had wings or wheels ripped off. Others had overturned and some had caught fire and burnt out. Only their framework remained. I remember seeing where one big British glider had crashed straight onto a clump of tall thick trees. As we drove amongst the gliders, shells, boxes of ammunition etc were scattered everywhere and occasionally a plain rough home made wooden cross marked the spot where someone had given his life in the struggle against Germany. Luckily I am glad to be able to say that I only saw a few in the whole area.
The spot that we were making for was a huge farm house which the German Army had taken over and had turned into a mechanical workshop. Many of the gliders had landed within a few yards of the building. On the whole the place was disappointing as we did not obtain as much useful equipment as we had hoped to. In the Germans Commanding Officer’s rooms we found a big picture of Hitler which we conveniently destroyed along with hundreds of propaganda leaflets. The troops had slept in the attic and their beds were just as they had left them. I think that the building was the very first spot in the South of France to be liberated as it was captured according to an inscription on one of the walls at 4am on D Day by British Paratroops. Around the outside of the building lay German stores of clothing etc. I picked up one or two useful little brushes. Permanent barracks were in the process of being built for the troops and the parts that had been completed looked quite nice. Also nearby to the building was a nice new wooden look out tower. I bet the lookout man had plenty to look at the morning that the gliders landed in his garden. We were very sorry when on discovering the wine cellar we found it empty. The paratroopers had been there before us. After thoroughly touring the farm house etc we loaded our loot on the lorry and continued our journey until we came upon another farm house which had its grounds surrounded with rings and rings of barbed wire. We were very careful as we walked through the entrance gap. The enemy here had left in even a greater hurry as they left their greatcoats, cups, plates, knives and forks etc beside their beds.
- 1 –
[page break]
[inserted] 81 [/inserted]
We visited two more camps that belonged to the enemy and picked up a few more odds and ends before we drove back to our own camp, as it was time for us to eat.
That same night I was awoken by a commotion at 3 am and on getting out of bed to investigate its cause, I discovered that the order had just come through for the advance party to move to a new strip and that they had to pack, their tents were to be taken down and they were to be ready to move at 8 am on the following morning. After hearing that, I crawled back into my bed.
Next day the Squadron had flown five trips by 10 am when another Squadron took over from us and left us all with the rest of the day to ourselves. We were told that a few of us could go for a trip to Cannes if we wanted to after dinner. I was one of the lucky ones as my name was drawn from the hat.
So after a quick wash I dressed myself in my best clothes and then drew rations from the cookhouse before boarding the lorry. (We were on american [sic] rations at that time). So we set out for the millionaires playground. It was a lovely ride through the beautiful Riveria [sic] countryside and the sun shone for us throughout our journey. The only thing that spoilt it was when every so often we were reminded of the war when we passed by bombed barracks, buildings and one or two factories. For a few hundred yards inland all along the coastal area near the town had been mined and still was. Then came barbed wire defences etc so the Germans must have expected an invasion in the south at one time. What with the concrete pill boxes and gun emplacements etc but when the invasion came from the North in Normandy the enemy drew most of his troops from the South to meet the threat in Normany [sic] and they were consequently taken by surprise when a second invasion came in the South. As we neared the town which had only been captured a few days before we were stopped by American Military Police near to a small bridge that had been blown up and told that the town was out of bounds to all troops. Our spirits dropped at the thought of having to turn about and go back after getting so far.
Then one of the chaps suddenly piped up before anyone could say anything and told the police that we had to pick up our CO who we knew was staying in the town at the Victoria Hotel. So the police then phoned the hotel to check if our CO really was there. When it had been confirmed we were allowed to pass the barrier. Later on we learned that our second vehicle was stopped at the same spot and they told the police that they were in a hurry and had to catch up a convoy in Nice and at that moment one of the police remembered the markings on the lorry was the same as on ours. [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] [deleted] [symbol] HE [/deleted] [inserted] ONE [/inserted] ASKED THEM IF ONE OF OUR LORRIES HAD ALREADY GONE THROUGH [/inserted] So the boys said yes we have got to catch them up, so that was how the second lorry got through the barrier.
- 2 –
[page break]
[underlined] 81A [/underlined]
[two photographs of the harbour at Cannes]
[page break]
[photograph of Cannes taken from the hillside]
[photograph of Cannes beach]
[page break]
81A
[two photographs of Cannes beach]
[page break]
[two photographs of scenic views of Cannes]
[page break]
[inserted] 82 [/inserted]
Once we arrived in the town we dispersed like ants and no one could have rounded us up together again if they had wanted to. The police kept stopping our chaps and told them to get out of town. Everyone just said alright and walked around the next corner and carried on with their tour of the town. When I was stopped, each time I told them that I was staying at the “Victoria Hotel” and they were satisfied with my statement. By evening they gave up trying to get us RAF chaps out of the town as a bad job.
In the shops one could buy almost anything and many things were obtainable there that had not been seen in England for years. Food was very scarse [sic] as it was in the whole of Southern France. As in this area they did not produce much food even in peace time as the land mostly comprised of grape vineyards and what little cattle that it had possessed had been taken away by the Germans in the early days of their occupation.
There were quite a number of English people living in the town that had not received any news of their relations in Britain for nearly four years. It was from an English managed shop that I bought the fountain pen that I have written most of this book with. The proprietors were an eldish couple and they told me that they had lived on vegetables alone for months and really felt hungry at times. So we decided to give them some of the rations that we had brought along with us. They wanted to pay us a terrific price for what we gave them which of course we refrained from accepting. We were also told that no bombs had been dropped on the town itself and that the place was garrisoned by SS men.
Very high prices were paid for goods on the black market. I was offered 15/- for a packet of 20 English cigarettes by a French civilian, but the high prices worked both ways. As myself and two friends were in the centre of the town when we came across an ice cream parlour and I decided to treat my pals to an ice cream each. Imagine my face when I asked the waitress how much the bill for the three came to and was told 6/-. I think that they thought that I was a visiting millionaire. In one shop I bought a supply of scent and powder as both were unobtainable in England at that time.
I expected the town of Cannes to be outstanding and possess a large wide beach but it was contrary to my expectations in both cases. The place was not better than a large select English seaside resort and the beach was very long but also very narrow. There was one thing that stood out and that was how some of the women mostly young ravishing blondes etc walked about with hardly anything on. The average English woman would [deleted] be [/deleted] [inserted] HAVE BEEN [/inserted] quite shocked at the sight.
- 3 –
[page break]
[inserted] 83 [/inserted]
At approximately 8 pm we had mustered all the boys together and we set off on our long journey back to camp after spending a very enjoyable day. Luckily we were travelling in a covered waggon as it teemed with rain during most of our ride.
On the 5th September I saw Q on its journey to our new [deleted] drive [/deleted] [inserted] DROME [/inserted] to the north, after which we once again packed all the kit and equipment and loaded it on waggons. That same evening we held a flight party in the nearest village and boy oh boy what a party. I spent that night sleeping beneath one of the squadron’s lorries as we had already packed up our tents. I arose with a very heavy head on the following morning. At 8.30 am we moved off in convoy but by the time the end of the journey was reached one could hardly call it a convoy as the Squadron’s vehicles were strewn all over the Southern part of the Rhone Valley. One lorry had a crash and many others had either major or minor breakdowns. I travelled in a Big Diesel Bus that had been captured by the paratroop [sic] and in turn thay [sic] had presented it to the squadron. The bus had been made a few years before in Holland. The town that we were making for was named “Montelimar”. At the time our operational map showed that the town had only just been captured and that the Germans were still on the North, East and West sides of the town. No one knew the correct road that we had to take and I am convinced that it would have been easily possible for us to have driven into the enemy’s lines without knowing it. This actually happened to a few RAF fellows of another unit a few days later. We received a royal welcome at every village that we passed through during our journey northwards. Men, women, girls and children all had a wave of the hand and a welcome smile for us as we went by. Every so often along the road someone would be standing beside it with bottles of wine, melons etc signalling for us to stop and partake of the same. If we had done so we would have been blind drunk before we had gone far. At one village we stopped at after losing the rest of the convoy, as soon as the inhabitants found out that we were British and not American, hundreds of people gathered around our bus offering us wine etc and they even wanted us to stay in the village and have a meal with what little rations that they could scrape together. All along our route up the beautiful valley signs of war met our eyes. Many villages built on high ground overlooking the surrounding area in which the enemy had made into strong points where they made a strong attempt to stem the 7th Armies rapid advance, had by mass bombing been virtually wiped off of the map. Even the ground surrounding these villages was a mass of holes made by 500 lb bombs. Along the roadside stood overturned, burnt out vehicles, knocked out field guns, abandoned equipment etc and now and then I saw knocked out American and German tanks that stood silently out in nearby fields and on the railway lines stood burnt out cattle waggons and passenger coaches, engines, rolling stock which had been strafed and bombed. All factories, railway stations and other important targets lay in a mass of ruins.
- 4 –
[page break]
[inserted] 84 [/inserted]
We lost the convoy once during the morning but picked it up again at the spot where it had stopped by the roadside whilst the boys had a meal. So when we drew in behind the line of vechicles [sic] we got a chance to stretch our legs. All went well until the early afternoon when we broke down and the rest of the squadron went on and left us. Luckily we stopped just outside of a big orchard and we were able to pick apples, peaches and bunches of the biggest grapes that I have ever seen to our hearts content. It was discovered a little later that the radiator cooling fan had come off and that we could not do anything without some tools. We questioned a French man that came along as to where nearby we would be able to get some. He told us to try at an American garage that was situated about 3 kilometres further up the road. So myself and two other fellows volunteered to walk there only to find on arrival that the unit had moved a few days previously, so we went on into the tiny village that stood beside a huge iron railway bridge that once spanned the wide river Rhone. Most of it there lay a mass of twisted girders which had collapsed into the water below as a result of being blown up by the Germans. Unfortunately the village did not possess anything resembling a garage. So we set off back towards our bus. A few minutes later a civilian car picked us up and took us most of the way. On arrival back at the bus we held a conference and decided to refill the radiator with cold water which we obtained from a well in a nearby cottage. We also filled a couple of empty petrol cans with water which we had in the bus and then we decided to carry on without the cooling fan until the water had boiled away and then stop and fill it up again. Our next stop came when we had to cross the road bridge spanning the river. Once upon a time it had been a large impressive looking suspension bridge but it now suspended no longer as the enemy had cut the holding cables causing the bridge to collapse in the centre. So we had to travel down and up a very steep shaped [symbol] The brakes on our bus were very poor and would hardly hold at all. All of us fellows quickly got out and then cleared the rest of the bridge of traffic until our old bus had come tearing down the slope and up the other side where we joined it once again.
Our route took us through the ancient town of Orange. I remember at its entrance stood a centuries old triumphal archway. We had to stop nearby to it to fill up the old radiator as clouds of steam accompanied by a loud hissing noise came from it. We also refilled our petrol cans with water from the towns water pump.
- 5 –
[page break]
[inserted] 85 [/inserted]
Later on when it was dark and we were nearly all dozing off to sleep we were violently aroused. I found myself high up in the air. The reason for this was because the bus had gone over the edge of the built up track leading to our new airfield. It then stood at an acute angle and was in danger of overturning. Us chaps on the higher side sat fast whilst those on the lower side got out. Then we baled out as quickly as it was humanly possible and between us we somehow managed to get the bus righted and back on the track once more. Then we continued the last quarter of a mile of our journey into camp. At that time it was teeming with rain which continued throughout the night. After a scrappy meal which the cooks had ready for us, or rather it was nearly cold as the rest of the party had arrived long before us. We had been given up as lost for the night so we had to eat what had been left over. After consuming my share I picked my way through the mud back to the bus and spent the rest of that night inside it. I tried to sleep in a cramped up position like a sardine in a tin with a blanket over me. When lightness came I ventured out and found German camouflaged lorries, cars, waggons, vans and mobile cookhouses all around me. They gave me a shock for a moment but I found out later that they had all been picked up by the advance party from around the surrounding area and that they were all in working order.
My first step after breakfast was to find the waggon in which I had loaded my kit. When I finally located it I found it empty and nearby lay all of my kit soaked through as a result of being left out in the rain all night. Some kind person must have unloaded it the night before and left it lying in the mud. Many of the other chaps belongings were the same.
When it at last stopped raining, I rounded up the other fellows and we erected our own tent. After erecting our beds and storing our kit we all went out to explore the town which was quite fair size and possessed a large shopping centre in which there was plenty of goods on sale. The town’s only claim to fame was that in peace time it manufactured and was famed for its special French nougat. It also possessed a very nice park where often I would sit beside the lake of an evening listening to the song of the birds, or viewing the many types of trees and flowers that were planted there or watching the fishes in the lake swimming around the large ornamental water fountains which played the water high into the air. All around the park stood big wire cages where before the war lived many types of birds and animals. There were also some lovely walks near to the town that I used to take. My favourite one was to climb to the top of a big hill just outside the town on which stood an old castle. From this point no matter in what direction I looked I obtained a wonderful view of the Rhone Valley and its surrounding hills. Also I would look down on the peaceful green trees and fields in which horses, sheep and other cattle grazed and on the farmhouses hayricks, colourful gardens and the winding narrow lanes and the wide twisting river. Then I would often gaze on the town which looked quite old from where I stood and on to the airfield with its many machines that spelt death to the enemy parked upon it.
- 6 –
[page break]
[inserted] 86 [/inserted]
In a corner of one of the fields behind the castle a trench had been dug about 100 yds long and 10 yds of it had been filled in and above this part stood a few plain wooden crosses. I would not mind betting that the two Germans that gave themselves up to our advance party finally found their way to that spot. We could do nothing with them so they were handed over to the FFI. The Montelimar population were not very friendly towards the Germans as it was one of the centres of the Free French Underground Movement who had supplies dropped to them at night on many occasions by British Aircraft. They had blown up trains and bridges that were of vital use to the enemy. One group of the resistance movement tried to capture the airdrome that we were on before the American advanced units had reached the town. The Germans with superior numbers repulsed the attack and captured 8 of the Free French whom they lined up in front of one of the hangers and shot them. They were buried where they fell. When we arrived the French were digging up the bodies to give them a decent burial.
The central square of the town was littered with knocked out vehicles and when we were talking to a family one evening they told us that on the very corner that we were standing four Germans had been shot dead by American infantry men whilst they were trying to make good their escape through the maze of narrow streets around them. On the railway track near our camp at that time stood a huge 18” naval gun on wheels and also hundreds of burnt out cattle trucks. Just outside the town was another scene that I cannot fully describe although I can picture it quite clearly. It had to be seen to be believed. It was where a convoy of hundreds of enemy vehicles of every description driven by Germans who were making their retreat in every conveyance that they could lay their hands on were trapped at both their front and rear by cross fire from American tanks. Whilst at the same time they were dive bombed and strafed from above by squadrons of American Thunderbolt aircraft.
Only a few of the vehicles escaped total descruction. [sic] To clear the road bulldozers had to be brought into use that pushed what was left of the convoy to either side of the road. Tin hats, burnt out ammunition, springs, nuts, bolts and other bits and pieces lay in heaps beside the machine gun riddled and burnt out buses, motor cycles, vans and lorries. Many houses on both sides of the road had been caught in this little portion of war and lay shattered after being hit by bombs. At a later date I saw an American newsreel in which I saw this scene once again. When we first arrived German prisoners were still burning dead horses that lay nearby and when we passed by I had to hold my nose to stop myself from being sick. I had never before and hope never will again smell anything so bad as those dead horses did.
- 7 –
[page break]
[inserted] 87 [/inserted]
Most of the time that we were stationed at Montelimar airfield our spitfires were grounded in the mud and every available lorry on the squadron had to be put on fetching loads of petrol from the coast and taking it up to the front line. (A journey of over 200 miles in each direction). The advance was going so fast that the tanks and armoured vehicles etc had to slow down through lack of petrol. Many aircraft at one time were grounded as ours were, so that the personnel could get every lorry on fetching MT, petrol from the docks. Aircraft petrol was brought in by 4 engined aircraft landing loaded with drums of petrol and with full tanks. They were then unloaded and their tanks were drained just leaving enough in them to enable the aricraft [sic] to fly back to their bases.
During one of my walks at different points I saw something that I could not distinquish [sic] and the longer I looked, it looked all the more like the countryside. So I walked up to one of these points to satisfy my curiosity and even when I was only 20 yds away I still could not make out what was before me. Imagine my surprise when I found they were cunningly camouflaged aircraft dispersal bays. It was some of the most perfect camouflage possible. The Germans certainly did not want their aircraft to be hit during the many raids that the airfield had received. These bays were at least 1 1/2 miles away from the runway and a camouflaged concrete strip ran from the bays and across roads and onto the airfield near the end of the runway. The aircraft must have been towed to and from the runway along these strips as if they had taxied the engines would have overheated long before they had got halfway. But for all their craftiness and trouble the bays that I went to had been strafed at least once and if any aircraft had been in them they most certainly would have been hit.
On 12th September the Wing held a liberation dance in the town’s largest hall. I was lucky enough to draw a ticket that enabled me to attend. It was the first dance to be held in the town since the Germans occupied it and it was a huge success. The bar was stocked with crates of champagne.
- 8 –
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[inserted] 88 [/inserted]
Near to the airfield another big suspension bridge that spanned the river Rhone had been blown up and the people from the villages on the other side of the river apart from getting across in a couple of small boats that were nearby had to make a detour of at least 50 miles if they wanted to get to Montelimar. We managed to climb a quarter of the way across on top of the wreckage of the bridge but the water current was too swift for us to attempt going further.
Many of our afternoons were spent by playing inter section football matches. Of course sometime during each day I had to stroll over to Q and give her a run up and check over. During the last few days of our stay in the town a funfair arrived and we spent quite a bit of time as well as money in it of an evening.
One day we were all called out on parade and our Flight Commander told us that we would soon be leaving the 7th Army and also France and that the Squadron and Wing were going to be disbanded. This was very bad news for us all. To know that all us fellows that had lived, worked and been friends together for so long would soon be split up and separated. Also our hopes of getting leave to England which came into being a month later were dashed to the ground. I have often wondered how my servicer overseas would have gone if more German aircraft had come up and challenged our spitfires for the mastery of the air. We would have stayed in France and gone into Germany and then Austria with the 7th Army and then perhaps home. But alas it was not to be for me. On Wednesday 20th September “A” Flt moved off on their journey South. That same evening all the occupants of our tent went to one of the wine bars in the town and celebrated the end of our part in what was called “The Champagne Campaign” so appropriately we drank nothing else than champagne.
We spent the following morning getting the aircraft out of the mud and onto the end of the runway where we lined them all up ready for take off that afternoon to another strip. It was a very impressive sight too that afternoon when one aircraft after the other belonging to our Wing took off until 85 were in the air forming themselves up into formations, the roar of engines was terrific. Then each squadron in turn did a mock shoot up of the airfield. Some of the spitfires came down so low that they made us duck down to the ground as they passed overhead.
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Next day we moved off to our new strip near Sulon and our 150 mile journey took us back through Orange and through the ancient town of Avignon where we saw hundreds of German prisoners marching through the streets on their way to help clear up the town’s bomb damage that had been heavy. The best bit of bombing I have seen was in one town that we passed through. The barracks occupied by the Germans was in the centre of it and they had been gutted by fire and shattered by bombs and yet the civilian houses all around the barracks were not even touched.
It was just outside Avignon where we had to take one of our many road diversions caused by bombing. This one took us across a very long railway bridge, as the road bridge had been blown up. After getting over this we had to go across a few fields before we could get back onto the main road. All the fields around the bridge were one mass of bomb holes and a huge lorry and trailer travelling in front of our convoy slipped off the rough track into one of the water filled holes so blocking our way to the main road as it was impossible because of more bomb holes to get around it and the track itself was very narrow in [deleted] stead [/deleted] [inserted] DEED. [/inserted] The lorry by the way was loaded with tons of glassware most of which got smashed as the lorry slid down at the one side. Traffic was coming on behind us so that we could not turn around. We had to go back to the road junction and stop anymore traffic coming down. What a job it was arguing with the French civilian drivers and trying to make them understand why we would not let them proceed. I can picture quite easily how they blocked the road and stopped our military traffic in the grim days of June 1940. Next we had to get the lorries behind us in the diversion to back out one by one until at last we came to our convoy and then the lorry that I was travelling on. After taking another diversion we finally reached the main road. This hold up caused us a full 2 hour delay and it was 7 pm before we reached Sulon and we just had enough time to erect our tent before dark. The exploring spirit in us came out that night and we could not resist going out to look at our surroundings. So we walked along the road running passed the [deleted] cap [/deleted] [inserted] CAMP [/inserted] site until we came to a very nice and comfortable wine and beer bar. Beer by the way was 4d a bottle. It was in here that I discovered that they sold delicious blackcurrant brandy which was my favourite drink from then on, second to champagne of course.
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Next morning we made a football pitch in a nearby field. Near also to this field was a few farmhouses which had been bombed by a liberator bomber, so we were told. Civilians lived in all but one of the houses and the Germans had taken over that one. I have aften [sic] wondered if it was just luck that the pilot chose those houses as his target or if it was once again a good piece of intelligence work. Our airfield was a new one and had been built in a matter of days by American Engineers and was called La Valone Airfield. That evening I paid a visit to the nearby village of “Istres”. The lorry on which I hitch-hiked back to camp was loaded with 500 lb bombs and there was I sitting on one which bounced and rolled at every bump in the road.
Nearly every lorry that passed along that road was loaded with big bombs etc bringing them up from the docks to a huge ammunition dump at Mirimas nearby. It was a huge peacetime dump with a railway system running through it. The big storage sheds made to look like houses were set well apart from each other. The war chiefs must have meant to use this place long before it was captured as the main line and the district round and the station had been devastated. Most evening my friends and myself went either into Istres or Mirimas for our nightly bottle of champagne and on our return we would raid the cookhouse for something to eat.
On the 26th September I drew rations and along with two of my friends (one was the other fellow from Slough) we went on one of the squadrons lorries into Marseilles for the day. Our journey took us through the town of Aix and also through some very pretty countryside and then we travelled around a huge lake which continued until we reached the outskirts of the city. My first glimpse of which was looking down on the huge bay and the harbour which was full of ships loaded with supplies for the troops. To my left lying in a picturesque valley was a very long viaduct showing up white in the morning sunlight. The further that we descended this hill overlooking the area, the more cityfied it became. The dock area which we passed by was mostly in ruins.
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Next we went around the most impressive looking Triumphal Arch and then along the road for another few hundred yards where we found ourselves in the centre of the city. One of the docks came right up to the bottom of the main street and at that time 4 LCTs were unloading big American tanks. We watched a few as they rolled out onto the dockside and immediately started off along the road beginning their long journey up to the front. We saw a big crowd of soldiers on the dockside and we went over to talk to them and found out that they were on the last stage of their journey to England. Most of them had been taken prisoner at Tobruk in 1940 four years previously and had been taken to a prison camp in Italy. When Italy gave in they managed to escape into neutral Switzerland. After chatting with these fellows we walked up the main street until we came to the American Red Cross Club which was the only place that troops could obtain anything to eat as all the city’s restaurants were out of bounds. All that one could obtain in the club was a cup of coffee, a sandwich and two cakes. We decided to stay at the club and eat some of the rations that we had brought along with us. There we sat eating American rations whilst the Yanks watched us with hungry eyes. After leaving the club we passed by the cathedral nearby and went up the Rue-De-Longchamp until we came to a huge impressive monument named La Palais-Longchamp. We climbed up one of the side sweeping stairways at the top of which we found ourselves in a neat and tidy park situated behind the monument. At the end of this small park we came to the zoo. Most of the cages in it were empty as there was not enough food around to feed the animals, most of which had gradually died off since the war began. There were quite a number of birds left though such as hawks etc. Then there was the giraffe which stretched its long neck over the wire fence to take a piece of biscuit out of my hand. He looked so hungry that I was scared stiff that he might decide to take my hand instead. Anyway I was ready with my other hand to punch him on the nose if he did try. Next came the little brown bear which when I approached its cage sat up and waved its paws at me and he had such a sorrowful look in his eyes which seemed to say please have you anything for me to eat as I feel so hungry. He managed to obtain most of my biscuits. then there was the pelican that was very good at catching bits of biscuit from a long distance away from us. I felt very sorry for the elephant who eagerly picked up bits of biscuit no bigger than a sixpenny piece with his trunk and tossed them into his mouth. It was like putting an eggcup full of water into a swimming pool. Then there was the mangy camel and the scraggy hyena and a few other animals. The most unconcerned occupants of the zoo were a couple of tortoise.
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We next decided to tour the shopping centre which was just like touring Oxford Street in London with its big departmental stores, ice cream shops and large modern cinemas etc. It was pleasnt [sic] for me to see trams and traffic once again after such a long time away from them. Everything in the shops was very expensive, but they were better stocked than what the London shops were during wartime.
In the evening just before it was time for our lorry to leave, we popped into one of the many nigh [sic] clubs and we soon popped out again after we found out that the dirnks [sic] cost 4/- and 6/- each.
[inserted] 27th [/inserted]
Next day we had to go to the airfield as our Squadron was flying its last trip. As I said before Mr Robertson paid the tribute to me of flying once again and choosing Q as his machine. The aircraft were flying to Sardinia where they were going into the pool. I saw Q to the end of the runway for the last time and as a few minutes later it dived and roared overhead saying goodbye to me I honestly admit that there were tears in my eyes.
My second pilot then W/O Connon received his commission and was posted to another spitfire wing in Italy. A year later I learned with much regret that he had been killed whilst flying. One grows very hard hearted and used to death during wartime. One minute you are speaking to a fellow and then a few moments later you learn that he has been killed and perhaps have had to stand by and watch him being burned to death not being able to do anything to help him.
On October 1st leave was being dished out, so one of my friends and myself put a pass in for to allow us to stay in Marseilles for a few days. The only condition before it was granted was that we had to put down the address. [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] [symbol] THAT WE WOULD BE STAYING AT. SO TO GET OUR PASSES SIGNED WE INVENTED AN ADDRESS. [/inserted] Later on that morning saw us tramping out of camp loaded with rations drawn from the cookhouse. Then we stood by the roadside and started to thumb a lift. The first one halfway to the city by a roundabout route that we did not know. Dinner time saw us tramping along a tiny deserted coastal road. A quarter of an hour later a vehicle same [sic] trundling along and picked us up and took us along the road a further half mile where we had to start hiking once more. After we had covered a further mile and half we were getting fed up and had nearly decided to turn back when a waggon came along and pulled up beside us to enable us to climb aboard. He had only taken us a little distance further along the road when we discovered ourselves on the main road that we knew.
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A little later on we got held up in a traffic jam and we asked the driver of a jeep in front of us if he was going into Marseille and he told us to pile in, we could go to Toulon with him if we wanted to but we decided against it. We finished the last part of our journey at an average speed of just on 50 miles an hour. Our first job on arrival in the city was to find somewhere to stay. We tried a dozen or more hotels only to be told that they were full up. At 2.30 pm we decided to go to the bull fight that was advertised and trust to luck in getting somewhere to sleep. We found out the direction to take for the stadium and clambered on to a tram as instructed which took us to the city outskirts by way of park lined boulevards. Our ride was not a long one but it took us passed La Fountaine Cantini.
On arrival at the arena we paid our 40 francs (4/-) at the cubby hole cut in the boarding in return for our ticket and passed through a small entrance in the boarding surrounding the arena and up a dozen steps and so into the stadium. Around the circular area of sand was a wooden barrier with four openings in it. Three of them just wide enough for a man to pass through and the fourth wide enough for the bull to pass into the arena. A few feet out from this first barrier was a second one, only this one had only one opening in it. A wide one opposite the biggest one in the first barrier. Radiating out from these circular boardings rose tier after tier of seats for the spectators. The whole arena was in the open air and it was not such a big place. When we arrived the band was playing the tune that heralds the entrance of the bull. We took our seats as the gate where the openings in both barriers are together opened and into the arena trotted a bull that possessed a nasty looking pair of long horns. Then amid a fanfare of trumpets the matadors and picadors marched into the arena dressed in their [inserted] WONDERFUL [/inserted] traditional Spanish costumes with their swords and pics. The matadors also carried a red velvet cape gaily embroidered on the reverse side.
After bowing to the audience, the picadors went between the two barriers whilst the three matadors took it in turns to play with the bull. It looked very easy the way that they held out their cape and just side stepped every time the bull charged but I would not like to try it at any time. On a few occasions the cape got caught on the bulls horns and torn from the matadors hands and it was then funny seeing the bull chase him either over the barrier or between one of the small openings in the barrier. When this happened the other two matadors waved their capes so as to draw the bull’s attention away from the other fellow whilst he retrieved his cape.
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When the bull began to grow a bit tired and docile and would not charge, the matadors went behind the barrier and the picadors took their place in the area. then the first one stood with his hands stretched out at an angle above his head. In his right hand he held what is called a pic. It is about 18” long and at one end of the stick is a steel pointed fish hook and at the other are attached coloured streamers. When the bull charged he side stepped and at the same time like lightening stuck the point of the pic under the skin of the bull at its left shoulder blade and then got out of the arena as quickly as possible. The bull then ran around trying to shake off the pic whilst the streamers waved in the breeze but the movement of the bull only hurts him all the more as the pic, because of its fish hook type end woudl [sic] not drop out. When it calmed down once more this performance was again repeated by the second picador followed by the third. The bull then had three pics stuck in him all near to each other and amid another fanfare of trumpets one of the matadors entered the arena once more holding a sheathed sword with his cape draped over it.
I must point out here the fact that in peace time he has a proper sword and kills the bull but during wartime the bulls could not be replaced, so at the end of the sword was attached something like a small pic in rosette form.
As the matador advanced he unsheathed his sword and as the infuriated bull charged at him he side stepped and struck out at the vital spot between the pics with the point of the sword leaving the rosette showing the spot where the sword would have entered the bulls body if it had been peace time.
If the matador missed the bull on his first attempt to pin the rosette on it at the vital spot you should hear the crowd boo and shout. They even threw their hats, programmes and even oranges at him. For if he misses, it is a great loss of prestige to him and he is reduced nearly to tears whilst things are being thrown at him.
But when he scored first time the band struck up with the traditional bull killing tune and everyone clapped and cheered whilst the matador looking very happy with a broad smile on his face bowed to the audience.
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I also saw all I [inserted] HAVE [/inserted] described with the picadors and matadors being on horseback and the horses did not even receive a scratch. Then there were clowns who did all sorts of very clever and funny things with a bull.
I think that the sport is very cruel especially in peace time. Bull fighting is still illegal in France and on the day after the fight the promoters are brought up in court and fined but they take enough gate money to pay all of their expenses and the fine and still make a profit, so that everyone is happy and satisfied.
There were six fights on the programme that we went to see but after watching four of them we started to hunt for accommodation once more and after approximately ten attempts we struck lucky in obtaining a room in a small private hotel in a select side road very near to La Fountaine Cantini monument.
The landlady was very nice and homely and cooked us a meal from our rations and told us that we could come in at what time we wanted to so we set out once more with our tummies full feeling very much better.
As we walked along the boulivards [sic] the city looked very impressive with all its coloured lights illuminating up the monuments, fountains, parks, shops and bars etc.
We decided to pay a visit to one of the large modern cinemas and much to our surprise and enjoyment the picture showing was English talking with the French translation printed along the bottom of the screen.
At the end of the show we walked slowly back towards the hotel and just before we reached it we came across a bar in which a dance was in progress. So in we went. In this bar we met a Frenchman who had been in the Foreign Legion for over six years and who could speak the most perfect English. It was a treat to listen to his voice. He had studied for five years at an English University, so we had quite a good chat. It was 2 am in the morning when we finally got to bed.
We had a lie in next morning and when we came downstairs the landlady had a meal prepared for us. After breakfast we went out for a walk which happened to take us passed the Red Cross Club where standing outside we caught sight of one of our Squadron lorries. We both wondered what it was doing in the city so early and went over to investigate.
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On entering the club we found the driver and discovered that he had been sent out to fetch us back to camp the previous afternoon as the Squadron had received an order to move again on the following day. The driver had searched nearly all the roads in the city during the night trying to find the address that we had said we would be staying at and after visiting the Police Station and Information Office and being told at both places that they did not know of any such Rue (road) he drove to the club for a cup of coffee before going back to camp and reporting us as missing. So we stayed and had a cup of coffee with him and then drove to the hotel where we picked up our belongings before setting off on our ride back to camp where on arrival we found that the move had been cancelled for a day. We left our packing until the next day when we moved off to the staging area via Aix which was situated at a point 12 miles North of Marseille where we erected our tent once more. By this time I was quite an expert at it.
Next evening I again visited Marseille to go to another cinema show On the following day at 6 pm we had to be ready to move off.
I escaped having to take down the tent and load it as I was travelling on the lorry which had to proceed straight to the dock and be loaded with a weeks rations for the Squadron. Actually we got German prisoners to do the loading and heavy work whilst we had supper in the ration warehouse before picking up the rest of the convoy in a main square in the centre of the city. At 8 pm we tagged on to the end of a long stream of waggons, lorries etc which stretched nearly all the way round the block. We were then told that if we wanted to we could wander off as long as we were back at our vehicles by 10 pm. I went for a little walk during that time and along with half a dozen fellows we went into one of the many night clubs but not one of us bought a drink. We just stood and watched a girl do a speciality dance. At 10.30 pm we backed into the United States landing craft tanks No. 120. By the time that we had chained down the lorries and turned about all of the trailer vehicles and found somewhere to sleep it was 2 am but before goint [sic] to bed I went up on deck and stood at the front of the boat and looked up the main street and down upon the lighted city with its night life just beginning.
Next day at 3 pm we anchored out in the bay until 1 pm the following day when we weighed anchor and set sail. There were 9 LCTs in the convoy which were escorted by two corvettes. We travelled eastwards for approximately 50 miles hugging the coastline before turning south. That night we ran into a terrific storm and as it was impossible to go up on deck I had to stay below [deleted] ehre [/deleted] [inserted] WHERE [/inserted] it was close and stuffy. It took me all my time to stop myself from being sea sick which I managed somehow.
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[underlined] 96 B [/underlined]
[photograph of tank landing craft]
[underlined] PHOTOGRAPH OF TANK LANDING CRAFT [/underlined] TAKEN FROM ONE THAT I WAS IN DURING TRIP FROM MARSEILLE’S TO [underlined] LEGHORN [/underlined]
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The LCT was rolling so much it threw one chap out of his bunk and everytime it rolled from one side to the other, doors of cupboards opened and closed and their one time contents lay on the floor, first sliding one way and then the other. Up above us we could hear the creaking and clanking of chains that held the lorries to the deck. I expected to hear a big splash caused by one going overboard at any second.
Next morning found us still steaming southwards just off the coast of Western Corsica when we saw much familiar coastline. Late afternoon we slid through the Straits of Bonnifaccio which separates Corsica and Sardinia and at nightfall we were travelling northwards once more off the coast of Eastern Corsica.
Early next morning we arrived in Leghorn Bay (Italy). Actually we were some of the first boats to enter the harbour. The front lines in Italy was then near the famour [sic] town of Pisa, 15 miles to our North.
The squadrons that were not breaking up disembarked that afternoon and continued their journey by road to the airfield from where they were going to operate against the enemy in Italy once more.
We lay anchored in the bay all night with the ships silver balloon flying high above us.
We sailed next day at 8 am and went southwards once more alongside the coast of Italy and passed by the Island of Montichisto, Elba, Pianosa and many other, both large and very small, all of which looked picturesque in the sunlight. At times we steamed so close to the coast of the mainland that we were able to distinguish quite clearly almost every detail on the shore in the bays and of the towns and villages etc situated by the sea. At tea time that day we left the coast and run into another hellish storm that lasted all night.
I spent these past few days sleeping, reading and playing cards etc.
On the morning of October 11th we were joined by another convoy of 8 LCTs and one Corvette. We steamed passed many more islands early that day, one of which was the island of Capri in the Bay of Naples and just before noon we dropped anchor in the next small bay north of the town. Late afternoon we steamed up to the dockside [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] AND AT 7 PM WE DROVE OUT [deleted] [indecipherable words] [/deleted] [/inserted] of the LCT and on up along the road to the top of the hill overlooking the town of Naples where our lorry and the others were stopped and we were told that we would be staying there for the night. Looking down below us we could see thousands of twinkling lights of the town and harbour. It was like being in heaven and looking down upon fairy land.
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[photograph of Naples]
[postcard giving details of the Vesuvius Railway and Funicular]
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I made my bed down on the pavement beside the road and I was soon in it and fast asleep. Surprisingly I slept very well that night. I expect it was because it was my first night on firm land for a long while. When I awoke the cooks were preparing and cooking our breakfast beside the road. After the meal we piled on to our waggons and drove down hill and descended on the town of Naples from the North side and so along the sea shore we went passing by small parks etc until we reached the old naval fort where we turned into the Via Garibaldi Road which is situated in the town centre. On reaching the end of Garibaldi Road we found ourselves in the large Garibaldi Road we found ourselves in the large Garibaldi Square where the central station is or rather was and continuing on our way we made our exit from the town at its Southern end where we turned into Mossolinis [sic] famous Autostrada which runs from Naples to the ancient ruins at Pompei. The highway took us right around the Bay of Naples and midway along it to our left reared the well known as Mount Vesuvius and the few villages that lie at the foot on its sloping approaches and out in the bay on our right we could clearly see the Isle of Capri.
I had expected the Autostrada to be a wide and most impressive modern highway after reading so much about it. Instead it is no better than a good British road. It is banked on either side and many overhead foot road bridges span the road. Even these bridges are not even uniformal and are built at all angles. Our journey took us by the ruins of Pompei and into the new town. It was there at the entrance to the ancient ruins of the Roman Coliseum that we found out that we had taken a wrong turning. So we and the whole long convoy had to about turn and go back along the road half a mile where we came to a roundabout and turned on to our correct road and travelled along it a few miles until we reached a town name Gragnano where we proceeded to its small railway station and yard which we used during the following few weeks as our vehicle park.
There was such a congestion of traffic as the Wing moved into the cobbled main street that we stayed at the station for a tinned dinner before proceeding to our new living quarters which were situated a little further up the hillside. Our new billet turned out to be a one time macaroni factory, but from the outside it looked like an ordinary large house with its archway entrance and verandah [sic] at each of the upper room windows. I managed to get in a front room along with the other fellows who use to live in the same tent as myself. It was quite a change not having to erect a tent after a move and to have a roof over our heads once again.
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All the room possessed [inserted] WAS A [/inserted] concrete floor which we had to sweep before moving in as they had laid in disuse for months and so they were covered with thick dust. Our room had a big windmill cum fan affair in the centre of it. Many of the other rooms also possessed one. I think that they were used for drying macaroni. After hitting my head on one of its blades a few times when it rotated in the breeze, we tied it up in a fixed position.
Of course we had no flying work to do as the Squadron had ceased to possess any aircraft. I spent a lot of my time when the weather was fine sitting out on our little balcony overlooking the narrow cobbles street leading down to the centre of town. To the left of our billet were two more houses and then the district prison and to our right were more houses. The town itself was situated snugly in the hills on the south side of the Bay of Naples and it was quite a small place possessing a few shops and wine bars.
For the first few mornings of our stay in the town we had to go down to the railway yard and sort out all the squadrons equipment and load it on lorries to be taken away to base stores.
On Saturday October 15th there was nothing to do so I decided to try and find my brother who had a little previously moved from Egypt to Italy. All I knew was that he was stationed at an ancient and historical town near Naples. As the only place I knew of that fitted this description was Pompei I decided to go there that same afternoon.
After searching practically every road and lane looking at every building in the new town for Weapons Technical Staff HQ in vain, I decided to pay a visit to the Provist [sic] Marshall where they informed me that there was no such department bearing that name in the town. After that I felt a little bit downhearted and miserable as it had been raining during most of the afternoon and I was very near wet through so I decided to have a cup of hot tea and a couple of cakes at the YMCA canteen which stood opposite the cathedral after which I set out to get a lift back to Gragnano and next day I wrote to Cyril and told him of my unsuccessful search.
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I was quite at home in my new surroundings listening to the village clock chiming and sitting out in the sunshine reading a book either on the balcony or in the little roof garden with its very nice view. I used to enjoy the walk through the cobbled streets and the village square where all the towns people used to meet and gossip and to the newspaper shop where I went each morning to buy the English troops daily Italian newspaper “The Union Jack”.
I also used to enjoy the half an hours walk down the hills into the next town which was called Castlemar which was situated beside the sea in the Bay of Naples. Whilst in the town I used to either visit the naafi canteen where quite a nice Italian orchestra used to play in the restaurant. They used to get some very good singers there too, or sit by the sea after having a nice hot bath at the Military baths or go for a look around the many shops.
My evenings were spent mostly at the house next door to our billet where I used to visit along with three of my friends. I got to know the people living there by seeing them on the next balcony to me so often. The family consisted the mother father and two daughters and a son. They could not do enough for us all the time we were in the town. The mother used to do all of our washing, pressing and darning and would not take a penny from us for doing it. In fact she was just like a second mother to us boys. We were always welcome and they were always very welcome and they were always very disappointed at not seeing us on the evening that we did not pay them a visit.
Occasionally we went to the tiny cinema that showed English films twice a week or sit in a wine bar listening to the orchestra which nearly every one of them possessed. Also of an afternoon I went out with the Squadron football team when they played matches in the surrounding districts.
On Monday 16th October I went on one of our lorries that was going into Naples for the day. We arrived in the town after the 20 mile ride around the bay along the Autostrada and we drove past the impressive looking post office in which perhaps you will remember the Germans planted a big time bomb before they retreated from the town which killed a hundred people that were in it, when it went off a few days later. Then we came to the main road of the Oxford Street of the town the Via Romma. On reaching the end of it, we arrived outside the Kings Palace, opposite which we parked our lorry.
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I then passed through the large gate and walked along the gravel pathway, on either side of which was a well set out small garden and then on under the arch canopiedentrance up a few steps and into the palace which had been taken over by Naafi. On either side of me rose a grand marble staircase up to the first floor [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] [symbol] IN FRONT OF ME WERE MORE VERY WIDE MARBLE STEPS. [/inserted] that led down to the reception hall in which every part of its structure was of marble walls, floors, etc. It was also a massive hall.
I climbed the righthand stairway and on arrival at the top proceeded along the corridor with its grand windows overlooking an enclosed court of green lawn. This corridor ran in a square, at the two front corners were the stairways. On the inside were the windows and on the other the rooms etc led off.
As I was feeling hungry I proceeded to the lounge where the snack bar and ice cream counter was situated. The spacious rooms were furnished with big easy chairs and settees. It was a lovely day so I took my sandwiches, cream cakes and tea out on the little terrace where I sat at a little table. Hidden from view in the shrubbery and flower beds an orchestra played soft music. It was on this same spot that long ago Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton used to walk and talk and perhaps make love.
You have all heard of the old saying of see Naples and [deleted] live, [/deleted] [inserted] DIE [/inserted] well I think the view from this same terrace was best possible one that could be obtained. It takes in the whole bay and Mt Versuvius [sic] and Pompei in the distance.
After I had leisurely diminished the big pile of cakes to an empty plate I proceeded to the small but magnificent ballroom and seated myself in one of the many easy armchairs and sat back and listened to a light classical concert that was in progress and was being given by an orchestra of 12 players that were seated on the stage. The two girls singing with the orchestra were both operatics.
Two concerts were given in the Ballroom each day. The evening one was by another orchestra which was not quite so classical.
After the concert I went down to the ground floor where the barbers etc were situated and I had a hot shower bath. Then feeling very much refreshed I went up to the second floor where there were billiard & table tennis tables, dart boards also news and reading rooms, music, art and other games rooms. I had a game of billiards before exploring the Via Roma and the other parts of the town. There was plenty of things to buy in the shops but everything was so expensive as was everywhere else.
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At 4 pm I went back to the Palace and into the very large restaurant where I sat at a little table which was covered with a spotless white cloth. The table was situated by a huge window overlooking the large square below where we had parked our lorry. I was waited upon throughout the meal by one of the many pretty Italian waitresses. Once more another orchestra played well known light classical music whilst I ate. The big dining rooms were just the same as when the King inhabited them with the huge gilt edged mirrors reaching from the top of the large ornamental fire places up the ceilings which were completely painted by famous artists with large scenes. The lighting was provided from marvellous crystal chandeliers and the walls were decorated with gilt ornamental work and gilt framed paintings.
After the meal I went into the wine room which was also furnished with easy chairs, waitresses etc. I then paid a visit to what was the King’s private cinema and again sat in a very comfortable plush seat and saw one of the latest films.
I think that I could have quite easily lived in the Palace without having to venture outside. After taking a little walk along the seashore on the completion of the cinema show to view the bay by night and which made me feel quite romantic standing there and seeing the whole bay bathed in moonlight and the dark shape of Mt Veservius [sic] in the background, I went back to where we had parked the waggon and then it was back to the billet after spending a most enjoyable day.
On the following Wednesday I was detailed for guard at the station looking after the equipment. I remember that night very well. The Corporal I/C and another fellow that was on guard had gone to the pictures and a third member of the guard had gone out to meet his girlfriend, so I was left to patrol on my own and whilst doing so I discovered a stock of cartridges of all sorts of mixed colours and a very pistol and I held quite a firework display to the delight of the children around the station until I was informed that the Squadron Warrant Officer was heading in my direction.
There was some second hand clothing that was not worth sending back to main stores lying around and which we were told to get rid of during the night and so when daylight arrived all of the guard were financially better off. I had just got back to the billet that morning when a despatch rider roared up to the entrance with a signal that had just come through from HQ which turned out to concern me. It had come from the Colonel I/C of Cyril’s Department and requested that the Squadron released me for the day and that I was to be at the main entrance to the ruins of Pompei at 10 am that morning to meet Cyril. By the time that I had washed, dressed made out a pass and got it signed and stamped and had hitch hiked to the town it was nearly 12 noon. I arrived in time to see Cyril in the distance walking away from my direction so I had to run and catch up with him before he caught sight of me. So there was the sequel to our last meeting whilst in the service when I met Cyril in Cairo earlier in the same year.
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[page break]
[underlined] 102A [/underlined]
[underlined] COPY OF ACTUAL SIGNAL [/underlined]
To: 242 Squadron,
82, Via Pasquale Nastro
The following message receive yesterday evening from Command Welfare Branch, MARF by telephone:-
“It is requested that 1863228 A.C.1 Barrett from 242 Squadron be allowed to proceed to Pompei to-day (19.10.44) and to wait outside the main entrance to the ruins from 10.00 hrs until 14.00 hrs. It is expected that his brother will arrive there to see him. This message was passed to Command Welfare Branch by Colonel Stetham, who is Commanding Officer of A.C.1’s Barrett’s brother’s Unit, and it is understood that these men have not seen each other for a number of years.”
[page break]
102B.
242 SQUADRON.
[underlined] R.A.F. [/underlined]
1863228. A.C.1. BARRETT. R.
The above mentioned airman has permission to be absent from his quarters from 09.00 hrs 21.10.44. until 22.00 hrs 21.10.44 and to proceed on pass to Naples.
Signed. [signature] I/C Flt.
“ [signature] W/O.
[photograph of R. Barrett and his brother Cyril]
[underlined] CYRIL AND MYSELF TAKEN NEAR KINGS PALACE NAPLES OCTOBER 1944 [/underlined]
242 SQUADRON
[underlined] R.A.F. [/underlined]
1863228. A.C.1. BARRETT. R.
The above mentioned airman has permission to be absent from his quarters from 09.00 hrs on 25.10.44 until 22.00 hrs 25.10.44 and to proceed on pass to Naples.
[Royal Air Force date stamp]
Signed ………………….. I/C Flt.
[signature] W/O I/C.
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During the following few days all our old friends were posted in two’s and three’s to units all over Italy and Scicily. [sic] Everyone got a royal send off by those fellows that were left, although we all regretted the partings very much. On the last day of the month we had a terrific thunderstorm that lasted nearly all day and as we looked down into the cobbled street which had no drainage system whatsoever, it had turned into a river formed by the water coming down from the hills and roads above. It went swirling down past our billet and onto where three roads all met by a narrow bridge near the town square. The bridge helped to restrict the water and at this point it was at least 2 1/2 ft deep for a long time. The water went on over the bridge and right through the main street of the town and out the other end and down towards Castlelamar.
When the storm had subsided we decided to go to a show that was being held that evening in the little cinema. On arrival at the main road a most unusual sight met our eyes. The whole road was covered a foot or more in depth with mud and stone deposits left behind by the rushing water. Workmen were still digging up this mess that covered solid the cobbled road and taking it away on lorries five days later and they had then nowhere near completely cleared it all. Everywhere around us people were [deleted] taking [/deleted] [inserted] BALEING [/inserted] water out of their houses and at many points where the rooms were below the road level the furniture etc was just floating about. When we arrived at the cinema after picking our way through the mess we found that its approaches and the cinema itself was flooded out. I should think that if they got many storms like that one, the town would soon be buried like Pompei was.
The cinema was made in working order with the help of the RAF lads two day later when John Massey the celebrated BBc [sic] violinist gave a recital for us.
On the evening of November 4th we held a farewell party and the following morning I went to the next door family to say goodbye to them. I do not know why but I think the mother like me most of all and there were tears in her eyes as we parted.
I then loaded my kit on the waggon and it was my turn along with a few more fellows to get a royal send off as we started on our journey to our new units.
The lorry took us into Naples and on to one of the platforms of the Garibaldi station where a train was waiting. A coach was reserved for us into which I transferred my kit to one of its compartments.
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As it was then only 4 pm and the train was not due to leave until 5.05 pm we went into the YMCA canteen situated on the station and as 5 pm drew near we made our way back to the train. In the civilian compartments and coaches the people were packed like sardines in a tin, some were even sitting on the buffers between the coaches. At 5.05 prompt we steamed out of the station and past the ruins of the big stadium, wrecked trains and coaches and nearby buildings.
The four of us in my compartment played cards by candlelight until we stopped at a station for a hot meal at 7 pm and which consisted of a mess tin full of stew and a warm cup of tea. At every station we pulled up at more civilians crammed themselves on to the train, how they managed it still remains a mystery to me.
It began to get chilly as we commenced to travel over the mountain range and I needed more than my greatcoat to keep me warm. I could not go to sleep in the sitting position but I kept dozing off and waking up feeling all the more colder. At 2.30 am the fellows on the train who had been posted to the Foggia area had to change trains. So there was panic for a little whilst chaps found out if they had to get off or not and if they had there were their kits to unload through the windows.
There were more sleepy goodbyes to many more of our old friends before the train continued on its way once more. The three other fellows that were travelling along with me descended at the stop so I then had the compartment to myself and laid down along the seat and fell off to sleep and the next thing I knew was the guard on the train waking me up and saying that we would be in Barri in another quarter of an hour. So I roused myself and took notice of my surroudnings [sic] once more. [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] [symbol] IT WAS STILL VERY COLD AND MISTY MORNING. [/inserted] It was just beginning to get light when I first looked out of the carriage window. We had then reached the Eastern side of Italy and I could just dimly make out the Adriatic as we travelled southwards.
On arrival at Barri station we reported to the Railway Transport Officer and he phoned through to our new squadron and asked them to send transport down to pick us up. How I remember waiting 3 1/2 hours outside the station and watching the early workmen trains pull in and all the men and women pouring out of them and climbing aboard waiting military lorries which took them off to work and I wonder how many times I walked around the large monument situated just in front of the station trying to get some warmth into my body and the stiffness of travelling out of my legs.
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When a van finally pulled up before us it was past 10 am and when we told the driver that we had been waiting so long and had had nothing to eat, he drove us to the RAF Club where we were able to obtain a meal. We then proceeded along the coastal road northwards for 4 miles when we reached the 8th Army Rest Camp. Here we turned off into a lane which took us up to the airfield. On arrival at our new Squadron we reported at the Orderly Room and were given a chit to be signed by difference [sic] sections and then we were put once more into a tent as the Squadron billets were full.
We made it take us the rest of that day and all of the following one to get our chits fully signed. But the next day after that the 8th November we had to start work again.
267 Squadron I found out were a transport squadron and possessed and flew American Dakota aircraft (DCs to most people). The emblem on all of the aircraft, lorries etc was the flying horse. I am sure without doubt even if you do not remember it that sometime or other you have seen some of the squadrons aircraft either on the films or in a picture in the newspaper.
The squadron was formed in Cario [sic] before El Alermain [sic] and during the big push in in [sic] the desert, it flew in and supplied the 8th Army with petrol for tanks, precious supplies of water, food, guns, ammunition, jeeps and all other essential things that kept the army going. They also took many Ensa parties up to the front so that the boys in the forward areas could see a show and on many return trips they brought back casualties saving them from the long and uncomfortable ride back to base through hundreds of miles of desert. The squadron even moved complete personnel of fighter squadrons and landed them behind German lines. More than once they took the Germans and Italians completely by surprise when our fighters appeared from nowhere hundreds of miles behind their lines.
The squadron aircraft also evacutated [sic] wounded from Malta during its siege and from Sicily during the fighting on the island and also did glider towing and parachute dropping work over the Island and again did all of the above in the Invasion of Italy.
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One of the Squadron aircraft was the first allied plane to land at Rome airfield. At Barri half of our aircraft were on routine flights, such as trips to Cairo, Naples, Rome, Florence, Foggia, Ancona, Marseilles etc every day flying essential personages and wounded etc. The other half of our aircraft belonged to the Balkan Air Force. Every night our aircraft went out over Yugoslavia and dropped supplies to Marshal Tito’s resistance army by parachute. Often they landed on strips held by the partians [sic] and took in arms ammunition clothing and even mules to them and brought out men and women that had been injured in their guerrilla warfare.
Sometimes where there were no strips they landed in fields with German troops only a few miles away, if that. We also brought Marshal Tito himslef [sic] back to Italy on many occasions for conferences with the allied commanders. Our aircraft also landed on the Dodeconese Island of Kos and evacuated many of our troops from there when the Germans retook it.
Another special mission given to the squadron was disclosed on the wireless months after it had taken place. It was when one of our aircraft flew over enemy occupied territory for most of its trips to and from [deleted] Warsaw [/deleted] [inserted] WARSAW [/inserted] where it landed in a field held by resistance men and brought back to Italy the leaders of the Polish underground movement. Whilst the aircraft landed and took off again 27 members of the underground resistance helping to hold the field were killed by surrounding German troops. For this mission all of the aircrafts crew were awarded the Polish VC.
Of course during the following months I went into Barri many many times either of an evening or on my days off, but I will describe the town and everything else in just one visit. The town is quite modern and is one of the biggest in Southern Italy. Its harbour is I think the biggest on the Adriatic Coast. The government buildings, wireless station etc along the sea front are most impressive. The same goes for the promenade and the small well laid out gardens along the front.
There were many shops, and a few service clubs but the only place that we could obtain a good meal was in the RAF club. At the others they only sold tea and cakes. The YMCA club was situated in the pre war boat club, the Naafi in a big one time departmental store. At all of their clubs there were games and reading rooms etc and an orchestra in attendance.
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The Grand Opera House was taken over as a forces garrison theatre. I saw many good films and enjoyed a few stage shows in that building, but most of all I enjoyed the opera season when I saw and thoroughly enjoyed the colourful operas and hearing the famous Italian singers appearing in them. The operas I saw there included “The Barber of Seville”, “Lucia-Di-Lammermoor”, “Aida”, “Cavaliera Rusticanna” and others. I think I enjoyed “Aida” most of all.
There was also another cinema in the town which showed English films but that one was run by the Americans. Very conveniently for us the Yanks used to run a bus service between the drome and the town. We were allowed to travel on it and one bus left the control tower every hour.
During my first few days on the squadron I did not feel at all happy in my new surroundings, hardly knowing anyone except the chaps that came along with me etc and it was very cold at night sitting in the tent of an evening shivering as we had no heating whatsoever. But all that changed a few days later when there was room for us to move into the billets.
The station had been an airport before the war so it was well organized. The concrete built billets in which we moved had had the centre portion of the block taken right out of it during one our raids on the drome when it was held by the enemy. We were told by Italians living nearby that many Germans had been killed when the block was hit. The billet block was modern with a big winding staircase leading up to the two floors at one end of it. Along the front of the building on each floor an open verhanda [sic] from which the rooms led off and the roof of the building was flat. WE also had a very nice brick built dining hall which had large windows on either side of it. Attached to the dining hall were the hot shower baths which were very handy as on finishing work covered with grease and grime we could just pop in and have a nice hot shower. Next to the showers was our canteen in which a wine bar was installed and a library with a large selection of books.
I used to spend almost every Friday evening in the canteen when housy-housy was played. Troops used to come from miles around in vehicles to play. The last house was generally worth just on £20 but for all the time I played I never won that last house.
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In our room there was ten of us, one side of the room was rounded in whcih [sic] were a large set of windows many of which were boarded up after being blown out in the raid. The room was situated on the first floor at the far end. That accounts for the odd shape of our room as the billet block was rounded at each end. The other end being the spiral staircase. The floor of our room was covered with red tiles and the walls were tiled in white up to a height of 4 ft and above that the walls were covered mostly with pin-up girls cut out from various magazines. We were well off for lighting as we had two electricians living in the room and our home made petrol and oil stove gave out a terrific heat. In the centre of our room we had a large table surrounded by home made stools on which we could either sit and write out letters home or play cards etc.
The hangers and work shops were less than 50 yds from the billet block as we did not have far to go in getting to work and on the whole we were as comfortable as it was possible to be in our new home.
Just across the road from us was an American camp cinema where we could go whenever we wanted to see a film of an evening. I often used to go there and then after the show came back to our nice warm and cosy billet and fry spam or eggs bought from our canteen and toast bread and hot a cup of tea which I used to bring up from the dining hall at tea time, on our oil stove. I enjoyed these suppers more than I did any of my day time meals.
When there was not much work on we had plenty of time off and when on standby we could just pop back to the billet until the gang was called out to do a job on an aircraft. I worked in maintenance flight and we had to carry out inspections of various kinds on the engines everytime the aircraft had completed a period of 50 hours flying. There were six engine gangs and six of us in each gang, so it worked out the less flying that the squadron did, the less inspections came in and the more time we got off.
I did quite a lot of flying whilst [deleted] on [/deleted] [inserted] AT [/inserted] Barri and nearly all the time I spent in the air was on air tests after I had worked on aircraft helping change the engines, propellors, starters or generators etc. My trips took me over most of the surrounding country within a 100 mile radius and out over the Adriatic Sea.
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One good thing with a DC was that it could fly quite well on just one of its engines but it did not give one a nice feeling when looking out of the aircraft’s window on one side and seeing that the engine had stopped and that you are gliding down towards the earth on the remaining engine.
On Saturday November 18th, I was lying on my bed during the dinner hour when all of a sudden bombs started to burst nearby. Within a couple of seconds I was up on my feet and out on the veranda. From there I could see the American Liberator Bomber which had just returned shot up from a raid over enemy territory and which had crash landed on the runway with its full bomb load aboard as it could not release them in the sea. Within a few seconds the aircraft was a mass of flames and smoke from burning petrol and oil rose high into the air and then the petrol tanks started to explode and machine gun bullets were flying all over the place. Despite the gallant efforts of the crash tender crew three of the aircraft’s crew were trapped in the machine and burned to death.
On the 20th day of the month after our gang had finished a double engine change I went up on a test flight with it. We started our run from the North end of the runway and within half a minute after taking off we were passing over the town of Barri and over the harbour where I could see the mast heads of many of the 18 ships sticking out above the water that had been sunk during a German air raid the previous year. Bombs from the enemy aircraft hit an ammunication [sic] ship that was at anchor and within a few minutes it blew up and either sunk or caught the other 17 ships around it on fire. Just after we left Barri another ship loaded with bombs blew up whilst at the dockside. In the explosion 400 civilians that were working nearby were killed and over 1,700 were injured along with many military casualities. [sic]
After flying over the harbour we followed the coast line until we reached the town of Brindisi where we turned around in a half circle over the sea and headed north climbing all the time. As it was a clear day we could see far in land. The villages looked like little clusters of white toy buildings with the seemingly dead straight road linking one with the other, either side of which were the tiny square fields of olive groves.
We flew on until were just South of Foggia where the mountainous country commenced and the flat plains came to an end before we turned once more and headed back towards our base. On this trip we took some of the sailors and soldiers from the 8th Army Rest Camp, who used to visit the airport in chance of getting a flight. For some of them that we had up with us it was their first trip in an aircraft and you should have seen the expression on their faces when the pilot put the aircraft into a steep dive whilst over the sea, I think that most of them thought that we were going to crash.
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We flew homewards along the coast at a height of only 200 ft and we could see clearly the little bays, harbours and the contents of the main streets of the coastal villages as we passed by there. At one time whilst I was in the cockpit the altimeter read a height of 20 ft above sea level and as I looked out of one of the side windows I could see the people in the little fishing boats waving to us and we seemed to be skimming the water almost level with them.
I used to like an air test most of all when only one pilot took the aircraft up as I was then able to go up as second pilot and sometimes take over the controls myself for a while. The people in the Barri area were the most fascist minded than any other section of the country. That explained why the people in the town of Barri were not very friendly and did not have much to do with the troops. The further north that I travelled in Italy the more friendly were the people. But as the family at Gragnano explained to me that they did not like Mosso [sic] their dictator or the facists. It was a case of sticking up for the regime or having to starve through having their ration cards taken away. So they had no alternative but to submit to their rule. The father had fought alongside the British and had been wounded in the 1914 to 18 war. But the people in and around Barri and in many other towns were ardent supporters of the regime.
On the 26th of November I was on a day off and when asked if I would like to go out for the day with the football team I readily accepted the invitation. Four of us went along from our room, two of the fellows were playing in the team. As the Squadron’s first, [deleted] the unbeaten [/deleted] and 2nd team had played matches on the previous afternoon none of the players could get the time off to come along with us. So we boarded the football bus at 10 am with a 3rd XI scratch team. But no one worried as they were going to play what they thought was a small Polish army unit team in some little village called Altimura.
It was a beautiful day and our 50 mile journey took us through some of the best countryside that there is in Southern Italy and along some very good roads. It was worth going along for the ride alone.
It was 12.30 pm by the time we reached Altimura and waiting on the outskirts for us to direct us to their HQ was a Polish Warrant Officer. The HQ was a big impressive looking building in the centre of the town and was a modern one. The town was situated on a hill and looking down from the HQ one looked upon the old part of the town with its quaint old houses built up in layers and the narrow winding cobbled streets. I must give the town its due, it was the most cleanest and tidiest town that I saw in Southern Italy
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As we walked up the steps and passed into the HQ we were given a smashing salute by the sentry guarding the main doorway. We were then taken down a long corridor to the Warrant Officers Mess where we were waited upon throughout our four course dinner.
After dinner the team decided to go straight to the football pitch, but as us half a dozen supporters had a couple of hours to spare before the commencement of the game we decided to take a look around the town. Imagine the horror when we saw bills everywhere announcing the game and our team as the RAF Barri against the Polish Corps and that the entrance fee to see the game was 40 Lira – 2/- (10p) for civilians and 20 Lira for military personnel. As we walked through the streets everyone seemed interested in us and looked as if they had never seen the RAF blue uniform before. We got tired of being stared or smiled at from all the balconies fo [sic] the houses etc, so we entered a small wine bar that we came upon. During the whole of our stay in the town we only saw two other members of the British services. The Poles were very polite and those that came into the bar whilst we were there gave a salute to us before they entered.
About half an hour later we noticed crowds of civilians and Polish soldiers passing the doorway and we wondered what was on as we knew that it was Poland’s National Day. So we asked the barman where they were all going. What a shock we got when they told us that they were all going to see our team play. As we did not know the way to the ground we joined in with the crowd and followed the people in front of us. After walking for about five minutes we received a further shock when instead of a small town football field we arrived outside a big built modern stadium. People were queuing outside the box office. We decided that we had better join the end of it and thought how the boys would laugh when we told them that we had to pay to see them play. At that moment the Polish soldiers on the gate called us over and told us to go straight in. We went through the large gateway and found ourselves on a huge square balcony that looked upon the football ground. We went down one of the wide concrete staircases that led down from each side of the balcony and onto the ground below. The atmosphere was like that of a cup final instead of the small friendly village match that we had expected.
The lovely green grass pitch was already lined 3 & 4 deep all the way round it with spectators and still crowds were entering the stadium. We were taken to the dressing rooms that were situated under the concrete stairways. There we found our team looking very glum and getting ready for the game. On asking them why they looked so dejected we were informed that the Polish team had a couple of internationals playing. So after trying to cheer our scratch team up a little we went out and took our places at the touchline in readiness to watch the slaughter.
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It was six supporters against the other side’s 2,000 or more. The whole town must have turned out to see the game along with the complete Polish Corps.
When our team came onto the field in ones and twos and started kicking [inserted] IN [/inserted] people were still coming into the ground and both staircases and the flat part at the top overlooking the ground was also lined with spectators. The Polish team then came out of their dressing room altogether and in single file and run along to the corner of the field and then along the touch line up the halfway line where they did a right turn in turn and lined themselves up along the centre line near the spot where they came to a halt. Our captain then called our players up to the centre line where they formed up facing a member of the opposing team and each man shook hands with his opposite number and when the greetings were over the Polish captain presented the captain of our team with a bouquet of flowers which incidently [sic] I had to hold in arms throughout the game much I suspect to the amusement of the many girls that stood nearby.
I think that the less said about the game the better. Needless to say as was expected our team was beaten by 6 goals to 1 but I must say our team put up a gallant fight. Naturally the Poles were delighted with their win on their National Day.
I have often wondered what would have been the result of the game if we had taken our 1st XI along with us who were champions of the Barri area.
After the players had had a shower bath in the dressing room & had changed back into their clothes we drove back to the HQ once again and were given another salute as we went through the doorways on our way to the W/O’s mess for tea, after which it was free wine all round. Toasts and speeches were made by members of both teams through an interpreter. Then it developed into a sing song. One amusing incident I remember was when the fellow sitting on my right asked me to pass the lemon squash so I handed him the bottle that was on my left which had a lemon squash label on it. He poured himself out a glass full and took one big gulp and a couple of seconds later the poor fellow was spluttering and gasping and turning all colours. I thought for a minute that he was going to choke to death. It turned out that the contents of the bottle was “Vodka”, the famous Russian drink. It was the real stuff. I tasted a drop and I swear that it was four times as strong as raw whisky. One sip and your head nearly lifted from your shoulders.
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We dare not drink the wine too fast as as soon as we took a sip from our glass a Pole would come along and top it up once more. By nine o’clock the party was quite a merry one and we had drunk the mess dry. After everyone had been given a flower buttonhole from the bouquet and told to be back at the truck by 10 pm the party split up in ones, two, threes, etc and dispersed around the town. I went along with three of our pilots and a few Poles to their NAAFI out in the town where we had a further sing song.
At 10 pm quite a number of the chaps were missing and so some of the chaps who had recently seen them went to look for them and whilst they were away the chaps that they were looking for turned up so then the searchers were missing. It was nearly 11 pm when we finally rounded up our merry band and set off on our journey homewards, it was 1.30 am when we reached Barri and the end of an enjoyable day.
On the following Wednesday we held a squadron airmans dance in our dining hall which had been cleared for the occasion and decorated with flags penants of the United Nations and coloured lights. The squadron band supplied the music and partners were recruited, local military hospitals and A.T.S. Units, civilian girl friends etc.
As usual the bar and chicken sandwich counter worked overtime with a result a good time was had by all.
On the morning of December 2nd I worked on the G.C.S’s General Officer Commanding Mediterraean [sic] General Sir Maitland Wilson’s aircraft and in the afternoon I went to Barri Stadium to watch the International football match between the British Services XI which contained many English Internationals including Stan Cullis the England Captain. Bryan Jones of Wales, Spud Murphy and also one of our squadron players McGlen was in the Services XI that were playing against the Polish Army. The Services XI won after a thrilling match by 3 goals to 1 with our McGlen scoring two of the goals.
Round about this time there were a few mice that used to roam our billet after the lights went out. this started a trap making craze in the room. All sorts of weird and wonderful cages and traps were produced by the fellows. The most successful one was made the old fashioned well known way and which was made from bits of bent wire and an elastic band on the back of a domino pegging board. For four nights running just after we had put the lights out, snap would go the trap and sure enough on investigation each time we found a mouse in it.
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There was only one thing wrong with our billet and that was on a cold night when the wind was blowing the wrong way, we could not light the fire. If we did the wind blowing down the chimney blew the oily smoke into the room and choked us out, or it would blow the fire out. Many a chap had his eybrows [sic] singed off or received a burnt hand when going to light the stove after it had blown out. As all the time it is out petrol and oil runs into the stove until the supply tap is turned off. With a result as soon as a person struck a match near the stove the fumes ignited and a small explosion occurred which did one good thing and that was clear all the soot from the chimney. It was not until after Christmas that we designed a stove successfully that stood up to winds coming from [deleted] long [/deleted] [inserted] ANY [/inserted] direction and that was of a rather crude design. The chimney system ran for over 30 ft and when the wind blew the wrong way someone had to climb up on the roof and turn the top section round so that it would point in a different direction. This was not a very nice job on a freezing cold night
Besides going to Barri on my days off I often used to visit the surrounding town of San spirito, Palazi, Tallitzi, Bittonto, Jovinetya and others, but none of these places are worth describing.
Just before Christmas we were all very busy. As perhaps you will remember the trouble in Greece started. The ELAS to whom we had supplied with arms to fight the Germans had turned on their own countrymen and were trying to sieze [sic] control of the country by force and put their own Government in power.
Now many people attacked Mr Churchill’s policy and said why fight the people that liberated their own country but the truth is that they wanted power to turn it into their own advantage and they did not care how or by what means they managed it. They even fought and killed in most horrible ways their fellow citizens and even attacked and killed British subjects and soldiers. So everyone that did not support Mr Churchill’s policy should be ashamed of themselves. The ELA were no more than a huge band of thugs even if they did fight the Germans and help free their country.
At one time they laid siege the harbour area of Athens so that no supplies could be unloaded in the port area. Well that was where our squadron came in as every single article needed by our troops had to be flown into them. On most days we had every aircraft that we possessed up in the air carrying supplies from Italy into Athens and we worked all night on the aircraft that became due for inspection so that it was ready to fly the next day if it was humanly possible.
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The RAF H.Q just outside Athens was captured and I have met some of the chaps who were taken prisoner and all I can say is that I would like all the prople [sic[ at home who stuck up for the ELAS to hear what these chaps thought of them.
One thing that I would like to mention on the Greek situation and this is: One day I was sitting in the cockpit of one our aircraft that was in for inspection and that had just come in from operations over Greece and I happened to put my hand in one of the pilots map pocket and found an open envelope that must have been given to the pilot to deliver and he must have put it in the pocket and forgotten all about it when he landed. Inside the envelope was a document giving the exact number of men, officers, vehicles and how they were all split up into units that were in Greece and alongside this was a proposed number of men, officers, vehicles that should be sent out to reinforce each of those units that the British had there in the country. Then it gave the dates of sailing for the ships from Barri on which the troops could be sent and the dates of the ships arrival in Athens. So you can see how easily military documents are left around and what a huge value that once could have been to the ELAS. They would have know [sic] how many troops that we had in the country and how many vehicles each unit possessed and on what date it would have paid them to attack the dock area etc and what units were big and which were small and could be captured easily. No wonder the Germans learnt a lot of our plans during the war.
Now we came to Christmas Eve. I was working on an aircraft all day, but the fellows in our room that were on day off went into town and bought the wine for a billet party that evening. We had friends in from the other billets and what a party it was. At one time during the evening the squadron band marched into the room and played Christmas carols for us, behind the band in procession came chaps in fancy dress and one fellow was wheeled in on a barrow that they had managed to get up the stairway and another fellow was carrying a large Christmas tree that was later hoisted to the top of the station flag pole. A couple of other fellows staggered in dressed ready for a football match and saying that they were playing the poles at midnight.
[underlined] Note [/underlined] On Christmas Eve afternoon we had arranged a return game with our 1st XI against the Polish Corps. The match I had longed to see but owing to the Greek trouble arising everyone was working that afternoon and could not get off so the game had to be cancelled.
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What a mess the billet was in when the party came to an end. It looked as if a bomb had exploded in the centre of it. The catering officer woke me up on Christmas morning and brought myself and the others a cup of tea to us in bed and later on one of the fellows brought up my breakfast of eggs and bacon from the cookhouse so I did not have to get out of bed for it.
When I did get up the sun was shining and half a dozen of us decided to go for a little walk to get an appetite for our Christmas dinner. But before we went out we cleared up the room and removed the traces of our previous night’s party. Then we walked along the peaceful rocky valley situated behind the airfield. The valley was dotted with little stone eskimo shaped huts in which the cattle could shelter in the rain and a little stream ran along the bottom of it. We ended up at the far end of the run-way where the railway track from Barri ran nearby to our billet and onto the next village. At that moment a train had stopped as an aircraft was taking off at the end of the runway where the train crossed it. So we jumped on the train and rode on it until it had to slow down whilst travelling up a steep gradient just outside our billet where we jumped off.
We had a wonderful dinner and the officers true to tradition waited on us throughout the meal which consisted of roast turkey chicken, roast pork, green peas, roast potatoes, cauliflour [sic] and brown gravy followed by plum pudding and rich custard. I managed to make three helpings of pudding disappear. The King’s health was drunk with whisky and along with the meal we each had four bottles of beer and were given 50 cigarettes and a comforts parcel containing a handkerchief, toothbrush & paste and other useful articles. There were also plenty of oranges, nuts & raisins to be had if anyone wanted them.
After the meal and a rest we took another little walk and when I got back I found some of the chaps from the old squadron waiting for me much to my pleasure. We had a talk about old times whilst we had tea together, not that I felt like eating much after the big dinner I had, but I did manage a couple of mince pies, a sausage roll and a helping of jelly.
That evening it was an open night in the Sergeants Mess Bar and as I was invited there I went along with the other members or [sic] our working gang to attend a grand party. Some of the fellows on the squadron were not so fortunate as myself as they had to work throughout the holiday looking after and seeing off the aircraft that went to Greece each day. It certainly was no holiday for our troops there. On the morning of Boxing Day went up flying and had the afternoon off during which I made out and put in a pass for a weeks leave early in the New Year.
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On the 27th I was working away on a hundred hour period inspection when I happened to look up and saw one of our aircraft that had just taken off and had retracted its under carriage suddenly lose height touch the ground and slide along to a stop on its belly. In an instant the aircraft was a mass of flames and about 100 yds of the runway was also alight where petrol from the tanks had spread when the aircraft touched down and whilst it was sliding along. Everyone run [sic] towards the plane but luckily the crew had already jumped to safety. They certainly must have been quick off the mark. We soon retreated once more when one of the crew breathlessly informed us that the plane was loaded with mortar bombs and [deleted] our [/deleted] ammunition. Within a few minutes came the first brilliant flash followed by a terrific explosion. These flashes and bangs continued for well over an hour and by that time the aircraft had been blown to pieces which were scattered over a very wide area. We picked up large lumps of shrapnel over 500 yds away. Many other nearby aircraft belonging to the Yanks were damaged by bits of flying shrapnel. Later on that morning everyone on the squadron had to help clear the runway of bits of exploded bombs and of the plane. Only the tail unit remained and that was full of holes and the fabric work had burnt out. On the ground nearby lay burnt out riddled engines. We had only just left the runway when another explosion occurred and at periods throughout the afternoon the stillness was shattered with a bang and a flash. At one time an American aircraft arrived overhead and radioed for permission to land. He was told by the control tower to go onto Brindisi and land there. But the pilot of this aircraft was very persistent and said that he wanted to land at Barri. By then the fellow in the control tower must have been fed up as he replied OK you can land, runway is covered with shrapnel and exploding bombs. The aircraft immediately headed in a southern direction and disappeared from sight.
That same evening I saw the squadron pantomime “Wanfrella and the Golden Gum Boots” and it was a first rate production and full of laughs. During the following weeks operations continued to Greece, Yugoslavia, Bucharest and Budapest along with our routine runs once more.
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On the afternoon of the last day in the year I went into Barri with some of the chaps from our billet. We took along a 5 gallon German water container with us and had it filled up with £1.5s worth of wine ready for our New Years Eve party which started at 7 pm and went on half way through the night. Whilst the party was in full swing the C.O, Adj, SWO & the two flight commanders walked in and stayed for well over an hour and needless to say drank a large portion of the contents of our water can. By the time they left everyone was in merry mood and some of the chaps were telling the officers what they really thought of them. It was during the party that it started snowing for the first time that year in the Barri district. I remember how we all ran out on the veranda to see the drome covered with a blanket of white.
As it neared 12 o’clock we all adjourned to the Sergeants Mess where upon arrival, our glasses were immediately filled to the brim with whisky with whcih [sic] to drink the New Year in with and as the chimes of Big Ben struck midnight over the radio we all linked arms and sang Auld Lang Syne. I spent the following half hour devouring chicken sandwiches that I discovered in the Mess and then taking a chap to bed who could not stand the pace and wondering what 1946 held in store for me. (If I had only known) I spent Friday the 5th January collecting my leave pass and getting a pass to enable my friend and I to travel on our routine aircraft run to Naples on the following day. I then collected rations from the cookhouse and packed the minimum kit that I should need for the following week.
Next morning I received an early call at 5.30 am and after getting up and calling Les (the fellow who went on leave with me to Marseilles when I was with the old Squadron), we proceeded to make our way through the mud of the airfield until we reached the flight office where we found out the [deleted] number [/deleted] [inserted] INITIAL [/inserted] of the aircraft that had been put on the Naples run. It then begun to rain hard and the visibility became bad which made it doubtful if the aircraft would take off at all that day. When the captain of the crew arrived we showed him our flying pass and when he asked us if we had our names on the aircraft’s manifesto we looked at him with a blank expression on our faces. We had never even heard of the word. Evidently it was a list of the people or what cargo and the weight of every item that the aircraft was carrying on its trip. So when we told him that our names were not on the list he informed us that if he was due to carry a full load he would be unable to take us.
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A little later he decided that he would take the aircraft up as the weather seemed to be clearing up a bit and to avoid the mountains he also decided to travel around the coast line all the way to Naples and to send back by radio a weather report for the aircraft taking off after him. At that moment the manifest arrived along with the passengers and sacks of mail etc. Unfortunately the weight of all of it was full safety flying load, so the pilot would not take us along with him. We thought this was a good start for our leave. [deleted] We thought this was a good start for our leave. [/deleted] Our thoughts whilst trudging across the mud towards the main road as the aircraft took off over our heads were very black.
At the control tower we caught the station bus that was going into Barri just as it moved off. On reaching the main Barri Foggia coastal road we stopped the bus and descended onto the road. Here we started to thumb all vehicles travelling Northwards. After approximately 10 mins a lorry stopped and picked us up. This lift took us along our route for a further 10 miles to where the lorry came to the end of its journey. So it was back to thumbing a lift once more in the centre of the village called “Molfetta”. Here luck seemed to be against us again as we waited in the same spot for well over an hour without anyone stopping for us. We were fed up with the whole expedition and were thinking of going back to camp and spending our leave in camp when a jeep pulled up and the driver told us to hop in. So off we started once again. This time we travelled along a bit faster and averaged over 40 miles per hour. The driver was a very nice fellow, he was a Colonel in the American Army and told us that his unit was spread all over Southern Italy erecting communication systems on airfields etc, so that he was always travelling around visiting them.
Throughout this stage of our journey it rained heavily. The Colonel told us that he had to stop at a town 45 miles ahead and meet someone and have dinner there. He also said that he would drop us off in this town and we would be able to thumb another lift from there and if we were not successful in getting one he would pick up up [sic] again when he continued his journey a little later on. Well nothing stopped for us so the Colonel picked us up again a little over [deleted] half [/deleted] an hour later.
At one stop we had to make a detour for miles along a muddy track across fields etc as the floods had washed away the temporary bridge that spanned the main road. It was noon before the Colonel reached his destination and we found ourselves very much mud splattered in a very desolate spot. The whole surrounding area was flat and bare except for the snow capped mountains in the distant background and the outline of the town of Foggia miles away. At this spot luck was with us, alomost [sic] immediately on the horizon a truck appeared and drew to a stop when it reached us. Our luck did not last long though as after travelling a further two miles across fields and along muddy tracks we arrived back on the main road. Here we were held up for another 1/2 an hour because of a traffic jam caused by a lorry skiding [sic] and ending up in the roadside ditch.
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[underlined] MY OVERSEAS SERVICE PART 5 [/underlined] R. Barrett Esq.
It was 1 p.m. when we arrived in the town of Foggia or rather what was left of it, as most of the industrial center [sic] had been bombed to the ground. We trudged through the town’s muddy streets already feeling travel weary but, we decided that if we were to get to Naples that night we would not be able to stop in Foggia for dinner and a rest but would have to push on. On arriving at the beginning of the Naples Foggia road, we had another long wait. In fact we were lucky not to have been stranded for the rest of our leave in the town, as the road to Naples up until that day had been closed because of the very deep [deleted] mould [/deleted] [inserted] SNOW [/inserted] drifts in the mountains. Our next lift was in a 15 cwt R.A.F. van and we were delighted when we found out he was going all the way to Naples. So we settled ourselves down on the hard wooden wheel cover seats and proceeded too open some of our tinned rations. The further we travelled along the road inland that took us up into the mountains of central Italy the colder it became. This same road also twisted and turned all the way over the mountains. We felt very miserable as we sat there looking out of the back of the van at the pouring rain.
On nearing the peak of our accent the rain first turned in to sleet which the wind blew in back of the van and on to us both. My ears felt like lumps of ice even though I had my big coat collar turned up covering them. Then in turn the sleet turned into snow and almost became a blizzard at times as the wind blew so hard and then on those occasions we looked like snow men. We stopped in one snow bound village high up in the mountains to enable us to get out of the van for a few minutes to stretch our legs and try and get some warmth into our bodies. This same village looked so picturesque covered in its blanket of white that we very nearly decided to stop there for a couple of days [deleted] for care [/deleted] [inserted] OF OUR LEAVE. [/inserted]
During our stop of a few minutes I sold a few packets of cigarettes and tablets of soap which I had brought along with me and in return for these articles I received over three pounds which helped to pay some of my expenses incurred during the week. It was impossible to live in Italy on just our service pay as inflation in the country was very high with a result that the cost of living was terriffic. [sic] In fact it was the same in every country that I went to that had suffered enemy occupation and where the people were semmistarved [sic]. Money was a farce, cigarettes soap etc was worth much more to us than money. So the only way that we could buy things was to sell the Italians etc the goods that we could obtain in our canteen easily and very cheaply and that were scarce to them, at a high price. By doing this we were able to pay the enormous sum that the Italians etc [deleted] booked [/deleted] [inserted] ASKED [/inserted] for everything that they sold. I hope that my discription [sic] of our trading is clear to you. Of course it was all very unofficial and illegal but it was a case of looking after one self or going short of things as no one [inserted] ELSE [/inserted] would do it for you.
In the service it was every man for himself in most things and you can be sure L.A.C. Barrett was not slow off the mark at any time and did not let any chances of bettering myself go by easily. In other words I was never a mug, when it came to dealing bargaining and buying etc.
Now to continue with my story. As we decended [sic] the other side of the mountain range the snow turned into sleet and then into teaming rain once more. We stopped on one occasion during our decent [sic] and that was to pick up a couple of Canadian soldiers who were hitch hiking their way to Naples. I was certainly glad that the driver of our van stopped for them as they brought aboard a bottle of whisky which they shared with us both. The raw spirit certainly raised our spirit a little bit and also put a bit of warmth into our frozen bodies. Darkness had fallen when we arrived in the outskirts of Naples after having travelled over 200 miles by road that day. Here the vans journey came to an end so we had to get another lift. I stood in a doorway with our kit so as to keep it dry whilst Les stood out in the road and rain thumbing. After a few minutes and after many pairs of yellow headlights had swept past us in the dark, a lorry driven by an Italian stopped and we both piled in the cab beside the driver and put the kit on our knees. Really there was
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not enough room for all of us in the cab as we were jammed tight. I was on the outside and I could not shut the door. So every time that we did a right turn, I had to hang on like grim death to stop myself from being thrown out of the vehicle onto the glistening road which reflected the hundred lights ahead of us all the way but I preferred that discomfort to riding on the back of an open lorry and getting drenched to the skin. The driver dropped us off in Garribaldi Square and although I knew where we were I was lost for a minute or two in the darkness and did not know which of the many roads to take that lead off from the square but, after getting our bearings we set off down the road via Garribaldi and caught a tram that took us to the big tunnel that is situated just below the Kings Palace. Here we got off and walked along the coast road in the rain until we reached the R.A.F. Malcolm Club where we booked a bed and after having a wash we each consumed two big suppers and we still felt hungry.
Although we also felt very much refreshed we were ready for bed and I fell asleep the moment that my head touched the pillow. We did not get up very early on the following morning but after having breakfast in the club we took a little walk along the sea front. That afternoon we hitch hiked along the Autostrada and on the Castel-la-mar where Les visited some friends that lived there and I walked on up the hill to Gragnano where I called on the family that were so good to us when I was billeted next door to them. I picked Les up later that evening and we caught the last train back to Naples from Castle la-mar. It was a very nice rattling around the bay in the moonlight as there were no lights in the Italian trains at that time. On arrival at the club we booked the same bed once more for that night and the following one. Next morning we were up early and decided to take advantage of our day pass for Rome. When we set out from Naples it was raining once again. We also decided to travel along Route 6, we rode on four different types of vehicles before we had covered the 130 mile journey which was another very cold one. Our route took us through Anzio the scene of the famous Italian bridgehead 20 miles south of Rome. The Italians certainly [inserted] PAID [/inserted] for their folly in entering the war against us by teaming up with the Germans. Around this area, town and villages were completely raised to the ground and all that remained for us to see was heaps of rubble. It was the same in the spots which consisted of no mans land during the time of the Casino hold up. Even the last town south of untouched Rome had been badly damaged by bombs and shell fire.
It was late afternoon when we drove past the twisted girders that was all that remained of the hangers of Rome Airport and which stood beneath the shadows of the ruins of the old Roman viaduct that in the days of ancient Rome carried the city’s water supply down from the mountains. Of course very few of the one time thousands of archways remain. We then drove on along the main Colossiem [sic] road and into the centre of the city where we alighted from the lorry and found ourselves surrounded by many large and beautiful buildings. At that time we had no idea of where we were going to stay that night. Officially the city had been declared an open one so all troops were supposed to leave before the 11 o’clock curfew. But this problem was solved for us when within five minutes of our arrival whilst walking down one of the main roads we were approached by an Italian who asked us if we were looking for somewhere to sleep and that if we were he knew of a place. So after deciding that we had nothing to lose if we gave the place a look over, [inserted] SO [/inserted] we told the fellow to take us to it. We followed him to a house in a nearly [sic] turning and were shown into a nicely furnished [deleted] road [/deleted] [inserted] ROOM [/inserted] which was offered to us at a reasonable price. As it looked homely we immediately said that we would take it. Our next step was to find somewhere to eat, we were directed to the big Y.M.C.A. building where we obtained tea and cakes.
This lovely building contained every facility for a chap on leave. Whilst we were eating the Italian orchestra that was playing in the restaurant were broadcasting over the Rome Radio, before we left the building we booked up for to go on one of the many Y.M.C.A.’s tours of Rome on the following morning. We chose the Vatican tour the others included visits to the Appien Way, etc but the bookings for that tour was already completed or we would have gone on both.
After 10 p.m. we had to keep our eyes on the look out for Military Police. On a couple of occasions we had to run and dodge quickly around a corner to avoid running into them.
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Next morning we were outside the Y.M. at 9.30 am where a little later we climbed on to waiting lorries and were driven through the city over the river Tiber and past the beautiful building of the Palace of Justice. At this point we could see the castle of St. Angelo in the distance. A little further along from there we came to the main entrance gate way into the Vatican City, the whole of which is completely surrounded by a high banked wall. The hallway in which we found ourselves on passing through the gate way was built completely with green marble. It was in this hall that the well known Swiss Guards in their ceremonial dress stood on sentry duty. We then travelled up a sloping spiral wide stairway all built with the same type of marble. On arriving at the top of the slope we arrived at the Vatican City’s modern Post Office. We all stopped in this spot for a few minutes whilst all those in the party that wished to send a picture postcard home did so. At the time that Post office was the only one in the world from which the mail when posted was not censored. After buying our entrance ticket we proceeded on the tour and saw many priceless and ancient gifts that had been presented to the various Popes by various nations at various times. Then we passed through the map room which contained many maps hundreds of years old. Then there were the rooms that had been completely painted by such famous painters as Michelangelo and Raffaello. [sic] These paintings were really marvellous and breath taking just to look at them and the hundreds of colours that made up the paintings. The same with the other rooms no words of mine can describe fully their splendour and magnificence. All I can say is that they are worth travelling hundreds of miles to see. Nowhere else in the world can there be such a great and valuable collection of Arts and treasures.
We also saw the main hall where each new Pope is chosen and elected and during the course of the tour I saw every scene that is shown in my postcard pictures of the Vatican City. On arrival back at the main entrance we walked around the outside of the permiiter [sic] wall of the city until we came to the court yard of the famous St. Peters. It was outside that same perimeter wall that up until Italy surrendered German and Italian troops patrolled in the hope of re-capturing escaped Allied prisoners.
As immediately anyone touched the wall of the Holy City the could not be retaken prisoner and so they were consequently inturned [sic] in the Vatican until our troops captured the City of Rome.
On arrival in the circular forecourt we walked around the collonade [sic] on the right side of court and up the right hand stairway before entering the Cathedral. At the top of those hundred or more steps we were shown into a large long room which was situated just off the main building and it was in this room that the Pope gave his daily audiences. When we went in many service personnel from many of the United Nations lined the roped corridor leading up to the Popes Throne. A few minutes later about fifty Swiss Guards marched in and stood at close intervals along the two red silken ropes. Then as the notes of noon boomed from a clock overhead all became silent when the doors at the end of the room opened and the Pope appeared being bourne on his chair along the roped passageway until he reached his Throne. The Pope spoke first in very good English and then in French followed by Italian. He then gave us all his Blessing and also blessed any article that anyone took up to Him before being bourn [sic] from the room. I had a seat upon a raised platform so I was able to see the whole scene quite clearly.
My one big regret was that we did not have time enough to go around St Peters itself but, that is a tour in itself. As it was 12.30 p.m. when we decended [sic] into the beautiful forecourt once more and we were felling half starved through not having anything to eat since the previous evening it was a case of necessity for us to get a meal before doing anything else that day. So we paid a visit to one of the R.A.F. clubs where we filled in a big hollow. By rights we should have left the city by that time as our passes for Rome had expired but as our S.W.O. had very conveniently stamped our written passes at both the top and the bottom of the paper and all of our writing was at the top it left the bottom half blank. So we cut the paper in half and on the bottom half Les wrote out a fresh pass
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for the following day and I forged the S.W.O’s signature. This last paragraph of mine may be a bit complicated to understand but if you look on the opposite page you will see what I mean.
That same afternoon we toured some of the ruins of ancient Rome including the “Amptheatre” [sic] where at one time Christians were thrown to the lions. We also saw Mousolinni’s [sic] big house and the balcony from which he used to shout and rave. At the time the building was being used to house an Italian Art Exhibition but we did not have time to pay it a visit. In the evening we saw a bit of the modern Rome when we toured many of the main streets all of which were well lit the same as all the well stocked shop windows. Then we went in one of the theatres and saw a variety revue, in which an Italian Film star sang. Most of the show was in Italian but bits of it was English. Anyway we could understand most of the [deleted] words [/deleted] [inserted] TURNS, [/inserted] until it came to a comic cross talk all and that was completely beyond us. We just had to sit there with straight faces whilst all the people around us roared with laughter. I bet we looked as funny as the comics.
From what we saw of the chorus, we could tell that the city of Rome did not possess a Lord Chamberlain. Next morning it was raining when we set out on our long journey back to Naples. For a long time, we stood on the pavement thumbing a lift beneath the shadow of the hundred upon hundreds of years old ruins of the Amptheatre, [sic] until an American van which was going all the way into Naples stopped to pick us up. We made very good time whilst travelling along the treacherous icebound roads. It snowed for most of the time during our trip and I could not keep warm at all. Although I had a blanket over my knees, I still could not feel my feet. The snow kept driving in sheets in through the back of the van. I do not know how the driver managed to see the road ahead. All the time as it was almost indistinguishable. We passed through the town of Santa Maria where I knew that Cyril was stationed but as the weather was so bad we decided to push on to Naples, as we might not have been able to get another lift later on that night. I intended to pay him a surprise visit the very next day. But as things turned out, I am forever sorry that I did not stop. Anyway when we arrived in Caserta we stopped for a short while and on getting out of the van I had to run and stamp up and down the road with tears in my eyes to try and get some circulation in my frozen feet.
I felt much better after the Americans had taken us both into their Red Cross Club as guests and had fed us up with doughnuts and hot coffee. It was nearly 2 p.m. when we said cheerio to them in the familiar Garribaldi Square of Naples.
After taking our time over a meal in the Kings Palace we went back to the R.A.F. Malcolm club to book our beds for that night. As soon as we gave our names to the reception desk on arriving at the Club, we were informed that a Sargent [sic] from the R.A.F. Special Investigation Branch had been asking for us continuously on the telephone and calling at the Club every so often to see if we were there for the past three days and that they had left a message saying that I was to call him up as soon as we came into the Club again. I immediately went to the phone and dialled the number given to me. On being put through to the Police Headquarters, I asked to speak to the Sargent, [sic] and was informed that he had not come in yet. I telephone on two further occasions during the following hour and a half only to receive the same reply. Finally, I asked them to ring me back as soon as he came in. I informed the desk that if a call came through for me they could locate me in the dining hall After sitting there for a restless and boring hour, I went upstairs to where [deleted] the [/deleted] [inserted] A [/inserted] dance was in progress in one of the big rooms, but I did not take much notice of the dancing or the music as in the back of mind visions had arisen of spending the night behind bars or under close arrest.
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In the dance we met two other chaps who were also on leave from our Squadron. They also told us that the police were looking for us but they could not get the information from the Sargent [sic] as to what he wanted us for. At the end of the dance, I was informed by the girl receptionist that the Sergent [sic] was waiting for me down in the dining hall. So down I went to find out the worst. He was quite a nice chap not at all like so many of the S.P’s. It turned out that [inserted] DURING [/inserted] the night of the day that we left for Rome thieves were caught stealing and on being chased they dropped an automatic agroscope and on the label attached to it was marked 267 Squadron and that Les and I were the only two fellows that had booked a bed in the club that night and who came from 267. But as we failed to sleep there and had not turned up during the two following days because there was no 267 lorry around after the theft, they thought that perhaps we had gone off in the lorry and had stolen. [inserted] IT. [/inserted]
However, matters were cleared up when I explained that we had both been up to Rome and had convinced him that we had no lorry, with us. I put forward the theory that perhaps the Squadrons weekly stores waggon van to Naples had called in athe [sic] and had started on its return trip to Barri not stopping in Naples for the night and that the Gyro must have been stolen off of the truck.
After finally telling the Sergent [sic] where [deleted] our visit was stationed [/deleted] [inserted] WE WERE STAYING [/inserted] he seemed satisfied. Anyway we heard no more about the incident. Next day it poured with rain incessantly so we were unable to get out to Santa Maria again to pay Cyril a visit. In the morning we went to a film show in the cinema of the Palace and then we had dinner there. Then we reposed in a nice easy chair and listened to an orchestral concert in the Ballroom before paying an afternoon visit to the Opera. The Grand San Carlo Opera House is situated next to the Palace. In peace time only the notibilities [sic] of the country were allowed to enter and witness the Operas etc performed there. Standing beneath the stone pillered [sic] canopy covering the pavement by the main entrance to the Opera House watching the cars, etc, drive up in the rain, the building did not look at all impressive. Its interior was just the reverse it was truly beautiful. The ceiling was painted with complete scenes of 101 colours. There are no balconies in the building the three sides of the theatre looking upon the stage is one mass of private boxes. Les and I had one of these boxes to ourselves and we felt like millionaires sitting there in a plush comfy seats and with all the gilt fittings around etc.
During our walk back to the club at the completion of the performance the rain turned into snow and on arrival at the club we looked more like a couple of snowmen than anything else. Next morning we set out to get back to Barri. We received first set back when we found out that the one and only road to Foggia across the mountains was blocked with snow drifts and it was not expected to be open to traffic until at least three days later. We than proceeded to the Garribaldi Railway Station and it was there that we received our second set back. The Railway Transport Officer informed us that the troops section of the train to Barri that night was completely booked up to its capacity.
On being told that there was not the slightest chance of getting on it when it left, we decided that as the weather was or looked too bad for flying, that Les should hitch hike up to the airport and get our passes signed there to say that we could not get back by air. [deleted] Here [/deleted] [inserted] THEN [/inserted] we would be in the clear if we arrived back at camp overdue. Whilst he went to the drome I sat on a seat on the square just outside the station and kept my eye on our kit. Les returned an hour later and informed me that if I had gone up to the drome with him we would have been on our way to Barri at that moment. It turned out that just as he arrived at the drome he ran into one of [deleted] the [/deleted] [inserted] OUR [/inserted] Squadron Pilots who was just about to take off for Barri in one of the Squadron aircraft. As I was back in Naples Les had to come back instead of just jumping into the aircraft. By that time it was definite that we would not get back to camp that night so we dumped our kit in the Palace and went to see a film show and then another show given by an R.A.F. Concert Party before going back to the club and spending an other night there.
cont …..
[page break]
[inserted] 125A. [/inserted]
[copy of the Army Welfare Newsletter]
[page break]
[map detailing the Welfare Facilities in Naples]
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[inserted] 126 [/inserted]
- 6 –
Next morning we held another conference we were due back at Camp by midnight that same day so we had to work out some plan of action. We knew that travelling by road was impossible and that if we caught that days train from Naples we would not get back to camp until at the earliest, dinner time on the following day. So we decided to try the Airport together and hoped that one of our aircraft would land there and take off for home that same day. As we walked down the “Via Roma” it started to rain once again and after hitch hiking half of the way to Pamiglianno Airport a teriffic [sic] thunderstorm broke and the rain came down in torrents and just rushed down the streets and flooded them. As we stood in there in the doorway which we ran to for shelter from the rain our hopes diminished as it certainly was not flying weather. As soon as the rain eased a little we were out in the [inserted] ROADWAY [/inserted] thumbing another lift, this one took us along our route for another mile and a half. Then down came the rain once more and by the time we had reached shelter under an archway of a stone roadside farmhouse a little way up the road our clothes were soaked through. It was whilst we were standing beneath that archway that I discovered that our flying permits were dated for the previous day. But after a careful bit of forgery this little spot of trouble was eliminated.
As soon as it eased once more we pushed on and it was only drizzling with rain when we arrived at the airfields control tower,, [sic] where the loudspeakers were announcing the times and numbers etc of aircraft taking off for Algiers, Florence Marseiles [sic] etc.
As we made our through the passengers [inserted] ROOM [/inserted] where a bunch of people were waiting to be carried to many different corners of the globe we ran into another of our pilots and feeling as miserable as we did at the time we could have kissed him when he said that he had just come in from Cairo and was about to start for Barri as soon as the weather broke a bit and he had got [inserted] A [/inserted] further weather report from the control tower. The pilot then got our names and weight etc put on the manifest and we climbed on board the crew waggon and were driven out to the aircraft where they were still unloading crates of eggs.
We picked our way from the waggon and across the mud. I then took the locks off of the controls and the locking pins from the undercarriage before climbing aboard and closing the door of the aircraft. A few moments later, first one and then the other of the engins [sic] came to life and we taxied down to the runway, where after an engine check the pilot opened up the throttles and the engines roared still louder and the aircraft leaped forward gathering speed until up came the tail and in a few moments we found ourselves airborne and circling over Naples bidding the city goodbye.
As we looked out of one of the small side windows, we could see Mount Vesuvius to our right rearing up above the clouds. We had the aircraft to ourselves except for the crew and a few crates of eggs which were for our breakfasts during the following [deleted] four [/deleted] mornings. I did not like it at all when we circled round and round in between the mountains gaining height all the time so that we would be able to fly over the highest range. For quite a time we were flying blind through the clouds and mist and were unable to see anything outside the aircraft whatsoever. Then a little later on we occasionally caught a glimpse of the area beneath us. The mountainous countryside was covered with one complete blanket of snow and it all looked very desolate and bleak as well as peaceful.
I should have hated to have had to crash land on any of those valleys or into one of those mountains. Only a couple of weeks previously two M.P’s touring Italy disappeared whilst flying on that same route. I breathed a sigh of relief immediately we caught sight of the Adriatic coastline and were flying in perfectly clear weather once again. A few minutes later we were circling over familiar ground and we touched down on our home runway.
……..cont…..
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[inserted] 127 [/inserted]
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Forty five minutes after taking off. An hour previously we were worrying about being 18 hours overdue and there we were sitting in our cookhouse having dinner with 12 hours to go before our leave pass expired. I spent the following hour reading the mail that I found waiting for me on my bed when I walked into our room.
That same afternoon I saw our football team (the champions of the Southern Italy area) get beaten for the first time. So ended my weeks leave after travelling over 750 miles by bus tram, train, lorry, vans, car, air and even by horse and cart. On the following day it was [inserted] BACK [/inserted] to the usual routine once more. It was around about this time that a South African Dakota coming back from Yougoslavia [sic] one foggy night could not find our airfield although we could hear it circling overhead. Finally the sound of the engines receeded [sic] and the aircraft ran out of petrol and crashed into a field near the town of Altimura and all of the crew and all but one of the 24 passengers were killed. I could tell you a rather grisly story about this same incident but I will not as I do not want to make you feel sick. If you really want to hear about it just ask me to tell it to you.
On the 23rd of Jan it snowed so hard that after dinner all the ground crew on our Squadron had to help sweep the snow off the wings, and the tail units of the aircraft before they were able to take off on their mission of carrying Yugoslavians [inserted] TROOPS [/inserted] back to their own country to fight the [deleted] troops [/deleted] Germans, only this time they were well trained and equipped.
The 29th Jan was a very black day for us all. We were delivered a big bombshell when we were told that the Squadron had been posted to India and for the next few days everyone walked around looking very glum. That same evening the Corporal in charge of our gang held a farewell party to which I was invited. On the following day he started on his long journey back to England and his home in Reading, after completing 4 years overseas service.
During the following days the Squadron was in a turmoil. Those aircraft that only had a few hours flying to do before becoming due for Inspection were inspected. We were leaving all the fellows behind who had less than 3 months overseas service to do. Every day, lists kept coming in posting these chaps to different units all over Italy. In 3 days, three lists came in posting one chap to three different places, so you can see what a big muddle it all was. We spent the following Wednesday sorting out the technical equipment that we were going to take along with us [deleted] rough [/deleted] [inserted] WEIGH [/inserted]ing it. Then I had to pack my kit and hand one kit bag into stores as we were only allowed to take 100 lbs of kit each along with us on the aircraft. This weight also included our bed roll and small pack Then we had to weigh ourselves so that it could all go down on the manifest of the aircraft that we were to travel in. Also in the afternoon we had to change our money into Egyptian currency, after which we all had to go up to sick quarters and have a Yellow Fever and a Thyphus [sic] Booster Inoculation. Sick quarters also wanted to give me two others, in the same area but I finally convinced them that I did not feel like having them straight after the first two.
Next day, we spent marking and weighing more equipment and loading it on to different aircraft and I also helped to dismantle a crane that we were taking along with us. Incidentally during this operation two of us got hit on the heads when a section of the crane fell away. I was lucky only to receive a small bump on the head. That evening a big party was held in our canteen as there was large stocks of wine still left that had to be drunk or thrown away and you would not [deleted] ask [/deleted] [inserted] CATCH [/inserted] any 267 Squadron personnel [deleted] to [/deleted] throwing drink away. I went to bed early that night as I was thinking of the morrow so I missed most of the farewell party.
Next morning, the 2nd Feb we all received an early call at 4.20 am after getting the sleep out of our eyes we did our last minute packing before going down to breakfast. Then we bade farewell to the chaps in the room that we were leaving behind before carting all of the bags etc that made up our 100 lb of kit down the staircase at the bottom of which we loaded it all on to a waiting lorry. Then we loaded ourselves on and were driven down [deleted] on [/deleted] to the airfield. As we passed by the tail of each aircraft that were parked in a long line, we made out the number of it
cont ……
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[inserted] 128 [/inserted]
- 8 –
by the aid of a torchlight and shouted it out. If anyone on board was flying with that aircraft we stopped and dropped him and his kit off the lorry. On reaching Dakota FD920 “R” for Raymond I was dropped off and struggled with my kit ankle deep in the mud all the way to the aircrafts doorway. I was the first to arrive so I opened the door and placed the steps in position and climbed aboard and felt my way up the steps in the darkness until I bumped into the cockpit door. Then after a couple of unrepeatable words I opened the door and went into the cockpit and switched on all the lights inside the aircraft. Within a few more minutes more lorries went by in the darkness and more chaps came staggering across in the mud to 920. I helped them on with their kit and shouted out to the different lorries that it was 920. This went on until there were 15 of us along with three puppies in a basket. We spent the next half hour storing the kit and roping it down and fixing the [deleted] basket [/deleted] [inserted] BUCKET [/inserted] seats and making ourselves comfortable. We than [sic] ran up the engines to see what they were like as as [sic] they proved satisfactorily to us it put our minds at rest as our lives might have depended on them. Many of the chaps on board looked a bit bleary eyed which was a result of the party the night before and of having little sleep. A little later the crew arrived and after adjusting and fastening our safety belts we were all set and ready to begin our long trip to the Far East. We watched the first three fully loaded aircraft take off. They just managed to get airborne as they reached the end of the runway. Everyone looked at each other and then at the piles and piles of kit, but no one said a word although we all knew what every single person was thinking of whilst taxing [sic] to the runway when our turn to take off came.
After checking the engines the pilot swung the aircraft out into the centre of the runway and a few moments later the engines roared to life and we begun to gather speed and after what seemed an eternity up came the tail and on passing over the road at the end of the runway, we all breathed a sigh of relief and the atmosphere instead of remaining tense returned to normal once again and chaps began to talk once more as we carried on serenely banking to the left until we headed in a Southerly direction. It was then 7-10 a.m. Some of the fellows started to read books and four of them made up a card school to pass the time away whilst we were in the air. I contented myself by looking out of the side windows for the next hour seeing as much scenery of Southern Italy from the air as was possible. We flew over Taranto Harbour and on across the heel of Italy and said goodbye to Italy and its coastline at 8.15 a.m. and headed across the open sea. By that time we were all wearing Mae West Life Saving Jackets in case we had to land on the sea. As the only scenery below was acres of blank water, I started to read a book that I had bought along with me. It was 11.30 a.m. when we first sighted the coast line of Lybia and we crossed in a few minutes later at a point just west of Tobruk and we could see the town and harbour to the left of us. Apart from that there was nothing but sand, sand and more sand as far as the eye could see which from the height that we were flying must have been just on 50 miles or more [deleted] of [/deleted] it was a perfectly clear day and the sun was beating down upon the sand.
The only shade in this vast area of some 2500 sq miles of desert was made by the clouds as there were only a few small clouds about. Only a few small dark patched dulled the scorching sand beneath us. From the air we could clearly define the thousands of slit trenches and gun emplacements etc that at one time had been a part of Tobruk defence system whilst it had been besieged by the German and Italian armies.
First there was the outer ring of positions and then the inner defence ring. A little further out in the desert we could make out the positions held by the Germans throughout the battle for the Town. God knows how our troops stopped from going mad whilst living for months in that desolate and unchanging area.
cont …….
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After flying inland for a few minutes we began to circle and lose height and we touched down on the sand runway of the El Adem airfield situated in the desert S.W of Tobruk at 11.50 a.m. After taxeing [sic] up alongside the two of the Squadrons aircraft which had landed before us the engines were switched off and we all stepped out on to the sand into the heat. Almost immediately crews of the staging post stationed on the airfield began to refuel our plane. Whilst the [inserted] PETROL [/inserted] bowsers were driving into position another [deleted] petrol [/deleted] vehicle drew up alongside of us which was the station bus.
After taking our seats we were driven to the control tower and waited whilst our pilot booked in and then on the very modern airways transit canteen. Here we were able to refresh ourselves by having a wash before entering a large well laid out carpeted dining hall. On seating ourselves at one of the tables, a four course meal was brought in to us in stages by Italian prisoner waiters. Then after having a couple of cups of tea we retired to the lounge for a short rest and a smoke before being taken back to the control tower so that our pilot could book out and then back to our aircraft.
As we climbed aboard the first of our aircraft was starting to taxi out and another three aircraft had arrived after us. As soon as we had taken out the control locks and undercarriage pins we closed the door and then the engines roared to life once more and off we went down to the commencement of the runway and then we soared up into the air like a bird and headed east on the next lap of our trip. Of course for the next three hours most of the scenery was nothing but blank sand. As we looked down we could see the shadow of our own aircraft winging its way across the sand thousands of feet below us. Then at intervals we could look out and see other of our aircraft [deleted] coming [/deleted] [inserted] CARRYING [/inserted] our friends, flying along to the side of us at the same height.
Once we flew into thick white clouds and then we climbed above them and when we looked below us it looked just like a big bed of white down and almost made me feel that I could step out of the aircraft on to it and walk on air. Whilst flying among light clouds, they looked like puffs of cotton wool floating past us. As I said before, their shadow created all sorts of patterns on the sand below. During the trip two of the puppies had to be fed with tinned milk by the aid of an improvised dummy. The other pup could lap it up for himself. It was just upon 5 p.m. when we looked upon the green belt surrounding Cairo. We had to circle for quite a while over the desert near by watching other aircraft land and take off and looking down upon the runways, hangers a dozen or more tented sites inter connected by Tarmac roads running from the Tarmac taxi track which in turn joined the system of runways. All this tarmac showed up vividly against the rest of the ground, which was completely compiled of golden sand. At least it looked golden from the air. We also circled a couple of times [deleted] of [/deleted] the Cairo and Alexandria road. Then it was our turn to land. First the undercarriage and then the flaps were lowered and as our speed slowed, we glided down and landed on the airport at Cairo (West).
From that moment, it was one big rush until darkness decended [sic] being driven to the South African living site, finding vacant space in a tent then being driven to the cookhouse for a meal and then back to the camp site once more. That same evening a few of my friends and myself walked to the canteen and spent a few hours drinking as much beer as we wanted eating many egg sandwiches and playing housey housey.
Next morning, I had to help with Minor Inspection on one of the aircraft that had become due for inspection which had to be completed before the aircraft was allowed to fly again. Other chaps had to carry out daily inspections on the other five aircraft. Then there was the re-fuelling party etc.
cont ……
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[inserted] 130 [/inserted]
- 10 –
After dinner I had a quick wash and then I hitch hiked the 12 miles into Cairo along the main Alex/Cairo road. I spent the rest of the day touring all the old haunts that I used to frequent when I was at Cairo previously. But I seemed to be a bit lonely that afternoon as I was not able to just pop round and call on Cyril as I had done so many times before. I had my two meals in the Victory Club and enjoyed once again the poached eggs and baked beans on toast, ice cream, salads, etc. The worse part of the day came when it was time for me to start back for camp and nothing would stop for me. After an hour of thumbing, I went to the airways bus station in the city and the attendant told me that I could travel on their bus that went up to the airport at 3 a.m. As that was not a bright outlook I tried hitch hiking once more only this seemed time I stood by the big bridge that [deleted] opens [/deleted] [inserted] SPANS [/inserted] the Nile river.
Almost immediately the driver of a Generals car pulled up for me. I sat back in the lovely comfortable car that just purred along and in no time we had arrived at the Mena House Hotel which was where I had to get out as the driver had to pick up the General as soon as he left me. I had another long wait in that spot beneath the shadow of the Great Pyramid before an Officer stopped and took me to the entrance of the airport. As the time was getting on, I decided that it would be quicker for me to cut across the sand to get to my tent. I knew that the camp was situated near a hanger with red danger light on top of it, a warning for low flying aircraft. I picked out one of the many red lights and set out towards it. But when I neared the hanger after walking for over twenty minutes, I discovered that it was the wrong one and there I was wandering around in the sand having completely lost my bearings.
I eventually found myself in the centre of the main of runways and then landed up in an Officer’s camp where they were able to put me on my correct course. So I set off once again across the sand and after I had arrived at our camp, and I had found my tent and had climbed between my blankets it was past 3 a.m. Was I thankful at being able to rest my feet and in no time I was sound asleep.
Next morning, we were driven to our aircraft which we ran up before being taken back to our tents once more. That same afternoon a party of us went into Cairo again only this time, it was on a lorry that we had borrowed from the S.A.A.F. On arrival in the city it was arranged that the driver should pick us up at 10.30 p.m. outside Groppies (the select Lyons of the East). I spent the afternoon touring the murky bazars in the Old Cairo and eating more good food. In the evening I went to one of the city’s most modern cinemas and saw a film show.
At 10.15 p.m. I made my way along the main road named Solomon [deleted] Pacha [/deleted] [inserted] PASHA [/inserted] towards Groppies. and on arrival there I found many of the other Squadron chaps but no lorry. 11.15 p.m arrived and still there was no sign of our lorry. By that time we were tired of walking up and down outside Lady Tedders Club and [inserted] SOME OF [/inserted] the fellows were getting a bit worried [deleted] some [/deleted] [inserted] AS HALF [/inserted] of them were due to take off at 1.30 a.m. less than 3 hours later. So, after a few more minutes of useless waiting we had to commandeer the airways bus to take us back to camp where we had supper in the dining hall before going to bed or rather only the chaps not taking off had the pleasure of going to bed. It turned out that our lorry had been waiting in the road on the opposite side of Groppies and had left at 10.30 p.m. with no more than a couple of chaps on board.
After breakfast next day we were taken out to R for Raymond once more and we stowed all of our kit and ourselves inside once more. This time we only had the two younger pups with us as we were unable to find the third one. It was hellish hot inside the fusalage [sic] whilst waiting to take off and the sweat poured from us whilst our soaked through clothes clung to us.
cont …….
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[inserted] 131 [/inserted]
- 11 –
We retracted our undercarriage at 8.10 a.m. and conditions soon changed, we were able to breath in nice clean fresh air once more and as we again, gained height it became cold once more and we had to put on our battle dress blouses as we passed over the Pyramids and the wide silver ribbon of the Nile, before we came to the end of the green belt and headed in a North Easterly direction across the Arabian Desert. After covering approximately 225 miles in a direct line we found ourselves over the Mediterranean coastline some where in Palestine and then we followed it for a little while before changing our course and heading inland once more travelling in another direct line which took us over the dead sea near Jerusalem on until we neared the border of South Eastern Syria. At that point we changed course once more and flew South Eastwards in another direct line. as 95% of this trip was over desert I did not spend much time looking out the windows behind me upon sand. I read a book for a short time and then fell off to sleep until someone in the aircraft shouted that he had caught sight of an airfield and sure enough we began to lose height and the wireless operator came in from the cockpit compartment and told us to take our seats and fasten our safety belts. It was 2.25 p.m. when we touched down and after a few small bumps finally ran along smoothly on the runway of Shieba Airport in Iraq. This was one of the hottest spots in the world at certain times of the year and we certainly felt the heat as soon as the aircraft came to a stop. The first thing we did was to book in at a small office where we were given a ticket that enabled us to obtain a free meal, at the airports transit canteen. Most of us were so hungry that we changed some of our money into fills, (Iraq currency) and bought a second meal for ourselves. Next we were taken by lorry to the domestic camp where we were directed to a brick built bungalow billet which was one of many built on the sand at that spot. After collecting blankets and having another meal in the cookhouse this time I had a wash and went straight to bed as we had to be up at 1. a.m.
Some of the chaps went to the camp cinema as there was a very good film on that evening. They certainly did not get much sleep as, no sooner had they got into bed, than it was time for them to get up. When we were called I got up with much reluctance as the bed on which I slept was the most comfortable one I had had since coming overseas.
It was dark and quite chilly when we were driven across the sand to our aircraft. As soon as we became airborne at 3.20 a.m. in the middle of the night, we untied our blanket rolls and put their contents on the floor turned out the aircraft lights and went to sleep. The next thing I knew was that we had landed and were taxying in the darkness towards a dispersal point. I never even felt the jolt as the wheels touched the ground.
After arousing myself I found out that it was 5.30 a.m. in the morning and that we were in Barrein Island in the Persian Gulf, just off the coast of Iran. We were driven straight to the cookhouse for breakfast and then back to our aircraft once more. During this intervening time it had become light and we discovered that we had caught up with the Squadron aircraft that had taken off 8 hours before us at Cairo West. We also retrieved our third puppy which had been lost and which had been brought along in one of the advanced aircraft.
I should think that one could easily have gone around the bend as we say, if they stayed on that Island for too long, what with the heat and flat outlook and apart from the airfield and a native village there was nothing else on that tropical desert island which almost becomes completely flooded over on certain occasions.
At 6.55 a.m. we were away again flying over the pale blue water of the Gulf and then on across Persia itself and its sereen [sic] desert countryside. As we looked down, thousands of feet below us we could clearly see the stone native villages mostly built beside a river which partly irrigated the nearby sandy soil so that a strip either side of the river became fertilized and and [sic] beyond these strips the earth became sand once again. We could also see [underlined] Manajantuque [/underlined] [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] [symbol] MANY ANTIRUS [/inserted] hand made sailing craft on the waterways between the villages. Then a few hours later we arrived over the coastline of India and for a time we flew alongside it over the Indian ocean.
cont …….
[page break]
THE LAND
GEOGRAPHY
Burma is situated in Southeast Asia and is bordered on the north and northeast by China, on the east and southeast by Laos and Thailand, on the south by the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal and on the west by Bangladesh and India. The country covers an area of 678,580 square kilometres in the shape of a diamond, 920 kilometres from east to west and 2080 kilometres from north to south. It is a land of hills and valleys and is rimmed on the north, east and west by mountain ranges forming a giant horseshoe. Enclosed within this mountain barrier are the flatlands of Irrawaddy, Chindwin and Sittang River valleys where most of the country’s agricultural land population is concentrated.
CLIMATE
As the greater part of the country lies within the tropics, Burma has a tropical climate with three seasons: the rainy, the hot and the cold.
The rainy season is from mid-May to mid-October and the cold season from October to February when the temperature in the south may fall within the neighbourhood of 60oF (16oC). The hot season precedes the rains.
RACES
The people of Burma are of Mongoloid stock and are descended from three main branches: the Tibeto-Burman, the Mon-Khmer and the Thai-Chinese. The principal races are the Burmese, Shan, Kachin, Karen, Chin, Kayah, Mon and Rakhine. The population is 36.39 millions with an annual growth rate of 2 per cent.
RELIGION
Buddhism is the predominant religion and over 80 per cent of the population is Buddhist. Other religions are Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.
THE CULTURE
Born of a land of plenty which is blessed with a favourable climate and inhabited by a happy and creative people, Burma’s culture on the whole is indigenous. It has preserved the traditions of close family ties, respect for elders, reverence for Buddhism and simple native dress. Buddhism and the natural wealth of the land have contributed much to the nature of Burmese culture.
This country’s charm springs from the ability of her people to be themselves, to enjoy to the fullest their traditional culture.
Festivals form the centre of Burmese social life and each month of the Burmese calendar has its own particular festive occasion. Thingyan or the water festival which falls around 13th April ushers in the Burmese New Year.
Kason of Buddha’s Day (in May) is a three-fold anniversary of the Buddha: the Day of his Birth, the Day of his Enlightenment and the Day of his Demise.
Full Moon Day of Waso (in July) commemorates Buddha’s first sermon and the beginning of Buddhist Lent.
Thadingyut or the Festival of lights marks the end of the Buddhist Lent (in October) when all the places are brilliantly illuminated.
Tazaungdaing also the Light Festival is held on the Full Moon Day of Tazaungmon (in November).
The Festival of the Phaung-Daw-Oo Pagoda in the Inle Lake is both pageantry and spectacular.
Taung Pyone Festival of Nats (Spirits) held near Mandalay in August is a joyous and light-hearted merry-making.
GATEWAY AND TOURIST CENTRES
Rangoon, the capital city, is the only gateway into Burma. Entry by overland route is not allowed. Tourists are advised to travel only to the main tourist centres of Pagan, Mandalay, Taunggyi and their vicinities as specified below and shown on the map.
Rangoon Area – Rangoon City proper and – Htaukkyant – Pegu – Syriam/Kyauktan (by steamer) – Twante (by steamer)
Pagan Area – Nyaung-Oo and Pagan proper as well as – Kyaukpadaung – Popa – Meiktila – Thazi
Mandalay Area – Mandalay City proper and – Sagaing – Amarupura – Ava – Mingung (by steamer) – Maymyo (Up to Pwekauk Waterfalls)
Taunggyi Area – Taunggyi City proper and – Nyaung Shwe – Inle Lake (Up to Phaungdaw Oo Pagoda) – Shwe Nyaung – Kalaw – Pindaya – Khaung-daing (Inle spa)
TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS
As there are some restricted areas in the country, it is advisable to consult the Information Counters of Tourist Burma before making arrangements to visit places outside the main tourist centres. Unless escorted by authorised Tour Guides, tourists who are found in places other than the areas stated above may be turned back to the nearest Tourist Centre by the local authorities concerned.
Tourists are also not allowed to travel overland by Coach and Taxis unless arrangements are made through Tourist Burma.
TRANSPORTATION
Tourists may travel to the main tourist centres either by plane or overland by train or car.
(i) Domestic Flights: The best way is to fly from Rangoon to the tourist centres of Pagan, Mandalay, and Taunggyi. BAC operates scheduled flights to the tourist centres and passengers are provided with free transfers between airports and hotels.
(ii) Rail Service: There are three regular Express Trains running daily between Rangoon and Mandalay which takes about 12 hours. For visitors to Pagan and Taunggyi there is a bus service at Thazi junction. Service Coupons for bus services are available at the Tourist Burma Counter at Thazi Station. Travelling time from Thazi to Pagan is about 4 hours and from Thazi to Taunggyi about 5 1/2 hours.
(iii) Bus Service: There are also regular bus services between Pagan and Mandalay; Pagan and Taunggyi; and Taunggyi and Mandalay. Service Coupons are available at all Tourist Burma Counters.
(iv) Registered Taxis: Registered taxis for tourists in the Rangoon area are available at Rangoon Airport, Hotels, YMCA and Tourist Burma Counters. Service Coupons are available at all Tourist Burma and Hotel Reception Counters. This includes all transfers from and to airports, as well as transportation arrangements between tourist centres.
(v) Steamer Service: There is a regular Steamer Service from Mandalay down the Irrawaddy River to Pagan/Nyaung-Oo. It is a 12-hour journey leaving Mandalay at 0530 hours and arriving at Nyaung-Oo/Pagan at 1700 hours the same day. This journey is not advisable during the dry season from March to May when the river gets shallow.
ACCOMMODATION
There are Hotels run by the Hotel and Tourist Corporation at all tourist centres. Tourists may stay either at these hotels or at Registered Guest Houses for which Service Coupons are available at Tourist Burma Counters.
GUIDE SERVICE
Apart from the guides employed by Tourist Burma, tourists may also arrange for the services of Registered Tour Guides. They are available, on request, at Tourist Burma and Hotel Reception Counters.
TOURS
The ideal period to visit Burma is from October through March when the weather is dry and cool. However, there is a likelihood of inconvenience and frustration in getting confirmed seats on flights and hotel rooms if you have made no pre-arrangements. We therefore advise you to make advance bookings for package tours either through your regular Travel Agent or directly to us.
SHOPPING
Export of antiques and archaeologically valuable items are prohitbited. [sic] As there is a customs restriction on export of souvenirs of a doubtful nature as well as in quantity, tourists are advised to purchase them only at the Diplomatic Stores and at the Souvenir Shops in each hotel. The vouchers obtained for such purchases on presentation to the Customs authorities at the Rangoon Airport will ensure that the articles will accompany you on your departure from Burma.
Only gems, jewelleries and silverware purchased at the Diplomatic Stores and Souvenir Shops at the Hotels are allowed to be taken out.
TOURIST INFORMATION
Tourist Burma, under the Hotel and Tourist Corporation, is the Sole Tour Operator responsible for all travel and tour arrangements. It handles both Package Tours and FITs through its head office in Rangoon as well as its branch offices in Pagan, Mandalay and Taunggyi. There are also Tourise Information Counters at the airports and railway stations at the main tourist centres.
Please contact any Tourist Burma Counter for any other information you may require. We want to be of assistance to you in order that your visit to our country will be a happy and memorable occasion.
CABLE: ENVOY [Tourist Burma crest] PHONE COUNTRY CODE (095) AREA CODE (01) 78376/75328/80321 [Tourist Burma address stamp]
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[deleted] X [/deleted] ROUTES FROM IMPHAL & AKYAB WHERE WE DROPPED SUPPLIES TO TROOPS
137 (A) SHOWS CHINGIT DROP ZONES & OPERATION AREAS.
X [symbol] 137 (B) SITES OF MY HOME AT AKYAB
144 A MAP OF INTEREST
[deleted] 154 (B) CLEARLY SHOW THE CHINGITS 4 OPERATIONAL [deleted] AREAS
154 (A) RETURN TO RANGOON
154 C HARBOUR BOMBED AREA.
- PRISON ROOFS SHOWING INMATES COMMENTS
154 D INTERESTING PHOTOS OF REOCCUPATION S55 RANGOON STATION OR WHAT WAS LEFT OF IT.
[symbol] 163.A. PHOTOS OF OUR RANGOON CAMP SITE.
164 (A) OUR FIRST AIRCRAFT TO RETURN TO AIRPORT
[symbol] 164 (B) MINGARLADON SURRENDER DETAILS
(C)
165 (A) ARIEL SCENES OF RANGOON AREA FROM MY DAKOTA (NOTE FEATHERED PROPELLA [sic])
166 (A) OUR CAMP CINEMA IN FLAMES
[symbol] 169 OUR DAKOTAS FLYING HORSE SQUNDERON [sic] PEGASUS.
169 B – MYSELF WORKING ON DAKOTA
170 B CHINATOWN RANGOON
[brackets] 171 A 172 B C 173 [/brackets] ALL GENERAL DIFFERENT VIEWS OF TOWN
174 A B GENERAL VIEWS OF SHEWEDAGON PAGODA
176 A. ME AGED 21
[symbol] 175 (B) MY PUPPY.
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177 (B) MORE ARIEL SNAPS OF RANGOON
[symbol] 177 (C) FESTIVAL OF WATER.
177(C) HISTORY OF OUR SQUADRON LAST 4 MONTHS BEFORE ARRIVAL AT RANGOON WE DROPPED 4.256 TONS OF SUPPIES [sic] TO OPERATIONAL AREAS
[brackets] 178 A 179 179 A [/brackets] JAPANESE OCCUPATION RUPEE NOTES
[symbol] 192 (A) VILLAGE NEXT TO OUR MINGALADON CAMP CHRISTMAS EVE 1945
[symbol] 194 (A) CHRISTMAS 1945 MENUS.
[symbol] 203 (A) INVITATION TO DANCE AT CIVIC HALL
[symbol] 203 (B) BALANCE SHEET FOR DANCE
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[map of Rangoon and surrounding area]
[map of Mingaladon base]
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[inserted] 131A.
[underlined] MY PAY BOOK SOUTH EAST ASIA AIR FORCES. [/underlined]
[copy of front page of paybook belonging to Raymond Barrett]
[underlined] NOTE. Seven shillings K DNY 35P [/underlined]
[underlined] ALSO LARGE PAY RISES. [/underlined] TO EIGHT SHILLINGS (i.e. 5P.) FOR GOOD CONDUCT
To - - 3 PENCE (i.e. APPROX 2P)
[underlined] FINALLY PAY [indecipherable word] AT END OF HOSTILITIES [/underlined] [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] [underlined] ONE [/underlined] SHILLING
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[inserted] 131A. [/inserted]
[underlined] MY PAYBOOK SOUTH EAST ASIA AIR FORCES [/underlined]
[copy of inside pages of Raymond Barrett’s paybook]
[duplicate notes from previous page]
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[inserted] 131 A [/inserted]
[underlined] MY PAYBOOK SOUTH EAST ASIA AIRFORCES [/underlined]
[copy of pages from Raymond Barrett’s paybook detailing his daily rates of pay and any deductions]
[duplicate notes from previous page]
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[copy of page from Raymond Barrett’s paybook detailing dates of cash payments received]
[duplicate of notes from previous pages]
[page break]
[copy of page from Raymond Barrett’s paybook]
[duplicate notes from previous pages]
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[duplicate page]
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[inserted] 131A [/inserted]
[copy of inside pages from Raymond Barrett’s paybook]
[duplicate notes from previous pages]
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[aerial photograph showing the Flying-Boat Base at Karachi]
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[inserted] 132 [/inserted]
- 12 –
and then we headed eastwards and inland once again over country completely made up of sand hills. During this part of the trip, it became a bit bumpy as we kept dropping into air pockets. A little later we found ourselves circling over Muripur airport just outside Karachi and it was 2.40 p.m. when we touched down upon one of the wide concrete runways.
As soon as our pilot switched off the engines Indians natives entered the aircraft arrived with sprey [sic] guns and fumigated the place out with disinfectant. We decended [sic] half choking from the plane and were driven off to the customs office which we all went through in turn. First we had to give in our name which was ticked off against the manifest, then all photographs that we carried in our pockets were [deleted] covered. [inserted] CONSIDERED. [/inserted] Then our paybooks were checked to see if we had all received a Yellow Fever injection and then we were shown out through the rear of the building to where a lorry was waiting, loaded with all the kit from our aircraft. As soon as the first chap was through the customs he came around to the front of the building once more and took the two pups in the basket around to the back again and hid them beneath the kit on the lorry so that the customs could not take them away from us after bringing them along with us so far. The third pup went through smuggled beneath one of the chaps battle dress jackets. I often have wondered what would have happened if it had popped its head out just as the Officer asked Freddie if he had anything to declare and what the expression on the fellows face would have looked like. As soon as the last chap on our manifest came through we were counted into the lorry once again and were driven off to the nearest transit camp. Here we chose an E.P.I. tent (one between four fellows) and put our kit on the beds and went off to the cookhouse for something to eat. After the meal we hunted for and found the accounts section where we changed all of our money left over in various currencies of the different countries that we had landed in, into Indian Rupies. [sic] Next I hired one of the many natives that were hanging around offering their services and told him to make up my bed, erect my mosquito net and clean my shoes whilst I had a well needed shave and a lovely refreshing cold shower bath.
Six of us on getting dressed decided to pay the town a visit which was six miles away. On arrival at the main road by the entrance to the camp we found a number of taxies waiting. After finding out that the fare for the journey was quite reasonable we chose one and went speeding on our way passing by many camel trains and buffelo [sic] drawn carts all loaded to capicity. [sic] The outskirts of Karachi were very dirty, much the same as the suburbs of Cairo and even the centre of the town was not so very modern. Although my impression may be wrong, as darkness decended [sic] just after we arrived. During the evening we toured three of the main streets exploring the well stocked shops and roadside stalls etc. If we had the money [deleted] we [/deleted] [inserted] ONE [/inserted] would be bound to spend nearly all of it on [inserted] A [indecipherable word] [/inserted] the hundreds of lovely presents that were on sale. As we had very little cash between us we could not buy anything., and so we just had to be content with admiring the articles that we saw.
Before we had been in town very long the shops began to close so after we had eaten an egg and chips supper in the services canteen, we caught a taxi back to Muripur Airfield. Before getting into bed I discovered that I had just gone out to town in time as two of the fellows travelling on our aircraft got trapped into guarding and sleeping in the plane all night.
After breakfast next morning, we were taken out to the aircraft once more and ran [inserted] IT [/inserted] up and checked the engines before the aircrew turned up. A little later we were told that our take-off had been delayed for an hour. We passed this extra time away playing with the pups and throwing stones at the big hawks that kept hovering and gliding overhead and perching on nearby telephone poles and wires.
cont ……..
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[inserted] [underlined] 1. [/underlined] [/inserted]
[picture of a tusked elephant]
INDIA
When you land in India, you will find almost everything – customs, character, dress, language and colour different. The very philosophy is different.
If your stay is to be both profitable and enjoyable, you will be very wise to spend some time in reading up on the country. There are certainly helpful books aboard the ship.
Practically the whole of the Peninsula is in the Empire. A few places remain in the hands of the Portuguese and the French. The peninsula is roughly 1,600,000 square miles in area, and the population about 340,000,000. Area and population correspond fairly closely to that of Europe, omitting Russia.
There is an even greater variety of climate and country. There are torrid, waterless deserts, such as that of Sind; flat moist tracts in Bengal, rolling wheatfields in the Punjab and United Provinces. The lower slopes of the mountain ranges are temperate and densely wooded, the peaks are in the eternal snows.
The constitution of India is intricate. The Indian States take up about one-third of the peninsula and a quarter of the population.
These states vary in size. Hyderabad and Kashmir are roughly
[inserted] [underlined] PLEASE READ PAGES 1 – 8 [/underlined] [/inserted]
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[inserted] [underlined] 2. [/underlined] [/inserted]
equal in size to Great Britain. There are others which cover only a few square miles, but, whether big or little, internal affairs are their own, right being reserved to exercise such control over legislation as may be necessitated by Imperial interests.
The rulers of the States make their own laws and have their own officers, judges and troops, and may levy taxes.
The rulers are loyal to the Empire, and have given repeated demonstrations of their loyalty. Their personal generosity in the provision of means for prosecuting the war has been lavish.
Study of the map of India will make it evident that her coast line demands protection. The Royal Navy must still undertake the major part of this protection, but the ports are strongly defended from the land.
The chief avenues of approach by sea are by way of the Suez Canal or the Straits of Malacca.
Recent events in the progress of the war have brought these names into great prominence. The significance of the Canal and the Straits is now more fully appreciated; although there is an entrance to the Indian Ocean by way of the Straits of Ormuz from the Persian Gulf – the only other practical route from Britain to India is round the Cape.
From the land, access might be had through Siam and Burma, from China through Tiber, from Russia through Afghanistan, or by way of Persia (Iran).
The longest, and naturally the strongest, land frontier is the mountainous region stretching from Afghanistan to Burma, known as the Himalayas.
Roads across the main Himalayan range are little more than tracks, with passes at heights of between 12,000 and 19,000 feet, and for roughly 200 miles there is a desolate stretch which offers little support for the population.
The North-West Frontier runs roughly from Afghanistan down to Karachi. Not so strong naturally as the Himalayas, ‘The Frontier’ has been the gateway for the hordes of more than thirty invaders. The hills are not comparable in size to the Himalayas, nor do they
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[inserted] [/underlined] 3. [/underlined] [/inserted]
run consistently, but are crossed by valleys, through which most of the invasions took place. Famous names are there, places whose fame has been hardly won: the Khyber and the Kurrum, leading to Kabul; the Tochi and the Gomal, leading to the Kabul-Kandahar road. The Khyber, best known, is the main trade route from Afghanistan to India.
The Bolan-Khojak route is the main gateway from Kandahar.
The history of India is long and fascinating. Great rulers have arisen, great causes have been won and lost; but it is impossible event to hint at an outline of that history in this booklet.
Alexander the Great invaded India in 327 B.C. and succeeded in reaching the sea by way of the Punjab and Sind. When he had withdrawn, the foundations of a great Empire were laid by Chandragupta Maurya, extended by his son and his famous grandson, Asoka, who made Buddhism a world religion. After Asoka died, the Empire crumbled, and Northern India was subjected to a number of invasions during the next 400 years.
Muhammedanism reached India in the eighth century A.D. during the wars of conquest, and Muhammedan rule lasted for some hundreds of years.
Vasco da Gama introduced Portuguese influence at the beginning of the sixteenth century; but the Portuguese failed to hold their position against Dutch and English opposition.
The English East India Company (1600 A.D.), was commercial in conception and intention; but from trade acquired political and military power, successfully defeating French competition. British rule can be said to have commenced with Clive’s arrival in 1765 as the Governor of Bengal.
That influence in India has not been retained without cost.
The price in blood has been high; the price in development has been great.
The Mutiny broke in 1857, and only after hard fighting was it suppressed, to be followed by an Act of Parliament which took all rights of administration from the East India Company, and vested them in the crown.
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[inserted] [underlined] 4. [/underlined] [/inserted]
Since then projects for the ‘Better Government of India’ (as the Act was called) have been many. It is to be anticipated that others will follow; but, until you have grasped all the implications in the political life of India it is unlikely that chance discussion will be very profitable.
There are eleven autonomous provinces and a Central Government in British India. The administrative control of the Central Government is vested in the Governor-General in Council.
The Government is responsible to the Secretary of State and to Parliament. In the legislative sphere, however, the central authority is the Indian legislature, which consists of two Chambers: the Legislative Assembly and the Council of State.
There are eleven major provinces and six Chief Commissioners’ Provinces. Some of the provinces have legislatures consisting of two chambers, others have a single chamber.
Chief Commissioners’ Provinces are under the administration of the Chief Commissioners, directly responsible to the Central Government. Provinces are divided into Divisions and subdivided into Districts.
As you know, there is a strong political movement which seeks a reorientation of the administration of the affairs of India. Signs of it will be evident; but you would be ill advised to take sides, or even to discuss the potentialities. The whole subject is receiving, and has for long received, the most careful and genuine consideration, and what, if any, changes are to be made will be determined by those fully competent to deal with the situation.
However, as to personal contact with the people of India, a great deal can be done by a considerate approach. It must be realised that they are in practically every respect different people.
Their social system is unlike ours. Caste and religious observance will present some pitfalls, which courtesy will largely overcome.
Religious observances should be treated with the greatest respect. For example, as the bull and the cow are sacred to all Hindus and Sikhs, the sight of their dressed flesh is offensive. To offer beef to them is a major affront.
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[inserted] [underlined] 5. [/underlined] [/inserted]
In many cases your kindness in offering certain things to the people of India may result in a polite refusal. This should not be taken as an offence; it is most frequently obedience to some tenet of their religion.
In the fighting forces you will find a strict observance of religion.
With the Brahmans, the highest caste of the Hindu, the observance is so strict that should the shadow, even, of a man not of his own caste fall across his food, that food must be thrown away.
Obviously, there is not space enough in this introduction to deal with all the details of religion, caste and distinction; but there will be ample advice on the spot, and the maintenance of good relations is one of the first essentials of efficient service.
There is a very large number of Muhammedans in India. There are approaching 100,000,000 of the faith, as precise and emphatic as any, an important body in the country that must be considered. In the section on Egypt and the Middle East will be found notes of guidance.
In the caste system, the priestly caste takes first place, the second is the soldier’s. He rightly considers himself to be worthy of respect.
Mutual respect – and the Indian will give respect where it is merited, particularly the fighting man – will add to the value of both British and Indian effort.
Indians are reserved, almost shy. At the same time they are persistent in the acquisition of knowledge. Knowing that they have an ancient and precise civilisation, yet aware of Western influence, the better educated realise that the growing change is not yet fundamental. Modification is accepted. You will find that a characteristic of the higher ranks of the Indians in military service. They are at once good guides to conduct and buffers against repercussions of unintended errors.
India is part of the Empire, and as such is playing a growing part in the war. The development of hostilities, subsequent to Japan’s participation on behalf of the Axis, has brought the sphere of active operations nearer to the Indian shores. There is therefore a greater threat. India herself, however, has a large army, and the Indian
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[inserted] [underlined] 6. [/underlined] [/inserted]
soldiers will most certainly give an excellent account of themselves,
The country has been generous in material gifts, in addition to which Indian troops have fought hard in many war zones. They have done brilliant work in the Middle East. They are active in the Far East also. Young men of good family have entered the R.A.F. both as pilots and to render service on the ground. Their contribution is an earnest of good-will.
It should be understood from the beginning, with real kindness and sympathy, that Indian personnel are quick to feel any lack of courtesy or good manners, either in their own people or in us.
They are proud of their culture and ceremonial politeness is a cherished institution. Stress is laid on the fine points of etiquette. Sensitive in the extreme, they react instantly to the attitude and behaviour of other people. They feel about their country as we feel about ours, their history is long, and dignity is almost a passion with them.
Offence, when it does come, generally arises from a faulty appreciation of this characteristic.
Much that is strange to us in their habits and customs is founded in long-standing ritual and strict ceremonial. It would be a pity were these cherished habits the cause of offence because we did not understand, or trouble to think. It is imperative that all service personnel dealing with a sensitive, loyal people should remember that the Indian Empire is great not only in size, but in importance.
If the opportunity comes to indulge in sport, such as shooting and fishing, try to get the advice of an older and more experienced sportsman. There are many things to learn. The ‘forbidden’ list for shooting is long. Respect taboos. Respect property, do not trample crops or cause other damage.
When on any shooting expedition be careful to follow out the regulations of the permit to the letter. There are many compulsory requirements, both service and civil.
The climate varies, as is to be expected in a country of such an area and differing altitudes; but the seasons roughly divide into three: the ‘cold weather,’ the ‘hot weather’ and the ‘rains’ or monsoons.
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[inserted] [underlined] 7. [/underlined] [/inserted]
The temperature begins to rise quickly in April. May is hot, and although greater heat may seem impossible, the temperature continues to rise. This is the time when those who can get away to the hills do so.
The monsoon breaks the heat, spreading over the country from about the middle of June, and has ceased by the middle of September. The damp period is followed by another spell of hot weather, but not so hot as the weather of May and June. Such variations in climate in a country with many diseases unknown in Great Britain, impose much greater burdens on the individual in the care of health and hygiene. The M.O. will probably give you advice. Follow it closely. It is because of the care and knowledge of the medical officers that the service mortality rate in India is so low, less than one in a thousand over the home rate.
The incidence of disease, however, should be considered. There are roughly 48 cases of malaria per 1,000 men per annum. Malaria can be prevented. The medical officers will tell you how. Follow the rules laid down, and keep on following them.
Be careful of all minor cuts and abrasions. Germs abound. Report these abrasions and cuts and have them treated. Treat boils with the greatest respect.
As regards venereal diseases, by all means talk to the Medical Officer, but remember that the best safeguard is a strict moral code. Intestinal disorders (such as diarrhoea, dysentery, enteric, etc.) are common. They are best avoided by scrupulous cleanliness. Don’t dodge inoculation, it is not clever; on the contrary, it is thoroughly foolish. Smallpox is a scourge in the country. Be vaccinated.
Hydrophobia is widespread. A dog-bit must on no account be ignored, whether by a domestic or by a pariah dog. Remember that it is almost as dangerous to be licked by an animal suffering from rabies as to be bitten. Wash all wounds thoroughly and go to the hospital for treatment.
Sunstroke and heat-stroke present dangers. The best preventives are: stay indoors during the heat of the day, and even on the shortest journeys wear a helmet. Avoid alcohol until after sundown, and keep the bowels open.
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[inserted] [underlined] 8. [/underlined] [/inserted]
Inoculation reduces the danger from typhoid, cholera and dysentery, but maintain a close watch on what you drink and eat.
Indian officers are well educated, and usually good sportsmen. They are eager to learn, and have acquisitive minds. They are persistent. Because of that persistence, they may tend to take up a little more time than can always conveniently be given. Such time, however, will be well spent. It will be an asset on the balance sheet of Empire. Any Indian who receives courtesy and consideration is likely to become a staunch ally to the individual and an advocate of our cause in his own circles.
Regarding servants, some points should be noted. The servant tries to give a pleasing, rather than an accurate answer. There is an ingrained habit of giving and taking bribes. A servant caught in some misdemeanour is almost certain to work on the sentiment of the accuser. Knowing that it is a serious offence for service personnel to offer violence to a native, he will try to rouse his accuser to anger in the hope that blows will follow.
It is an error to become familiar with servants, and a far greater error to allow them to become familiar in their manner with you. There is no need, however, to go to the other extreme and resort to bullying. Quiet dignity and scrupulous fairness will always win.
Be careful of firearms and ammunition, not only in their use, but in watchful safe custody. There are thieves around, and any firearm or ammunition is handsome plunder. Watch all your possessions.
Health is your greatest possession, and should be watched most closely. Be sure that whatever you drink is reliable. The fact that mineral waters or other drinks are bottled is not a guarantee of purity or suitability; many cases of enteric have been caused by them.
Contamination is easy, and everyone, especially newcomers, should be careful to avoid contact with sources of infection. In quarters it is easier to avoid contagion then when travelling ‘on your own.’ On leave, when journeys are being taken, it is essential to exercise the greatest care. The most general cause of illness is impure water, and no spring can be judged on sight. Water should always be boiled. So should milk.
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[inserted] 133 [/inserted]
- 13 –
We were frightened that one might swoop down and carry one of the pups away as I have seen a hawk in the Middle East dive down on a chicken and carry it away in its beak. At 9.30 a.m. the aircrew arrived with a small luncheon hamper for each of us to eat during the next stage of our trip. It was 9.50 a.m. when we raced down the runway and took off and for the next six hours we flew in almost a direct line Eastwards across India. Soon after take off the semmi [sic] desert land soon changed into green paddy fields and dotted all over the place were lakes surrounded by nice green trees which formed themselves into tiny woods and in almost every one of these woods was situated [deleted] alternative fillage [/deleted] [inserted] A NATIVE VILLAGE [/inserted] and from the air we could pick out the rough track running across the paddy fields from one village to the next. It is very hard for me to be able to give you a good description of the scenery during this trip but, I can still picture almost every moment of it very clearly in the back of my mind.
As soon as we began to feel a bit peckish we issued out the cardboard hampers which contained sandwitches, [sic] cheese, cakes, sweets, and a banana and an orange. At 3.15 p.m. by our time I caught sight of an airstrip in the distance, the two runways formed themselves into a cross with circles at the four ends i.e. [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] as we circled around above them I could see the first of our aircraft to land parked in front of the control tower and the second one had just touched down and was taxing [sic] down the run way on its way to join the first. Then our turn came and the earth gradually seemed to come up to meet us and then a little later we found ourselves being directed alongside the other two aircraft in the parking area. The first thing that struck us was the teriffic [sic] heat and within a few moments of stepping out of the aircraft and down on to the grass we were sweating like pigs yet a few moments previously when we were high up in the sky, we all felt quite cold.
The airfield was a new one and was still being constructed when we arrived and within five minutes of us landing almost every native man woman and children that was helping to build the drome had gathered around us in their hundreds and stared open mouthed at our aircraft which were the first ones that had landed on their field at Bilaspur in the Central Provinces.
During the later days natives used to come from villages for miles around just to be able to get a nearby glimpse at the big flying bird. The first thing that we did after that six hours [inserted] OF [/inserted] flying was to put our watches forward to the correct time in the central Provinces, as the further that we travelled east the more time we lost. Incidentally on landing at Bilaspur we had completed 27 1/4 hours in the air since leaving Italy and had covered some 4,100 miles.
As we were being driven to the Domestic site a mile and a half away two more of our aircraft appeared overhead and began to circle in readiness for landing. The domestic site turned out to be quite a big village of oblong [deleted] back [/deleted] [inserted] BRICK [/inserted] bungalows with thatched roofs that formed canopy porchways at the front of the buildings. I should imagine that in post war years that Bilaspur will be a big military airfield as camp buildings etc were being built to a plan over a very large area.
Fourteen other chaps also chose the same building as myself for their home. One of the first things that we did on entering was to take off our battle dress and change into light Khaki clothing as it was so hot. It seemed funny that only a week previously, we were freezing in Italy and there we were a week later walking around wearing hardly any clothing and getting our skin burnt by the sun in a temperature of well over 100f.
cont ……..
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[inserted] 134 [/inserted]
- 14 –
The puppies seemed to adjust themselves to the climate after a while. In one of the buildings, a chap had a pet monkey that he had brought with him all the way from Cairo. Everyone that travelled in the same aircraft as the monkey complained of bites and made uncomplimentary remarks about it. It appeared that during level flight, the monkey was quite happy, and calm but, as soon as the aircraft lost height the pressure in his ears caused him to go a little mad and he began to bite people.
During the next few days we were busy working on the aircraft as most of them had become due for some kind of inspection during our last trip. We had quite a trying time what with the heat and as we had no ladders to work with and only the few tools that we had brought along with us all the way from Italy. To enable us to be able to work on the tops of the engines we rigged up platforms with what empty barrels and bits of wood that we could find.
I spent half of my time off either resting on my bed or beneath the cool shower bath. Most evening we spent in the small canteen which was run by the Indians for their Government we used to be able to obtain some good suppers there [deleted] at intervals [/deleted] between the crack of dawn until late night, [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] [symbol] AT INTERVALS BETWEEN [/inserted] the char and wad and fruit wallers would be around our billets so if we wanted it we could have tea in bed and even breakfast if we liked to buy it, as we often did as a couple of egg sandwitches [sic] etc saved us from getting up so early and having to walk to and from the cookhouse.
At mealtimes hundreds of big hawks used hover over the cookhouse and if we walked out of the building with any food on our plates, and did not keep our hands over it, all the time, the hawks would swoop down and take it off the plate before you could stop them.
As there was no electric lighting installed in our living buildings our only illumination that we had at night time was from the dozens of little coloured candles which we all used to buy from the canteen. We had to sleep beneath Mosquito nets as during the night all sorts of insects used to drop down from the thatched roof.
The reason given to us for our stay at Bilaspur was that we were there to get aclimatised. [sic] One day we were each issued out with wide brimmed bush hats, large flowing monsoon capes, light mosquito boots and heavy rubber mosquito boots also we were issued out with sheets which were considered quite a luxury in the R.A.F. The station was built in a very picturesque setting indeed, besides the station buildings there were also two native villagers [sic] made up of bamboo and mud huts in the area. Both were situated beside a large lake and anytime during the day when we walked by the lake we would see the native women either doing their dhobi (washing) at the water edge or bathing themselves in the lake while nearby children swam and the men would also be scrubbing their water buffalo in the same water. Then there would be teams of oxen drawing ancient type carts on which we attached 50 gallon tin barrels. At the lake side natives filled the barrels with water taken from the lake by buckets and as each team of oxen had their load completed they would be driven away by their driver and amble up the road at their own steady pace until they reached the airdrome buildings or billets etc that were still in the process of being built. There the native builders would use the water to mix with their cement. It generally took two oxen to draw one cart loaded with one 50 gallon barrel. The carts used to have massive thick wooden wheels attached to them and the whole affair used to creak as it went along.
Cont…….
[page break]
[inserted] 135 [/inserted]
- 15 –
The Lakes were overshadowed by tall green trees that were inhabited with many glorious coloured birds as well as crows. On one part of the airfield, natives were levelling a large area of ground so as to make a parking ground that would accommodate a hundred or more large aircraft. The men just used to level the ground with spades that are vastly different to the British type the bases were right angles to the handles, so they were used like a pick. Then they used to put the excess soil into little wicker baskets and then the women and girls dressed in their coloured saries [sic] had to do all the work of carrying the full baskets on their heads to a point over a hundred yards away.
Out in the Far East, the women are no more than slaves to their husbands and are treated as such. They have to do everything that they are told without a word of complaint and yet, the men can hardly do anything wrong in the eyes of their fellow countrymen. Often one would see the native wife sitting crossed legged in the back of those crude carts whilst the husband sat at the front directing the oxen.
Now to back to the lakes, there was also a third one which was a small one and on its own away from the other two. At the end of it stood an ancient Indian Temple with marble steps leading down to the waters edge. As I stood looking upon that scene, for the first time, I felt that I was in another world and that the scene was a page or a picture from a story book.
On February 17th we were given a lecture by our C.O. who told us that the authorities had found out that we had done operations in the Mediterranean area and decided that we did not need acclimatising (little did they know the weather in Italy) and that we could start operations straight away in the Far Eastern theatre of war. Then he went on to say that our next move was to Imphal in the State of Manipur. I do not expect many civilians will remember the great siege of Imphal when the Japs cut off all of the escape routes of the main bulk of our armies in the Far East, and held them in a state of siege for a long while in the Imphal valley. The Japs were situated in the hills overlooking the valley and held the only road out of the valley.
At one time the Japs advanced within 3000 yards of the state capital town of Imphal and they also nearly captured the airfield that we were going to. All the reinforcements, food etc for our besieged armies had to be flown into them or dropped to them. The Imphal battle in my opinion was the greatest of the war. If those troops of ours had given in, the Japs would have had possession of the Eastern Gateway [inserted] IN [/inserted] to India and there would have been very few troops left to stop the Japs decending [sic] from Imphal down into the plains of central India. But our turning point of the Far Eastern War, broke through the ring held by the Japs and drove them back over the southern mountain range of the valley into Burma and kept them on the run southwards over the Chindwin river. These events were overshadowed by the war in Europe and the people in England were more interested in what was happening nearer their homes. So now that both wars were over, I hope that you will spare the time to read how hard these men of England fought in the Far East and the conditions that they had to live in and the hard task that they achieved at the time when 99% of Englands war material was being kept in Europe.
cont……
[page break]
[inserted] 135A [/inserted]
[inserted] [underlined] 3. [/underlined] [/inserted]
[newspaper clipping regarding the Burma Offensive including two photographs and a map]
[inserted] [underlined] PLEASE READ PAGES 1 – 5 [/underlined] [/inserted]
[page break]
[inserted] 135A [/inserted]
[inserted] [underlined] 1. [/underlined] [/inserted]
[newspaper clipping of the Burma Offensive including four photographs and a map]
[inserted] [underlined] PLEASE READ PAGES 1 – 5 [/underlined] [/inserted]
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 4. [/underlined] [/inserted]
[newspaper cutting regarding the Burma offensive including a map of the Advance on Mandalay]
[page break]
[inserted] 136 [/inserted]
- 16 –
So now is the time to read the two South East Asia Command Souvenier [sic] papers if they are attached as they will explain the whole of the war in South East Asia.
On Thursday 22nd February, we took off from Bilaspur on our journey to Imphal. We were so fully loaded that we only became airborne as we reached the last few yards of the runway. During our trip we flew across the state of Bengal but, as we flew along at such a great height, I was unable to distinguish any signs of animal life below.
As we approached the Imphal Valley, we were flying at a height of 10,000 feet, so as to enable the aircraft to pass over the 6,000 ft mountain range that formed the last natural barrier into Eastern India. The Rocky peaks looked treacherous as we passed over them and they only seemed to be a few feet beneath the aircraft and everytime that we fell into an air pocket my heart came up into my mouth. I am sure that we would have been lost forever if we had crashed in any of these jungle covered valleys or in any of the mountain sides.
Then suddenly 8,000 feet below our aircraft was the 20 mile wide flat valley in the centre of which was situated the two and a half mile long runway 2,000 feet above sea level. We had to do many circuits before we came down to a height of a few hundred feet and the runway grew larger all the time. Then we were able to see clearly the wrecks of burnt out and crashed air craft beside the runway. This did not cheer us up any and it was 1.30 p.m. when we finally touched down.
Here is a description of the scene that met my eyes when I stepped out of the aircraft. My surroundings were semmi [sic] tropical and the area was completely flat except for one fair size hill. [deleted] For [/deleted] miles approximately to my right reared the 6,000 ft mountains that we had just flown over and which the Japs planned to cross and invade India and ten miles approximately to my [deleted] right [/deleted] [inserted] LEFT [/inserted] reared another range of mountain that the Japs had stormed across like rats after their advance across the Chindwin River.
We were driven by lorry to our billets which were a mile and a half from the strip. Our homes this time were in what was called a “Basha”. It was a long hut and each housed about twenty fellows. The main skelington [sic] structure of each “Basha” was built from small tree trunks. The walls, window flaps, and doors were made of plaited cane, on bamboo frames and the roof was of thatch. We were each supplied with two long and two short bamboo poles and a piece of sacking and were told that we had to make our beds out of the material supplied. I made a frame up that was to my satisfaction after two hours of experimenting, sawing, sweating and cursing. The first few times that I made it up, it collapsed as soon as I lifted the contraption. After success at last I had to go out and search for some tin cans [inserted] ON WHICH [/inserted] to stand the frame. That search proved to be a long one before I found one old battered rusty round tin and one square one. I put one at each corner of the foot of the frame and I evened up the tins different sizes with the aid of a couple of bricks or rather a couple of broken bricks. Then came the problem of how to support the other two corners from the floor. I overcame this by turning the two ends of the long poles to the main structure of the “Basha” wall. My efforts on the whole were successful, but on a few occasions either the tins caved in during the night or the two short poles came out of position causing my bed to collapse and me to find myself in a tangle of bed clothes on the floor. Of course it caused much amusement among the other chaps. But I had the laugh when their turn came and their own beds gave way.
Cont…..
[page break][inserted] 137 [/inserted]
- 17 –
Our only real amusement at Imphals [sic] was the open air cinema possessed by [inserted] THE [/inserted] nearby Canadian D.C. Squadron. Illumination in our “Basha” was provided by paraffin burning hurricane lamps. One of the greatest dangers that we had to guard against was fire. A complete [deleted] book [/deleted] [inserted] BASHA [/inserted] only took 3-4 minutes to burn to the ground.
I remember one night whilst I was sitting up in a tree watching a film show, a fire broke out. First came the red glow and then leapt the flames, the glare of which lit up the trees around us and made their shadows dance across the ground. It made us watchers [deleted] on [/deleted] smile when the projectioned [sic] stop the film show for a moment and stood up and said “Will the person whose “Basha” is on fire please leave immediately” when a full minute later one chap sitting on a box beneath the tree that I was up in suddenly realised that he lived in the “Basha” [deleted] was [/deleted] burning and went rushing off to try and save his belongings. But it was hopeless to try and save anything from the blazing inferno as a “Basha” goes up quicker than a hayrick. As the bamboo caught alight, it cracked like rifle fire and it seemed that if the Basha was full of small arms ammunition.
On the following evening, our Squadron Sargents [sic] celebrated the opening of their new Mess on which they had [inserted] SPENT [/inserted] pounds and pounds brightening it up and making it look homely. It looked a bit too bright for all the Sargents [sic] when at 10. p.m. their “Basha” went up in flames. All that remained of it half an hour later was smouldering and charred remains. Then a few days later, another “Basha” caught alight in the Canadian camp and as there was a strong wind blowing at the time, it carried bits of burning straw on to the roof tops of other surrounding “Bashas” and in no time six of them were blazing and being ravished by fire along with a number of tents and two sets of field lavatories. Many more “Bashas” would have gone up in smoke if the chaps living in the other remaining huts had not climbed onto the roofs and promptly extinguished the burning straws as they settled on their roofs. Chaps everywhere were dragging kit bags, bedding etc, out into the nearby paddy fields. Some of the chaps who were at work at this time lost every item of kit every article that they possessed as a result of this fire caused perhaps by someone carelessly throwing away a lighted cigarette end, approximately 150 chaps found themselves temporarily homeless.
At nightime [sic] the red glare of fires could be [deleted] sun [/deleted] [inserted] SEEN [/inserted] dotted all over the mountain sides to either side of us denoting where many of the “Naga” native tribe villages were situated. One evening a few of us decided to have a look at the town so we hitch hiked the six miles into Imphal the capital town in the State of Manipur. We asked the driver of the vehicle that picked us up to stop and drop us off in the centre of the town. After a quarter of an hours driving we passed over a little brick bridge and a few moments later our conveyance stopped and the driver said “this is it”. We got out and looked around us seeing only a few wooden houses and huts. So I turned to the driver and asked him where the town was and he replied “You are in it”. This remark gave us quite a shock as we had been told that Imphal was a very nice place and being the state capital we expected to see something more than was around us.
The few wooden buildings consisted of the Police Station the Indian Government House, two very small ramshackle cinemas, an Officer’s shop, and a services club and a few other houses and shops. Of course surrounding this centre of the town, where the native population live in tin huts, “Basha” buildings etc, and from the air these huts etc, at a quick glance seemed to cover an area of several square miles.
The road between our camp and the town was made of long strips of bitumen coated hemp cloth. In 1941 there were very few even small roads in Northern Burmah [sic] or in this valley.
cont ………
[page break]
[inserted] 137A [/inserted]
[three maps of Burma]
THESE MAPS TELL THE STORY of the task in Burma. Above: From the limits of our withdrawal Wingate’s thrust of 1943 is probing Jap-held ground.
IN 1944 THE JAP [underlined] invaded India. [/underlined] Wingate’s airborne expedition and Stilwell’s push down the Ledo Road are also shown; our plans began to unfold.
[inserted] [symbol] OUR SUPPY [sic] ROUTES. [/inserted]
BY JANUARY of this year we were flooding back. The build-up was going ahead. We were ashore at Akyab; across the river above Mandalay
[page break]
[inserted] 137B. [/inserted]
DAKOTAS
“Oh, where are you going to, all you Dakotas,
With Lord Louis airlifts, above the green trees?”
“We are going to fetch you your biscuits and bully,
Your sardines and curry, rice, atta and cheese.”
“And where will you fetch it from, all you Dakotas,
I’ll ‘likh’ you a ‘chhitti’ while you are away”
“We fetch it from Chitters, Comilla and Dum-Dum –
Address us at Akyab, Rangoon or Magwe.”
“But if anything happened to all you Dakotas.
And suppose you were ‘pranged’ in the jungle afar?”
“then you’d have no soyas or slingers for khana.’
And you’d have no wads to eat with your ‘char’”
“Then I’ll pray for the fine weather for all you Dakotas.
For no monsoon rain. and head winds so high.”
“Oh monsoon and winds don’t bother Dakotas,
We’ve less hours on the ground than we have in the sky.”
“Then I’ll build a new airstrip for all you Dakotas,
With plenty of ‘homers’ to bring in your crew.”
“Oh, the air and the ground’s full of R/T already,
With Air from Sigs types bawling: ‘Speak up – you’re through.’”
“For the ‘rot’ you eat, and the hard tack you nibble,
The fags that you puff, and replacement of men,
They are brought to you hourly by all us Dakotas
And if anyone hinders our coming – Amen!”
E.C. DANIELS
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 137B [/underlined] [/inserted]
[underlined] BURMA MARCH 1944 [/underlined]
[map detailing Japanese attacks]
[page break]
[inserted] 138 [/inserted]
- 18 –
The armies had to make their own roads as they advanced. The nearest railway to Imphal was on the other side of that 6000 ft high mountain range which is the Assam Bengal line. The Burmah [sic] railway system only ran Northwards as far as Mandalay, so that between Mandulay [sic] and Imphal was nothing but jungle, swamps, mountains and rivers.
Occasionally, of an evening we went into the town for a meal at the club then on to one of the cinemas as there was simply no where else to go. Half way to the town by the roadside was situated a small native bazaar and most of the things that the natives had displayed for sale on their stalls were hardly worth looking at. But it was pleasant walking between the lines of hundreds of lighted candles and lamps and through the open air vegetable markets etc, which consisted of native women sitting cross legged on the ground behind their little round wicker baskets containing their [inserted] WARES [/inserted] ranging from anything between potatoes like [deleted] wares [/deleted] marbles and dried up bananas and pineapples.
Now at that time the front line in South East Asia theatre of operations against the enemy was along the Irriwaddi river well north of Mandalay in Burmah [sic] where the Japs were on the defensive. As I said before, up until a couple of years previously there was not even a road in that part of the country and what rough tracks that they were they were washed away during the Monsoon seasons. As a result of this and as we did not hold any port in the country supplies would not get to the fighting man either by sea, road, or rail. That was where 267 and other aircraft Squadrons came in. Every day starting on the 1st of March, we supplied 15 aircraft, each carried out three sorties each day carrying 3 tons of supplies on each of the missions. Sometimes the aircraft landed on strips just behind the front line and which were still under shell fire and from Jap guns. Most of the strips were no more than clearings in the jungle. No aircraft were left on them at night as often Jap night patrols, would infiltrate back to the strips and do what sabotage that they could.
Fighter Squadrons patrolled over the front and straffed [sic] the Jap troops and well as as [sic] looking after our unarmed cargo carrying aircraft as they neared the front with their precious loads. Often our aircraft when circling to land had to fly over ground occupied by the enemy. Other of our aircraft dropped their 3 ton loads by parrachute [sic] to the forward patrols in areas where there were no landing strips. As well as food we flew in Jeeps, ammunition, light mobile guns etc. Often after our aircraft off, they would be diverted by wireless to a different destination because either the Japs had just retaken the strip that they were supposed to land at or because our troops had captured an enemy strip nearer to the front line or because news had just came through that the Japs had cut off and surrounded some of our troops in a certain area and to enable them to hold out until they were relieved they had to have supplies of arms and food dropped to them and if we had anything to do with it we saw that they got what they asked for as soon as possible.
It was a case of marvelous [sic] co-operation and liaison between the Army and the R.A.F. The army brought the supplies by lorry to the airfield & Indians and West African troops loaded the supplies into the aircraft as soon as they landed from their previous flight. So the scene at base from dawn until late night was as follows. The 15 aircraft were loaded during the night and just before dawn one after one of our aircraft would take off along with many aircraft from other Squadrons. The drome was never silent throughout the day time there was always the roar of engines to be heard either overhead or on the ground. The chaps working on the flights had to get up and see the aircraft off. They used to wake us up every morning as just after each one became airborne they passed over the camp. When we went down to work, we would see lined up in front of our disporsal, [sic] a strip which was a small runway leading off at a rightangle from the main one, a long string of lorries each loaded with 3 ton of supplies.
cont …..
[page break]
[inserted] 139 [/inserted]
- 19 –
Then a little later whilst we were working the aircraft that were due for inspection engine changes, etc, one by one the aircraft would appear like a spot in the air and fly towards the strip and begin to circle in readiness for landing. On reaching their destination the aircraft landed and were unloaded and took off as quickly as possible so that Jap fighters could have little chance of catching and straffing [sic] them whilst they were on the ground. On returning to Base all the Squadrons aircraft were mixed up and first one of one Squadron would land and then one from another and so on. As soon as one of our aircraft taxied into our dispersal and the pilot switched off his engines our fellows would jump up on the wings and the petrol bowser would draw up so that the chaps could refuel the aircraft. Another gang would rectify an [sic] minor snag and if anything serious was wrong that aircraft would be grounded another servicable [sic] one laid on for flying. Whilst all that was going on the crew would be having a cup of tea also as soon as the pilot shut off his engines the first lorry in that long line would draw away and drive up and back up to the doorway of the aircraft. [underlined] Note [/underlined] Whilst on operations we took the doors off the aircraft so that the supplies could be pushed out of the plane quite easily.
As soon as the troops had loaded each aircraft, and tied and roped the supplies down the fellows [deleted] of [/deleted] [inserted] IN [/inserted] the loading party reported to the crew and they in turn reported to the opps [sic] tent where they were told the destination for their load. Then off they went again and so it went on throughout the day until the 15th aircraft had returned from its third trip and the crews would be driven back to camp in the dark knowing that they had to go through the same proceedure [sic] two days later.
As soon as we could give the army the number of 15 servicable [sic] aircraft after flying for that day had finished they began to load up during the night ready for the next set of crews next morning. So that every day our Squadron lifted on an average of 135 tons. Our part of the job was to see that the engines of 15 aircraft were servicable [sic] every day. At that time we had just on thirty aircraft and at the rate they flew, every one of the thirty had to receive some type of inspection. On top of that, there were snags to work on and also engine changes. [inserted] ETC. [inserted]
[inserted] OTHER THAN AIRCREW [/inserted] Two men had to fly in each of the aircraft that went on supply dropping. As they neared their objective, they lined the supplies in the doorway. The aircraft would then circle and lose height over the dropping area and then fly across it at a height of approx. 50 feet. Whilst flying across, the pilot switched on the light that came on by the doorway. The moment that the light came on, the two chaps had to start pushing the supplies out as quickly as they possibly could and then as soon as the light went out they had to stop. So it went on and the pilot kept flying over the dropping area until he had an empty aircraft once again then he headed back for base and another load. Immediately he left the area the next aircraft would begin to discharge his cargo by parachute. So it was as that as much as possible went out whilst the red light was on. It was certainly hard work during those few secondds [sic] and a breath-taking job.
Officially, we were not allowed anytime off. But one out of our gang used to stay away from work every day so we got a day off each week. From what I have told you, you can see that the whole of our Burmah [sic] Army depended on the supplies brought in through the roof of the jungle. They even relied on us to take in their monthly beer ration. Without the Dakotas the army would not have been able to carry on but I can say quite truthfully that we never let them down on a single occasion. The Canadian and American Dakotas Squadrons each supplied different sectors of the front. It was whilst I was at Imphal that I received the most thrilling and fearful experience of my life. Many people have wondered what it must feel like when you think you are going to be killed. Well I have gone through that fearful experience so I know what it is like. It happened one day when I went up in an air test in an aircraft in which we had just carried out an engine change along with the CPL I/C of our gang and the Sargeant [sic] [deleted] s half [/deleted] [inserted] I/C [/inserted] of the ground crew. The crew of the aircraft were all Canadian fellows. We took off and cruised peacefully up and down the valley for just [inserted] ON [/inserted] an hour.
cont ….
[page break]
[inserted] 139A [/inserted]
[photograph of Burmese soldiers]
[page break]
[inserted] 140 [/inserted]
- 20 –
All three of us were sitting in the back of the aircraft looking out of the space where the doors had been taken off so that the supplies could be pushed out easily when suddenly without warning the aircraft (as we learned later) turned into an 85o bank and then went into a very steep dive. I could feel the pressure of the force of gravity pressing me down into the floor as we gathered speed. It was a good job that neither of us were standing by the doorway at that moment or we might have been flung out into space. As a D.C. 3 was never meant or built to do such steep banks and certainly not power dives,, we were momentarily thrown off our balance and we thought either a wing had dropped off or that the aircraft had gone out of control. The Corporal looked at me with such a scared expression on his white face which I shall never forget at the same time he threw himself flat on the floor of the aircraft with his hands braced behind his head ready for the crash. I must have looked just as bad as I certainly felt like it. We all knew what each other was thinking and that was that we were going to crash but no one uttered a word. I started to crawl along the floor towards the rear end of the aircraft as I knew that would be the safest spot to be in when a D.C. crashed. All I could see when I looked out of any of the windows was sky on both sides. The Sargeant [sic] stayed where he was not knowing what to do. Of course all this happened in a matter of a few seconds, but during those seconds, the whole of my previous life seemed to flash past in my mind. Then suddenly the pressure in my body relaxed as we pulled out of the dive and we all breathed a sigh of relief when we were once again flying along on even keel.
A few seconds later, the crews cabin door opened and the navigator grinning face appeared and we asked him what the hell had happened, to which he replied that the Pilot wanted to give us a thrill. At that moment we felt like murdering him but we all had a good laugh about it, when we were on terrafimma [sic] one more, but it certainly was not funny at the time. It was too much of a thrill for my liking.
By mid March we were dropping supplies over the outskirts of Mandalay whilst the Japs still held most of the shattered town. One day whilst we were in Imphal we were given a lecture by an Intelligence Officer and he told us that the 14th Army planned to take Rangoon before the Monsoon season commenced. Our most forward troops were then still well over 300 miles away from the city and still had miles and miles of dense [deleted] smoke [/deleted] [inserted] SNAKE [/inserted] infested jungle and swamps (some of the worlds worse country) to fight their way through inch by inch before reaching any clear and flat country whatsoever and on top of all this the Japs were fanatical fighters. The word surrender was unknown to them they either fought to death or committed suicide by hirri-kerri. [sic] More Japs were killed in the South east Asia area then [sic] on any other fighting front in the world. During the Burmah [sic] fighting, over 120,000 Japs were killed but prisoners only totalled a few hundred.
Once the port of Rangoon had been captured it meant that our troops fighting south of the city towards Siam could be supplied by road and would not have to rely solely on the transport aircraft for every single article that they required. The Supreme Allied Command South East Asia Command later told us that during the great advance on the port the D.C. Squadron carried twice the tonnage that they had planned for us to lift and that he had to risk tiring out the air and ground crews in making them work in all conditions night and day so the that troops would get their supplies to enable them to capture the golden prize of Rangoon. Another point why the city’s capture was so important to us was that as soon as it had been taken bigger tanks and guns more troops and supplies etc could pour into the port to enable us to built up a bigger and better fighting army during the monsoon period in readiness for a big advance into the Southern countries of Siam, French Indo China and the Malay States and it was impossible to build this force on such a big scale by air supply only.
cont….
[page break]
[inserted] 140A[/inserted]
[newspaper clipping regarding the final phase of the war in the Far East.]
[page break]
[newspaper clipping showing photograph of a Dakota]
[close up photograph of a Dakota fuselage]
[photograph of airmen taking a wounded man from a Dakota]
[page break]
[inserted] 141 [/inserted]
- 21 –
On Friday the 22nd March I was told to pack my kit as I was to fly next day along with some of the Squadrons Technical Stores and take charge of it on landing at our new camp. I loaded my kit on three different aircraft before I decided finally which aircraft was to be loaded with the stores. As I was due to take off at dawn, I decided to sleep in the aircraft throughout the night. I arrived on the airfield at 6.30 p.m. just as it was getting dark. I have never known an evening to drag so, I spent most of the time up until 10 p.m. watching the Indians load the other aircraft with supplies that were take them or drop them in the forward area next morning.
At 10 p.m. I returned to my own aircraft the front of which was loaded up with 5 gallon tins of dope and on either side of the fuselage were tied spare wheels, rudders, airlocks and lots of the stores leaving me only a tiny corridor at the rear of the aircraft near the open doorway in which to put down my blankets. After undressing, I got between them and tried to sleep but every time I began to doze, a big mosquito started to circle above my head and kept zooming near my ear as I lay on my side. This of course kept me awake and every now and then, I would sleepily but viciously strike out at them. I do not think I even caught a single one and I bet that they laughed at me as they dodged away each time. I put up with them for a couple of hours but by that time they had nearly driven me mad and I felt exhausted through lack of sleep. I could stand their buzzing no longer so I got up and unpacked my kit in the dark until I found my supply of anti mosquito cream and covered myself with it. I then got my head down once more and to my delight I found that the mosquitos would not venture near me. I laughed at them before I fell off to sleep. So all went well for a little while and then it had to start raining. The raindrops hitting the metal body work of the aircraft magnified the sound of the storm a hundred fold and so keep me awake. Then to crown it all, a teriffic [sic] wind came up and drove the sheets of rain through the doorway onto my blankets. I got up and drew my blankets as far up the aircraft as it was possible in that narrow corridor between the stores. After a while, I fell off to sleep again after getting used to the sound of the falling rain only to wake later to find that my feet and kit were wet through and the rain was still driving in for all it was worth. I felt so fed up that I resigned myself to my fate as I could not move anywhere else and when I woke up next I found that it was dawn and the aircraft loaded with supplies were taking off but there was still no sign of the crew for my aircraft.
8. a.m. arrived and the other chaps on the Squadron began to turn up for work. It was 10. a.m. before I found out from the Operations tent that we were waiting for our new C.O. Wing Commander Hillary D.F.C. & D.F.M. to turn up as he was taking the aircraft up for his first trip with our Squadron. At 11.30 a.m. the navigator, wireless operator and his second pilot turned up followed a little later by the C.O. and it was 11.45 a.m. before we left the ground and the Imphal Valley behind us and began to wing our way over some of the dense mountainous jungle of Burmah [sic] between the Chindwin and Irriwaddi rivers. I was then able to see for myself the type of country that the 14th Army had to put up with and exist in. I admired their guts in [deleted] what [/deleted] [inserted] THE TASK [/inserted] they were carrying out. I must confess that I felt so tired as a result of my previous wakeful night that I slept throughout most of the trip. I knew it was jolly cold and bumpy as we flew over the mist covered mountains. On reaching our objective I found myself fully awake as we lost height in preparation for landing. I felt it get warmer as we circled around. I looked beneath us upon Akyab Island just off the coast of Southern Burmah, [sic] actually during the wet season it was an island and in the dry one the place was a part of the main land.
cont…. …
[page break]
[inserted] 141A [/inserted]
[newspaper clippings with aerial photograph of the Port of Akyab]
[newspaper clipping of the capture of the Port of Akyab]
[newspaper clipping with photograph of landing craft at Akyab]
[page break]
[photograph of hangar]
[underlined] OUR HANGER AT AKYAB [/underlined]
[photograph of man on beach]
[underlined] AKYAB BEACH [/underlined]
[photograph of cocount trees on beach]
[underlined] COCONUT GROVE AKYAB [/underlined]
CO’S TENT
SITE OF OUR TENT.
[symbol] ROAD BEHIND CAMP AT COCONUT TREE GROVE]
[photograph of palm trees and road]
WHICH [indecipherable word] USED TO RUN ACROSS.
[page break]
[inserted] 142 [/inserted]
- 22 –
It was 2 p.m. when we touched down and taxied off the runway. As soon as the pilot switched off the engines, a lorry drew up to the doorway of the aircraft and whilst the stores were being loaded onto it. I checked the aircraft over for the crew so that it would be ready for their return trip to Imphal that same afternoon. I then clambered aboard the lorry along with crew and we were taken along a very bumpy road to the next [inserted] DOOR [/inserted] runway which was to ours as soon as the natives had completed flattening out the paddy fields and the small bumps that separated each of them. On arrival at this flat piece of dry hard ground stretching for approximately 1 1/2 miles by a quarter of a mile width. In one little spot in this wilderness, I caught sight of half a dozen tents in the far distance. On drawing to a stop alongside them I jumped from the lorry and took off my kit. It was here that I joined the Squadrons advance party which was made up of four officers and sixteen men. The first thing that I did was to find the temporary rigged up cookhouse and get some thing to eat as I had had nothing since 4 p.m. the previous afternoon, and I was feeling famished. I then proceeded to search around the small motor transport section for a couple of 50 gall barrels on which to erect my bed on. Up until then the advance party had only received 6 small tents from Imphal but you could not move for tent poles they had sent hundreds of them down. I bought at least 50 along with me. As a result of this tent shortage, I had to sleep out in the open air. Next morning I was awoken by dew drops dripping through my mosquito net and on to my nose. For the next few days we lived like Lords as we had tons of rations and because the Officers had to work, eat and live among us.
After breakfast on the first day, we split up into parties. Some worked on digging trenches and latrines, others on digging 20 ft deep water wells so that we could get hold of water to wash ourselves with. I spent the morning getting the stores in some semblance of order. In the afternoon a party of us volunteered to fetch the cooks some firewood. So armed with picks, axes and choppers, we set out in a lorry and our excursion took us into what was left of the town of Akyab which consisted of just a few oriental houses and a few small gold topped pagodas. We procured our load of fire wood from the remains of the hundreds of bombed buildings. IN peace time before the Japs arrived, Akyab was quite thickly populated and was the holiday resort of Burmah. [sic] But at the time, we were there, most of the population had still not ventured from out of the hills into which they had fled from the Japs. Akyab island was retaken by our forces invading it from the sea on their second attempt when they met with little Jap opposition but on their first attempt they received heavy casualties and had to withdraw. Whilst we were at Akyab there were still hundreds of Japs in the surrounding country. Our troops never bothered with them so long as they did not cause trouble, they just left them out in the jungle to starve if they did not want to give theirselves [sic] up.
Most of the roads on the island, or rather it is an insult to call them roads except those in the town were hardly more than cart tracks full of pot holes. Everytime I went anywhere on a waggon, I risked my neck as any moment the vehicle was liable to turn over and that is not exaggerating. I used to dread travelling and on top of that it was most uncomfortable, as being so tall I could not stand up straight in a covered lorry and everytime we hit a bumpy part of the road or a hole, I used to hit my head on the iron cross bars.
As the roads were full of bumps and holes you can guess how I felt after a long journey. Then during the dry season, the sandy dust from the ground used to fill the covered vehicles as we went along and nearly suffocated the passengers at times. The best piece of road on the island was a double track line of paving stones which ran for about a mile across the paddy fields halfway between the town and our air strip. Alongside this track were quite a few wreckages of Japanese aircraft. On my second night at Akyab we were each issued out with a months beer ration which one of our officers had managed to wangle for the sixteen of us. A party was just getting nicely under way beneath the light from many hurricane lamps and we were in the middle of a sing song when we heard the sound of a motor cycle racing across the wide area of flat open ground.
con…..
[page break]
[inserted] 142A [/inserted]
[photograph of boats on the sea heading towards the harbour at Akyab]
[aerial photograph of the Port of Akyab]
[photograph of Wing Commander J.B.G. Bradly being greeted by the natives of Akyab]
[page break]
[inserted] 143 [/inserted]
23
which was to be our run-way. A few moments later a despatch rider came dashing up to us and informed us that an alert was on. We extinguished the lamps and sat drinking our [deleted] best [/deleted] beer, out in the moonlight straining our ears at the same time. About 15 minutes later we used the trenches that the chaps had been digging that morning when we heard Jap aircraft circling quite low above the Island. One came very near to our strip and we were relieved when we heard it hhead [sic] away in another direction away from the drome. I am sure that if it had flown overhead, we would have been able to have seen it quite clearly as it was quite light.
Everything around us was bathed in a misty silvery moonlight. The moonlight and the sunset were two of the very few beautiful things in Burmah, [sic] both at times were quite a breathtaking spectical. [sic] A few moments later we heard the sound of bombs exploding in the dock area. Almost immediately the guns on the sea shore and those of the ships anchored out in the harbour opened up and we saw quite a firework display during the next 45 minutes. Then suddenly all became quiet once more and one could have heard a pin drop during the next few minutes.
Then a little later we ventured from our holes like rabbits and resumed our party once more.
On the following day we learned that, on the previous nights raid the Japs had hit the hospital camp and the ration store for the island killing two persons. Most of the bombs fell amongst trees and bushy ground or in the harbour causing very little damage. That morning we spent unloading more stores from our aircraft as they landed in the other strip and saw them off once more. Also that same morning, our own strip was christened when an american [sic] lightening aircraft landed on it whilst the natives were still working levelling out bumps at one end of it. The Pilots excuse for landing was that he had just come back from taking reconissance [sic] photographs over Bancock [sic] and as he could not get down on the nextdoor [sic] strip and as he was also short of petrol, he landed on ours. His excuse was a very bad one as when I looked in the petrol tanks, I found that there was plenty of fuel left in them. However, I said nothing and after topping up his tanks I watched him make a bumpy take off and then circle and land on the serviceble [sic] strip.
As none of our aircraft was expected to arrive during the afternoon of that day, we decided to go swimming. Our journey to the beach was one of the most hair raising rides that I have ever been on. It took us across rough fields, up down and over slopes, hills banks and dips. As we neared the North end of the Island, the sea, the ground became more and more sandy until our lorry got bogged in it up to its axles. We walked the rest of the way to the seashore and after undressing most of us went into the water in the nude and had a good time. On coming out we sat for a while in the sun on the same sandy beach that only a short while before had been stormed by our troops in the invasion of the island. Twice more we became bogged in the sand during our return journey back to the strip. We all had to get off and push as the wheels spun round trying to get a grip they sent up clouds of dust that smothered us. We arrived back at camp far more dirtier than we were when we set out.
Sometimes on my day off I used to go in the sea by the town and although the beach there was quite nice, the place was spoilt by the sea having a very strong under current which used to carry everyone hundreds of yards away from the spot where they started swimming and there was a great risk of being dashed against the nearby rocks. For all that, I would not go on that hectic journey to the north of the again. [sic]
cont……
[page break]
[inserted] 144 [/inserted]
- 24 –
Near to our strip was a native village made up completely of Basha’s also nearby were many pools in which we often saw Water Buffalos bathing. Then there was a river in which some of the chaps used to swim.
For the following few days we were all kept busy erecting the tents that began to arrive at our aircraft so that all would be ready for the rest of the Squadron personnel when they arrived. On most evenings we had a jeep to take us to a film show at the American camp on the other strip and to bring us back again when the show was over. All these good times ended on the 28th of the month when our strip was finally completed and put servicable [sic] and the main party of the Squadron chaps began to arrive. It was then back to the old rations, queueing for meals and an [underlined] old [/underlined] lorry to take us to the cinema etc. On the 29th my other three pals and the pup arrived and we all shared and lived in the same tent. Our only illumination was from a couple of hurricane lamps, when we could get the necessary paraffin for them. We built a little table in the centre of the tent on which we played cards of an evening when there was nothing else to do. We used to play bridge so much that I began to dream that I was playing it in my sleep, so I had to give the game up for a while. I used to get some wonderful hands in my sleep and rotten ones when I was playing.
About twice a week on average, I paid a visit to the nearby [inserted] OPEN AIR [/inserted] cinema but when I went it usually rained or the projector broke down or the sound or lighting failed. By that time the area had become quite a colony of hundreds of tents of all sizes a bit different to when I first arrived there. Our one blessing was that we could just go out of the tent and walk a few yards and we were at work. Our meals were not so good when the clouds of dust kicked up by the slip stream of aircraft taking off or running up blew into our dining hall which was three large marqueus [sic] joined together and on to our food. As I said before our domestic site was situated right beside the runway, as it was, there was a continuous haze over the area all day long caused by the dust and at times we used to breathe in dust and air. A pipeline ran to the strip from the sea and alongside the run way and all night and day and every day in fact every minute of the 24 hours sea water was pumped through this line and then through hoses attached to it at intervals along the strip. Indian soldiers used to work in shifts continuously on holding the hoses and directing the spray from them over the whole of the runway. But for this a certain amount of dust and a good amount too used to be kicked up. The heat used to get teriffic [sic] during the day. This spraying had to be done to keep the drome servicable [sic] and if it had been stopped for 24 hours after one aircraft had taken off it would have taken the following 1/4 hour for the dust to clear enough for the next pilot so [sic] see clearly enought [sic] to take off.
As time was vital and aircraft were going off and landing every minute of the day. So long as I was able to get my bath each evening after finishing work I did not mind the dust covering me or how greasy or oily I got during the day. The four of us in our tent dug our own well just outside the tent. As a result of this we had our own supply of water. If the chaps used the other wells too much they used to dry up so we never had the worry of going short ourselves. My bath consisted of a 50 gall drum cut in half.
[page break]
[inserted] 144A [/inserted]
[map of Burma showing the 14th Army’s progress in the taking of Rangoon]
[page break]
[photograph showing Japanese soldiers in the water being bombed by aircraft]
[page break]
[inserted] 146 [/inserted]
[underlined] MY OVERSEAS SERVICE PART 6 [/underlined] R. BARRETT
As at this time we possessed well over 30 aircraft and were doing so much flying and were also short of ground crew, the aircraft came in for inspection very much quicker. As we could not afford to let the work pile up in anyway and for weeks we were working in temperatures of well over 100o each day. Often we had to all through the night as well to enable one more aircraft to carry a further 9 ton of supplies to the Army during the following day.
On many occasions I [deleted] have [/deleted] worked continuously for 36 hours only stopping for meals. After finishing I found it almost impossible to sleep during the day as it was so hot. I just used to lie on my bed and perspire.
During the first few weeks at the strip our troops had captured Mandalay and had advanced southwards to capture [deleted] Meihteila [/deleted] [inserted] [deleted] MTITKTTWA [/deleted] MEIKTILA. [/inserted] and it was there that the 14th Army began to build up a big base ready for their 250 mile advance down to Rangoon. Consequently 95 out of every 100 aircraft that took off from our strip each day were on the [underlined] Meitkeila [/underlined] trip. This job went on for so long [inserted] WE THOUGHT [/inserted] that the attack would never begin, and if it did we thought that the capture of Rangoon before the Monsoons hit Burma would be nothing short of a miracle.
It was around about this time that the [inserted] OTHER AIRMAN FROM [/inserted] Slough [deleted] chap [/deleted] on the Squadron met his [deleted] other [/deleted] Father who was an officer in the R.A.F. He was stationed only a few miles from us and on one occasion told his son that a big attack was due to commence against the Japs at any moment. A few days later, a large map of Burma appeared in our dining Marquee with the front line marked on it. That same night a Squadron impromtue [sic] concert and sing song was held in the camp in the open air. During this concert our Intelligence Officer told us that the long awaited push had started and so that we would know what was going on he said that he would bring the front line up to date each day on our map and also state how many sorties that our Squadron had carried out and the weight of supplies flown to the front by the Squadron aircraft.
They proved to be quite a success but then anything was a success that passed an evening away quickly. Incidentally, those concerts that I spoke of turned out to be a weekly affair. The airmen sargents [sic] and Officers gave one an alternate Wednesday nights. We had a marquee on the camp which acted as our recreation room and it contained of all things a weight lifting outfit. Anyone that had energy to spare during those days was a [deleted] morel [/deleted] [inserted] MARVEL [/inserted] but there were some crazy chaps who used to enjoy lifting 150 or more lbs of weights on a bar above their heads half a dozen or more times.
The nights seemed to drag so that often I would go to bed as there was nothing else to do, and because I was fed up. When I used to have to work late, no matter what time I finished, I always had my bath. Even it was 3 a.m. you could see me throwing my bucket into the well and on drawing it pour it into my home made bath. It was lovely and refreshing to sit in the cool water and in the nude beneath the brilliant moonlight before getting between my white sheets. I would feel so utterly exhausted and dog tired after such a long day I would fall off to sleep immediately.
During the daytime it was so warm that I never used to wear anything more than a pair of shorts (for modesty) and plimsoles (to save my feet from getting burned on the hot soil) and a hat (to save myself from getting sunstroke). Even these three items were too much for my liking.
cont….
[page break]
[inserted] 147 [/inserted]
- 2 –
The Squadron’s consumption of lemon squash and lime juice cordial was teriffic [sic] in those days. At one time it was so hot during the afternoons that the regular working hours were changed to 6 a.m. – 1.30 p.m. from 4-p.m. until 6.30 p.m. but we still had to work nearly every afternoon so as to finish an aircraft off. This change of hours was only another way of getting more work out of us.
I never used to go to the w.c. during the day because if I had I would have blistered my bottom every day. Our toilets were dug out in the fields and the seats of these merely consisted of sunken 50 gall petrol tins with a square hole cut in the top of them. The tin used to get red hot after the sun had been up for a couple of hours.
Now to go back to the big attack which gradually gained momentom [sic] day by day. From the very first day that it opened up and as soon as our troops began to advance southwards our Squadrons job was to drop supplies to the forward fighting units which began to push down the Mandalay-Rangoon road and railway. These, units consisted mostly of the British 2nd Division. If you look at the map of the campaign, you will see the route that the 2nd Division took.
The Japs were taken by complete surprise, at times our aircraft on arrival at dawn over a clearing where our forwards troops were reported to be the night before, found nothing there. They had to follow the road or railway track south until they found our troops beneath them and were given the arranged dropping signal.
You people at home received delayed news in case our troops received any setbacks etc. When the news on the wireless gave out that our advanced units were 180 miles from Rangoon, the army were actually only 75 miles from the city, and when the wireless said 100 miles, it was really 30 and so it differed day by day both figures getting smaller and smaller.
Life began to get very monotonous for us chaps. It was just work, sweat and very little sleep for everyone during those weeks. But I still bet we were far better off than those chaps down in the front line and we all used to think they rely completely on us so the job we were doing was well worth while and that in a way their advance was partly ours.
One of the 14th Army jobs was to capture the home of the deadliest snake and that was King cobras mountain. Actually our troops encircled it and left the Japs who wanted to stay inside the circle to be bitten to death. I was told that they feared the snakes far more than they did our advancing forces.
During the month of April each day one of the gang took an unofficial day off once more as that was the only way that we could get time in which to wash our clothes etc. During some of my days off, I had a busy time keeping out of sight and dodging the Sargent [sic] in charge of our section.
On a few occasions the Squadrons football team managed to get a couple of hours off in which to play a match but it generally turned out that I had to work at the time that the matches were being played. One match did fall on one of my unofficial days off so I was able to go and watch it, but as usual, something happened when I went out somewhere. This time the lorry on which I was travelling conked out just as we were going across the end of the runway and whilst we got off to start pushing it an aircraft came in to land and passed over us.
cont…..
[page break]
[inserted] 147 [/inserted]
[underlined] Britain’s Day of Rejoicing – 7th May 1945 VE-Day [/underlined]
That day was most memorable as far as my own recollections are concerned. It found me at the age of 20 years a veteran campaigner serving my country as a flight mechanic in the RAF with 267 Dakota Squadron, after previously serving in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. At the time we were operating against the Japanese from Akyab Island off the coast of Mid West Burma.
My wartime diaries for the two days that span the 7th May in England read as follows:
At 6 pm a few hours before victory in Europe was announced over the wireless a huge red V appeared in the sky over Akyab and took 2 hours to gradually fade away. On VE-Day as you called it, I was up at 6.30 am and went straight out of my tent to work. I worked until 6 pm at night and stopped [inserted] ONLY [/inserted] for a meal. At 6.30 pm our time just before noon your time, I was in the middle of having a bath in my tin-barrel when Mr. Churchill made an official announcement that the war in Europe was at an end. As I stood by the tent with just a towel wrapped around my soapy body listening to the announcement, my mind wandered back to that Sunday morning at 11 am nearly 6 years previously when at 15 years of age, I listened to Mr. Chamberlayne [sic] declare war on Germany and little did I then think that I would be in Burma when that war finished. After completion of my bath, I had to go back to work on the aircraft that our gang was working on, so that we could complete by morning. This meant that an extra aircraft would be ready for carrying supplies to the Front Line next day.
When I arrived at the aircraft I found the electricians rigging up an electric lighting system for us. After they had done this, they could not get the motor to start. 10 pm arrived, they were still working on the motor and had it in pieces. The members of our gang sat waiting in either the aircraft in the dark, or sat like me against one of the wheels. I think they all felt the same as I did, hellish tired.
My thoughts during that time were for those Spitfire Pilots who with my previous Squadron I had sheppered [sic] for take off at the end of various runways in Europe and waited in vain for them to return. There was no celebrations for them.
My head kept dropping on my chest. I was not comfortable enough to fall asleep and even if I had been the mosquitoes that kept buzzing around my ears would have kept me awake.
At 10.30 pm I strolled over to the cookhouse tent and drank a mug of tea and took one back for the rest of the gang. By that time the electricians gave up their lighting system as a bad job and told us we would not have any electric light that night.
So we started to work with the aid of torch lights and we each took it in turn to sit for a while in the cockpit and shine the lamp upon one of the engines. The light of the lamp which was a miniture [sic] searchlight attracted hundreds of flies and insects as if by a magnet. You cannot imagine how we felt with these insects flying around our heads continuously and also a sickly sound as they tried to smash themselves to death against us and the lamps. Although it was night, the atmosphere was very close and made us perspire excessively, and on top of this in the distance on the wireless we heard the bells of Englands Cathedrals and descriptions of the victory celebrations and the scenes in Picadilly, outside Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament etc.
[page break]
Also descriptions of scenes in many other big towns in England.
Yet us chaps could not even get hold of a drink of water that night as ever the water bowser was empty. The only bright time for us was whem [sic] some of the chaps kept firing coloured cartridges up into the air.
Midnight arrived and I was feeling so fed up, miserable and sleepy, nearly driven to death by flies and insects, that I packed my hand in and went to bed. At 4.45 am on the following morning or rather the same morning I was called out of bed and told that our job had to be finished that morning, which was also a national holiday for everybody in England. Although I was lucky enough to get the afternoon off, I was called out again late in the afternoon and worked all that evening on a generator change.
That night to round off the victory celebrations that I did not get, I had to go and fall into an old Japanese slit trench in the dark and sprained my knee cap. When my friend helped me out and back to my tent, I was trying to laugh and cry at the same time. A perfect ending to my rejoicing? At least I still had the hope of seeing dear old England once again at some future unknown date.
[underlined] EXLAC Barrett 1863228 [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 147A [/inserted]
[photograph of Burmese police recruits training with firearms]
[photograph of Burmese natives driving carts drawn by bullocks]
[page break]
[inserted] 148 [/inserted]
147A
If we had not all run and fallen flat on our faces, the wheels of the aircraft would have touched some of us. As it was, I watched it miss the top of the truck by inches; for a few moments my heart was in my mouth. During the latter part of April, the 14th Army captured a number of airfields in the Toungoo area, so our aircraft was able to land their supplies once again. It was also around about this time when one of the divisions captured the oil fields in Central Burma also cutting off a large number of Japs at the same time.
Very soon after that, the town of Pegu fell to advanced units racing southwards. The Japs tried to make a stand in this area and the town was almost completely destroyed during the fighting but they did not stem the advance for long. A few days later the 2nd division broke through the enemies lines and headed south once more on the last lap of their long and hard trek towards the objective that they had toiled for two years to reach.
Pegu was the last big town in Burma North of Rangoon. It was May 2nd when advanced elements entered the outskirts of the city. That night many aircraft took off from the next door strip loaded up with airborn troops which they dropped over the Rangoon area just before dawn. The same morning came the sea borne invasion of the port. These forces just pipped the 14th Army in reaching the city’s centre.
On the same day some of our aircraft were the first to drop supplies to our troops in the Rangoon area. The first aircraft of ours over the city dropped supplies and the flags of the big four allied Nations inside the state prison where the Japs held and left many of their prisoners of war. The flags stood for the symbol of their liberation then close at hand.
The army beat the monsoons by a matter of just a few days. I often wonder how many of the people at home fully realised how much the capture of Rangoon meant to us out in the Jungle. I am afraid that this great achievement was overshadowed in the papers by Victory Day in Europe that came a few days later.
I also wonder how many thought of us in our unhappy surroundings whilst they were merry making and enjoying the two days national holiday. It was no holiday for us, our job still had to go on, the capture of Rangoon by no means ended our task against the Japs.
[inserted] 8-5-45 [/inserted]
At 6 pm a few hours before victory in Europe was announced over the wireless, a huge Red V appeared in the sky over Akyab took two hours to gradually fade away.
In fact it was around about that time that I spent some of my most miserable days of my overseas tour. On V.E day as you called it I was up at 6.30 am and went straight out of my tent to work. I worked until 6 pm at night when I stopped for a meal. At 6.40 pm our time and 1 pm your time, I was in the middle of having a bath in my tin barrel when Mr Churchill made the official announcement that the war in Europe was at an end. As I stood by the tent with just a towel wrapped around my soapy body listening to the announcement my mind wandered back to that Sunday morning at 11 am nearly 6 years previously when at 15 years of age I stood in the bar downstairs and listened to Mr Chamberlain declare war on Germany. Little did I then think that I would be out in Burma when that war finished.
After the completion of my bath, I had to go back to work on the aircraft that our gang was carrying out an inspection on so that we could complete it by morning so that an extra aircraft would be ready for carrying supplies to the front next day. When I arrived at the aircraft I found the electricians rigging up an electric lighting system for us. After they had done this they could not get the motor to start. 10 pm arrived and they were still working on the motor and had it in bits. The members of our gang either sat in the aircraft in the dark or sat like me against one of the wheels. I think that all the other chaps felt the same as I did, hellish tired.
Cont……
[page break]
[inserted] 147B [/inserted]
[inserted] AKYAB BURMA MY [underlined] V.E. NIGHT [/underlined] 8-5-1945 [/inserted]
My head kept dropping on my chest, I was not comfortable enough to fall asleep and even if I had been, the mosquitos that kept buzzing around my ears would have kept me partly awake.
At 1.30 pm I stolled [sic] over to the cookhouse tent and drank a mug of tea and took one back to the rest of the gang. By that time the electricians gave up their lighting system as a bad job and told us that we would not have any electric light that night.
So we started to work with the aid of torch light and we each took it in turns to sit for a while in the cockpit and shine the aldis lamp upon one of the engines. The light of the lamp which was a minature [sic] searchlight attracted hundreds of flying insects as if by a magnet. You can imagine how we felt with these insects swarming around our heads continuously and hearing that sickly sound as they tried to smash themselves to death against us and the lamps. Although it was night, the atmosphere was very close and made us perspire profusely, and on top of this in the distance we could hear on the wireless the bells of England’s Cathedrals and the description of the Victory Celebrations and the scenes in Piccadilly, outside Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament. Also descriptions of the scenes in many other big towns in England. A little way from us a party was being held in the Sargeants [sic] and Officers Mess. Yet us chaps could not even get hold of a drink of water that night, as the water bowser was empty and the canteen was also out of cordial. The only bright time of the evening was when some of the chaps kept firing coloured cartridges up into the air.
Midnight arrived and I was feeling so fed up, miserable after 17 1/2 hour working day and nearly driven to death by flying insects that I packed my hand in and went to bed. At 4.45 am on the following morning or rather the same morning, I was called out of bed and told that our job had to be finished that morning, which was also a National holiday for everyone in England. I was lucky enough to get the afternoon off and I spent it laying on my bed. I was called out again later in the afternoon and worked all that evening on a generator change. On the following day to round off the Victory celebrations that [underlined] we did not get [/underlined] I had to go and fall into an old Japanese slit trench in the dark and sprain my knee cap. I had just returned to camp from seeing a boxing show in the American camp. It was pitch dark and pouring with rain when I got off the wagon and began to make my way towards my tent. I stepped over one of the ridges that separate each paddy field and my left foot landed on thin air and I pitched into the trench. My left leg just touched the bottom of the trench and so took most of the weight off my right leg which stayed up above the ground and twisted itself. If the trench had been a few inches deeper I would have most probably broken my leg.
When my friend helped me out and back to my tent, I was trying to laugh and cry at the same time. As a result of my sprain, our M.O put me on 7 days light duty after he had strapped my knee in sticking plaster and said that I had better have an office job during that time or do no work at all. So for the following week I worked in the Engineering Officers tent. It certainly made a change being able to sit down all day and to keep clean for once instead of getting covered from head to foot in grime and dust every day. The worst part came when it was time for the plaster to be taken off and all the hairs on my leg were pulled out by the roots at the same time.
On Sunday 13th May the all weather metal airfield a few miles away from us was completed and ready to house all of the aircraft that were to be kept on the island during the Monsoon season. If we had stayed on our Maunubyn field a few more days our aircraft would not have been able to take off again until months later.
During the proceeding [sic] two weeks, before we made our departure from our old paddy field strip, winds began to blow up throughout the day and created dust storms similar to as if a thousand aircraft were running up at the same time on the strip. At the first sign of the winds we had to tie full 50 gallon barrels of water to the tail and main planes of each aircraft and turn their nose into the wind, so that they would not be in danger of being lifted up and turned over.
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Then we would retire to our tents and hang on to the poles and tied all the flaps down etc. When the wind hit us the whole tent was in danger of being lifted up and swept away and in the bargain dust entered and filled the tent so that we were almost unable to breathe.
Then a few days before we left, we began to receive heavy showers of rain during the day and nightime. [sic] Only after a few of these heavy showers the strip became one big mass of mud and parts of it water logged.
We were all up early in the morning of the 13th and pulled our tent down and for a while sat on our kit out in the open air among the lines of packed tents and listened to a wireless that one of the nearby tents possessed. It was on that wireless that I heard the war news whenever I possibly could as that was our only touch with what was hapenning [sic] in the outside world.
After an hour of sitting around one of the fellows drove up on a tractor which had a trailor [sic] attached to the rear of it. We loaded our kit and tent on to this trailor [sic] and it was driven out to the runway where an aircraft was waiting to take us to our new drome. The aircraft was also stationed nearby our technical tents and so [inserted] TO [/inserted] make up a full load we loaded our tool boxes etc on board.
We had travelled so far by air since leaving Italy that the puppy knew that he was going on another flight as soon as we loaded our kit he climbed up the steps and went on board himself. The other two dogs ended their lives on the Island as they caught different skin deseases [sic] and so had to be shot. But Chicco seemed to stand up to the heat very well and often he would go to work with us and sit under the main plane until it was time for dinner or to finish for the day. At first we had a job to keep him out of the oil but later on he used to visit the different gangs working on the different aircraft. As soon as one gang finished making a fuss of him, he went on to the next. He was a lovely little dog and very understanding and was known by everyone on the Squadron. Every night he went on guard and spent his time trotting around with them on patrol and he went to sleep on one of the beds in our tent when the guard finished. It was very amusing to watch him play with the giant frogs or with one of the monkeys. The monkey colony on the Squadron had by this time risen to half a dozen. One of the babys had a very large head and a very small body which made it look a horrible little thing.
Any way it was about dinner time when we taxied to the end of the run-way. On arrival there one of the chaps in the aircraft discovered that he had left his shirt behind which contained his money wallet so he jumped out and told us he would hitch hike over to the new drome.
The dog sat in the doorway as we took off and within a minute of becoming air borne we found ourselves circling over the new drome which was situated near to the sea. The drome possessed two long metal section built run-ways with a taxying strip running parallel with the outside of each. Even the aircraft dispersal areas were covered with metal sections. Whoever thought of this way for building new airdromes had brains. First the bulldozers levelled the ground then the ground was covered with strips of bitumen covered hemp and in turn that was covered with holed metal sheets approx 18” x 8’. Each sheet fitted in to its next door neighbour so making a complete surface.
As soon as an aircraft touched down on this surface it gave out a teriffic [sic] rattling and clanking sound which continued until the aircraft came to a stand still. This sound seemed to be ten times as loud when aircraft came in after dark and when all was silent.
cont……
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When we made a half circle over the sea and landed, we never thought we were going to stop taxeing. [sic] We went down the length of the run way and then the length of the taxeing [sic] strip which together was well over a distance of 2 1/2 miles. before we reached the Squadron dispersal point.
On stepping out from our aircraft we found the fellow waiting nearby who we had left at the end of our old strip. He had travelled by road and had still beaten us to our new drome which was called Akyab (main).
A few minutes later a lorry drew up to the aircraft and after being loaded took us and our kit along one of the worst roads in the world to our new domestic site which was situated in a coconut tree grove approx 2 1/2 miles from our dispersal which was at one end of the runway the domestic site was just past the other end.
Our first job was to find a space between the coconut trees in the small camp area on which to pitch our tent. After finding a suitable spot we staked our claim and left one chap behind to look after the kit and to see that no one else tried to erect their tent on that same spot. The rest of us went back to the airfield and loaded up a lorry with empty 5 gall cans and returned to the site with them. Next we laid out the cans in a square a little bit larger than our tent and then after covering the whole lot with earth & four blankets we erected our tent on top of the whole lot. After putting our kit inside, still sweating we dug a large trench all the way around the tent so that we would not get flooded out when the monsoon arrived in full force. Next day air operations were resumed as normal and we seemed to work more hours than ever but perhaps it was all the better as when we first arrived at Akyab main we had no entertainment whatsoever. So we did not know what to do with ourselves of an evening and many a time we [deleted] have [/deleted] sat on our beds just looking at each other.
As soon as the war ended no one was allowed to stay on the island for more than 8 months as if they did they were liable to go mad. I quite believe it is possible too. We were there only for 6 months and some of us were not far from being around the bend as we say in the service.
As time went on entertainment improved, the night of the month looked forward to the most by all the chaps was when the beer ration came in. On that night we either stayed in our own tent and invited our friends from other tents in to a party and sing song or we paid a visit to someone else’s tent. That was about the only time we enjoyed ourselves and were happy whilst on the island. One of the fellows who we used to invite to the parties was a cook this proved very useful as he used to bring along eggs and tins of bacon from the cookhouse with him. Then at about midnight one could see us frying our supper and sitting out in the air around the petrol fire over which was someone’s mess tin containing the eats. We each took it in turn to raid the cookhouse for bread for the sandwitches. [sic]
Occasionally, I went to the Naval Station situated on the sea shore near to what was left of the town to see a picture in the camp cinema there but I never used to like that terrible bumpy and tiring journey there and back to go often. I only went when I was feeling fed up and miserable. There was absolutely no where to go in the evening except for a walk in the jungle or to the [inserted] TOC ‘H’ [/inserted] canteen 3 miles away and it was not worth the walk there and back just to obtain a cake and a cup of tea which a few minutes after one had drink, you could see stream out of your body in the form of sweat and the reward for our trip would be one soaking sweaty wet shirt and similar slacks.
cont….
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The more that I saw of the island the more I was convinced that no white man was ever meant to live there. Whenever I see posters or read about romantic tropical islands, I think of how romantic Akyab was. During the whole of those six months I saw no more native women than half a dozen and only a few white women. The only thing that was nice there was the sun set and that was glorious and breathtaking spectical. [sic] The tall brown trunks and the big green waving branches and leaves of the coconut trees gently being swayed by a trade wind, stood out very clearly against the red mauve purple yellow and orange sky.
Bananas and wild pinapples [sic] grew on the Island also wild Orchids and many other colourful tropical flowers grew in abundance during the wet season. When we wanted coconut milk to drink, we used to get the natives to climb up the trees pick and throw coconuts down to us. They used to ascent [sic] those tall trees like lightening and decend [sic] still faster if on reaching the top they found that the tree was infested with ants and on reaching the ground once again they would be covered with them. We could not leave anything eatable around the tents as if we did within a few minutes, it would be swarming with ants. I remember that at one time they got into a big tin of sweets that had been sent out all the way from England to me. Was I wild when I opened the lid and found thousands of ants eating my nice sweets.
One night they even came to bed with me and I spent hours finding and killing them in the dark, they nearly drove me mad that night. The worst part that I could only locate them after they had bitten me. On the following morning when I arose I found the ants climbing up one of the drums that formed the legs of my bed and walking along the Bamboo framework and down another tin to the floor again and the trail then led out of the tent up a tree trunk along our clothes line to the next tree and down to the ground once more. After putting paraffin on my bed and on the floor of the tent it stopped their capers for a while. But it was impossible to cope with them fully as they were everywhere in millions. They used to nest in the seams of our tents and on one occasion I found that some had hibernated inside [deleted] of [/deleted] [inserted] ONE [/inserted] the bamboo poles that formed one side of my bed and they were gradually chewing the bamboo into saw dust.
Often when we were stripped and having a bath a big horse fly would come along and bite us on the bottom and when they bit they certainly made you yell with pain. Its stinger feels as big as a match stick when he digs it in. A bite from one of them is far worse than having an inoculation and it also leaves a bigger bump.
During our dinner hour each day we used to lie on our beds being pestered by the flies. As soon as I knocked one off two more would settle they were so crafty that the flies alone nearly drove us mad. It was the same at work it was too hot to be under our mosquito nets during the daytime. It always became dark round about 7. p.m. and at that time the flies would go to bed and the mosquitos would venture out and into our tents along with moths, flying beetles which used to get tangled up in our hair and all sorts of weird and wonderful insects which either used to fly round [inserted] & AROUND [/inserted] the hurricane lamps or sleep on the ceiling of the tent. When late evening came and we were all in bed the fire flies would come in and light up the tent with the green illumination that they radiate and then just as we were dozing off to sleep either a pack of Hyenas or Jackalls [sic] would start howling nearby and one after another, another pack in the surrounding district would take up the cry. It was a terrible sound that used to send shivers down our spines. Also of a nightime [sic] after it had been raining an army of thousands of bull frogs would start croaking in the surrounding jungle. It was marvelous [sic] how every few minutes they would start up and then stop croaking all at the same time. When they were croaking in full force it sounded like a team of horses galloping along a cobbled street. In fact that was the scene that one pictured up in ones mind when one heard them.
cont……..
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Then occasionally if all was silent, all of a sudden a frog on one side would open up with a croak at least as loud as the moo of a cow and he would be answered by another frog on the other side of the tent. Then they would carry out a conversation with each other by alternate croaks. These bull frogs were no bigger than your thumb and make enough noise for a thing a hundred times their size. Also a very large variety of snakes were killed on the camp whilst we were there. One 6 ft viper was found coiled up inside an old empty fruit tin. The snake used to come up out of the jungle at night and across the road and into our camp. Often whilst walking along the road at night I would hear a snake scoot across in front of me and disappear into the grass, we certainly used to tread very carefully when walking through grass. So you can see some of the things that we had to put up with and the reason why we all felt fed up with life. I think the only thing that kept us alive was thought of the day when we would be going home and what we had to go home to. It did not pay to be melancoly [sic] and we certainly had to keep a grip on ourselves.
Here is one amusing incident that happened one night although it was not very funny for the fellow that it happened to. He woke up during the night and felt something moving about in his bed and on putting his hand down between the blankets he felt the smooth skin of a snake. He leapt out from beneath his mosquito [inserted] NET [/inserted] and out of his bed with a yell that woke everyone else up in the tent and told them that there was a snake somewhere in the tent. Then one of the other occupants of the tent rushed out and cut his foot on a piece of glass. He thought that the snake had bitten him in the dark, so he went and woke up the sick quarters’ staff and got them out of bed. He was in a panic until they convinced him that he had only stepped on a piece of glass.
Anyway they all took their blankets into the dining hall which was a large long Basha and slept (or rather tried to) the rest of the night on the tables. In spite of an extensive search on the following morning which consisted of moving their whole kit no snake was found in the tent.
I think that all of these things played on some of the chaps minds, as one night just after we had blew the lights out one of the chaps in my tent swore that someone had touched him in the dark and on investigating we could find nothing on his net or anything near him. Then during another night one of the chaps had a nightmare in which he was being strangled and he was just able to gasp out in a whisper ”Ken, Ken” [inserted] AND KEN [/inserted] who was half asleep thought for a while that it was a spirit calling out to him.
We appreciated very much the few girls that took part in the very few ensa shows that came out to us braving and putting up with the wartime conditions in the Far East. We thought more of them than the big artists who [deleted] stuck [/deleted] [inserted] STAYED [/inserted] in the West End earning or rather getting big money and who refused to go out East for a short while to entertain the troops. One who did come out and who I saw whilst in Akyab was the opera and B.B.C. singer Tessa Deane who sang almost continuously to us for two hours all types of songs from opera to swing. For that performance she would have received a very large amount of money [deleted] from the B.B.C. [/deleted]
As I said before, we saw very few women on the island, most had either fled into the hills or had been taken away by the Japanese.
Some days it go [sic] so hot that the dog used to dig a hold [sic] then put his nose in it and cool it on the earth at the bottom of the hole which had not been exposed to the sun.
One night whilst listening to the wireless it seemed funny when the news announcer gave out that you were having the hottest day of the year in England 88o in the sun. At that time it was dark at Akyab and the temperature was then 98o.
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Another wild dog that roamed the camp made friends with one of the monkeys and they became devoted to each other. It was very amusing to watch them play together and playfully bite each other. They were both very artful and got up to some funny antics that used to make us all laugh.
At one time we had two other pets in our tent besides the dog. There were one large and one small lizard. Both used to come to the tent every evening and much to our approval would feed themselves upon the mosquitos and other insects. They used to advance bit by bit on either side of their intended victim. Then they used to move and strike like lightening. It was very interesting to sit on our beds and watch them.
Now for the monsoons which were late arriving that year in Akyab. They should have broke during late May but at that time we only got those heavy showers every so often. Then when the Monsoons did finally arrive in mid June they made up for lost time. Just before they arrived I needed a 15 ft rope (long) attached to my bucket when I drew my washing water from the well and a few weeks later the water level was only a few feet below the ground. So that will give you some idea of how much rain we had. Although it is very hard to realise what monsoon rain is like unless you have witnessed it, often during one day we had as much rain as we get in England during two months of the rainy season.
During the hot season we saw too much sunshine for our liking and during the monsoon season we saw far too much rain and longed for the dry weather once more. One advantage is that it became a bit cooler when it poured with rain although not [deleted] merely [/deleted] [inserted] NEARLY [/inserted] cold [inserted] HOWEVER [/inserted] by any means. As soon as each monsoon finished during the daytime the sun would break down and scorch down and the humidity would become very bad. So that we breathed in 50% of water and 50% of air.
One moment the sun would be shining and the sky would be cloudless then suddenly a dirty black cloud would appear on the horizon and be drawn across the sky like a blanket. Then came the wind followed by the shortly afterwards sweeping rain. Sometimes the monsoon would last for half an hour and the sun would beat down and the sky would become clear once more. Perhaps we would get anything up to a dozen or more monsoons during a day. Then again sometimes the monsoon lasted continuously for a day or days and it really did pour down all the time and never drizzled like it does in England. At times it rained so hard that the visibility decreased to less than 20 yards. We could see the monsoons coming as they got nearer so the visibility got less and the darker it became. One minute we would see far past the other end of the run-way and the next we could not see the aircraft parked next to the other one that we were working.
Often to get an aircraft servicable [sic] we had to work out in the pouring rain and go to and from the domestic site of an open lorry in it all, getting soaked through. If we changed our clothes at dinner time the fresh set became just as wet long before the day was out. We had nowhere to dry our clothes and just had to hang them up in the tent and so it went on until we had no more fresh clothes to put on and we had to be content with damp ones. It was the same with washing our clothes, it was still impossible to get them even nearly dry. At one time we had so much sunshine for our liking but nothing in my mind is worse than being soaked through and having to work out in the rain which you know will not stop for hours.
cont……
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Around about this time we had to do an engine change as quick as we possibly could on an aircraft. We worked in shifts of two chaps each shift doing 12 hours and the shifts carried on continuously throughout the night and day through the heavy rains. It was just my luck to be on the shift that had to work all night and the other chap working along with me as the Corporal of the gang. By the time that we had ridden up to domestic site at 10.30 and queued up in the rain for a hot supper and then driven back to the drome once more, we were already fed up and longing for dawn to arrive. In spite of all this we finished that engine change in record time we were allowed a maximum of 48 hours and we had the aircraft ready for airtest 42 hours after we had started work on in. We had to take the old engine and strip it down. Get the new engine out of its crate and then build it up and instal [sic] it into the [inserted] AIR [/inserted] frame and put the propellor on and do another hundred and one jobs before we ran it up. Then we had to rectify all the snags before we were able to cowl the engine up.
Whilst working on inspections every time it started to rain or we saw a monsoon coming across the drome we had to cover up the engine and work as best we could under the cover until it stopped raining once again. Then we had to take the cover off. One got a bit fed up with this if we had to do this a dozen times a day or night.
Often when working all night in our sleeplessness we knock our battery [inserted] 15 [/inserted] volt lighting bulbs off the engine on to the metal strip and smash them one by one until sometimes none were left and as it was pitch dark we would hate to pack up for the night. But by 3 a.m. it began to get a bit lonely working there when all was silent except for the sound of the sheets of rain beating on or being swept in sheets onto the metal body and wings of the aircraft.
Then just before dawn one after another engine would roar into life and then one by one the aircraft would taxi out in a continuous line to the end of the run-way and then take off. All that we would see in the dark was the long line of red and green wing tip lights. The ground crew had begun to arrive by that time and another day had commenced. As the rest of the gang climbed from the lorry to take over from us, we sleepily climbed on to it to be driven up to camp and glorious bed. Even on the nights that we did not have to work we were woken up each morning as the aircraft took off for their first trip of the day and roared over our tents at the end of the run-way. At this time we were thoroughly fed up with life which was hardly more than just work and existing. All we had to look forward to was to going home (if lucky) sometime in the future.
Whatever the weather [deleted] was [/deleted] those 15 aircraft and some times many more [inserted] DID [/inserted] three of four supply carrying trips each day. This was the time that the aircrew did really earn their pay as they flew in weather that pilots in England would be horrified at even the thought of having to take off in [deleted] it. [/deleted] No words of mine can praise those aircrews enough for what they went through during those days when they flew continually from dawn up until dusk and for most of the time as visibility was so bad they could not see where they were flying and had to rely entirely on their instruments. Although these crews could have refused to fly when they could not even see far enough down the run-way for a safe take off, they never would or did let the Army down.
Also in this weather, the pilots had a hell of a job in finding the run-way and sometimes even the airfield when they returned to the Island. It was pitiful to watch or rather hear the aircraft circle round and round trying to find the end of the run-way and making attempt after attempt to land. If possible the crews flew over or around the monsoons but sometimes they were so big and so high that it was impossible to do either of these things so they just had to chance to luck and fly through the thick of it. Even the red direction beacons on the drome for guiding in the aircraft were useless. Besides these beacons one fellow used to stand on the end of the run-way and if an aircraft was on somewhere near on the correct approach he fired [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] very white pistol cartridges up into the air and if the aircraft was well out in its approach he would fire up a red and it would then go round again and make another attempt.
con……
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Every so often during its circuit we would get a glimpse of the plane when it flew through a small clear patch in the mist and rain. One morning one of our aircraft came down a bit too low when the pilot was trying to find out where he was and its wing tip touched the sea in Akyab harbour near the end of the run-way. The force of the impact overturned the aircraft and it sank before any of the crew had a chance to get out.
This was the only aircraft that our Squadron lost during the Monsoons but other Squadrons were not [inserted] SO [/inserted] lucky and lost quite a number that flew into mountain sides etc.
Whilst on an operation one of our aircraft was flying along on a height of 10,000 ft and flew into a big black cloud. Suddenly all the instruments went hay-wire and the aircraft was turned over on its back and it looped and rolled and did everything that a Dakota was not built to do before the pilot who had to fight with the controls got it under control once more. At the end of it all the aircraft had dropped from 10,000 feet [inserted] TO 1,000 ft [/inserted] and we had to overhaul it when it returned to Base.
On another occasion, another of our aircraft turned over three times in one of these blackish brown clouds. The pilot managed to fight and beat nature by righting the aircraft each time. At the time it was loaded with 20 – 50 galls barrels of petrol or in other words 1,000 galls plus another 700 which was in his petrol tanks. So if the aircraft had crashed it most certainly would have burst into flames and the crew would not have stood a chance of getting out of it alive. Also the army would have had to go short of the petrol. For this feat the pilot who kept the aircraft under control was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal. He certainly earned it. I saw him just after he had loaded and he looked a nervous wreck.
Us ground crew were certainly pleased when new aircraft with new engines arrived from England to replace some of our old worn out ones that had been flying continuously since we left Italy. As the engines were old, they were getting worn out and what with oil leaks etc, they caused us no end of trouble that kept us busy all the while. So it was a treat to be able to work on brand new engines once again which did not have many minor things keep going wrong with them.
Our gang carried out an acceptance check on one of these aircraft that had only two weeks previously been in dear old England. On completion of our engine check, I decided to go up in the airtest with the plane. I stood just behind the pilots’ shoulder and watched the engine instruments as we tore down the run way and just after we had left the ground there was a blinding flash and a noise like an explosion. For a moment I thought that the plane was breaking up until I realised that the emergency escape hatch just above my head had blown off. It could not have been fastened properly and the suction of air caused by us taking off must have drawn it off. It certainly frightened me for a moment when the light came streaming in and the cockpit from above me, and the explosion noise was caused by the air being drawn out of the aircraft also.
It was lucky that we had a daredevil pilot with us who was unmoved by the incident or we might have gone out of control and crashed. For the next few moments after it had happened I spent looking out of the astrodome situated on the roof of the aircraft to see that the hatch in its flight had not hit our rudder or tail unit.
I shall always remember the lovely 21st Birthday that I spent at Akyab when it rained almost continually and I worked from 7.15 a.m. up until 1 a.m. on the following morning.
On many occasions whilst we were at Akyab the Island stock of areo engine oil ran out completely and before we would finish an inspection and put an aircraft serviceable we had to send an aircraft either down to Ramree Island or back into India to fetch 500 or 750 galls.
cont……
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[inserted] 154A [/inserted]
[newspaper clipping with photograph of burning oil dumps in Rangoon]
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[newspaper clipping and photograph describing the 14th Army’s assault on Rangoon with photograph of a British motor launch sailing into Rangoon harbour]
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[inserted] 154B [/inserted]
[newspaper clipping describing Rangoon]
[page break]
[newspaper clipping and photograph of the fall of Rangoon]
[page break]
[inserted] 154C [/inserted]
[aerial photograph of Rangoon prison with writing on the roofs]
[page break]
[photograph of the landings of May 1st 1945 in Rangoon]
[page break]
[inserted] 154D [/inserted]
[photograph showing dropping of airborne supplies from RAF Dakotas to the troops on the ground]
[photograph of crowds lining the waterfront at Rangoon]
[photograph of the damage at Rangoon Central Railway Station with soldier in the forefront]
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- 12 –
Many of the chaps or rather the majority of chaps on our Squadron suffered from all sorts of tropical deceases such as dysentery, malaria, jungle sores, heat and sweat rash, tienya which is another form of rash which comes out in the most awkward places. Then there was foot rot which was very unpleasant. I have suffered from the latter two complaints and also from a slight touch of dysentery on two occasions. A slight touch left me for a few days feeling very weak and helpless so I pity those chaps who get an accute [sic] attack. They must feel three parts dead and want to die. It is certainly far from funny when I had to run as fast as I possibly could every ten minutes or so.
At one time half the camp had a slight touch all around about the same time and on running to the lav in the middle of the night I found all the seats occupied and a waiting queue formed also, on quite a few occasions. It was just too bad if you could not wait. I think that most of the cases were caused by the dust and the millions [inserted] OF FLIES [/inserted] that used to settle on our food and other places.
I must say that the yellow quinnine [sic] (mepercreme) tablet that we used to swallow each day certainly saved hundreds of chaps from getting malaria. Actually very few on our Squadron went down with that decease. [sic] At one time 90% of the troops in Burma caught it with a result of all these cases, the fighting force was considerably depleted and they were a liability to the army instead of an asset. At one time during the war malaria casualties outnumbered the fighting ones. So who-ever invented those little yellow perils as we used to call them did a great deal in winning the war in the Far East.
Although Rangoon had fallen there were still a great number of Japs still fighting around the Toungoo area who were cut off from their main Southern forces. Also another Japanese force were attacking across the Sittang river which had swollen in the monsoons, to try and link up with the trapped force and hold a corridor through which they could escape across the Sittang and over the Shan Hills back into Siam. Perhaps you will remember this great battle of the Sittang bend. If you do you will know that this second force was also trapped by our troops. For the Japs it became either a matter of starvation, fighting a battle to death in the flooded paddy field and jungle or risking death by our guns cross shelling whilst trying to escape across the river.
And during this Jap escape bid which covered some weeks we were flying, supplies to our troops in the Toungo area, evacuating wounded and other hospital cases etc, also flying fit men who had just come out of hospital, back to their units at the front. Our troops beside the Japs had to do most of their fighting, knee deep in water and being soaked to the [deleted] sun [/deleted] [inserted] SKIN [/inserted] all day and every day through being out in the monsoon rains. In this battle of the Sittang band over 11,000 Japs were killed, excluding those that starved in the Jungle or committed Harri karri or who were drowned whilst attempting to cross that swollen river on small rafts in the middle of the night. Our casualties during this battle numbered 75 men.
Another job that our Squadron did was to fly full loads of rolls of bitumen covered hemp matting down to Rangoon where it was used for building a new run-way. The dog in our tent used to love to go out in the rain and get himself covered with mud but somehow he managed to lick himself clean everytime as he would turn up later (when he had dried himself out) with his coat of natural colour of snow white with brown patches. I only wish that I had a photograph to show you of myself taken in my monsoon clothing. I must have looked a sinster [sic] character something like Guy Fawkes when wearing my wide brimmed bush hat pulled down almost over my eye and with my long flowing wide cape and my mosquito gum boots. Beneath all this I just used to wear my shorts and evenr [sic] when it was pouring with rain it never became cold.
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During the night of 23rd May, we had the biggest storm of the lot. I think that every one of us did not mind admitting that we were scared whilst it was on. I know that I do not. I would much rather go through an air raid than another storm like that one. The thunder claps were much louder than the sound of a bomb exploding close by. Each and every one made the ground tremble. The flashes of lighting lit up the whole sky and the interior of our tent as if it was daytime.
In fact it was so bright that I had to hide my eyes beneath my blankets as I lay there in bed. Whilst the storm was right overhead, we could hear the lightening crack and the sizzling sound as it hit the nearby coconut trees that were around out [sic] tent and as it ran along wires etc.
Quite often I was awoken during the night by rain drops dripping through on to me as I lay there in bed. It [deleted] ran [/deleted] [inserted] RAINED [/inserted] so hard that it soaked through the canvas of the tent and on to my mosquito net. Often on these occasions I have stepped into a large puddle that had formed beside my bed when I have got out to put my ground sheet over my mosquito net so that all the rain would drip down beside me instead of on me. At times I got up feeling as if I had wet it during the night. Everything in our tent had become damp and had acquired that mildew smell by this time and some of my clothing packed inside my kit bag had even started to go mouldy.
Whilst we were at Akyab main, our khaki battle dress was taken from us and we were issued out with a much lighter material battle dress which was jungle green in colour. We also had to change our white towels and underclothes for green ones. As I said before, as time went on the entertainment conditions became very much better. Also a large number of fellows had been posted to the Squadron which made our work a lot more easier. Eventually working after 6 p.m. became almost extinct and we began to get regular days off, but by this time all the worst was over, although as the old saying goes with regards to this, better late than never. Most of the chaps had come straight out from England and I looked quite like a native when my sun browned body was working beside their lily white ones.
Then the natives built a long big Basha which we used as a Recreation hut. From various funds we got a togal [sic] of near on £300 to spend on making the place look something like home. We furnished it out with little card tables, coloured wooden and canvas chairs and we put coloured cloth of various patterns over the windows and walls. Our C.O. sent an aircraft specially to Calcutta to fetch the things that I have mentioned among many others.
We covered the floor of the “Basha” with strips of the Bitumen sheeting which was used for so many things such as road and run-way surfaces tent flooring etc. Then we put up white supply dropping parrachutes [sic] to act as a ceiling and to stop the sawdust coming down on our heads as the ants ate into the bamboo poles that supported the roof.
At one end of the canteen stood a soft drink bar and at the other end were two dart board pitches also the Squadron library. The Basha was always well stocked with English daily papers and magazines (at least 3 months old) which the fellow used to receive from home. Then there were many games including draughts, cards, chess, monopoly and the horse racing game Totepolly. The canteen also possessed a gramaphone [sic] and a hundred different records of the latest tunes of the time. Of the two wirelesses one was a battery set for use in the daytime when the electric power plant was not running and the other was a press button electric set that we used of an evening. As English time was 6 1/2 hours behind us the best programmes usually came on the air just as it was time for us to go to bed.
I used to spend most of my spare time in this canteen. I passed by many many [sic] evenings and days off writing up this Autobiography. Generally, I was writing at least four months behind the times so I had to recall and relieve in my memory each day once again.
We also had our other canteen from which we could purchase, biscuits, cigarettes, soap, razor blades, hair cream, combs and many many [sic] other of the necessities of life in the jungle. Nearly every night for supper in our tent we bought Post Tosties (cornflakes)
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and tinned rich cream milk. At one time we got in a stock of tinned Christmas Pudding, in the tent, with milk they made a change from Cornflakes. At one time a party of us had a craze for playing Toteopolly for a few rupies [sic] a game. We played during the dinner hour, before and after tea, in fact so much until we began to dream about the game. Then we turned to bridge once more and everyone began to play that game.
Next came the nap craze followed by brag. The few of us seemed to set the fashion for the rest of the Squadron. Finally, I got really fed up with games of any sort and went back to writing my book.
Whilst writing, I also enjoyed listening to the very nice music that often came over the wireless during my afternoons off. Mostly it would be music from the operas and that would bring back memories of my evenings at the Opera in Italy and make me feel very sentimental and wish that I could get out of that [inserted] PRESENT [/inserted] uncivilised part of the world. One amusing incident happened one night when around about midnight two of the chaps in my tent started arguing about the words of one of the songs on a record that had been playing in the canteen that evening. After a while they still could not agree and had got to the stage of betting each other 7/6p that they were right. As I was trying to get to sleep, I soon got fed up with the argument and finally as I would not commit myself by entering into it, I got out of bed along with the others and we all trooped over to the canteen, and there we were in the still of the night searching by torchlight for the certain record. On finding it I played it on the gramaphone [sic] and acted as referee unti [sic] the argument was settled then we all retired to bed in peace.
After building the canteen “Basha” the natives set up a laundry on the camp, which helped us a lot as they heated the clothes and ironed them out. So we were able to put dry clothes on our bodies every so often once again. The worst part was that we did not get our laundry back until ten days after we handed it as it took days for the natives to get it dry. They were in the same position as us for not being able to put clothes out in the open. The amount of laundry handed in each day by members of Squadron overwhelmed the capicity [sic] of the Basha which housed the laundry.
A native barber also set up a business on the camp. Anyway he called himself a barber, but as there was no one else to cut my hair and at one time my hair had grown so long that it looked like a girls, with my thick curly waves which formed into a roll on my forehead. I was forced to go and get it cut by him and when he had finished with it my hair was in a worse state than before and I had to get one of the chaps in our tent to repair it a little. After that we had an attempt at cutting each others hair, and during these occasions we certainly had some laughs at the different ways that the chaps carried out the job.
Towards the latter part of our stay in Akyab, we had our own [deleted] camers [/deleted] [inserted] CINEMA. [/inserted] I should say at the time, it was the best theatre for at least a hundreds [inserted] OF [/inserted] miles around. The building was a long half round corrugated tin Nisson hut and we got the natives to shift the tons and tons of earch [sic] which was needed to make the 5 ft sloping floor. Most of the fellows on their day off gave some help with the building of the theatre. The stage when it was finished was first rate and as good in fact was better than most of the small English theatres possess. The Squadron carpenters built most of it and the electricians installed an elaborate lighting system. To use all the available space possible for seats the projection box was sunk into the ground so that the chaps sitting directly behind it could see the screen quite clearly. The seats consisted of small round 5 gallon oil drums, so when we went to watch a film we always took along a blanket with us so as to make our seats a bit softer.
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The whole interior of the building was painted in two colours and designs we painted along the side walls. We managed to get a welfare fund to supply us with money with which to buy the [deleted] goods [/deleted] [inserted] THINGS [/inserted] and yards of coloured material needed for stage curtains of various types.
Parachutes were put up once more to create a ceiling effect and to keep the sound down, which incidentally was almost perfect.
At Ensa concerts 600 fellows managed to seat themselves in the building. The two film projectors and sound equipment etc was brand new and had to come out straight from America. Whilst waiting for a film show to commence music was provided by a gramaphone [sic] connected up with loud speakers. So you can see it was a first rate cinema. There was just one fault with it and that was that it contained no air cooling system whatsoever. If fellows began to smoke during a performance it got hellish hot and sweaty. We would have installed electric fans if we had stayed on the island a little longer.
Around about the time of the General Election we started to hold political meetings in our recreation room so as to pass a few evenings away, but as they got a bit heated we dropped them after the first two.
Every Monday evening a whist drive [deleted] was [/deleted] [inserted] WHICH [/inserted] proved quite popular was held and another two evenings of each week the game of Housy Housy was [deleted] playing [/deleted] [inserted] HELD [/inserted] in our dining hall “Basha”.
I remember during one night in July I was woken up about 3 a.m. when one of the fellows came back to the tent and told me to get up. On getting out of my nice warm bed he pulled out a big bottle of gin from his pocket and insisted that we drank it before we got into bed again.
On Bank Holiday Monday the 6th August our new C.O. W/Cdr Chalmers held a Squadron parade in our cinema and gave us a talk during which he told us that before long we would all be moving down to Rangoon and that within the following six weeks our forces would invade and re-capture Singapore Island. Then he went on to say that immediately the island fortress had surrendered we would by flying to the island over 1,370 miles of enemy held territory. Then on reaching there safely [inserted] ? [/inserted] we were going to operate aircraft from the Island up to Saigon in French Indo China to Hong Kong island just off the mainland of China.
As you all know, it turned out that Singapore island did not have to be taken by force after all and so much to our relief there was no need for us to have to fly unarmed all those miles over Jap held land and sea. I remember also that on that same evening I listened to the wireless to the holiday peace time sports that were being held in England. Cricket at Lords, running records being broke at the White City. Horse Racing etc. It all seemed so much like the peace time England that I remembered, but I could not help thinking of the chaps out at the front in the swamp still being killed at that moment and of those wounded that were being brought back in our aircraft. [deleted] It [/deleted] [inserted] THERE [/inserted] was not much in the peace that [underlined] they [/underlined] could celebrate about.
It was also about this time that the two Atom bombs were dropped upon Japan and we listened for hours to the news bulletins to hear how the Japs would react to them. We soon began to get tired of hearing about messages going from Japan to Spain, Spain to America, America to Britain, Britain to Russia and vica-versa [sic] after a few days of it.
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In my opinion I think that in one way were quite justified in using this terrible weapon against the Japs as the result of those two bombs definitely shortened the war in the Far East. Also through not having to invade by force Japan itself, Singapore and many others occupied countries tens and perhaps hundreds of thousands of British and American lives were saved.
It was whilst at Akyab that I was awarded my medal ribbons of the 1939/45 Operational Star, Burma Star. Italian Star and the French and German Star. I could have also claimed the defence medal but I did not bother about it.
Early in August a third of the Squadron [deleted] of the Squadron [/deleted] went on detachment to Karachi two thousand miles away. They took twelve of our oldest aircraft with them and from Karachi [deleted] and from Karachi [/deleted] they operated an airline service to all parts of India.
Two of the fellows in my tent went on this detachment and had a damm [sic] good time. The remaining two of us in the tent were unlucky and had to stay with the Base aircraft.
The Squadron advance party to Rangoon flew down during the first week in August and on Tuesday the 14th August the second party left Akyab by air but on arrival at the airfield near Rangoon they found that no arrangements had been made for their arrival. There was no transport to convey them and their kit up to the new domestic site. No rations were to be had any where and on top of this they were surrounded by a sea of mud and it was also raining. After hanging around the aircraft for hours they began to get fed up and feel hungry as there was still no signs of them being able to get up to the domestic site the pilots decided to fly back to Akyab. So the fellows on this second party unloaded the equipment that they had taken down with them and left it in the mud near to where they were, for the advance party to look after. Soon after they had taken off on the return trip they ran into one of the worst monsoons that we [deleted] over [/deleted] [inserted] HAD IN [/inserted] Burma during the whole season,. Many of the aircraft were forced to land and stop for the night on Ramree island and on other strips all over Southern Burma.
I was on the drome when the solitary aircraft that got back to Akyab that night arrived overhead just as it was getting dark. Sometime during the same afternoon both of our run-ways were put unservicable [sic] to land upon or take off from because they had become water-logged but, as it was late and visibility almost nil and because he was running short of petrol there was nothing left for the pilot to do except to try and land on one of our run-ways. It was with luck on his sixth attempt to come in that he found that he was in line with approaching the run-way. As soon as the aircraft touched down half way along the strip the water covering parts of the metal run-way swept up in waves over the wings of the aircraft as it went along. The height at the leading edge of the wings on a D.C. is over 10 ft. The water helped to pull the aircraft up before it had reached the other end of the strip. Most of the chaps on board the aircraft on stepping out told us that they had been airsick and that they never wanted to fly again.
Although the pilot never told them they knew that it was touch and go to find our drome and land safely before the petrol supply ran out. They all looked miserable and hungry when I saw them and I bet that they were more so after the bumpy drive with their kit back to coconut grove in the pouring rain. I was certainly glad that I was not on that second party. In a way those chaps were lucky as on the following evening we had to stand there helpless and listen to another aircraft circle round and round. Every so often we caught a glimpse of his wing-tip lights through the wind and rain. Sometimes [deleted] were [/deleted] [inserted] HE [/inserted] circled nowhere near the run-way and at others he made a correct approach to land over the run-way and yet he did not know it.
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It made us feel as if we wanted to shout at him every time that he was over the strip although it was useless. It must have been terrible being up there and not being able to see anything. After an hour and a half the sound of the engines grew fainter as the aircraft went further away from us. Then suddenly all was still except for the sound of the rain hitting the canvas of the tents and the trees. Next morning we learned that he had finally run out of petrol and had crashed in the sea and that the aircraft was an American Commando.The Deputy Prime Ministers (Mr. Edens) son was a member of the crew of a D.C. belonging to a fellow Squadron which was lost in a monsoon and never seen again whilst carrying supplies to Sittang bend.
It rained solidly throughout the three consecutive days after that [inserted] TIME [/inserted] Rangoon aircraft returned with some of the second advance party. Even more of the run-ways became covered with water and we were unable to stop the rain penetrating into our tent. Each morning as soon as we got up, we had to bale out the puddles at our bedsides with tins and light the two hurricane lamps to try and dry the place out a bit. We just used to venture to the workhouse “Basha” beneath a monsoon cape and back to the tent again, where we stayed and tried to read a book or make conversation between the two of us.
The official rain fall figures for the three days was as follows:-
19, 21, and 23 inches. In other words 5 ft 3 inches of rain. It came down so hard at times that the trench around our tent was unable to cope with the water and it just overflowed and went into the tent lower down the line. The roads became flooded so no one even ventured to try and get down to the strip, the two football pitches that were situated beside the road to the strip were well under water for nearly two months. The latter of these three days Mr. Atlee made the great announcement over the wireless that Japan had surrendered unconditionally and the war was over.
[inserted] V.J.D [symbol] [/inserted] Once again, whilst you at home were celebrating, us chaps were stuck in our tents [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] spending some of the most miserable times possible. On V.J. morning I stayed in bed until I could stand it no longer and we both got up and got rid of our nights quota of water that covered the floor. In the afternoon I played cards with Freddie (the other chap left with me in our tent) but we soon got bored with doing this and stopped playing and just sat in our beds and looked at one another until it was time to eat once more. In the evening it was worse than ever. We were unable to go into our lovely canteen and pass the time away there because all that remained of it was an absolutely empty “Basha”. All the contents of it had been packed up and taken down to Rangoon with the second party. So we did not have any games etc with which to play with and as the dining hall lighting set had also gone down to Rangoon along with both of the wireless sets. We never even had a radio by which to hear the Victory news and celebration descriptions at home on. To get the news we had to go to one of the nearby Squadron Camps and hear it on one of their radios. We did not know what to do with ourselves that night, we could not even get a bridge four up as most of our bridge playing friends had gone off with the Squadron detachment to Karachi.
Around about 7 p.m. we were joined in our tent by another fellow who had been left living in a tent on his own as his three friends had also gone off to India. Besides joining us for company he came in also because his tent was just about collapsing on top of him. Some of the chaps in the other tent must have thought we were mad when the three of us after getting tired of talking to each other set out from our tent out into the rain and in single file each with a lighted hurricane lamp in our right hand we wandered around the camp in and out the coconut trees and in one end of a tent and straight out the other end again whilst trying to find a fourth member to make up a card school. Needless to say we were unsuccessful.
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During the next few days it was also a hellish job passing the time away. I was fed up with the sight of cards and reading and writing.
On two of the evenings we played Housey Housey in the dining hall by the light of the hurricane lamp. During both of these evenings we were each issued out with a ration of Naval Rum. On one occasion I managed to get two [deleted] by [/deleted] [inserted] BIG [/inserted] helpings. I think that the reason for giving it out was to keep our spirits up a bit. Anyway it certainly [underlined] was [/underlined] a strong spirit as I could feel it warm up my inside as I drank it. On the first evening I was lucky enough to [inserted] WIN [/inserted] the last house which was worth over 100 Rupies [sic] ([deleted] 10/- [/deleted] [inserted] £7-10-0 [/inserted]). I was very glad when Wednesday the 23rd August arrived and we had to go down to the strip and load all of the equipment belonging to the Technical sections on to the aircraft. These loaded aircraft took off for Rangoon along with the second party once more, early on the following morning where upon arrival they were unloaded by the advance party before taking off once more on their return trip to Akyab.
We were going to pack up most of our stuff that day as most probably we would be going on the following day but when the first aircraft arrived back at base at 1 p.m someone decided that they were to do a second trip to Rangoon that same day and that our party which included my complete working gang. We were then told to get our kit and ourselves down to the drome and on to our allocated aircraft by 2-15 p.m. as that was the time scheduled for our take-off.
To do all this called for a bit of feverish packing and the taking down of the complicated bamboo bed etc. I did not feel like rushing as I had a hell of a nasty cold coming on which I must have caught through our damp tent.
At about 1.30 p.m. another big monsoon arrived and as I carted my kit, bed, washing bowls and lamps etc out to the waiting lorry I sweated like a pig and got wet from the rain at the same time. Then before we let the lorry move off, we had to hunt around the camp until we located and captured the dog.
And so happily we said goodbye to our stinking mouldy tent. We were leaving it just in time too, as it would have just about collapsed after a few more monsoon winds. Also one by one the ropes holding it up had already started to snap through rotness.
When our aircraft revved up at the end of the run-way prior to take-off we were still in the midst of the monsoon and could not see any further than half way down the strip. None of us were looking forward to the air trip. We all had horrible thoughts and visions about turning over etc, but on becoming airborne I do not think anyone was sorry to take their last look at the Island. In that moment I felt as if I had been lifted out of a dead country back into civilisation once more. As I caught a glimpse of the island through the mist, [deleted] in [/deleted] the area below me looked like just one mass of big lakes connected to each other by wide streams with bits of land between them.
The highest part of the whole island was no more than six foot above sea level and these parts were around the airfield, our camp and the town. The small strip of land between our camp site and the sea was just a mass of jungle swamp. At night as we lay in our bed, we could hear the waves breaking on the sandy beach.
If ever a tidal wave hit or hits the island in the future, the whole of it will be covered with water. Now to get back to my story. It was 2.30 p.m. when we left the ground beneath us. On board our aircraft were 15 fellows, the crew of 4 and the dog and all of our kit. Soon after take off we were able to climb above the monsoon which turned out to be a low one. Then after a while when I looked out of a window sometimes I would see absolutely nothing but mist and cloud.
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At others I could see the country side below quite clearly.
For a long time the scene below as we flew along just off the coast of Burma was very [deleted] much [/deleted] similar to Akyab. It was a flooded area comprising of hundreds of both small and large islands of all shapes and sizes. Each separated by either swollen streams rivers, the sea or by just plain rain water flood. Then as we fly a bit further southwards and slightly inland, the scene changed to one of [deleted] the [/deleted] dense jungle covered hills and valleys which from the air seemed [deleted] irrepressible [/deleted] [inserted] IMPASSABLE. [/inserted] Then finally came the plains or rather hundreds of square miles of flat paddy fields.
It was at this point that we first caught sight of the Irriwaddiye River on which I could clearly see the many native sailing boats and from the air the occupants of these small craft looked just like mere dots. The river had been greatly swollen by the monsoon rains and many of the native villages built on its banks had been caught in the floods. I could just see the roofs of the huts made of either bamboo or corrugated iron sheeting, sticking out of the water along with a couple of the tops of pagodas etc. Then we flew over and followed southwards a big pipe line until we reached the single track railway that runs between Manderlay [sic] and Rangoon. It was down the same track that the 14th Army had fought, so I had a chance to see for myself the countryside that they had to fight to live in. It looked grim from up above so it must have looked and been like hell on the ground itself.
At times during the trip we had to climb up to a height of over 10,000 feet to get over a storm. During these moments I was sorry for the dog as he found it hard to breathe. He just lay on the floor of the aircraft panting away for all he was worth and looking very ill indeed. I also felt sorry for myself as with my cold, I found it quite a job to breathe and many times I came very near to gasping. At that height it was quite chilly, and at the time I wished that I had worn more than just my shirt and slacks on the trip. I thought that our journey was going to be a nasty one as a result of the weather. It was at first when we were in the monsoon. The aircraft swayed from side to side and up and down at the same time. There four movements gave me a very nasty sensation in my tummy. I was just beginning to feel a little air sick when we arrived above the monsoon and in the clear sky once more. After that we only [deleted] had [/deleted] hit a few big air pockets when we climbed to get above the other storms and cloud formations etc.
As we were nearing the end of our journey much to our surprise the sun came out and we found ourselves flying in an almost clearless sky. I could then see the paddy fields and flat land stretching for a distance of very near fifty miles where it disappeared into a ground mist. Then next we caught sight of the Sittang river as well as the Irriwaddi both winding their way towards the point where each joined the Rangoon river at Elephant Point. The Sittang river was very similar to the Irriwaddi with regards to being swollen and the little sailing boats, flooded villages on its banks, etc and from both rivers ran hundreds of small tributories [sic] into the surrounding country side.
Two hours after leaving Akyab we found ourselves circling the airdrome of [deleted] Minealdon [/deleted] [inserted] MINGALADON [/inserted] situated between the two rivers 10 miles north of Rangoon alongside the Pegu/Rangoon road.
As we lost height the dog as well as the rest of us felt the air pressure in our ears dimminish [sic] and the moment our wheels touched the run-way he knew that we were on the ground once more as he immediately livened up and jumped around on the seats trying to kiss everyone
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We then taxied back down the run-way to our dispersal passing by Squadrons of Spitfire. Mosquito, Dakota, Lysander aircraft also two large bombed hangers.
Our new aircraft dispersal area was a part of the old original Rangoon airfield run-way which had been made unservicable [sic] through bombing raids. It was one mass of filled in bomb craters which were liable to sink after a few heavy rainstorms.
When we stepped out from our aircraft the sun was shining brightly and within a few moments a lorry arrived on to which we loaded our kits and ourselves. We were then driven from the airfield out onto the main Pegu road where we turned into a northerly direction and travelled along one of the best roads that I had seen since leaving Italy. After riding along it a thousand or more times my first impression of it changed and I thought it was a deadly one and I used to dread riding to Rangoon and back along it. The road on an average claimed one death per week and six accidents per day. It was full of bends and, as very little traffic went along the road before the war it was not very widely built. So that it was very dangerous to overtake a vehicle unless the road ahead was absolutely clear.
For a little way on either side of this road, every so often just after leaving the airfield stood cunningly concealed grass banked blast wall bays in which the Japs used to hide their aircraft when they were not flying. During the ride we passed by many English type brick built barrack blocks and houses. Most of the blocks had been taken over by an R.A.F. hospital unit and the houses by other small units of both R.A.F. and the army. Also quite a number of these buildings had been hit during the bombing raids. Anyway it was a treat for us just to be able to look once more at English type buildings. Next to the hospital buildings on our left we passed by the modern C of E church and then on our right just near the open air swimming pool was the very much older building of the R.C. Church. Wild colourful flowers grew in many places alongside the road and after travelling for two miles we turned off the main Rangoon road into the estate of peace time barrack blocks and other various smaller buildings. The area was well set out with roads running between the buildings.
We drove up to one of these blocks occupied by the advance party and there we unloaded the waggon and carried our kit into the buildings. On finding a room that was to our liking we began to make ourselves comfortable in our new home. It took me a full two hours in which to rig up my bed once more and find some bricks on which to erect it.
We were all very pleased to be living in a building instead of an old leaky tent. The other Squadrons that moved down from Akyab were not so lucky and had to stick to their canvas homes.
During that first night that I spent in this new camp, I thought that I was going to kick the bucket as we used to say in the R.A.F. My cold had become very much worse and I could not get any sleep as both my nostrils were blocked up and I found it impossible to breathe through my nose. Also I had developed a very sore throat which hurt me every time that I breathed through my mouth and as a result of all this I just had to lay in bed gasping, coughing, sneezing, and blowing my nose all night. I went sick on the following morning and the sick quarters personnel soon had me feeling very much better after they had painted my throat and put various ointments and drops up my nostrils.
cont….
[page break]
[inserted] 163A [/inserted]
[deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted]
[photograph of cookhouse and dining hall] [symbol] COOKHOUSE AND DINING HALL [symbol] OUR BILLET BLOCK.
[photograph of a pagoda] [symbol] PAGODA ON HILL TO LEFT OF CAMP.
[photograph of hospital building] BUILDING TAKEN OVER FOR HOSPITAL ON ROAD INTO RANGOON.
[photograph of burning building at night] [underlined] THE NIGHT THE CINEMA BURNT DOWN [/underlined]
[photograph of billet block] [underlined] REAR OF OUR BILLET BLOCK [/underlined]
[photograph of interior of cinema] GARRISON CINEMA. NOTE SAND BAG SEATS.
[page break]
[inserted] 164 [/inserted]
- 21 –
The view from the window of our billet was as follows or rather perhaps I had better give you a full description of our surroundings. As it was if I stood just outside our building. Immediately in front of the building was the road which ran out to join the main road 250 yards away. After more barrack blocks just beyond the road came a large piece of flat land which sloped upwards and the whole of this sloap [sic] was covered with hundreds of parked vehicles of all types that had been put there by the army. I think that most of these cars, lorries ambulances water bowsers, jeeps, vans, water ducks etc needed repairs of some sort. Then on the top of this slope which formed itself into a hill was a small wood and on the peak of this hill was a large gold topped Pagoda.
One thing that I liked about the camp was that there were no signs of palm or coconut trees etc, in the area. Most of the trees in the wood and in the camp were evergreens of various kinds and many of the trees lining the roads in the camp in Spring (April/May) burst into one mass of brilliant red, pink, mauve or yellow blossom. To the right of our billet were more buildings and also about 50 yards away stood the large Garrison Theatre where three different films were shown each week to the troops stationed in the area. It was certainly a change for us just to be able to walk a few yards to see a film show and to watch all the other troops arriving after a lorry journey instead of having a long ride to and from the cinema ourselves. The only thing wrong with the canvas walled building was the sand bag seats which became a bit hard on the bottom after sitting on them for a couple of hours.
Then to the rear of our building was another large hill on the top of which was a large water tower. This hillside was also covered with parked vehicles of every description. Finally to the left of our building and just below us was situated a football pitch which was very nice except that it had very little grass covering it. At least one match was played at the pitch everyday so that watching the games provided a large amount of entertainment for us on our afternoons off. I must have spent at least 150 hours of my life watching football being played on that pitch.
Beyond the football ground were the officers lines of tents which was their living quarters and beyond their tents was a large anti tank ditch then a strip of flat swampy land then a small hill dotted with bushes and various shrubs. On the other side of the hill was a small stream then more bushy land and small woods which contained small native villages. The land was similar to this as far as the eye could see except that on the horizon a few tall trees stood [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] [symbol] OUT [missing words] THESE TREES MUST HAVE BEEN AT LEAST [/inserted] 15 miles away and near to where the Irriwaddi river was situated then I expect the land was the similar, flat and shrubby for the next hundred miles or so.
The camp was a perfect defence point and I think that it was around this area that the Japs fought their last battle and made their last stand before retreating to Rangoon. The reason I have for thinking this is because all these buildings that made up the station of Mingaladon were the last before Rangoon and the first before Pegu 60 miles or more to the North. In between Pegu and our station and Rangoon was just more of this wild country similar to that I have already described.
Inside our camp amongst the buildings were many gun pits and dozens of zig zag slit trenches, then as I have said before beyond the football pitch ran in a half semi circle the large anti tank trench. Then on the hill beyond the flat swampy stretch which none could have crossed during the daytime if the area was under fire were the remains of two tanks which were full of shrapenal [sic] holes. Around the tanks were dozens more slit trenches and defence positions all well set out and dotted all over this area were the remains of fins of small bombs and mortars. Also traces were to be seen where the tanks crossed the small stream.
cont…
[page break]
[inserted] 164B [/inserted]
[photograph of two men photographing Spitfires flying through the air]
THE STORY ENDS
TWO TOPSY PLANES. PAINTED SILVER WITH GREEN CROSS MARKINGS. BRING JAP BURMA PEACE PARTY. SIX SPITFIRES ONE L-5, ESCORT THEM.
[page break]
[inserted] 164A [/inserted]
[photograph of two airmen at Mingaladon laying out markings on the airfield with a Mosquito in the background]
MARKINGS AT MINGALADON AIRFIELD ARE LAID OUT BY W/C DRAKE & LAC MAY. MOSQUITO, FIRST AIRCRAFT INTO RANGOON. IN BACKGROUND.
[page break]
[inserted] 164D [/inserted]
[newspaper cutting regarding peace envoy in Rangoon]
[two photographs of servicemen waiting at Mingaladon airfield for the Japanese envoy]
[page break]
[photograph of the Japanese surrender envoy arriving at Mingaladon airfield]
LEAFLETS DROPPED TO JAPS WHO CONTINUED FIGHTING AFTER THEIR COUNTRY HAD SURRENDERED AND TO THOSE ENEMY UNITS THAT HAD NO DIRECT CONTACT WITH THEIR H.Q. SO AS TO TELL THEM THAT JAPAN HAD REALLY [underlined] GIVEN IN [/underlined]
[photograph of Japanese and British servicemen arriving at Mingaladon airfield]
SEE AT BACK OF PICTURE FOR WRITING.
[underlined] LEAFLETS DROPPED BY SPITFIRES OF No. 8 R.I.A.F. SQUADRON [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 164C [/inserted]
[newspaper cutting from the Rangoon Liberator describing the Japanese arriving in Rangoon to sign surrender notice]
[page break]
[inserted] 165 [/inserted]
- 22 –
All around the airfield it was the same flat bushy jungle and land on three sides and flat open swampy land stretching as far as the eye could see on the fourth. IN the immediate vicinity of the airfield were dozens more concealed gun positions and defence trench systems which one did not realise were there until almost on top of them.
I almost forgot to tell you that we also had a swimming pool on the camp but for some reason or other it always remained empty and was never used.
When we arrived at our new billet the electricians with the advance party had already installed three electric light bulbs in our room and had connected them up with the motor. In the room which was oblong and contained a door on three sides and two windows in the other, there were 15 of us. Whoever had occupied it before us had been a very good artist as the walls were covered with life size coloured drawings of film stars, Boxers, Dancing girls etc, Another good thing was that we did not even have to go out of the building for meals, although the monsoon season was just about finished. Our dining room was the similar room to ours at the other end of the Billet block. Then at the rear of each billet block were shower baths. We were living in luxury compared with conditions at Akyab. Often on waking up in the morning and hearing the wireless going in the dining hall, I had thought that I was at home in England.
[inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [underlined] Sunday the 26th August [/underlined] was quite a historical day. Just after I had arrived at [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] the drome for work that day, a cluster of specks appeared in the sky on the horizon and a few moments later we could distinguish quite clearly two twin engine transport aircraft surrounded by the escort of a dozen Spitfires and following up at the rear was a Lysander aircraft in which a film unit man was flying and taking photographs from.
I was at the end of the runway when the two transport aircraft made their last circuit in preparation for landing. Down came the undercarriage of each as it made its approach. The first one in made a very bad landing and the second a perfect one. After watching them taxy off the run-way I clambered on the bonnet of a nearby jeep which took [inserted] ME [/inserted] down to the point where the aircraft were finally parked.
All the time the Spitfires were roaring overhead flying in formation. The whole of the camoflauged [sic] wings and body of both aircraft had been painted over in white and instead of the usual red circle Jap markings they had big green crosses on both bodies and wings which were for recognition purposes when the Escort of Spitfires met them whilst on their flight from Saigon in Indo China. Both aircraft were of a similar design to our D.C’s but were a little smaller in size. I had a good look at the engines a little later on when the cowings were taken off and I did not think much of them. I most certainly would not like to have to trust my life on Jap engine maintenance.
As soon as the engines stopped the doors of the aircraft were opened and the steps put out and then a moment later from each stepped one of the Japanese Surrender Envoys who had arrived to sign the peace terms which would finally end the war for us in South East Asia. Both envoys were dressed in chocolate coloured uniforms with a yellow cord coming over their right shoulder to the breast pocket. Both were [sic] about five rows of medal ribbons and a large sword. They were both also about 4’ 10” in height and one wore specticals. [sic] On stepping to the ground they were immediately surrounded by armed Army & R.A.F. police and an interpreter and marched quickly away to a nearby tent where they were searched for poison etc. The crews of the aircraft who were dressed in white & were all wearing swords were lined up and marched into another tent where they were also searched. A couple of minutes later the two Enveys [sic] emerged from the tent and walked over to where the General Commanding our forces in Burma stood waiting along with many other high ranking Allied Officers of the three services.
cont…..
[page break]
[inserted] 165A [/inserted]
[underlined] ARIAL VIEWS AREA NORTH OF RANGOON [/underlined]
[five aerial photographs over Rangoon]
PHOTO’S TAKEN DURING ONE OF MY TEST FLIGHTS AFTER ENGINE [underlined] CHANGES TO THIS DAKOTA [/underlined]
[page break]
[duplicate page]
[page break]
[inserted] 166 [/inserted]
- 23 –
After speaking a few words to each other via the interpreter they all walked over to where a long line of staff car waggons stood waiting. The two envoys entered the first vehicle accompanied by two armed guards and our officers entered the following vehicles. The procession then moved off headed by a jeep full of Military Police and two motor cyclists who swept clear the road ahead during their trip to the Government House in Rangoon where the peace treaty was to be signed.
After watching this scene I made my way back to the aircraft where official cameramen were taking pictures of all the different parts of them R.A.F. chaps were checking over the engines and body etc looking for time bombs expolsives [sic] etc. The envoys took off from our airfield on the morning of August 28th after a stay in Rangoon of two days. They were again escorted by Spitfires until they had crossed the border separating Burma and Indo China.
Whilst on my way back from a visit into Rangoon a couple of days later I saw another white Jap aircraft escorted by Spitfires circling to land on our airfield. Then on the following morning another one turned up and more surrendered at a later date.
The very next day after the Japs had signed the surrender paper our aircraft were loaded up with medical supplies, food etc, which they flew into Siam and dropped over the prisoner of war camps [missing word] that country. After carrying out the dropping work the aircraft flew to Bankock [sic] airfield where they landed. The place was still held by the Japs but our aircrews were able to walk about freely whilst 23 Allied prisoners of war were loaded on each aircraft before it took off once more to bring them back to friendly territory and on the first stage of their journey home.
As soon as each aircraft came to a stop on our dispersal, ambulances that were waiting drew up to the doorway so that the freed prisoners could be unloaded as quickly as possible. Every one of them were driven to the nearby hospital where after a few days of rest and care most of the fit men were taken to the docks at Rangoon where ships bound for England were waiting for them. But those who were in a bad way had to stay in the hospital and nursed back to health before they were pronounced fit enough to travel home by sea.
I talked to quite a number of fellows a few seconds after they had stepped out on friendly soil. They were so happy to be back amongst their own countrymen after so long that I do not think that most of them fully realized what was happening. A few hours before they had been in a Jap prison camp then an hour later they were flying in an aircraft which was of an entirely new design to the old aircraft they had last seen and as they were lifted out of all their horrors they looked down upon the Bankok [sic] railway which they had been forced to build as a main supply line into Burma for the Japs under terrible conditions. It was estimated that one prisoner died for every two sleepers that were laid down whilst making the miles and miles of track. The hundreds of Indian prisoners looked as if they had been treated the worst, most of them were just a bag of bones.
Some of the English prisoners were looking very bad and all of them were half naked when they stepped out of the aircraft. Most of them that we spoke to had horrible stories to tell about how they lived and were treated and about their friends who were not so lucky and could not stand the conditions and died or who were killed.
cont…
[page break]
[inserted] 166A [/inserted]
[underlined] MINGALADON [/underlined]
[two photographs of the cinema at Mingaladon burning]
[underlined] NIGHT OUR CAMP CINEMA WENT UP IN FLAMES [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 167 [/inserted]
- 24 –
When the people at home saw them on arrival in England they perhaps looked a bit pale and then in their new clothing, so that many people could not credit the stories they told.
I only wish that those doubtful people could have been in my shoes to see and hear the chaps as they landed. If they had been I think that everyone of them would agree with me that the Atom bombs being dropped on Japan was justified.
One chap that I spoke to had been a prisoner for 3 1/2 years and had been captured in the fall of Singapore. He said that they never stood an earthly chance against the Invading Japs, but during the short time that our troops put up a fight they inflicted casualties on the Japs in a ratio of 5 every one of ours although they were hopelessly outnumbered. The only aircraft on the island were absolutely out of date and the pilots took off knowing that once a Jap got on his tail, he would be shot down and never return to base. Also he told me that not a single ship attempted to take them off the island they just had to fight until the island surrendered to the Japs. He said that he had not been treated too badly as he was under Siamese guards, but it was a different story for those in Japs camps. 95% of his food during these 3 1/2 years had been rice.
Most of the prisoners would have liked to have been able to have got back into the jungle and have another go at the Japs only with the equipment available in 1945 behind them. They said the result would be far different than the last time. When they saw the fighters and the other different aircraft that were on our airfield they marvelled at them and said again that they only wished that they had them supporting them in 1942.
All of the prisoners were eager for news and to know what had happened in the outside world during the time that they had spent in captivity. The aircrew on our Squadron bought up our canteens supply of cigarettes etc and collected all the newspapers magazines from around the billets to take to the chaps that had to wait behind with the Japs for a few more days before it was their turn to be flown out.
One of our aircraft on a certain morning had to carry out a special mission. Before the aircraft could land in a field somewhere in Siam, messages had to be dropped to ask the Japs if the ground was hard enough for them to make a safe landing. The Japs then put out the white sheet which was the O.K. signal and as soon as the aircraft came to a stop and the engines were switched off the prisoners in the camp rushed out and fell down on their knees and kissed parts of the aircraft which spelt liberation for them. Other flung their arms around the necks of the aircrew when they stepped out into the ground. Many were so happy that they cried like children.
The aircrew overloaded the aircraft for the return trip. They piled in 30 men besides themselves but before they were able to take off the prisoners that had to be left behind made our aircrew promise that they would come back again on the following day to fetch more of them. From what I have told you, you ought to be able to guess how those fellows must have felt. We did not mind it all when at this period we went on half rations so that they could have as much to eat as they wanted.
cont…..
[page break]
[inserted] 168 [/inserted]
- 25 –
It was a bit noisy at night in the billet, as immediately the lights went out and all became quiet the frogs in the nearby swamp would start up again like a team of galloping horses on a cobbled road. Then the lizzards [sic] would start chirping and squeaking at each other. Dozens of them used to inhabit the ceilings and chase one another over the walls, but for all this they used to catch and eat many of the baby elephant mosquitos that sucked so much blood from us of an evening. Often we would get three or four bats in the room at the same time, sweeping over our heads and circling around missing everything by a matter of inches. Then occasionally in the dark we would hear a sound like a bomber zooming around and the smack of it kept hitting the wall. On investigation it would turn out to be a great big black giant ugly flying beetle at least 3” long. After killing one and looking at it more closely one could see that its body was infested with small white lice and that it had claws like a crab.
When the hot season arrived and the swamps dried up the sound of the frogs ceased which was a small consolation but to counteract that, on waking up in the middle of the night I would often hear a chap talk in his sleep and another chap on the other side of the room asleep also would answer him quite clearly. Another fellow used to grate his teeth when asleep. Then a rat would be heard in amongst someones kit. On the whole it was like a menagery [sic] in our room at night.
During the day in the warm season all kinds of birds would enter and fly around the room or sit somewhere and either chirp or sing. For all those noises we had some really good times in our new home. Cards were played nearly every evening in our room and at one time most of the occupants were real gamblers. During a shoot card school one evening one chap stood to win £120. on one card and another chap to loose £60 on it. Needless to say, I seldom took part in these proceedings. On that occasion we all looked on with bated breath whilst the card was being turned over. Three fellows in the school that evening lost £25. and others finished up with losses and gains of similar amounts.
One of the many jokes we used to have amongst ourselves was when one evening it was the 10th anniversary of the marriage of the fellow who slept next to me at one time. We took the laces from his boots and shoes and hid them, we put paper in between the batteries of his torch so that it would not light and we hid his plates under his pillow. We then covered his sheets and mosquito net with some beautifully smelling powder that someone dug out from his kit bag. I should think that he had a nice dream that night.
Often when there was a [deleted] deceant [/deleted] [inserted] [indecipherable word] [/inserted] scare on, someone when the lights were out would creep out of bed and the room and poke a stick through the shuttered windows on to the net of the nearest bed until the fellow in it woke up suddenly scared stiff and wondering what was touching his net. On many occasions fellows came back from Rangoon late at night and on getting into bed found their sheets sewn up or after being in bed a while their bed would collapse quite suddenly or be drawn out in the middle of the room where no one was near.
One evening someone started spraying water from his water bottle at someone else and it ended up by them pouring buckets of water over each others mosquito net and bed. The best part of it was that I started the fun off by playing around with a jar of cold cream in the dark and a few minutes later I crept into bed and [inserted] DID [/inserted] not even get a spot of water on myself or my bed.
Soon after we arrived at Rangoon, our working hours were changed to 8 am until 5 pm with an hour and a half for dinner. Even then most of us used to roll in around about 8.30 and disappear suddenly round about 4.30 p.m. so that we could get up at camp in time for the afternoons football match. What a difference it was to the hours that we were working a few months previously.
cont……
[page break]
[inserted] 168A [/inserted]
[newspaper cutting with a story about Burmese Dacoits]
[page break]
[newspaper cutting continuing the story of the Burmese Dacoits with drawing of gang of robbers attacking a serviceman]
[page break]
[newspaper cutting continuing the story of the Burmese Dacoits]
[page break]
[newspaper cutting continuing the story of the Burmese Dacoits with drawing of gang of robbers attacking a man with a gun]
[page break]
[photograph of two Burmese soldiers with a suspected gangster as their prisoner]
DACOITS, OR BANDITS, RESPONSIBLE FOR MURDER RAIDS ON ISOLATED VILLAGES, ARE NOW BEING ROUNDED UP IN LiBERATED BURMA. This prisoner, charged as a suspected gangster, will be brought to trial for armed robbery and murder
[page break]
[inserted] 169 [/inserted]
- 26 –
As soon as all the prisoners were cleared from Siam and Indo China our aircraft went on air-line service work of carrying important persons between Rangoon which was our base at Bankok [sic] in Siam, Saigon in French Indo China, Hong Kong, in China, Penang and Kula Lumpar [sic] in Malaya, Singapore & Calcutta in India and also on various other routes all over the Far East.
One day whilst walking to my billet just as it was dark, on return from a visit to Rangoon suddenly tracer and incendary [sic] bullets started to fly overhead in all directions and volley after volley of rifle fire cracked out. At the same time a match was in progress on the football field and the players had to fall flat on the ground and then crawl off the pitch on their tummys and hide behind a nearby bank to avoid being shot. Bullets were flying over the football pitch and were landing in amongst the officers tents. Then an army fellow came running into our room and told us that his tent and three others situated on the top of the hill nearby with the water tower and vehicle park on it were being attacked. He was so certain that it was [deleted] a [/deleted] Jap rifles firing at him that we thought that it was Dacoits (Burmese Bandits) being led by Japs who were fighting on and ignoring the surrender agreement, as were a number of Jap units in Central Burma. It was quite a frequent occurrence for these bandits to carry out raids on camps etc and steal what ever they could get their hands on. Once they attacked the station ration store and quite a number of bandits were killed whilst raiding nearby villages to our camp at different intervals.
Within ten minutes from the commencement of the firing, our armoury in the same building as myself was doing a roaring trade. Our room was full of fellows loading rifles and sten guns ready to carry out a siege of the billet or go out and attack. It was dark by this time and the Army went out on an armed reconissance [sic] and they found out that two Indian units consisting of some 400 men were carrying out a private war of their own.
It appeared that it was an Indian (religious festival day) and one unit was of a different religion to the other and the war started through a couple of members of one unit shooting two cows and as the cow is a sacret [sic] animal to the other unit, they became annoyed and annoyance grew into hate and they opened fire on the other unit to get revenge for the cows.
That evening one Indian gave himself up in our officers mess and at that time he had only nine bullets left out of the forty that he should have carried. The last that we heard of the affair was that during the battle nine men had been killed and that 150 others had deserted with their arms and ammunition into the surrounding area.
All the cows around the camp were allowed to roam freely whenever they pleased, unconcerned about the crows and other birds that rested or had a ride on their heads and backs.
I was on day off on September 10th but at 9. a.m. I was woken up and told that our gang had to go into work to do a special job, which was to fit overload fuel tanks inside the fusalage [sic] of the aircraft.
What a job it was too, nothing would fit properly or go right for us. We had to finish the job that same day as next morning, the Group Captain was taking the aircraft to Penang just off the coast of Malaya and from there he was going on to Singapore as soon as the Japs on the Island surrendered, as most probably he would not be able to refuel anywhere on the trip he would have to fly the 2,500 miles there and back to Rangoon on just the petrol that he left Rangoon with.
cont…..
[page break]
[inserted] 169A [/inserted]
[five photographs of Dakotas at Mingaladon airfield near Rangoon]
[underlined] 267 SQUADRON AIRCRAFT AT MINGALADON AIRFIELD [/underlined]
[page break]
[photograph of aircraft]
[photograph of Raymond Barrett seated next to a Dakota]
MYSELF TAKING A SHORT WORK REST AT MINGALADON AIRFIELD
[page break]
[inserted] 169B [/inserted]
[underlined] MINGALADON [/underlined]
[photograph of Raymond Barrett at work on Dakota aircraft]
MYSELF WORKING ON DAKOTA’S OF [underlined] 267 SQUADRON [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 170 [/inserted]
- 27 –
So that is why we had to put the extra tanks in.
After sawing chissling, [sic] drilling and hammering bits out of the aircraft and fitting masses of pipelines and the frames to hold the tanks, we finally completed the job at 10 p.m. that evening. Air Ministry would had had a fit if they had seen all the things that we did to make everything fit. After filling the tanks we tested the workings of them by running up the engines. After everything had been completed, we had to load the G.C’s jeep into the aircraft before going back to the billet.
Now for a short description of Rangoon itself during my whole [deleted] story [/deleted] [inserted] STAY [/inserted] at Mingaladon. I must have visited the town about a hundred or more times. Not because there was much to see or do there but because there was absolutely nowhere else to go to.
Generally I used to set out just after dinner and start thumbing a lift on the main road just by our billets. The 12 mile ride into town was quite pleasant on the first few occasions or on a nice cool sunny day on others it was rather boring especially if travelling on an open lorry when it started to rain. At many points alongside the road just past the airfield were big holes made by 250 lb bombs that had been dropped during our air raids on a very large Jap ammunition dump that was situated amongst trees for a mile and a half beside the road. This dump had been left in tact by the Japs when they had fled before the 14th armies advance. Then a few miles further along the road after passing by a small native village of Bashas came the edge of the Royal Victoria Lake where one would see natives bathing and also many sailing boats gliding along across the water on the other side of this end of the lake on a hillside that swept down to the waters edge were one or two large impressive houses belonging to rich Europeans. The scene just there I think was one of the nicest in the Rangoon area as it reminded me of a bit of England similar to the Thames at Runnymeade. After this scene came [deleted] a [/deleted] large British type houses on either side of the road at intervals between small native villages. One large set of buildings which used to be the Rangoon University were then taken over and used as the 12th Army H.Q. then came the first round about before Rangoon from which two main roads led off into the city.
These roads must have been quite good before the war but they had not been repaired in the past six years and were not built to take all the wartime traffic that had used them consequently it was a bit bumpy travelling over the spots that were well worn.
Then between the first and second roundabout one passed by what remained of the Rangoon Engineering College which the Japs at one time used as their H.Q. I must say that the R.A.F. when they bombed it certainly made a good job of it. The area was one mass of twisted iron girders and heaps of bricks, in fact it looked as if an atom bomb had been dropped there as every building except one had been raised to the ground and of the remaining one only a single centre room was left standing.
From this second roundabout two more main roads ran off into Rangoon. The one to the left which ran past the big Pagoda was the best set out with its little islands on which were planted flowers and small trees, which separated the traffic coming from and going into the city. But to use this road, one got shook to pieces as it was full of big holes. The second road which was the main Prome one was just a clear highway which except for the native stalls and village at the third roundabout was boarded by big modern houses every one of which was detached and had a large garden all the way until one came to where the Main Rangoon prison was situated. It was in this prison with its huge 20 ft high surrounding walls that the Japs kept our prisoners taken by them in Burma.
cont……..
[page break]
[inserted] 170A [/inserted]
[photograph of men and women issuing biscuits to Burmese children]
“BISCUIT MORNING” IS A POPULAR WEEKLY GATHERING FOR THE REFUGEE BURMESE CHILDREN: These free delicacies, dispensed by the Civil Affairs Authorities, are greatly enjoyed after three years of Japanese occupation on a starvation ration of rice – and rice alone. Over 1,200 homeless refugees, mainly Anglo-Indian and Anglo-Burmese families, are being housed in the C.A.S. camp at Maymyo, run by the Civil Affairs officer for the district.
[photograph of Rangoon Market Place]
IN A RANGOON MARKET-PLACE: The fruit spread out on the pavement includes exotic Oriental varieties, such as the mango and the luscious custard apple
[photograph of three Burmese girls]
THE BURMESE GIRLS NOW ENJOY GOOD PAY: These three have just received their wages. They are employed as cooks at one of the feeding centres established by Civil Affairs.
[page break]
[photograph of Burmese shopkeeper with row of ducks hung up on display]
TO-DAY IN RANGOON, THE BURMESE SHOPS SELL MANY OF THE DELICACIES WHICH WERE FORMERLY REQUISITIONED BY THE JAPS. Roast ducks, for instance, are cheap and plentiful. Here is a whole row of them displayed in a shop window and ready for hungry customers
[page break]
[inserted] 170B [/inserted]
[underlined] CHINESE PROCESSION [/underlined]
[two photographs of a procession]
[underlined] CHINATOWN RANGOON [/underlined]
[two photographs of the Chinatown district in Rangoon]
[page break]
[inserted] 171 [/inserted]
- 28 –
Then after passing by many more large buildings that had been taken over for hospital use, came Rangoon Cathedral which was used by the Japs during their occupation as a brewery. Just past the Cathedral was the remains of the large Scot Market which had been heavily bombed but in spite of this quite a number of stalls were in operation. Then another two hundred yards further along Montgomery Road one turned into the Sule Pagoda Road at a point near the Rangoon railway station and the railway bridge. Very little remained of the station except the railway lines and the skeleton of a couple of sheds.
At the end of road one arrived at the large gold topped Sule Pagoda which marks the centre of the city. Even this Pagoda had been slightly damaged by bombs. I think that the best way to describe the town is to say that it is split up into four sections. Firstly centred around Dalhousie Park which is situated in front of the Sule Pagoda is the European section which contains many first class buildings, but I am sorry to say that many of these were also destroyed or partly so by bombing as they were situated so very near [deleted] from [/deleted] [inserted] TO [/inserted] the dockside.
I should think that this part of the town stood out most from the air and I expect most of these impressive buildings were inhabited by the Japanese during their occupation so it was natural that they were bombed. Whilst I was there most of the remaining undamaged large buildings were being used by our own military, naval R.A.F. H.Q’s etc.
There were quite a large number of English churches in various parts of the town also English run convents and schools. At least they were in operation before the war and I expect that, by now they will be again.
Most of the buildings in this European section of the city were used for business only before the war as they had their houses and living bungalows situated beside one of the main roads a few miles out from the city. The nicest building in the city, in my opinion was the one time civic hall, a part of which was taken over by the Y.M.C.A. for forces canteen and rest room etc, but even this lovely building had been partly destroyed and large cracks appeared in many of the walls. The front balcony overlooks Dalhousie Park.
The Toc H people and also the Salvation army had set up other forces canteens in the city. We were only able to obtain tea and cakes in them and when we first arrived it was impossible to get a meal anywhere. But as time went on and things got back to normal, Chinese and Burmese Restaurants opened up in which we could buy fancy cream cakes, tea, coffee, fried eggs, chicken, ice cream, and iced drinks etc etc.
It was the same with the city itself, when we first arrived in the area the place was dead and the streets were littered with filth, rubble and bomb damage and horrible smells etc, but as the months went by the city became more and more clean and tidy.
Rangoons theatre and cinema land was all bunched together beside the railway station so you can guess what a mess it was in. Only one cinema remained in tact [inserted] & [/inserted] for some months, it was run by the army as a forces cinema until it was taken over by civilians once again. The rest of the theatres were either destroyed by fire [inserted] OR BOMBS [/inserted] to the ground.
Beside the European quarter is the Indian section of the city. Here you get the same horrible smells as one wanders through the streets in which most of the houses that have not been bombed are falling down with decay. Then there is the Burmese part of the city of which a large part is built of Basha. The remaining part is similar to the Indian quarter.
cont….
[page break]
[inserted] 171A [/inserted]
[underlined] Y.M.C.A. CLUB [/underlined]
[photograph of Y.M.C.A. Club in Rangoon]
[underlined] CIVIC HALL [/underlined]
[photograph of Civic Hall in Rangoon]
SCENE FROM BALCONY OF Y.M.C.A. CLUB
[photograph of street in Rangoon] [symbol] CORNER OF DALHOUSIE PARK
RANGOONS ONE REMAINING [underlined] CINEMA [/underlined]
[photograph of the cinema in Rangoon]
[page break]
DALHOUSIE PARK AND DOCKS [symbol]
Y.M.C.A. & CIVIC HALL [symbol]
[symbol] CHINATOWN
[photograph of pagoda and trees in Rangoon]
[underlined] SULE PAGODA RANGOON [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 172 [/inserted]
- 29 –
Then lastly comes Chinatown situated East of the Sule Pagoda. This part of the city is, as you can guess mostly inhabited by Chinese. The roads and narrow streets like in most oriental towns were full of litter and garbage and horrible smells especially in the large vegetable [inserted] & [/inserted] poultry market. You should have seen the skinny chickens that they used to sell there.
Most of the houses in this sector were no more than tumble down shacks. Most of the girls used to wear sweet smelling colourful flowers in their jet black hair which made them look quite pretty. On the opposite side of the Rangoon river in Chinatown were more natives villages and although a ferry ran regularly from side to side, I never did get to the south bank to explore that area.
The section of Chinatown built alongside the docks was also devestated [sic] in places. There are quite a number of impressive looking Chinese and Indian Temples in the vicinity. The carvings and exterior decorations were of all sorts of colours so were the hanging lanterns. I used to like to wander around the bazzaars, [sic] but the stalls contained very little that any European would want to buy. They were piled high with lots of odds and ends that really amounted to nothing in particular.
I ded see some pretty blue patterned silk on a stall once but the price of it was 25 Rupies [sic] or £1.17.6. a yard and I could not bargain with the Chinese stall proprietor to lower his price by even one penny. Four months or more later when ships began to bring things from India the shops in the European quarter began to be well stocked with more sensible things at more sensible prices.
In Chinatown and the Indian and Burmese quarters it was nothing to see goats, geese, chickens etc running around the streets and I have even seen goats enter into some of the houses and the natives living in them have made no attempt to drive them out into the streets again.
Most of the natives both men and women wash and bathe themselves out in the streets beside broken water mains, taps etc.
The streets of the city are usually inhabited with hundreds of rickshaws and their owners. One hot afternoon, I paid one fellow 7/6p to give me a ride around the city. I bet he was tired of pulling my weight around and was glad when two hours later I told him to put me down so that I could walk on my own legs again.
In and around the town were all sorts of ancient vehicles, buses etc. It was marvelous [sic] how they went along without falling to pieces. As most of the vehicles were at least 15 years old and had been battered about something terrible. Also twice as many people rode on and in them than they were ever built to carry. I am sure that some of them were tied together with bits of wire because of the teriffic [sic] rattling sound that they made as they went along.
It was comical to stand near the main bus terminal beside the vegetable markets and see all the buses with their passengers start off for Pegu, Prome, Insien etc. Of an early morning we would see these vehicles passing by the camp every few minutes on their way to Rangoon. Some would be loaded with passengers which were packed together inside with extra sitting on the roof on top of luggage etc or standing on a board attached to the rear of the bus. Then there were the vehicles loaded to capacity with vegetables and fruit bound for the market in Rangoon, these used to [deleted] have [/deleted] [inserted] [indecipherable word] [/inserted] some most horrible smells in their wake and it was terrible if you happened to be travelling just behind one of these vehicles.
cont…
[page break]
[inserted] 172A [/inserted]
[underlined] THE N.A.A.F.I. BOAT CLUB. NEAR RANGOON [/underlined]
[photograph of Victoria Lake]
[underlined] VICTORIA LAKE [/underlined]
[three photographs of the Boat Club near Rangoon]
[page break]
[inserted] 172D [/inserted]
[photograph of Chinatown bazaar in Rangoon]
CHINATOWN – BAZAAR.
[photograph of a funeral procession]
BURMESE FUNERAL
[photograph of men working on a street in Rangoon]
[underlined] VIEWS OF RANGOON [/underlined]
[page break]
[photograph of man with rickshaw]
[symbol] RANGOON FIRE [underlined] STATION [/underlined] [photograph of Rangoon Fire Station]
[photograph of man behind a table with goods on display]
[photograph of women carrying a baby on her back and some children in the background]
[underlined] GENERAL VIEWS OF RANGOON [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 172C [/inserted]
[photograph of beggar sitting on the street]
[photograph of alleyway]
[photograph of girl walking, carrying umbrella] [symbol] BURMESE GIRL SEPT 1945.
[photograph of two Burmese girls under an umbrella]
[underlined] RANGOON GENERAL VIEWS [/underlined]
[page break]
[photograph of four Burmese children in the street]
[photograph of a group of Burmese women]
[photograph of Rangoon docks]
[underlined] RANGOON DOCKS [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 173 [/inserted]
- 30 -
On more than one occasion I have seen one going along with hot water spurting out in a steady stream from a leak in the radiator and a native would be sitting on one of the mudguards with a jug in one hand and a bucket of water beside him filling up the radiator as they went along.
The bus owners used to employ someone for 1/- a day to sit or stand at the rear of the vehicles and act as a conductor and everytime a vehicle started to pass by, he used to blow a blast on a whistle and as soon as the road behind the bus was clear once more the conductor informed the driver by blowing two blasts on his whistle.
I must say that the Burmese are good mechanics as when their vehicle has broken down on the road, I have seen them very nearly pull the engine to pieces and put it together again and drive off after two or three hours.
When many of the vehicles stop whilst climbing a hill, the conductor usually has to jump off quickly and find a stone or brick and put it behind one of the wheels to act as a chock and so stop the bus from running backwards down the hill. Then there were dozens of bullock drawn carts to be seen on the roads with their native drivers.
The NAAFI ran the best canteen in the area. They took over the peace time boat club which was situated beside one section of the Victoria Lake. Here, one could sit on the large Verandah [sic] in an easy chair and munch sandwitches [sic] whilst listening to nice soft music and looking out upon the lake at the sailing boats and swimmers. Every Sunday night during the summer a dance was held on this Verandah. [sic] I only went to one of these dances but it was pretty to watch the couples dancing, in the open air beneath the many coloured lights the reflection of which twinkled in the water.
Rangoon city also possessed a large well planned out Zoo but at the end of the war very few animals were left in it. I took a walk through it one morning whilst on my way to the boat club for a snack and I only saw a few different types of birds.
The war certainly did a lot of harm to the city and I came to the conclusion that, although many of the modern parts remain undamaged that if it were possible the best thing that could be done was to evacuate all the people and then drop a couple of Atom Bombs onto the city and then let the population start from scratch and build a new Rangoon worthy of its place in the 21st century.
But in spite of all the smells, smashed and sunken paving stones and the hundreds of big water filled holes in the roads and the unrepaired filled in bomb holes which had turned into a muddy area, I used to like to walk down Chinatown of a nightime. [sic] The thousands of lighted candles, parrafin [sic] and pressure lamps on the stalls and roadside cafes seemed to fasinate [sic] me in some ways. As one walked along through the thronged main street bustling against the Chinese & Burmese, Indians and other mixtures of races, you would see the Chinese eating all sorts of concoctions with chop sticks whilst sitting at the pavement tables or in the dingy shady restaurants. from which issued forth Chinese oriental music. Then as night wore on you would have to avoid stepping on to the natives that were sleeping on bits of sacking or matting beside their stalls or in front of their shops. Then at the end of the main road would be the Sula Pagoda with its gold top and entrance doorways lit up with rings of white, yellow green and blue electric light bulbs. Chinatown was the only part of Rangoon which seemed to have any life in it after darkness decended [sic] upon the city.
Towards the end of the year the W.V.S. opened up an Eastern Counties club in a big building beside the Rangoon river
cont…..
[page break]
[photograph of indoor swimming pool]
SWIMMING POOL IN W.V.S. [underlined] EASTERN COUNTIES CLUB [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 173A [/inserted]
[inserted] [underlined] 1. [/underlined] [/inserted]
[newspaper cutting and photograph of the harbour in Rangoon]
[inserted] CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE. [/inserted]
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 2. [/underlined] [/inserted]
[newspaper cutting and photograph continuing the story of Rangoon]
[page break]
[inserted] 174 [/inserted]
- 30 –
where we were able to have tea and cakes and a rest or play tennis and other games. Then there was also a swimming pool in the building.
A little way out of the city, was also the service open air swimming pool which I went to on one or two occasions. I used to enjoy being in the cool water and then coming out and drying myself out whilst lying beneath the hot sun on one of the grassy banks surrounding the pool. just before going into the canteen a few yards away for tea and sandwitches. [sic] This canteen was run by the W.A.S. (B). (Womens Auxilary Service Burma.
In my opinion there is only one spot that is really worth paying a special visit to in the area and that is to the huge Shewedagon Pagoda which is one of the largest in the world and stands about two miles from the centre of the city. The height of the Pagods [sic] from the ground to its tip is about 360 ft which is higher than St. Pauls Cathedral. The whole of the dome is painted over with pure gold liquid and the full beauty richnes [sic] and magnificence of everything in an [sic] around it are indescribable.
Set at 90o apart are the four caved [sic] canopy entrance stairways of 109 steps each, leading up in stages to the area surrounding the dome. To walk around the square formed by the North East, South and West Gates it would take me at least two hours. All around the base of the hill on which the Pagoda is built runs a small dried up moat near the South gate is a very picturesque small lake. Perhaps if I draw a small diagram of the Pagoda area it will help you to understand more fully what I am talking about.
When I visited the great Pagoda for the first time I approached it by way of Pagoda road which runs from Chinatown straight up past the Cathedral and on to the main entrance which is South Gate. One hundred and fifty yards from the entrance gateway on either side of the road is a Chinthie which are sybolic [sic] as the guardians of the temple.
These Chinthies at the approach to the Shewedagon Pagoda are carved from stone and look something like squating [sic] animals something like a lion cum bull dog, anyway you can see from the photograph what they look like exactly.
No one is allowed to proceed further than the first half dozen steps without taking off their footwear. So on arrival at the South Gate, I sat on one of the many little stools offered to me by Burmese women and children who wanted to look after my shoes for a few annas after I had taken them off until after I had completed my tour of the Pogoda. [sic]
Each side of the stairway were bazaar stalls. Most of the stalls were selling flowers of various colours and varietys. [sic] Almost everyone that I saw going up to pray before the Budha, [sic] held in their hand a small bunch of flowers of some sort which they intended to place in a vase near one of the many idols. Many of the stalls were also selling hundreds of different picture [inserted] BOOKS [/inserted] printed in Japan. I looked through some dated 1942 in which parts were translated into English print along with the languages of the Far East. Every one of the books that I picked up were full of properganda [sic] showing pictures of Japans might in the air and on the sea and land and other pictures glorifying Imperial Militarison. [sic] One picture showed the sinking of our cruiser the “Dorsetshire” and another the sinking of one of our aircraft carriers in 1942. In one book it showed and told of how they had planned to capture the whole of India and Australia. I felt like setting fire to the whole lot. On reaching the one hundreth [sic] and ninth step with my feet feeling cold on the stone I was met by a Burmese guide who offered to show me around the Pogoda. [sic] Facing each of the four stairways was a canopied shrine attached to the gold dome, each of which contained the figure of a squatting Budha [sic] situated behind iron bars. Each figure stood about 4 ft high and was studded with diamonds. Rubies, saphires [sic] and other precious stones. Each shrine was also decorated with vast array of various coloured flowers placed there by the people. At the time, I was before these shrines there were many people kneeling and praying on the mat in front of the Budhas [sic] and others were lighting small thin Christmas tree candles and placing them before the effigy. The pillars supporting each canopy were covered with various coloured semi precious glass and the whole of the floor around the gold dome and in the shrines were paved with patterned marble that came from Italy.
cont…..
[page break]
[inserted] 174A [/inserted]
[underlined] ONE OF THE GUARDIAN CHINTHIES [/underlined] (BURMESE LION).
[photograph of Chinthe outside of the Pagoda]
[underlined] ENTRANCE GATEWAY [/underlined]
[photograph of one of the entrance gateways to the Pagoda]
[photograph of men sitting inside the Pagoda]
[photograph inside the Pagoda] [symbol] NOTE CARRYING OUR SHOES
[underlined] STEPS OF WESTERN GATEWAY [/underlined]
[photograph of one of the entrance gateways to the Pagoda]
[underlined] ENTRANCE GATEWAY [/underlined]
[page break]
[photograph of Pagoda]
[diagram detailing the grounds of the Pagoda]
[page break]
[inserted] 174B [/inserted]
[underlined] SHRINES INSIDE THE PAGODA [/underlined]
[six photographs of interior and exterior of Pagoda]
[page break]
[two photographs of Buddahs]
[page break]
[inserted] 175 [/inserted]
- 31 –
The guide also showed me around the museum which contained various beautiful objects such as bullock carts, shrines etc made of solid gold or silver and studded with gems. All of these precious things were also kept behind bars.
I was also shown around many other temples around the dome containing marble sitting and reclining Buddhas. In one of the temples stood the largest bell in the Far East which weighed 85 tons only it was cracked. I think in fact that this bell is the largest in the world but I am not quite sure.
The Priests were dressed in a yellow/orange cloth and had all their hair shaved off. These were the only people who were allowed to enter the main temple beneath the pinacale [sic] of gold in which was situated the huge Budha [sic] of solid gold studded with hundreds of diamonds, thousands of Rubies and sapphires and other precious stones. The guide also told me that the Pagoda was over 1,700 years old but as I said before it is impossible for me to describe the full beauty of it all.
During September and October the fellow who slept in the next bed to me started a hobby of collecting butterflys [sic] to take home for his little son. Many afternoons and Sunday mornings, he used to get me to go with him. We made big nets from Bamboo canes wire and mosquito netting and we would wander for miles out in the wilds behind the billets chasing butterflies and searching for them amongst the bushes. At times we wandered across small swamps and streams through elephant grass and jungle and across paddy fields. The butterflies seemed to come out only when it was very sunny so it made us sweat all the more if we had to chase one a long way beneath the boiling sun. We used to get very excited on catching sight of a butterfly of a type which we had not already caught and would watch it flutting [sic] around first one way and then the other for minutes until it finally came to a rest on a leaf of a bush. Then we would gradually creep on it with our nets ready for action and perhaps it would fly away again before we reached it or would miss it with the first swoop of our net and off it would go again and we would have to watch it again until it had got over its fright and decided to settle once more, that is if we did not lose sight of it altogether. Then we would have to creep up on it once more. Sometimes we were very lucky and caught the butterfly that we were after in our net with the first swish, but other times we might chase our intended victim for hours and still not catch it and would perhaps end up catching a different one altogether. If we caught half a dozen different specimens after a whole day out in the wilds we thought ourselves lucky.
After we lost a rare butterfly whilst getting it out form our net into a small cigarette tin and on one occasion we go the tins in our pockets mixed up so on opening one that we thought was empty to put a freshly caught specimen in, one that we had spent hours just flew out and were we annoyed.
The other fellow used to work in the same gang as myself and often we would be working away on an engine and suddenly he would excitedly shout out “There goes a lovely one” and off he would go with his bush hat in his hand and come back smiling a couple of hours later and show me a little cigarette tin containing his catch, after he had chased it for miles across the bushy country surrounding the airfield. On getting back to our billet he used to pack cigarette smoke into the tin and then keep the lid on until the butterfly was gassed. He lost more than one by thinking that it was dead and a few minutes after taking it out of the tin it would revive and start to fly around the room and perhaps settle on the ceiling, then you would see him standing on boxes etc trying to recapture it with his net. Or if it flew out of the window off out he would go again.
cont….
[page break]
[inserted] 175A [/inserted]
[photograph of man in shorts]
[underlined] THE BUTTERFLY CATCHER. [/underlined]
[photograph of airmen who occupied the same billet as Raymond Barrett]
[inserted] [symbol] ME [/inserted]
[underlined] OCTOBER OCCUPANTS OF BILLET NO. 7. [/underlined]
[page break]
[underlined] MY PUPPY [/underlined] [symbol] [underlined] NEXT ROOM’S PUPPY [symbol]
[photograph of two dogs]
[underlined] MINGALADON [/underlined]
[photograph of Raymond Barratt holding his dog]
[underlined] MY PUPPY AND MYSELF [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 176 [/inserted]
- 32 –
After the butterflies were killed he used to mount them on cardboard and cover the card with cellphane [sic] paper to preserve them. The dead butterflies seemed to attract the live ones as during those two months when it was sunny [deleted] he [/deleted] [inserted] WE [/inserted] used to get many different types fluttering around the billet block. The other fellow even used to sit on the doorstep during many of his dinner hours with net in hand waiting for them to come round.
People who used to see him go out on a hunt with his big net thought that he was mad but we used to have some good times and many laughs during these excurtions. [sic] For butterfly catching one certainly has to have a lot of patience. When we went home in November he took fifty or more different specimens with him. Some of them contained many glorious colours and the prize of his collection was a swalowtail [sic] with a nine inch wing [deleted] and [/deleted] span.
It was well worth spending all that time in catching them as in a letter that one of the fellows received in the billet the other day from him he says that he sold his collection for £45.00.
I remember one Saturday afternoon another fellow and myself decided to go to the races in Rangoon just to see them. We did not intend to back any horses as we had been told all about them by someone who had been to the races a few weeks before. He told us that in once race there were half a dozen horses, five of which looked in good condition and were the favourites in the betting list, the remaining one was as thin as a rake and looked as if it would fall down dead at any moment. Consequently, it was running at a good price and needless to say it came romping home first in front of all the other horses.
Anyway on arrival at Rangoon we were told on asking someone the way to the race track, that it was way out of town and that we should have come into the city by the Boat Club road. At that moment an old Indian came along pulling a ricksaw [sic] so we gave him a shout and on coming over we climbed in. The old boy was not much more than a bag of bones and when he picked up the shafts to begin to pull us along the weight of us both nearly tipped him up in the shafts. Anyway we made him follow the directions given to us as to where the racecourse was situated but after he had pulled us along for a couple of miles over the bumpy road I began to feel sorry for him as he began to run down the sloapes [sic] and drag us up inclines which seemed to take all the little energy and strength that he did possess and I felt that at any moment we were in danger of tipping him up and landing up on our backs. I told him to pull into the roadside where we got out and paid him off much to our pleasure and his.
We than [sic] thought the race course could only be just around the corner so we started to use our legs once more but after we had walked a mile and a half we began to sweat and feel [deleted] stinking [/deleted] [inserted] STICKY [/inserted] and tired in the afternoon heat and there was still no sign of the course. We had asked a Burmese who happened to be passing by at the time how much further we had to walk and he replied “a mile up the road” we continued our plodding for another mile and a quarter and arrived at the lakes but there was still no sign of course and as it was then nearly time for the last race but one, we walked back into the city and had a chicken dinner, iced drinks and ice cream before coming back to camp and having hot tea and going to the camp cinema to see the film “Laura”. I never did get to the race course.
On an average all the time I was at Mingaladon, I spent at least two evenings a week writing this book then I went to the cinema twice a week. Another evening I passed away by writing letters etc, and I went to the cinema on a few Sundays afternoons to listen to the classical concerts on records given there.
As I said before our biggest entertainment was football and we never had a bad football team all the time that we were in the Far East. It remained unbeaten after the 21st game on our ground at Mingaladon and in all they were only beaten eight times in over fifty games against some of the best teams in Burma.
cont….
[page break]
[inserted] 177 [/inserted]
- 33 –
Whenever they played at least 100 supporters from the Squadron went with them. I have watched them play many thrilling games and one of the best was in the second round of the Burma Cup. We were without the services of our professional centre half and the one and only goal of the match came within two minutes from the end of the game. They played their successful first round game on the big Rangoon Stadium ground. this ground was situated on the other side of the railway station to theatre land so that the stands etc were badly damaged during the raids on the railway station and goods yards.
Towards the end of the year our hitch hiking troubles were partly solved when the army opened up a bus service running from the railway station along the Prome Road to Insien (the next village to Mingaladon). So we were able to get a lift to within three and a half miles of our camp quite easily.
[underlined] PART 7 OF THIS BOOK CONTINUES [/underlined]….
[page break]
[inserted] 177A [/inserted]
[photograph of a Pagoda]
[underlined] NGADAFRYS PAGODA EAST RANGOON [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 177B [/inserted]
[five aerial photographs taken from a Dakota]
[underlined] APPROACH TO MINGALADON RUNWAY [/underlined]
[underlined] TAKEN ON A TEST FLIGHT OVER THE RANGOON AREA. I WAS ON BOARD [/underlined]
[page break]
[newspaper cutting regarding its first water festival since before the war]
[page break]
[inserted] 177C [/inserted]
[inserted] OUR SQUADRON [underlined] 267 [/underlined] [/inserted]
[newspaper cutting regarding operations of Dakotas]
[page break]
[inserted] 178 [/inserted]
[underlined] MY OVERSEAS SERVICE PART 7 BY MR. R. BARRETT [/underlined]
By the end of October I began to get fed up with working on engines every day and longed for a change so I volunteered to go on a trip to Singapore and act as Air Steward throughout the journey.
On November 7th I was told to report to the Operations tent where on arrival I was told that I was flying on the following day and also what I had to do to earn my passage and the number of the aircraft that I was to fly in.
After dinner and a bath that evening I packed a few things together and put in an early call for 3.30 a.m. in the morning before going to bed. The next thing that I knew was that I was being shaken by the early call airman who was asking me to sign the book to say that he really had called me. Very sleepily I lifted one side of the net and popped by head and arm out and with the aid of his torch, I complied with his request. A few moments later I roused myself and got out of bed and lit a candle and then dressed myself. Next I took down and folded up my mosquito net and blankets and blew out the candle and with my bed roll and small pack containing washing and [deleted] heavy [/deleted] [inserted] SHAVING [/inserted] materials etc, I crept out of the room as quietly as I could so as not to wake any other chaps in the room. But I only accomplished this task after knocking over a chair and bumping into the table.
On emerging out into the darkness I made my way to the road very carefully avoiding falling in to the monsoon ditches alongside it. Then as I neared the Sargeants [sic] Mess Block, I could see the glimmer of red, flickering and lighting up the darkness from the cooks fires at the rear of the Sgts Dining Hall.
I dumped my bed roll outside of the block and made my way to the dining hall which was in darkness. But within a couple of minutes one of the Indian cooks came in and placed a lighted hurricane lamp on the table in front of me and after a further minute or two, the rest of the N.C.O. crew on my aircraft put in an appearance along with the Sargeants [sic] of the other crews going to Singapore Saigon, Bankok [sic] and on other trips that morning.
The native bearers then brought in the plates of porridge and egg and sausage and cups of tea for our breakfast. At 4.15 a.m. a lorry drew up and began to toot its horn, so I hurredly [sic] finished my cup of tea and went outside to put my bed roll upon the waggon. After everyone was on, we drive off towards the airdrome. The cold morning air rushing through the waggon made me feel quite cold as we passed the native buses that had stopped by the roadside for the night, one or two loaded carts drawn by water buffalos and one woman native trying to hitch hike a lift. I got quite a [deleted] nice [/deleted] [inserted] AN [indecipherable word] [/inserted] feeling as we speeded along with the [deleted] lorry [/deleted] [inserted] LONG [/inserted] shadows of the trees falling across the road in front of our bright headlamps. Even the airfield looked different at that time in the morning. All I could see in the darkness was the darker stilouttes [sic] of all the D.C’s around me.
It took me quite a long time to find the aircraft which I was going to fly in, and whilst the aircrew went over to the ops tent for briefing, and to find out the wind speeds and cloud formations heights on our route etc, I climbed in the aircraft and switched on the fusalage [sic] lights and green and red wing tip (navigation lights) this lit the darkness up outside with a greeny red haze. I then erected the canvas seats and placed a neatly folded blanket with a flying [inserted] HORSE [/inserted] stamped on each seat and then placed all the safety belts out in line ready to receive all the passengers. By the time I had completed these things, the crew had arrived back and
con……
[page break]
[inserted] 178A [/inserted]
[underlined] JAPANESE OCCUPATION CURRENCY [/underlined]
[Five Rupee note]
[One Rupee note]
[page break]
[Half Rupee note]
[Quarter Rupee note]
[page break]
[inserted] 179 [/inserted]
- 2 –
climbed aboard and the chocks had been taken away also the pilot started the engines. The first pilot and captain of the aircraft was an officer Flt/Lt Ward. the second pilot was a Warrant Officer the Navigator a Flt/srgt [sic] and the Wireless Operator a Sgt.
After warming up the engines we taxied down to the Staging Post situated on a dispersal on the other side of the run-way to pick up our passengers. On arrival at the staging post, the pilot stopped the engines and we all decended [sic] out in to the open once again. Almost immediately the manifest for the journey was brought up to us and I discovered that we had 12 passengers and mail. I then went over to the transit restaurant at the Staging Post and obtained 17 luncheon packages and had another breakfast myself while I was there.
On return to the aircraft I found the passengers gathered around and their [inserted] KIT [/inserted] already loaded along with the mail and as the Staging Post Office called out the names from the manifest they boarded the aircraft and took their seats. When the last passenger had climbed up the steps the officer turned to me and said “they are all yours” so after I had told someone to take out the undercarriage pins and control locks and hand them to me I closed and fastened the doors.
I then had to tell the passengers that under no circumstances were they allowed to smoke in the aircraft or enter the crews cabin and that they must fasten their safety belts for both take off and landing. Then after telling them that first we were going up to Pegu, 15 mins flying time away to see if there were any more passengers [inserted] TO PICK UP [/inserted] and then [deleted] pick up [/deleted] our next stop which would be for dinner would be at Butterworth airfield in Malaya just on the mainland opposite the island of Pennang four hours flying time away. I went up to the pilot and told him that we were all set. He then started the engines once again and began the taxi towards the end of the run-way. it had become full light by this time.
Whilst the pilot was testing his engines and carrying out a control check prior to take off I went round checking the locking of the passengers safety belts and helping those who did not know how to fasten them.
A minute later we swung into the run-way and off we went. Our passengers were mostly Dutch Officers and Officials on their way to Java in the Netherlands East Indies [deleted] and [/deleted] to try to bring an end to the war in that Country and of important British civilians who were key men going to the island to help it return to its peace time running. Many of them had evacuated to India just before Singapore was invaded by the Japs and to them it was as if they were going home.
As our Mingaladon run-way was not so very long and had a ravine at each end of it, and a dip in the middle four engine aircraft full of passengers were not allowed to land on it. So Liberators and other [inserted] LARGE [/inserted] aircraft bringing people from India and England etc, had to land at Pegu rougly [sic] 60 miles by road north of Mingaladon and then be brought
cont………
[page break]
[inserted] 179A [/inserted]
[One cent note]
[Five cent note]
[page break]
[underlined] ENGLISH CURRENCY IN MALTA [/underlined]
[One cent note]
[page break]
[inserted] 180 [/inserted]
- 3 –
down to M in D.C’s. So that is why we had to call in at P. For the first 10 mins after take off we followed the narrow banked up single track railway line which [deleted] runs [/deleted] [inserted] ran [/inserted] across paddy fields and near to small woods in which native basha villages were situated. Then almost [deleted] to the second [/deleted] five minutes later we were circling and losing height and going in to land.
As soon as the engines were silenced a petrol bowser drew up and the mechanics stationed on the strip began to refuel our aircraft and whilst our captain went over to the control tower, I had a chance to look around this spot where our aircraft had at one time brought in supplies from Akyab.
Although the sun was shining brightly, and it was hot the place seemed so silent and forlorn. There was absolutely nothing to be seen around us except a few four engine aircraft the control tower sticking up on the other side of the wide dead flat one and a half mile metal runway and jungle on all sides. On the return of our captain we found that the trip up to Peru had been unnecessary and that there was no more passengers for Singapore. So we took off once again as soon as it was possible and headed southwards. Whilst flying along at 9,000 ft it became a bit cold and everyone was glad of their blankets. The Country of Southern Burma was very similar to that around our camp and before long we found ourselves flying over the sea and over hundreds of small islands of all shapes and sizes. Some were just barren rocks sticking up out of the water and other were covered in dense jungle. From what I could see hardly any were inhabited but I bet with a small boat it would take one a whole lifetime to explore just a section of them.
As we flew along, I could just make out the mainland in the distance haze. When I got tired of looking at the different islands, I chatted with some of the passengers before settling down to read a book that I had brought along with me. After being two hours in the air, I handed out the luncheon packages and for the following 3/4 of an hour everyone concentrated on eating. Before digging into my book once again, I went up front with the crew and gave them their rations and had a look at the navigators map to see precisely where we were.
Then during the proceeding two hours I had an occasional look out one of the windows to look at the scenes below or at the engines and the propellor [sic] going round or at the vapour trail coming from the wing tips but to keep turning my head to look out of the window made my neck ache. So oblivious to the continual roar of the engines I consentrated [sic] wholly on my book.
The next thing I knew was the wireless operator opening the cabin and telling me that we were nearing out [sic] stop so I had to get up to check the safety belts once again. Then I went up front to see the whole scene in front of us. I could see the marked passage and swept through the minefields approaching Penang Island which loomed up out of the water except for the section nearest to the mainland which was flat and just above water level and it was on this part of the island that the town of Georgetown was built. I could see the buildings etc quite clearly as we neared the town and the small fishing boats native sailing boats etc floating around the harbour and in that cleared shiping [sic] lane also the ferry boat which plied between the island and the mainland. As we came nearer and nearer to Georgetown we gradually lost height and just before reaching it at a height of a few hundred feet we did a steep left bank and turned towards the mainland three miles away and as we straightened up once again cont…..
[page break]
[inserted] 180A [/inserted]
[underlined] GEORGETOWN PENNANG [/underlined]
[three photographs of buildings in Georgetown]
[page break]
[photograph of crowd of natives]
[page break]
[inserted] 181 [/inserted]
- 4 –
I could see the run-way of Butterworth airfield situated nearly at the waters edge right in front of us.
We immediately received permission from the control tower to land on asking for it over the radio, so we went straight in without making a circuit a few moments later we were safely on the ground once more. A short while before this time our aircraft used to land on Penang island itself but as the strip was a bit short and an Air Marshal nearly overran it on landing his aircraft the new order about landing on the main land came out.
On stepping down from the aircraft a lorry converted into a bus was already waiting to take our passengers off to the transit canteen for dinner. I climbed aboard the 15 cwt van which drew up for the crew a little later. By this time the Staging Post personnel were already refuelling and checking over [inserted] OUR [/inserted] aircraft. No minor snags happened to the engines during our trip from Pegu so we had no excuse to stay at Pennang and have a tour of the island.
On the way to the transit canteen the pilor [sic] stopped the van in front of the control tower so that he could book in and whilst we were stopped there we watched our Squadron’s No 1 aircraft to Singapore that day take off. It had left Rangoon an hour before us and had come straight to Butterworth. On arrival at the transit canteen after a short ride along a bumpy track on either side of which were aircraft bomb blasts boys and a wreck of a Jap bomber, we were waited upon by Chinese waiters throughout our four course dinner.
Then after a cup of tea and a cigarette, we were told that the bus was waiting outsid [sic] to take us and the passengers back to our aircraft. After counting everyone and finding that no one was missing we moved off. The pilot again stopped at the control tower only to book out this time.
After everyone was aboard again and the captain had checked over the form 700 to see how much petrol and oil had been put in our tanks I had the locks and pins taken out once more and then our engines roared into life again after their brief rest and out we taxied to the run-way and after receiving permission to take off, off we went. A moment after our wheels had left the ground, we found ourselves over the sea once more heading towards the Island of Pennang but we almost immediately did a left bank and headed south once more following and flying over the coast line of Malaya.
After seeing that the passengers were comfortable, I read more of my book but after the next two hours the journey began to get a bit boring and my ears began to get tired of hearing the continuous road [sic] of the engines. So I went up front with the crew and watched the navigator plot out our course on his big map every 15 mins or so. Then looking out over the pilot windows, I could see the country of Malaya stretching 50 miles or more in front and to the left below us. Then on our right was the sea.
I remember one big swollen river twisting and turning and gradually getting wider as it neared the sea that we passed over as our navigator was able to check our position by it. Hundreds of little tributaries ran out from either side of the river into the surrounding country. They looked just like the roots of a big tree.
cont…
[page break]
[inserted] 181A [/inserted]
[photograph of aircraft]
AIR CHIEF MARSHAL SIR KEITH PARK’S AIRCRAFT AT SELETA [underlined] AIRPORT – SINGAPORE [/underlined]
[photograph of a billet]
ONE OF THE BILLETS IN WHICH THE [underlined] AIRCREW STAYED [/underlined]
[page break]
[underlined] SINGAPORE [/underlined]
[two photographs of the control tower at Kallang Airport]
[underlined] KALLANG AIRPORT – CONTROL TOWER. [/underlined]
WHERE THE CREW WERE BRIEFED BEFORE WE TOOK OFF FROM SELETA
[page break]
[inserted] 182 [/inserted]
- 5 –
Then as we got further south, we could see the rows and rows of trees all in alignment which stretched for miles and miles and made up the hundreds of rubber plantations. It was mid afternoon when we passed over Mallaca on the South West coast of Malaya. The native and European houses and shops were strung out along the coastline beside the beach and the sea.Then the scene below continued to be miles and miles of rubber trees and every so often a plantation settlement. Around about three thirty p.m. we started to fly over the swamps which a few years before the Japs had started to swarm over in the commencement of their invasion of Singapore island when our commanders expected them to come in from the sea. The south of the Island facing the sea was bristling with huge guns and pill boxes and defence systems which were supposed to be impregnable whilst the rear of the island facing the mainland had none of these things to defend it. It was in these same swamps that thousands of British troops went into and laid mines. In front of the advancing Japs whilst they were under enemy shellfire and it was also in these swamps that our forces made their last ditch stand knowing that they had no chance of being taken off the island. For them it was either death or surrender and they held out until they were ordered to give in as they were hopelessly outnumbered and it was just slaughter to carry on.
As we neared the island and it grew larger before us we were able to distinguish with the aid of the navigators large map the four airdromes, the large naval base to our left, the town to the south side of the island, and the harbour full of shipping of every description in front of the town also various other installations such as oil storage tanks etc.
After deciding which was Seleta airport we flew towards it [deleted] lowering [/deleted] [inserted] LOSING [/inserted] height all the time. The run-way was situated just across the waterway which separates the swamps from the island and this wide strip of water is also used as a sea plane base. We circled the airfield once and made our approach to the runway and just before touching down we passed over a dozen or more Sunderland flying boats anchored on the water.
On coming to a stop, a bus was waiting ready to take away the passengers and their luggage and whilst this was being done, I gathered the blankets together and put them in the crews cabin. Then a jeep drew up and took our kit away, and the crew and myself picked our way over the muddy ground to the control tower beneath which I found my bed roll etc waiting for me in the jeep. By this time, our passengers had disappeared some had been driven off in a Dutch van that was waiting for them and the civilians went off in a bus that was going into the town. Whilst the captain was making arrangements with the Staging Post to get our aircraft refuelled and inspected for that day the rest of us sat drinking cups of tea in a nearby tent which was run by the W.V.S. About half an hour after we landed the No 1 aircraft of our Squadron to Singapore that day the one we watched take off from Butterworth) arrived The reason why he landed after us was because the aircraft had landed at Kuala Lumpar [sic] in Malaya on its way down to drop off passengers. Five minutes after landing another of our Squadrons aircraft landed. This one had gone u/s somewhere a few days previously and the crew told us that they had the time of their lives during their short holiday. I only wished we had gone U/S at Penang.
cont…
[page break]
[inserted] 183 [/inserted]
- 6 –
It was just beginning to get dark when the three complete crews climbed on to the lorry/bus which was to take us to the air crew transit mess.
On leaving the airfield our drive first took us through nice green countryside and then a little later it began to get a little more tropical as we passed by paddy fields and palm and coconut trees, native bashas and villages. After travelling for [deleted] suppose [/deleted] [inserted] APPROX [/inserted] ten miles [deleted] or so [/deleted] we turned into a main road and passed by many trams loaded to capasity. [sic] We seemed to emerge from the darkness out into an area which was full of life. The pavements were thronged with people of a dozen or more races and the shops and stalls on either side of us were lit brightly by electricity, oil lamps or candles. Then a little later we left the shops and stalls behind us and turned off into another road on either side of which stood large residential houses and blocks of flats. Each building stood in its own grounds and was lit be electricity. This scene was nearest one I had seen to old England at night, since coming overseas. A little later we turned into the driveway of one of these houses and drove up to the building. We than [sic] climbed up an outside stairway and found ourselves in a large room off which ran many other smaller rooms.
The large room lit by electricity was full of stretchers and camp beds with mosquito nets above them belonging to other air crews staying there for the night. Also in the large room were easy chairs and a few tables as I entered someone was playing a record on a gramaphone. [sic]
I found a spare stretcher in one of the small rooms and as it was a nice night, our second pilot and myself decided to sleep out in the verandah. [sic] After a quick wash to freshen ourselves up a bit, we walked down the driveway lined with palm trees to the road and walked to the left for 250 yards until we arrived at the driveway of the transit mess house on our right hand side. At the entrance doorway, we had to book in and as it was an aircrew mess I had to sign myself as Sgt Barrett. As all the seats around the tables were occupied when we went in I had to wait for a couple of minutes before I went into the dining room. When I did go in and had taken a seat, I found myself amongst Wing Commanders Group Captains and other high ranking officers. Perhaps that accounted for the wizard meal I had for dinner. Later we retired to the lounge which contained a licenced bar and nice easy comfortable chairs, I sank into one of these and the rest of our crew did the same and over a few glasses of beer etc, we had a long chat about various things and rested at the same time. We decided that it was too late to go out anywhere and we were all feeling a little tired after all those hours in the air that day.
Around 9 p.m. someone came up to us and told us that we had put our kit in the wrong building as our Squadron had a house of its own a little further down the road. It was near on 11 p.m. when we walked back along the road and as we were tired and did not need any early call on the following morning, we decided not to move our kit that night. So after rigging up my net over my stretcher between the bannister and verandah [sic] rails I got into bed.
The crew who had arrived in Singapore the day before us were taking our aircraft back to Rangoon on the following day and we had to take the aircraft back which arrived in from Rangoon on the following day.
cont….
[page break]
[inserted] 184 [/inserted]
- 7 –
I remember waking up in the middle of the night and finding that a tropical storm was in full swing. It was thundering and lightening and raining. The trees were swishing and swaying in the wind, but as the wind was not driving the rain in on to my bed which was exposed to the open, I did not mind so I went off to sleep again.
The next thing that I knew was when I heard the second pilot ask someone who was decending [sic] the stairs what the time was. To which the reply came back that it was five past seven. We both immediately decided that it was far too early to get up and as breakfast finished at 8.30 a.m. it was quite early enough to climb out at 8.15 a.m.
I was just dozing off again about half an hour later when our Captain came up and asked us if we were going to breakfast as it was 8.30 a.m. I knew that an hour and a half had not passed since, we had asked the time but it turned out that it was 8.30 a.m. Singapore time and the fellow who we had asked had forgotten to put his watch on an hour when he arrived on the island. On hearing this we jumped out quickly and walked up the road to the transit mess and although we were late, we managed to obtain a big breakfast. There was no ration of sugar or milk for our tea and porridge etc. It stopped drizzling with rain around about this time. We took our time walking back to the sleeping quarters and in daylight the place looked more than ever like a bit of dear old England with the big houses standing back from the modern roadway and the large lawns and flower beds in front of the building [deleted] to [/deleted] [inserted] AND [/inserted] some even possessed tennis courts in the gardens. Even the hedgerows alongside the pavement were in bloom along with flowers planted beside the low garden walls.
After having a wash and shave etc, we folded up our sheets, blankets and mosquito nets and walked over with them to the 267 Squadron transit [inserted] HOUSE [/inserted] a couple of hundred yards further down the road and near to a large block of flats occupied by Chinese etc.
After setting out my bed once again in a small room, I sat out in the back verandah [sic] and finished off my book. The scene from that spot was quite a nice one, and as I sat there I breathed in and smelled the lovely sea air. Just below where I sat was a small lawn at the end of which stood some of the cunningly concealed defence points, underground gun pits etc. These faced directly out towards the sea where it was expected that the Japs would try and invade the island from. As it turned out these points were never brought into use against the Japs. Although if we had had to invade the island to retake it, I expect they would have been used against our invading forces.
A couple of miles around the bay to my right, I could just make out the sea edge of the town. The bay was full of transport and troop ships and beyond them, because it was a very clear day, I could see dozens of small islands just off the main island of Samatra [sic] and just to my right was a small ship that had broken loose from its moorings and had run aground. Sitting there in the sun was just like being at the seaside for the day. I certainly enjoyed that morning.
At noon we strolled down to the mess for an early dinner and after a cup of tea we started out towards the town after we had found out which roads to take.
cont….
[page break]
[inserted] 184A [/inserted]
[underlined] GENERAL VIEWS OF SINGAPORE [/underlined]
[three photographs of Singapore]
[page break]
[three photographs of Singapore]
[page break]
[inserted] 185 [/inserted]
- 8 –
We had to walk the two miles to the main road where the tram lines ran and after a short wait a tram came along and stopped in front of us. It was already crowded but somehow we managed to squeeze on it and off it went stopping every so often to let people get off and others get on. After about four stops I found myself sitting down on a seat with Chinese girls on either side of me. When the conductor came along, I bought my ticket which I think cost me five cents. The currency by the way was in cents and dollars. I got a bit mixed up with the prices of things at first but after turning them into rupies [sic] or pounds shillings and pence a few times I soon became used to the 100 cents = 1 dollar and 1 dollar 2/4d. We soon found ourselves travelling through the suburbs of the town which seemed to be made up mostly of Chinese shops, stalls, factories etc, and the pavements also seemed to be thronged mostly with Chinese men, women and children, especially children, of course there were many Malayan people with them as well.
Then as we neared the centre of the town, the shops became more and more modern until we decended [sic] from the tram just past the Cathedral. The second pilot then went off to try and find a relation of his that was somewhere on the island and the navigator and myself made arrangement to pick him up later on that afternoon. I then spent the following two hours looking around and touring the shopping centre. It seemed funny to me to see [deleted] the plate [/deleted] [inserted] A MAIN [/inserted] High Street once again after so long. I had got used to looking up and seeing Rue de -? Via -? And other foreign street names. I only wish I had taken more money with me on that trip as there were so many nice things to buy in the shops. In fact, any English women would have gone mad if they had seen all the unrationed goods and silk, satin and dress material that was not couponed, that I did that afternoon. In the windows of the fruit shops were unlimited supplies of bananas and large pineapples which were priced at just over 1/- (one shilling) each, at that time were fetching £5.00 in the English fruit shops.
Most of the assistants in the big shops were very charming nice complexioned Chinese girls, all of which spoke English and wore coloured flowers in their jet black hair. In one shop window was a large array of photographs of Jap prisoners and any of the population if they recognised any of the Japs as the ones connected with any of the Singapore war crimes were asked to go inside the building and give evidence against the criminals.
After getting tired of walking around the shops and looking at lovely things that I did not have the money to buy, we walked to the large building that had been taken over by the N.A.A.F.I as the forces canteen and sat in easy chairs drinking cups of tea and eating cakes until our 2nd pilot turned up and joined us once again. We all then began to walk towards the eastern outskirts of the town stopping once to enter a modern ice cream parlour for an iced milk shake. ON arrival at the tram stop we watched at least four trams pass by packed full to their limit. After that, we started to thumb a lift and it was not long before a van stopped to pick us up along with some Dutch women who had been evacuated from Java and some European children who were going home from school. The van dropped us off at the point where we caught the tram into town so we still had two miles to walk back to our house. Darkness had fallen before we reached it and on arrival I had a wash and then walked up to the mess for late dinner after which I retired to the lounge once more and had a few drinks. Then after arranging for someone to give us an early call.
cont…
[page break]
[inserted] 185A [/inserted]
[underlined] GENERAL VIEWS OF SINGAPORE [/underlined]
[four photographs of Singapore]
[page break]
[inserted] 186 [/inserted]
- 9 –
and for someone to make up some sandwiches for us to take with us in the morning I walked slowly up the road which was bathed in a soft mellow light from th [sic] round silvery moon that was shining above me. It was a perfect tropical evening and I looked up at the millions of twinkling stars with their background of black velvet it made me come over [deleted] all [/deleted] [inserted] VERY [/inserted] sentimental indeed. The very air seemed to be breath-taking and it was certainly a perfect setting for a romantic evening.
On reaching our house it was not long before I was beneath my mosquito net. But before I got into bed I stood out on the verandah [sic] for a few moments looking at the lights of the town further around the bay and looking at the lights of the ships anchored out in the moonlit bay. It certainly was a beautiful night.
I had no sooner seemed to have fallen asleep when I felt someone shaking me and saying that it was 3.15 a.m. and time to get up. After a quick wash which got the sleepers out of my eyes I felt much fresher and on venturing outside the building I found that the moon had disappeared and that it was drizzling with rain. It was pitch dark and the air was very cold and depressing and as I walked up the road towards the mess for breakfast with the rest of the crew and every so often we heard the rumble of thunder in the distance and saw flashes of lightening on the horizon which lighted up our surroundings and made the palm trees stand out above anything else. At the time I thought it was not going to be very nice weather for flying in that day. All was deathly quiet except for the sound of our own footfalls on the road. We had just sat down to breakfast when the second pilot of our crew discovered that his wallet was missing, then a few moments later the other crew of our Squadron who were flying back to Rangoon that day and who slept in the next room to us came in for breakfast and we discovered that two of them had lost their wallets and anothers briefcase was missing. On hearing this I immediately felt for my wallet not that there was much in it but for all that I breathed a sigh of relief when I found that it was still in my shirt pocket which was very lucky as I left my shirt beside the bed all night and yet the second pilot who was sleeping on a stretcher beside mine left his shirt beside his bed and had the wallet taken out of it some time during the night between 12 and 3 a.m. Perhaps it was because his bed was next to the window overlooking the verandah [sic] but the burglar must have been light footed as none of the building heard any strange noises during those hours.
After a quick breakfast I went to the rear of the mess and collected the sandwitches [sic] that I had ordered the night before from the native cook. We all then hurried back to the house and began to search it and we found the brief case in one of the down stairs rooms with its contents of navigations maps and charts and of course plotting instruments etc scattered all over the floor but there was no sign of the three wallets. He certainly must have been a light fingered devil who had crept into our rooms that night. As we were due to take off at a certain time and as the thief had left no trace whatsoever all we could do was to inform the R.A.F. police what had happened and let them look into it, not that the chaps who had lost their wallets expected them to be recovered. As it was, we held the lorry up which was waiting to drive us into the airfield. Eventually after the fellows had given all the particulars to the S.P’s we got under way and it was certainly a cold and dismal drive at that time in the morning. When we came through the outskirts of the town on the evening that we landed on the island the streets seemed to be full of life and lights, as we drove through them that morning all was dark and silent and dismal. It seemed as if the whole of Singapore was sleeping and there was not even a single
cont….
[page break]
[inserted] 187 [/inserted]
- 10 –
light in the native villages that we passed through and the cold morning air rushing through the lorry made me feel cold but, for all that I nearly fell asleep during the journey.
When at last we came to a stop I found that we were in front of a large modern control tower building but not at Seletar airport. It was at Kalang the main airport on the island. The captains and navigators went into the building for briefing and for informations about weather conditions along our route etc, and when they came out [deleted] they [/deleted] [inserted] WE [/inserted] were driven off once more in the dark until 10 minutes or so later we reached Seletar airfield just as it was beginning to become light.
We had to hang around for half an hour or so until our manifest was finally made up and closed. We than [sic] knew that we were carrying nine passengers and bags and bags of mail to Penang and Rangoon. We walked over to the airdcraft which was a much older one than the one which we flew down in and beside it we found our passengers waiting. Most of them were soldiers and airmen posted to Rangoon or who were catching a boat from Rangoon home to England. As soon as we had checked them with manifest and the coolies had loaded on the mail, we were away as quickly as it was possible and once more a flying horse aircraft was in the air.
Our passengers seeing that they were service personnel did not need much looking after or pampering so before long I had put my blankets down on the floor along with others and a little later I was fast asleep. As we climbed higher it began to get rather cold and I had to get up once and pull one of my blankets from under me and put it over me instead. I then slept until the navigator woke me to say that we were nearing Penang so I had to get up and wake everyone else and see that they fastened their safety belts securely once more. Then on looking out of the window I saw a familiar scene reversed this time the island was on our left and I just managed to get a glimpse of Georgetown before we banked to the right towards the mainland and the clearing on which Butterworth strip had been built.
Everything had happened during our stop was very similar to when we called in on the airfield two days previously, such as being driven to the transit canteen for dinner and booking in and out at the control tower etc.
We stopped there no longer than an hour and a quarter. Before taking to the air, I checked the bags of mail destined for Penang with the manifest as they were unloaded. Soon after take-off, I went up front with the crew and we were soon at a height of ten thousand feet and through the front window I had a wonderful view of area in front of us. At first on leaving Penang Behind us I discovered from the navigator that we were on a course which would take us diagonally across to the East coast of the Peninsular at a point near to a town in Eastern Siam. The pilot put George (the automatic pilot) in by setting and locking the controls in correct position on that course, so that the aircraft flew itself and the pilots were able to sit back and read a book or admire the scenery. Every so often the pilot altered the altitude control as we lost height through falling various numbers of feet in the air pockets. The navigator was by far the busiest man in the crew, he was forever looking at his maps and plotting our course so that we could tell exactly where we were all the time and then [inserted] [indecipherable word] [/inserted] the different log charts to make up giving the readings of engine instruments our flying heights, our speed and how long we took to fly between his plotting points and how much petrol we used etc. I borrowed one of his spare large detailed maps of Malaya and Siam and from that I did a little map reading of my own. I found it very
cont…
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interesting picking out rivers villages hills etc marked on my map 10,000 feet below us. Then almost immediately after we caught sight of the sea, I made out in the distance haze the town that was our course check. I forgot what the name of it is now but it does not really matter does it?. It only goes to show that by finding the town so easily the navigator had done a good job of work.
Just before we reached this town the captain took George out and then he had to look after all of his controls with his hands and the rudder with his feet. He then followed the navigators instructions and with the aid of his compass, we changed course and turned until we were heading in direct line with Rangoon. Next he put “George” in once again and let the aircraft have its own way until we caught sight of the big cloud formations far ahead of us. At first it was touch and go if we would touch them at all. Some of us guessed that we would and others that we would just miss them. Well a little later they loomed bigger and bigger before our aircraft as we reached them it was clear that on our course, we would run into the end of them so our captain took [deleted] our [/deleted] [inserted] over [/inserted] control of the aircraft from “George” and we began to climb until we were above the first formation which looked like mountains of cotton wool beneath us. Then to miss the following few formations which were higher still instead of climbing to get over them or diving to get under them we had a bit of fun banking and weaving in and out of them. It was a lovely sensation watching these puffs of white cloud coming straight at us then at what seemed the last moment we just dodged and slipped around them.
Then suddenly there were no more clouds in front of us and we were flying beneath a cloudless blue sky and could see the land beneath us perfectly clearly once again. The pilot then re-set our course for Rangoon by compass and re-adjusted our height to 10,000 feet and put “George” in once again.
It was around about that time that I got out my packet of sandwitches [sic] and handed them round to the crew. Then a litle [sic] later in the distant horizon we caught sight of the sea once again only it was the west coast of the peninsular this time. By that time the pilots were taking it in turns to fall asleep and for a while I took over the wireless operators seat and listened with the earphones over my ears to a programme of music coming over the air from a wireless station somewhere in China. Doing this made me forget the roar of the engines for a little while. After half an hour of listening to the wireless, I went back to map reading once again and picked out from the map of dozens of small islands that we were flying over off the west coast of Siam. After getting tired of this I retired to the rear of the aircraft and re-joined the passengers and once again I lay on the floor between my blankets and went to sleep until we were nearing Rangoon. Then after getting everyone to fasten their safety belts for the last time, I found on looking out of one of the windows that beneath us were familiar flat miles and miles of paddy fields and native villages built in small woods typical of Southern Burma. Then a few moments later I caught sight of our airdrome and after one circuit we received permission to land and went in gradually losing height until we touched down on the metal runway and after swinging off to the right at the end of it we taxied to the staging post on our Mingaladon airfirld [sic] where we discharged our passengers and bags of mail before restarting our engines and taxying off to our Squadron dispersal where were guided to a parking point by our own ground crew. So
cont…
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ended my 1750 mile flying trip which proved to be a very interesting one for me. I know that the description of it that I have written is nothing like the actual scenes etc, But I have done my best to give you a fair idea of it all.
One of our Squadrons lorries drew up alongside our aircraft a few minutes after we had come to a standstill and after our captain had booked in, it took us all up to our domestic site and on arrival at my billet it seemed as it I had been away from it for weeks. On the following morning much to my regret I was back working at my old job.
On Wednesday 14th November we held a teriffic [sic] party in our billet for four of the followers who were in my gang at work and who also lived the same room as I, who were going home after being overseas for 3 years 8 months. Two of them were the [deleted] followers [/deleted] [inserted] fellows [/inserted] who had lived in the same tent etc as myself since we had left Italy so it meant that my best friends were leaving me. They took the little dog along with them when they left next day to to [sic] fly to Calcutta but I learned later that they had to leave it behind in Bombay as Freddie was stopped by the authorities from taking it up the gangway as he was about to board the ship for England. That dog had certainly travelled since we had brought him with us from Italy.
But the Squadron was not long without a pet as on Thursday the 22nd of November I adopted a little puppy which was about six weeks old. At first it was just a bag of bones but before long everyone had taken a liking for it and began to bring things back from the cookhouse for her and she soon began to fatten up.
Two days later I saw a first class show in our cinema. The programme included Leslie Henson, Helen Hill, Kenway and Young and other well known variety stars. On Saturday the 1st December our Squadron football team got beaten for the first time after playing 22 games which was quite an achievement.
Next day I went down with a touch of dysentry which left me as weak as a kitten for the next four days. I could not eat anything and I had to swallow six big white chalky tablets every three hours throughout the daytime. I spent most of my time during these four days crawling back and for the between my bed and the w.c.
However I was back at work again on the 7th December and on the same day as the Squadron was lacking entertainment, six of us got together in the cookhouse that evening and formed a committee to arrange a Squadron Dance. Two days later on the Sunday which was my day off I went into Rangoon and had a long chat with the manager of the Y.M.C.A. building (Civic Hall). I found out that he was willing to hire out the ballroom to me for an evening early in the New Year. I then went to a restaurant which was in bounds to troops and asked the manageress if she would supply me with a quotation for 400 dainty fancy cream cakes, 144 bread rolls and 4 long jam rolls. She told me that he did not usually take orders like that as she was short of flour etc for their own supplies in the café. However after a while she said she would supply my requirements if I supplied her with the jam to go in the rolls. Next I had to chase around all the printing works and shops that I could find in the town and get them to give me a quotation for 150 dance tickets and 150 invitation cards. All asked a teriffic [sic] price for the order so I made a note of their prices to give to the committee at our next meeting. On Tuesday afternoon the 11th December I watched that thrilling game that I told you about when our football team got knocked out.
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in the second round of the Burma cup by an odd goal. We held the next dance on the evening of the 20th when I gave our little gathering all the information that I had obtained. They all seemed enthusiastic about the Dance but did very little towards offering to help me arrange things. We decided to hold the dance and chose a date the 11th January [inserted] & [/inserted] to charge all the fellows 5 Rupies [sic] for a ticket. Then with regards to the printing we decided to take the cheapest and best offer. I worked it out and found that if we sold 150 tickets and let the women come free it would be just a nice number of people to be at a dance and it would allow me expenses of up to roughly £56.00.
Next day it was getting near to Christmas, we decided to brighten our room up a bit so a few of us spent the evening cutting toilet paper into penants of all shapes and colouring them by dipping them in either green, red, or blue ink and watered down [deleted] anti [/deleted] [inserted] YELLOW [/inserted] malaria tablets. Our finished efforts were quite good and someone got hold of some cotton wool from the M.I. room and made it into little balls so as to resemble snow. Some one else drew coloured Christmas cards and stuck them on the walls around the room.
On the 22nd December I saw our C.O and told all about our arrangements for the Dance and said if we had to pay for the transport to take all the fellows down into town and back again the same night and to pick up the women etc we would only be able to run the dance at a large loss, but if we did not have to pay for transport, I was prepared to run it and not make a loss. It was the C.O’s suggestion in the first place that we should hold a Squadron Dance and no one did anything about it until the few of us got together to see if it were possible to run one. He then said go ahead with your arrangements and do not worry about the transport. “I will see to that” and then he went on to say “come and see me every other morning and let me know how things are going and if I can help you in any way, I shall do so” That was fair enough for me so I went down to the big city and before booking the Civic Hall I tried to first hire the ballroom of the boat club and then the one in the W.V.S. Eastern Counties Club but I was unsuccessful at both places. So as the Civic Hall was open for booking on the 11th January I booked it. Then I went to the printers and gave them a rush order saying that I wanted the tickets on the following morning. Then at the caterers I gave my order for the 11th and paid a deposit along with 4 tins of jam which I had managed to [deleted] to [/deleted] [inserted] TALK [/inserted] the Sargeant [sic] Cook in charge of our ration store into giveing [sic] me. Then I went back to camp and started ringing up all the unit bands in the Rangoon area that I had been told about. A number of them were booked up for the night to play at officers messes etc, and I finally reduced the possibles [sic] down to two. a 12 piece army Welfare Band or a R.A.F five piece one. The committee decided on the latter one so I booked that. After that I had another chat with the Sargeant Cook and in the end he promised me the loan of tea containers [underlined] cake trays [/underlined] for the night along with tables from the dining hall and forms to put in the lorries picking up the women. On top of that he also promised me to supply us with sandwitches [sic] and hot tea as long as we found some chaps to help the cooks out making it all.
Then I went to the canteen and asked them to get in an extra supply of 50 bottles of lime juice and lemon squash cordial for the dance week and I gave them a written order for it. Next I had to find and talk to the Officer in charge of our Squadron Passenger Welfare Section and from him I received a promise unofficially of 500 drinking cartons.
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Very few people realize the hell of a lot of hard work and worry that there is entailed in running a Dance especially with the Far East and when you have got to transport all the dancers 12 miles to the dance hall and 12 miles back. Most of the fellows when they heard that it was going to cost them 5 Rupies [sic] for a ticket seemed to think that we were out to make a fortune of the dance. That was all the thanks that we got for our trouble in arranging entertainment for them. Up until that time, we paid out all the deposits etc from our own pocket. However we told them if thats what they thought, they need not come as we could sell the tickets elsewhere. We certainly were not going down on our hands and knees and pray for them to come after devoting most of our evenings and days off to arranging the dance.
Then I had to think of 4 reliable chaps who would act as doormen and who I could trust not to accept 5 Rupies [sic] and let anyone in. This proved quite a problem for me as most of the chaps who I thought of wanted to dance.
That same evening one of my friends offered to make out three big coloured posters for me to go in the Airmens, Sgts and Officers Messes advertising the dance. That solved another of my problems.
The next day which was the 24th December, we all had to work as usual even though it was the day before Christmas, but immediately after dinner that evening, we were all away over to the canteen to buy our monthly beer ration. On arriving back in our room, we settled down to a little sing song and party and this went on until someone suggested going over and paying a visit to the nearest native village. Our bearer who lived in that village had told us earlier in the day that as it was also the time of one of Burmese Festivals they were holding an open air concert that evening and that the festivities would go on for three days after. Thinking that I might see something interesting to write about, I agreed to go along. So half a dozen of us set out from camp with [inserted] A [/inserted] half empty bottle of beer in one hand and a full one in every pocket. We crossed the main road and made our way carefully over the paddy fields and a stream on the other side until we reached a single span bridge beneath which ran the large concrete water pipe line which came from the large lakes north of our camp and went on to Rangoon. We stopped for a few moments by this bridge and listened to the jumble of native music keeping time with the thump of what sounded very much like a tom tom drum. The music issued forth from the wood which was full of flickering lights 200 yards in front of us on the other side of the small bridge. Before we proceeded I stood beside the water pipe and you can guess how large it was when I tell you that the top of it was well above the level of my head.
On arrival on the edge of the woods, and the first native stalls which led up into the two rows towards large stage in front of which swatted rows and rows of Burmese men women and children and at the sides of the stage were bullock carts etc on which people were swatting and sitting whilst watching what was going on, we were met by the village school teacher who introduced himself to us in fairly good English and asked us to follow him. He took us down the gangway between the two lines [inserted] OF STALLS [/inserted] and through the crowd [deleted] of stalls [/deleted] until we reached his school which was a large Basha building situated just in front and to the right of the stage. There he spoke in Burmese to some of the people nearby and they disappeared and returned a few moments later with a couple of forms which they put down for us to sit on.
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From there we could see the bamboo made stage cum-platform quite clearly and almost at our feet were the end of the rows of swatting Burmese people and near to our right were the bullock carts. On the stage the so called band which consisted of all sorts of weird and wonderful instruments kept up a continuous noise of clash, banging and wailing which was supposed to be native music. I could not make head nor tail of it, the noise in my ears did not even seem to resemble a melody in the slightest way. It just seemed to be a few notes repeated over and over again and after a few minutes the noise began to get on my nerves although I must say all the Burmese seemed to be enjoying it all, and when the band did finally stop for a breather, the people clapped and clapped. On completion of the applause the air seemed so silent until the people in the crowd started talking to each other in their native tongue.
We certainly must have looked a bit undignified sitting there drinking out of a bottle, so that perhaps accounts for the reason why a little later the school teacher brought out little clay cups and offered us one each to put our beer in before drinking it. Although I have a funny feeling that the real reason was because he wanted us to offer him a cup full. We did so out of courtesy and within a short while he had a bigger taste for beer than we did.
During this brief pause in which the band ceased to play I had the chance to have a good look at some of those weird instruments. One looked like a kind of bamboo xtyaphone [sic] and another a trumpet cum-horn-cum bugle which gave out a tinny noise like all three instruments put together. The only instrument that looked like one was the drum which was a big [inserted] LONG [/inserted] barrell [sic] with the ends covered with skin, and when playing it the Burmese beat the skin with the back of his hands. A few moments later, a male Burmese comedian climbed upon the stage and said many things that kept the children in front laughing all the while. We could not understand a word of what he uttered so we just had to sit there and look as if we did. As soon as he finished his act the band started up with its row once more. Then a native girl of about 14 years of age and dressed in colourful native costume came on and did what I think was one of the Burmese national dances. Some of the actions were extremely difficult but, she carried them out quite gracefully. In a way it reminded me of Russian type dancing. The girl also used her hands a lot to put expression into the dance.
During this turn the schoolmaster introduced us to the headman of the village so we had to offer him a drink of beer which he gratefully accepted. As our stocks of liquid refreshments were getting low we told the schoolmaster that we would soon have to be getting back to camp. to this he replied that we must stay and hear the next turn as it was specially for us. So we sat down again whilst he got up on the stage and said something or other to the audience in Burmese. Then a number of boys and girls from his school who were sitting in the front rows of the audience got up beside him and then a little fellow of about 8 stepped forward and said in quite good English that they were going to sing a song for us. He then stepped back in line with the others and they began to sing “You are my Sunshine” in English. The one or two who sang out of tune at different points were glared at by the others. On the whole, they sang very well indeed. There were about ten children in all on the stage and their ages ranged from about 5 to 10. All the little girls wore coloured flowers in their jet black hair which was pinned up in various styles mostly by a carved ivory comb. Some had their hair cut short in a fringe all around their head, but most of them when they let their hair down to
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[inserted] 182A [/inserted]
[underlined] THE VILLAGE [inserted] NEAR MINGALADON [/inserted] SCHOOLMASTER WITH HIS WIFE AND SON.
[inserted] [deleted] VILLAG [/deleted] [/inserted]
[photograph of schoolmaster and his wife and son]
[photograph of children with bullock]
[photograph of children in field]
[underlined] OUTSKIRTS OF THE VILLAGE [/underlined]
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comb it out, it came below their wastes. [sic] Another custom that a lot of women and girls used to carry out was for them to cover their faces with thick powder or a thin white paste so as to hide their beauty until they were married. This custom also applied to the Chinese.
For an encore the children sang “My Bonny lies over the Ocean” for us also in English. They then jumped scrambled off the stage and took their places in the audience again. The schoolmaster then took us into the school “Basha” building to the rear of where we were sitting and showed us the classroom which was lit by hurricane lamps and introduced us to his wife along with his baby son. He told us that it was impossible to obtain slates etc, in the country but that some of the chaps in our Squadron who had visited his school one day had clubbed together and had got the aircrew to bring back from India slates, crayons [inserted] CHALK [/inserted] etc, for the children. We then took our leave of the village and, as we picked our way over the marshy fields we could still hear the band going at full blast in the distance.
On arrival back at our billet, the fellows all wanted to know where we had disappeared to, and after relating to them all that we had seen in the village those had stayed in the room wanted me to take them to see it all. I put them off by saying that I was too tired to walk over the fields again. So the billet party resumed with full gusto once more but, during the hour following the recommencement the fellows kept on [deleted] with [/deleted] [inserted] TO [/inserted] me so much with asking to be taken over to the village that in the end I was badgered in to submitting to their wishes.
So a little later [inserted] on [/inserted] loaded with fresh bottles I found myself crossing these fields for a third time that evening. The band was still going full out when we arrived at the edge of the wood. Before proceeding up to the stage, we inspected the two lines of stalls and I stopped for a few minutes in front of a Burmese woman who was sitting behind a fire of wood sheltered between two bricks on which rested a kind of frying pan. I watched her flatten out tiny balls of looked like white rubber and drop them into the pan one at a time. Almost as soon as the heat got to the disc it began to expand and then the women picked up two objects something like carpet beaters and flapped the disc from one side to the other back and forth continuously over the fire. They gradually grew until it had reached the size of a large pancake and both sides had browned in places. Then it was placed on top of a large pile of others that had been cooked earlier in the evening. The woman offered us one but we did not like to try it. At that moment the schoolmaster came up to us at the stall and I explained to him that my friends wanted to come and see the festivities. I then asked him what the pancakes were and he told me that they were eaten by Burmese instead of bread and were a kind of corn flake. He then bought one from the women for 2 annas and gave it to us to inspect before proceeding to eat it, after we had declined a portion of it. I was surprised when I took hold of the crisp wafer and found out that it was as light as a feather. The schoolmaster then took my friends to visit his school and got his children up on stage again to sing for them. Then before going back to camp we visited the native restraunt [sic] Basha situated at the end of the line of people selling their goods and next to two little Burmese girls selling from large baskets, cigars and bundles of small white candles.
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On entering the restaurant, we found a great array of foodstuffs in front of us. The native proprietor insisted that we bought some thing to eat and as the only things that we recognised and thought safe to eat in all that queer assortment of eatables were eggs we bought some of those after finding out that they were hard boiled and sat and ate them along with all the beer that remained in our possession.
After entering the billet, we had just settled down once more when a Warrant Officer came into the room and asked us to hand him all our glasses and tell him what we wanted to drink which we did and off he went out into the night once more. Of course we were then unable to drink so we sat talking for twenty minutes or so before deciding to go and look for our glasses. On arrival in the Sargeants [sic] Mess I found the W/O in the middle of a large crush in front of the bar, he had not forgotten us after all. Then a little later, he passed our filled glasses back to me over the heads of those behind him. All those drinks must have cost him a little fortune and the best part of it was that none of us even knew the fellow.
I was in the Sargeants [sic] Mess until the bar closed, and I was invited along with all the others to the Officers Mess. So we all trooped in small groups over the football pitch and into the marquee in which the officers bar was situated. Where incidentally drinks of every description were free that night. It was well after midnight when I made my way across the football pitch again only towards my billet block this time. On the way, I called in at our cookhouse and found the Sargeant [sic] cook was well under the weather. Two of the other cooks soaked in sweat and standing in front of a fire giving out teriffic [sic] heat and surrounded by dozens of cooked and uncooked chickens and rolls of ham. I felt very sorry for them as it certainly was no holiday for those cooks. There they were in that heat getting the fellows’ dinner ready for the following day and we who were to eat that dinner and benefit from their efforts were out enjoying ourselves. I offered to lend them a hand but it was gratefully declined so after wishing them a Merry Christmas I went back to my room and so to bed.
I got up for breakfast on Christmas morning and along with the others in my room we all went down to the cookhouse together. Later on during the morning of this third Christmas Day of mine overseas and the fourth one away from home I watched a team picked from the English footballers on our Squadron play against a team picked from the Scotsmen. Everyone in the Squadron that morning turned out to watch the great international match and the cheering for both sides was teriffic [sic] during the game. Some of the Scots supporters turned out waving home made yellow flags with a red dragon painted on them. One fellow wore a home made kilt and hat and all that goes with the outfit and carried his flag on top of a 10 ft pole which he stuck behind the Scottish goal for luck during the game which ended up by Scotland winning by two goals to nil much to the delight of all their supporters. I must say that the result was expected as in Scotlands team they had the two Squadron professional footballers. After the game we came back to the billet and sat on our beds talking until it was time for dinner. I will not write much about the meal as from the Menu you can read about all that we had to eat etc. By way of a surprise during the meal the schoolteacher had brought from the village his little girls and boys dressed in their best colourful native clothes to sing for all the fellows. As was the usual custom the Officers waited on us throughout the meal but we would have got our food much quicker if we had gone up to the servery for it ourselves.
By the way, my dog ate the half chicken that I had brought for him back to the billet from the dining hall with me. I think she wished that Christmas came every day
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[inserted] 194A [/inserted]
[photograph of tables set for Christmas dinner]
[underlined] THE TABLES BEFORE WE SAT DOWN FOR CHRISTMAS DINNER [/underlined]
[Christmas day menu front cover with picture of Flying Horse. Burma 1945]
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She was not the only one either.
I nearly forgot to say that, earlier that morning when there was a heavy damp mist covering the camp it looked like Christmas time, but the sun soon came up and dried it all away. As the temperature that afternoon was well over 100o most of the fellows wanted to rest on their beds after dinner, but a few of them myself included decided to go on one of the Squadron’s lorries which was going into Rangoon to a dance which was being held in the W.V.S. Eastern Counties Club near the docks.
As usual about 250 fellows were in the ballroom and a dozen women so that the only thing I enjoyed was the piece of iced Christmas cake and mince pies etc, that was given to me during the interval. Long before the dance was due to end we were hitch hiking back to camp which we reached just in time for late tea and more mince pies. As it was a bit dead in our room earlier in the evening, a friend and myself went over to the [deleted] Squadron’s [/deleted] [inserted] SARGEANTS [/inserted] Mess where it was an open night and in there we got talking to two officers who had come up from their mess because it was dead there also. They complained that instead of enjoying themselves they were all in bed. Our conversation ended up by them inviting us to their mess to brighten it up a bit. For a while we sat drinking and talking on the edge of the football pitch beneath a starry sky. Then we had a good old supper of bread and cheese along with mince pies and many other things. A little later just as the lights went out my friend disappeared but I did not miss him for a while and as he told me a little earlier on that he was not feeling well I thought that he had gone back to his billet to bed so I did not worry. Next morning I was told that two officers bought him home at 2 a.m. after finding him lying out in the football pitch. As the night went on we sat talking about different things in the dark and were joined by more officers who also joined in the conversation and it was after 2 a.m. when the party broke and made off to bed.
On arrival back at my room I was thunderstuck. [sic] I had left it because things were too quiet and at 2.15 in the morning I found the place an uproar and in disorder. It certainly had brightened up since I left it. In fact too much for my liking and it was a long time before everyone got to bed and silence reigned supreme once again.
On the 26th December (Boxing Day) I took things easy and slept during most of the morning in the afternoon and in the evening I went to a cinema show.
Two days later I saw the C.O. about getting prizes and decorations and told him that it was impossible to obtain either anywhere in Rangoon. Then I suggested that I could get them most probably if I could have a few days in Calcutta. To this he replied that we had an aircraft going to Calcutta a couple of days later so if I put in a leave pass he would sign. He then told the Squadron Leader i/c flying to put my name down on the manifest. So I quickly got hold of a form (295) leave pass from the S.W.O’s office and made it out and then I went to pay accounts and changed my money into Indian currency.
Next day I watched an Irish football team from our Squadron play a Welsh team. At half time, Ireland were winning by 3 goals to nil but after the interval they seemed to go to pieces and amid the roars and shouts of the Welsh supporters Wales finished up winning the game by 7 goals to 3.
Next day being a Sunday, it was my day off so I spent it by taking out the invitation cards cont…
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for the Squadron dance to all the hospitals and units where European women worked. My travels that day took me to every part and section in the Rangoon area. After a lot of hard work and trying times when trying to get lifts to the different places I covered 15 units and houses etc where girls lived. It was quite a diplomatic job talking nicely to everyone and trying to get them to promise to come along on the night and telling them what a nice dance it would be and all its attractions etc. then I had to invite the C.O’s of the other R.A.F. units and Squadrons on our airfield and also the Group Captain. On top of that I had to sell tickets to the fellows and give invitations to those who were bringing their own partners to the dance. Yes it certainly was hard work seeing to everything.
That same day I found out that the aircraft in which I was to travel to India in, was an old Mark 1 Dakota which had finished its flying hours and was going to [inserted] A [/inserted] maintenance Unit to be scrapped. The fitters and riggers had been working on it for weeks trying to get the aircraft servicable [sic] and fit for the air. On three consequetive [sic] days our trip was postponed because something or other went U/S on the aircraft In fact I began to wonder if I ever would get to India and back before our dance came off.
On Monday 31st December (New Years Eve) everyone was issued out with a large helping of rum which seemed to warm ones blood and light you up. Everytime [inserted] ONE [/inserted] took a sip of it. That night also the Sgts and Officers Messes were open to all ranks and it was in the Sergeants Mess later on the in the evening that I met an Officer who was on my old Squadron in Syria, Corsica and France etc. When I had last seen him, he was a Flight Sergeant Spitfire Pilot on “A” Flt of 242 Squadron. Since then he had been back to England received his commission and had been turned into a transport aircraft pilot and had come overseas again. We had quite a good chat about old times and people in the old Squadron before parting that night.
When the C.O. announced that it was midnight, I was in the Officers Mess and we all joined hands and sang “Auld Lang Syne”. Whilst we were singing I thought back over the whole of 1945 and of a year ago to that minute when I was singing the same song whilst linkind [sic] hands in the Sgts Mess at Barri in Italy whilst it was freezing cold and snowing. Yes I had certainly came a long way during that year. Little on New Years Eve 1944 did I think that on the following New Years Eve I should be sweltering in the Burma heat and as I stood in the Officers Mess singing in the year 1946 I also wondered where I would be to sing in 1947 and what would happen to me during 1946.
On the evening of January 1st, I was informed that the Old Mark 1 aircraft was at last servicable [sic] and would be taking off on the following morning. So after packing the things that I would need during my short trip in my small pack, I walked down to the Guard room and put in an early call for myself and then I went to bed early. Another fellow in my room and a Corporal were going with the same aircraft to the M.U to try and get hold of some engine spare parts etc to replentish [sic] our technical stores on the Squadron.
It was ten to five when I looked at my watch after signing for my early call and after tying one of my blankets into a small bundle I went down to the Mess for an early breakfast.
cont…
[page break]
[inserted] 197 [/inserted]
- 20 –
Then I came back to the billet and joined the other two fellows and picked up my small pack etc. We all then walked over to the Sgts Mess block to where the lorry was waiting to take us down to the drome.
On arrival at the aircraft I found that it looked worse inside that [sic] it did outside and it most certainly looked as if it was time that it finished flying in the air. What made its [deleted] worst [/deleted] appearance [inserted] WORSE [/inserted] was the Mark 1 Dakota’s narrow propellor [sic] blades. We climbed into the cockpit cabin and ran up the engines before the crew turned up to see for ourselves what they were like.
Then a few moments later along with the crew came another 15 aircrew and officers from our Squadron who were going to India for leave etc. As there were no seats or safety belts in the fusalage [sic] we all had to sit on the floor and the area looked so crowded that as we taxied towards the end of the run-way, I began to doubt whether or not the engines had enough power in them to enable the aircraft to leave the ground
During take-off we all sat [deleted] and sook [/deleted] as near as we were able to the crews cabin door so as to take all the weight off of the aircrafts tail, so enabling it to rise up much more quickly.
Not one of the passengers or the crew relished looking forward to the trip in that old aircraft and I think everyone breathed a sigh of relief when we left the ground and steadily gained height. [inserted] AT 7 A.M. [/inserted] During the first part of our trip it was very cloudy so we were unable to see much of the scenery below us and we hugged the coast line all the way as I think the captain thought it a bit too chancy to cut straight across the sea to our destination in case anything went wrong. We had no Mae Wests or Dingys [sic] on board so we were glad of the [deleted] Les [/deleted] decision. If we had gone over the sea and something had happened we would have been in a sorry plight. After a short while in the air it began to get very cold indeed and most of the passengers sat shivering and looking at each other. Luckily I had slipped a couple of newspapers into my side pack the night before, so for a while, I was able to sit shivering and read a paper instead of staring at other people. About 2 hours after take-off 10,000 ft beneath me, through the clouds I caught familar [sic] glimpses of the still flooded areas of Akyab island and of the mainland nearby. Soon afterwards I had to unpack my blanket and wrap it around me as I was unable to stop shivering even after moving up and down the aircraft a few times. Approximately an hour after passing over Akyab the weather began to clear and soon we were flying in perfect conditions. The sun was shining and visibility was exceptionally good for dozens of miles around us. I caught glimpses of the coast town of Chittagong which is the first place of any importance in India. After crossing the Burma and India border at the point where it meets the [inserted] BAY OF [/inserted] Bengal. [deleted] Bay. [/deleted] We continued to hug the coast until we passed over the river Ganges near to where its eastern tributary joins the sea. Then we flew on a straight South Westerly overland course towards Calcutta. By this time we had lost a little height and it began to get a bit warmer in the aircraft and I could see the shadow of our aircraft beneath and to the side of us skipping along the barren ground of some of the plains of Eastern India.
Twenty minutes after changing course we passed over a large tributary of the River Brahmaputra approximately 25 miles north of where it joins the Bay of Bengal. Then a little later we passed over the large Western tributary of the Brahmaputra approx a hundred miles north from where it joined the sea.
cont….
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[inserted] 198 [/inserted]
- 21 –
From each of the tributories [sic] ran hundreds of much smaller ones trailing off like a spider’s trail. So the whole area beneath us often looked to [inserted] BE [/inserted] made up of both large and small waterways twisting and winding across the plain towards the sea.
Then lastly just before reaching Calcutta we passed over the Western Main tributary of the river Ganges at a point approximately 75 miles inland. Then almost immediately after that we found ourselves circling the airfield of Dum Dum and its surrounding installations etc, in preparation for landing.
At the far end of the runway our aircraft was met by a vehicle with a board attached to the rear of it which read “follow me” Our pilot did as instructed and was led [deleted] by [/deleted] [inserted] TO [/inserted] a distant concrete dispersal area.
On stepping down from the aircraft the vehicle driver told us that he would take the crew to the control tower so that they could book in and that he would send down a passenger vehicle to pick the rest of us up. As my two pals were travelling as crew they had to go along and leave me.
The rest of us waited around for a quarter of an hour after which there was still no signs of any conveyance coming to pick the rest of us up. So in ones and twos everyone began to walk slowly toward the control tower. On our way there we passed the large hanger in which silver Commando and Dakota aircraft belonging to the Chinese Airways were being serviced. The interiors of them were painted in buff and chocolate colour and on the wings and fusalage [sic] were the queer Chinese matchstick marking painted in black. On arrival at the modern control tower around which many more buildings were in the process of being erected, we were directed to the passenger arrival and departure office. We reached this building by making our way through the dozens of Indians who were engaged upon the construction work mixing concrete and laying bricks, etc.
At the office we were informed that we would have to wait at least two hours for an airfield bus to take us into the town, so three other passengers and myself walked to the next building which was the airfield restaurant.
[missing word] the dining room was full we sat down in wicker chairs around one of the small tables in the restaurant annexe. An Indian bearer with a spotless white turban on his head brought to us a tray on which was a pot of tea, four cups and saucers and two containers of milk and sugar. A few minutes later there were vacant seats in the dining room, so we went in and took possession of a table near the door and almost immediately another bearer with a number tag on his white tunic appeared and waited patiently for us to give him our orders. I thoroughly enjoyed my four course lunch, it was the best I had eaten for months. A hundred times more than [deleted] the [/deleted] [inserted] OUR [/inserted] R.A.F. food. Being there on leave, on my own gave me a feeling of freedom from the R.A.F. for a while and for a few days I was my own master and I was free to do whatever I felt like doing in a big city. Believe it or not I even got a kick out of pulling my first chain in almost two years.
Whilst having my lunch I discovered that we had gained an hour on our arrival in India so I had to put my watch back.
On making my way back to the passenger office, I found my two pals and the crew who were also waiting for a lift into town.
cont….
[page break]
[inserted] 198A [/inserted]
[inserted] [underlined] 1. [/underlined] [/inserted]
[newspaper cutting about Calcutta]
[page break]
[inserted] [underlined] 3. [/underlined] [/inserted]
[continuation of the newspaper cutting about Calcutta]
[page break]
[inserted] 199 [/inserted]
- 22 –
We stood there talking for 20 minutes or so and were contemplating hiring a taxi when from around the corner of one of the buildings swung an almost full shabby small blue bus.
There was only room for six left, so it was first there who got a place in the bus. I was one of the lucky ones as I did not have any bulky objects such as suitcases or large travelling bags with me. So consequently I was off to a quick start and after a scramble I found myself in the bus. Even though I was fourth aboard, I had to sit on my blanket roll which I placed in the gangway between to two rows of seats.
The country and houses in the area around the airfield were very [deleted] Anglesises [sic] [/deleted] (English) but as we passed over the bridge spanning dozens of railway lines the scene changed and we found ourselves travelling through the suburbs and slums of Calcutta. This is one of the worst areas in the world as regards living conditions. In fact with so many people thronging those streets I began to wonder where they all could possibly live. After travelling a further few miles we reached the more modern and clean Calcutta and a few moments later after having travelled for about 11 to 12 miles, the bus stopped outside the Continental Hotel in Chowringhee. (The main road or High Street of Calcutta) and we decended [sic] on to the pavement. As this hotel was for Officers only I walked along with some of the N.C.O. crew, until we reached Sudder Street two blocks further on. We turned into Sudder Street and on just before reaching the end of the street we came to the Astoria Hotel on the left hand side. Facing the end of the street was the Calcutta Fire station but that did not interest us so we went into the hotel and I booked a room for myself for the next four days whilst the crew booked for one night only.
After being shown to my room, I had a wash before proceeding to the dining hall where I had a second 3 course lunch that day. Next I sat down for a while out in the sunshine and along with some other people staying at the hotel watched an Indian magician carry out quite a number of amazing tricks. Just as his performance ended, my other two friends turned up along with the rest of the air crew who could not get on our bus and who we left behind at the airfield. At 5 p.m. the three of us decided to explore a part of the town before dinner which was at 7 p.m. Within a few minutes of leaving the hotel we found ourselves walking around the acres of small stalls and shops which were situated beneath the covered in New Market. Without exaggeration, one could buy almost any conceivable article in that market without points or coupons etc. Honestly there were so many nice things on show that if I had had a £1000 in my pocket I could have easily have spent every penny of it during my tour of the stalls. When I saw the [deleted] toy [/deleted] shops gaily lighted up and stacked full of toys and dolls of every description, I could not help being sad through thinking how happy any English child would have been just to be able to set their eyes on such an [deleted] army [/deleted] [inserted] ARRAY [/inserted] of toys. Instead of which at that time they only had empty toy shop windows to look into. Whilst looking at silk and satin clothing and material etc, I got separated from my two friends and before I knew where I was I discovered that the time was a quarter to seven, so I made my way back to the hotel. To me it seemed as if I had only left it a few minutes before. I had been so interested in those hundreds of lighted stalls that time had flown by.
Just as I was sitting down to dinner at my table I was joined by my two friends and for the next 1/2 hour we were busy making soup, fish, chickens and accessories, jelly and custard, fruit and coffee etc disappear.
cont..
[page break]
[inserted] 200 [/inserted]
- 23 –
It certainly was a refreshing change to see a nice white tablecloth and serviettes once again and sets of cutlery all set out and it was also a change not to have to queue up for our food outside our cookhouse and get it slapped into our plates.
The dining room itself looked quite gay as the Christmas decorations and baloons [sic] and coloured lanterns etc, had not then been taken down.
[symbols]
[page break]
[inserted] 200A [/inserted]
[photograph of a street in Calcutta]
SECOND CITY OF THE EMPIRE is not as quiet as this now. But there has been a security ban on photographs from wartime Calcutta.
[underlined] MODERN SECTOR [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 200B [/inserted]
[five photographs of streets and buildings of Calcutta]
[page break]
[five photographs of buildings and monuments of Calcutta]
[page break]
[inserted] 200C [/inserted]
[photograph of a war memorial in Calcutta]
[page break]
1
[inserted] 201 [/inserted]
I duly said farewell to the aircrew next morning and wished them well on the next stage of their flight in india [sic] to where would be the graveyard our old Dakota.
They said “do not worry, we will see you in three days time with a nice new machine”.
When I first booked in to the hotel, I was informed that it was possible that I would not be able to leave the hotel during my visit. The reason was that during the fighting in Burma and the defence of the border of North East India there was in being an Indian National Army that joined forces with the Japanese thinking that they were going to win the war.
At this time the trials of a number of the leaders captured was being held in Calcutta and the verdicts were due at any minute and it was felt that when announced the sentences could result in serious riots occurring in the city.
However the sentences given out next day were only of a mild nature and the threat therefore did not materialise.
During those 3 days I wondered [sic] far and wide and was fascinated by the the [sic] Chowringhee bazaar where I managed to purchase lovely decorations for the Rangoon Town Hall for the occasion of the squadrons dance.
They took the form of huge bells of different colours. I purchase hundreds of paper flowers that would be enclosed in the bells when they were erected over the dance floor area.
I remember well that [inserted] in [/inserted] one place I saw a crowd of people on the pavement looking at something in their mist [sic] and on getting nearer I found an Indian squatting cross legged and in front of him was a wicker basket. In his mouth was a tin flute. As I joined the throng he started to play Indian music and low and behold up rose very slowly a python.
Whilst I was fascinated needless to say I did not try to get any nearer. [inserted] [symbol] [/inserted] [inserted] [symbol] PROVING THAT THE MONGOOSE COULD STRIK [sic] FASTER THAN A SNAKE THIS FOLLOWED. BUT THIS COLLECTIVE PLATE [indecipherable word] PASSED AROUND FOR THE SPECTATORS TO PLACE A FEW [deleted] [indecipherable word] [/deleted] ANNAS UPON IT. I HOPE HE GOT ENOUGH [symbol] [/inserted] to go and purchase a replacement snake. Of course he did not use the python against the mongoose.
During my explorations another experience occurred that will live in my mind forever and that is that during one of my walks I suddenly came upon the racecourse. As I walked [deleted] down [/deleted] [inserted] ALONG [/inserted] by the track and the virgin white painted rails glistening in the sunlight, I could have easily been at Ascot on lovely summers day.
Yet on turning my back and having walked a few hundred yards I came into an area where inhabitants lived in virtually mud huts and who were undernourished and extensively impoverished. Malformed bodies lay around on earthen pavements.
It was almost as if I had stepped back 2000 years in just a few minutes.
[page break]
2
[inserted] 202 [/inserted]
During my last visit to the Chowringhee bazaar I think I must have had a flush of madness or lost control of my senses, I found myself surcoming [sic] to the salesmanship of someone selling parrots.
I ended carrying back to the hotel with a cage in my hand in which was a green parrot with a red beak.
During the last day of my wanderings I stopped in the heat of the day for a nice cold drink in one of the many bars situated in the area I found myself in. Sitting at the next table was a Squadron Leader in the Royal Air Force. Of course we obviously entered into a conversation with each other and it transpired that he was in the middle of a leave a [sic] knew the city quite well.
He was most interested to learn of all my travels and experiences and related many of his own. After a short while it was as if we had known each other for years.
We [deleted] immediately [/deleted] [inserted] MUTALLY [sic] [/inserted] agreed to meet later in the day when he would call at my hotel.
I had just finished my evening meal when he turned up and off we went and our journey on foot, took us for a number of miles and various points of interest were brought to my attention. On a couple of occasions we stopped for a drink or two, as we neared my return to my hotel informed me that he would like to take me to a very nice club that he had found and where he had spent a number of evenings.
He held a [deleted] ritual [/deleted] [inserted] RICKSHAW [/inserted] and gave instructions and off we went. After a short journey [deleted] he [/deleted] [inserted] IT [/inserted] came to a halt and after he had paid off the attendant started off towards [deleted] the sun [/deleted] [inserted] SOME [/inserted] steps leading into what appeared to be a most impressive building. My attention and eyes were immediately drawn towards a notice that said OFFICERS ONLY and at the door stood a steward who was obviously posted there to check on those entering the establishment.
I came to a halt, [deleted] he [/deleted] [inserted] AND [/inserted] said no way can I go in there. I was told yes you can, my reply of course was oh no I cannot.
The next few minutes I think I was the only airman to be promoted directly from leading aircraftsman to squadron leader even if it was not official.
I was handed and was met with an insistence that I attached a pair of epaulettes of the rank of squadron leader on the loops attached to the shoulders of my khaki shirt.
I think that the few drinks that we had had melted my resistance and I eventually complied and in we went without any difficulty. In fact we were met with a most efficient salute which along with my colleague I had to acknowledge.
Two things very soon became apparent as my new found friend was concerned and that was that he had piles of money and was something of a gambler.
On my 1/3d or 1/6d a day pay as a leading aircraftsman I was somewhat restricted with regards my spending. However although I tried very hard that evening I was not allowed to pay for a round of drinks. Although we ordered the drinks alternatively he insisted that the cost was debited to his account.
[page break]
3
[inserted] 203 [/inserted]
My friend also insisted that we played on a dozen or more fruit machines situated in one area of the impressive club. Again he insisted on filling up my pockets with coins for the machines, he would not even accept the money on the occasions when I managed to win.
As the evening wore on and it was time to leave and go back to the hotel we were both more than a little merry. On arrival I found that the aircrew had safely arrived and we were due to return to Dum Dum Airport mid morning next day for our journey back to Rangoon.
We both [deleted] paid [/deleted] [inserted] BADE [/inserted] each other farewell with best wishes for the future but not before I demoted myself from squadron leader back to the aircraftsman.
I do not think I have ever come across such a generous person in my life and there was simply no reason why he should have be so kind to me and what was more [deleted] amazing [/deleted] [inserted] ANNOYING [/inserted] was the fact that we did not even exchange addresses in England. I very much regretted this failure on the following morning.
Alas it was goodbye to Calcutta. The aircrew had arranged transport back to the airfield from the hotel and low and behold on arrival at Dum Dum a lovely new aircraft awaited us. However when I climbed aboard with my belongings the decorations etc, it was lucky that those large bells were folded down into a flat section making just a rather large parcel. The reason was that the aircraft was packed full with [deleted] India [/deleted] [inserted] ENGINEERING [/inserted] stores etc for Mingladon. [sic] I ended up having to sit on a packing case.
You can guess also the comments I received as I loaded on the parrot and cage which occupied the top of the next packing case to my own.
This time I had more confidence during our trip down the runway before take off. ON our return journey, the pilot also had the same feeling as we took the direct route across the ocean between India and Burma.
However due to the turbulence he had to travel at a very high altitude on occasions and with no oxygen available the air became somewhat thin and affected our breathing on occasions.
Other than this the flight was rather uneventful and we duly found ourselves making a smooth landing at Mingladon [sic] and taxi-ing to 267 Squadron’s dispersal point.
After thanking the aircrew for their help and assistance we obtained transport back to our campsite.
The remarks of the aircrew were nothing to those that I experienced when I carried the parrot into our billet room. I do not know whether I had been sold a sick bird or it was the high altitude of the day before was the reason [deleted] for feeling [/deleted] [inserted] HOWEVER I WAS [/inserted] very upset when later that day I found the poor parrot dead at the bottom of his cage.
[page break]
[inserted] 203A [/inserted]
[invitation card to 267 Squadron dance]
[underlined] INVITATION TICKET TO OUR DANCE] [/underlined]
[page break]
[underlined] BALANCE SHEET FOR SQUADRON DANCE HELD IN THE CIVIC HALL. (RANGOON).
JANUARY 11th 1946. [/underlined]
[blank] – [blank] – Rs – As
To Hire of hall. ………………………..…… 25. – 0.
To Cleaning Hall …………………………… 10. – 0.
To Hire of Band ………………………..… 150. – 0.
To Printing of Tickets (300) …………… 55. – 0.
Spot Prizes (8) …………………………….… 58. – 0.
Streamers, Balloons, Decorations,
Bearer’s Tips’s Etc. ………………………..103. – 0.
Limes Juice (40) Bottles. ………………... 85. – 0.
Fancy Cakes, Buns, Swiss Rolls Etc .. 166. – 0.
Drinks for Band, Doorman and
Other Helpers. ……………………………… 28. – 0.
Tips to 3 Doormen and 4 Refreshment
And Decoration Helpers. ………………. [underlined] 70. – 0. [/underlined]
[blank] [blank] [underlined] 750. – 0. [/underlined]
Rs
Sale of 150, Tickets at 5Rs 750
Rs [underlined] 750 [/underlined]
Signed. [four signatures]
[page break]
[inserted] 20 [/inserted] 4
The next few days besides my work on various aircrafts I was busy making the final arrangements for the Squadron Dance on 11 January.
On that day however all the parts of the jigsaw fitted in perfectly. The rest of the small committee helped to decorate the city hall and hoist up the large colourful bells with their contents. I had to arrange transport to travel hundreds of miles to the hospital units etc in the area to collect and finally return female partners for our airmen.
In spite of much criticism from many of our colleagues, everyone who attended seemed to enjoy themselves and the ladies were most impressed when the time came for me to pull the strings and hundreds of paper flowers emerged from the bells overhead. This was certainly in extreme contrast to spartan life that they must have lived over the previous months or years since they left England. I even received the congratulations and thanks of my commanding officer.
Life over the next few months took a routine pattern. During my many visits to China Town, many merchants loved to set out displays of rubies which were mined in the PEGU area north of Rangoon.
Not knowing much about the gems although many of them looked beautiful I always had the doubt in my mind that they could have been fakes. So I always declined to make a purchase.
I have often thought that if I had been an expert on rubies I could have ended up making a large sum of money.
One date that sticks out in my memory was from the 14th to 16th April when the Thingyan Water Festival was held. It is a religious festival and it was considered lucky to have water thrown over ones self.
On one of these days we filled up 40 gallon [deleted] oak [/deleted] [inserted] OPEN [/inserted] topped barrels of water onto the open topped lorry that was taking us into town. On the trip we took delight in throwing water from smaller containers over anyone we passed by the roadside or over occupants of the open vehicles that passed us in the opposite direction.
It was of course not all one way and the habitants threw back water over us as we passed them. Everyone acted in a good natured way, but at the end of our journey we were all wet through except our driver. However the hot sun of [inserted] THE [/inserted] day soon dried us out.
Another incident which sticks out in my mind was when our pilots were being regraded in readiness to return to civilian flying. In turn they were taken up on a flight accompanied by our commanding officer. On take off they had to reach an airspeed on the runway and then on becoming airborne throw a switch feather one engine [deleted] and [/deleted] [inserted] UNTIL [/inserted] told to restart same.
[page break]
[inserted] 20 [/inserted] 5
On one such trip the pilot on being told to restart the feathered engine touched the wrong switch and stopped the second.
The aircraft immediately lost height rapidly and belly flopped on the ground. Luckily both CO and pilot was unhurst, [sic] however the Dakota came to a rest in the centre of a native village with both wing tips and nose situated very near to a basher hut.
If one had tried to lower it into that position it would have been rather difficult. The final twist to the story is that a flying horse [deleted] which [/deleted] was the village’s lucky mascot and when they saw the one on either side of the aircraft they thought it was a lucky omen.
We never did learn as to what grading the pilot licence the CO issued to the [deleted] person [/deleted] [inserted] PILOT [/inserted] concerned.
[inserted] [indecipherable word] [/inserted] When one left England one was given a repatriation number. As the months went by my own number got nearer and nearer.
Mid June arrived and one of my colleagues came rushing into our billet and said he had just come from the orderly room when he discovered that the next list had arrived and both our names were included, the result was that we almost danced with joy.
It was an exciting time during the next few days. My last day arrived before proceeding to the transit camp in Rangoon so I decided to make my last visit to Mingladon [sic] Airfield. As I linked up with my working gang they were about to finish work for the day. Before leaving the aircraft that they were working on they, as we always had to, put the covers over the engines as the cowlings had been removed.
I duly remarked to them that the last thing I would do to help before leaving was to cover up the engines and went up the platform steps placed under one of the engines and as I reached up to throw the cover over the engine my foot slipped and knocked the front of my leg on one of the steps.
Although it was a rather painful experience, I did not worry too much at the time, However that evening I gradually deteriorated and as the night wore on I was perspiring profusely, feeling sick and dizzy and going hot and cold.
I though [sic] that I had caught malaria and next morning I could hardly walk on my leg and limped out of the billet and up onto the lorry that took us daily to the airfields. I told the lorry to stop as it passed the RAF hospital on its journey and limped into sick quarters and reported sick. A little later I was seen by the Medical Officer and next thing I knew was being admitted into hospital. As a result of a blood infection, for the next few days I had 100,000 units of pencillin [sic] injected into my bottom every day at 4 hourly intervals.
[page break]
[inserted] 206 [/inserted]
On each of these 4 hours night and day the [inserted] nurse [/inserted] came along, lifted my mosquito net and punctured by [sic] rear end.
To my concern and consternation and grief I regret the few of my colleagues of the squadron who were due to go home to England with me came in to wish me good-bye. When I was finally discharged I returned to my billet and found empty spaces in the room.
I then reported to the squadron’s orderly room and demanded to know whether having missed my ship out of Rangoon my name could be put down for the very next one.
Much to my consternation I was informed the Squadron was due to be disbanded and that the aircraft and personnel had been posted to various parts of India. Also that I was, with a number of others and one aircraft had been posted to Bombay.
I became right agitated and in no uncertain terms stated that I should really be on my way home and it was somewhat rediculous [sic] that I had to go all the way to Bombay and immediately leave the squadron that I had been posted to.
I was informed that the next troopship to leave Rangoon was to be the last one and that all places had been allocated. I was told there was nothing I could do, but after more insistence on my part I received confirmation that the orderly sergeant would place my situation before our squadron movement officer.
I returned to my billet duly dejected. Next morning I was told to report to the orderly officer and I was informed that they had managed to arrange for me to travel on the last boat leaving Rangoon direct to England. I was told to pack my kit and proceed next day to 27 PTC Rangoon Transit Camp.
I was there for the next 9 days, finally on 29 July after a trip down Rangoon River in a landing craft in pouring monsoon rain, I found myself walking up a gangplank of a troopship with my kit bag loaded over my shoulder and said hello to SS Carthage 5000 tons.
However there was a difference this time insomuch it was the first time that I knew which country the journey would end, Dear Old Blighty.
We sailed at 4.00 pm after lifeboat drill and I watched the receding coatline [sic] of the Ranoon [sic] area and so it was goodbye to Burma with 1400 Army and 1000 RAF personnel on board.
Life aboard was very much the same as described previously although not quite such a rigid programme.
July 30th. Food very good. Run into a storm during evening, I noted the boat rock a bit. 290 miles covered to noon.
July 31st. When sailing across the Indian Ocean the weather became very rough indeed. So much so during the afternoon I was sea sick for the very first time in my life. I along with the majority on board felt really dreadful and did not care if the ship had sunk.
By early evening I was feeling my usual bright self once more and went and drew the evening meal for the 14 who sat at our mess table to eat. On that occasion only 4 of us turned up to partake of same. 397 miles covered to noon, it was so warm I slept on deck.
[page break]
[inserted] 207 [/inserted]
August 1. We arrived off the coast of East Ceylon early afternoon and reduced speed by half, 359 miles covered.
August 2. We sailed into Columbo harbour and dropped anchor (lost it) at 8 pm. Weather was fine and we were 8o North of the Equator. 214 miles covered. The harbour was full of ships of different sizes and shapes. Total miles covered since leaving Burma 1,260. The ship sailed at 4.20 pm from the coconut tree lined bay that surrounded us.
Next day we ran into a few storms but it was the first night for months when we observed a sky full of stars. Another 305 miles covered up until noon.
We passed an island 450 miles out and were told that it was the last land we should see during the next 5 days.
August 4. Another 400 miles to noon. I was appointed mess orderly for the day and we watched an ENSA concert in the evening.
August 5. 357 miles. I played bridge at evening.
August 6. 361 miles. Later that day we started [inserted] to [/inserted] run into another gale.
August 7. Everything was tied down and stowed away ready for another big storm that hit us at 4 am whilst I was asleep. However it did not slow us up as we had covered 374 miles that day up until 12 noon.
August 8. Passed the Rock of Aden at 6 am and entered the Red Sea later when the sea became calmed once more. 392 miles covered to noon. The Straights were 13 miles wide and we were then 100 miles distant from Abysinia.
August 9. We passed by [inserted] a [/inserted] volcanic island and it was hellish hot and like a furnace below decks where I was on duty. During the day when I was able to get up on the deck and get fresh air for short while, I found the dolphins were swimming and jumping out of the water near to us. That evening we had a similar show up on the open deck.
August 10. My last day on duty. We passed a large coral reef and later an island named after the first man to fly [underlined] Niosus [/underlined] [inserted] ? [/inserted] in the old Greek legend when the sun melted his wings. [inserted] 10C [/inserted]
August 9th. We sailed passed the Brother Islands at dusk.
August 11th. Passed Mt Sini early morning which was 26 miles inland, it was the site where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments. The ship docked outside Port Suez at Noon and a Dutch boat was anchored nearby.
A large amount of [deleted] pardoning [/deleted] [inserted] BARGAINING [/inserted] took place with the local natives that came out to us in small boats in respect of purchases of leather goods etc.
We also watched 48 RAF colleagues disembark who had been posted to units in the Middle East. I noted that it was a glorious sunset that evening.
[page break]
[inserted] 208 [/inserted]
August 12th. We sailed once more at 3 am in the morning and when I arose later, went up on deck, we were sailing in the greater of the bitter lakes. Just off Kabrit which I knew very well and mentioned earlier in my story.
There was an Italian battleship still anchored in the lake after 2 3/4 years, however we noted that it had steam up so it must have been about to move for the first time after such a long period at anchor.
As we neared the end of the Suez Canal passing by Ismailia and onto Port Said, I saw scenery that I had seen twice before on my way to Syria and on my way back going to Corsica.
We were told that the cost of our troopship passing through the Suez Canal was £3,000 and this was some 44 years ago.
It was then out into the Mediterranean (yet another trip for me).
August 12th found us sailing along the Egyptian coast with no land in [deleted] site [/deleted] [inserted] SIGHT [/inserted] 330 miles covered to noon.
August 13th. No land for 200 miles in either direction. The ship passed between Malta and Scicily [sic] late at night. We did very well that day with yet another 420 miles covered to noon.
August 14th. Passed the Island of Panterllieria early morning [deleted] the [/deleted] Bone at 10 am and bone at 3 pm followed by Phillipville 9 pm. These 3 sites are of course in North Africa.
Of course the other major difference with this sailing from all the others was that there was no blackout to contend with and this applied to the islands and coastline that we passed during the hours of darkness. To us it was like passing fairyland once more.
August 15th found us off Algiers at 7 am, it was very misty at the time, later that day we were at the point approximately 50 miles north of Oran. We watched another beautiful sunset with the fiery ball of th [sic] sun falling behind a mountain range of South East Spain. During that day instructions were received by the Captain to proceed to Tilbury instead of docking at Southampton.
August 16th. We passed near to the Rock of Gibraltar at 6 am, the ship was in the Straights when I arose and went up on deck. We sailed by Cape Cadiz and Cape Trafalgar in the morning and near to Portugal at Cape St Vincent during the afternoon and off Lisbon just before midnight.
August 17th. The early risers saw the town of Oporto (home of port wine) on the starboard side. It was also at that time very cold and the sea was rough. At teatime having passed off Cape Finisterre we entered the Bay of Biscay.
[page break]
[inserted] 209 [/inserted]
August 18th. We drew arms from the ship’s armoury. There was no rush for ice drinks due to the temperature drop for the first time for almost 3 weeks. Out of the Bay of Biscay at 2 pm and later off an island near the Brest Penisular, [sic] finally that day off Cherbourg at 8 pm.
August 19th. We sited [sic] the White Cliffs of Dover and the Harbour on the Portside. When I went up on deck, a great cheer went up from us all who observed this [deleted] site [/deleted] [inserted] SIGHT [/inserted] that we had waited years to see once again. Even though it was rather misty and to us very cold after being used to the tropical heat for such a long period of time.
Later we changed from Khaki to the heavier Royal Air Force blue uniform and we watched as we passed the Channel forts in the Thames estuary. We had a glimpse of Southend Pier at 12.30 pm and finally docked at Tilbury docks later that afternoon having sailed 7,407 sea miles.
In due course I went feeling very light footed down the gangplank and at long last stepped foot again on dear old English soil after a period of 3 years and 35 days.
This is where my story comes to an end. [inserted] I [/inserted] Thank God for watching over me during all my travels and think of those who had not been so fortunate and who [deleted] I [/deleted] [inserted] ARE [/inserted] buried in graves all around the World.
“THERE [inserted] BUT [/inserted] FOR THE GRACE OF GOD [deleted] GO [/deleted] [inserted] LAY [/inserted] I”
[page break]
Although my trip to Siam, French Indo China and Hong Kong was cancelled at the last moment I thought you might like to see a few photographs of the first two named countries so I have included a few on the following pages.
[page break]
[underlined] SAIGON [/underlined] (FRENCH INDO CHINA).
[three photographs of buildings and streets in Saigon]
[page break]
[inserted] 200D [/inserted]
[underlined] GENERAL VIEWS OF SAIGON [/underlined]
[four photographs of views of Saigon]
[page break]
[underlined] GENERAL VIEWS OF SAIGON [/underlined]
[four photographs of areas in Saigon]
[inserted] 200f [/inserted]
[underlined] BANCOCK – SIAM [/underlined]
[photograph taken from aircraft]
[underlined] AIRFIELD [/underlined]
[photograph of bazaar]
[underlined] BAZAAR. [/underlined]
[page break]
[inserted] 200 [symbol] [/inserted]
[photograph of Japanese prisoners of war working on the railroad]
JAPANESE PRISONERS WORKING ON THE [underlined] “BANCOCK RAILWAY”. [/underlined] THE SAME ONE THAT THEY FORCED OUR PRISONERS OF WAR TO BUILD DURING THE WAR. DURING WHICH TIME HUNDREDS OF BRITISH DIED FROM FEVER, ILL TREATMENT, STARVATION, ETC.
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
My overseas service by Raymond Barrett
Description
An account of the resource
Raymond spent his time in the R.A.F. overseas, this lengthy memoir covers the period July 1943 until August 1946. He served in the Middle and Far East and Italy. He was an Engine Mechanic/Fitter and this is his story. The memoir has maps of his travels and his reflections on the countries he visited, their history, geography and politics.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Raymond Barrett
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Typewritten pages, maps
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text. Memoir
Text
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
BBarrettRBarrettRv1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Burma
Tunisia
France--Corsica
Italy
France
Italy--Sicily
Egypt
Syria
India
Burma
Syria
Syria--Aleppo
North Africa
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Tricia Marshall
242 Squadron
air sea rescue
displaced person
entertainment
fear
fitter engine
flight mechanic
fuelling
ground crew
military living conditions
military service conditions
petrol bowser
recruitment
sanitation
service vehicle
Spitfire
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/812/23579/PEllamsG16030002.2.jpg
37c915a306322e67896a6786488f76d5
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
Ellams, George
G Ellams
Description
An account of the resource
60 items. An oral history interview with George Ellams the son of Wing Commander George Ellams OBE (b. 1921), and documents and photographs concerning his fathers service. He flew operations as a wireless operator with 223 and 199 Squadrons.
The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Stephen Ellams and catalogued by Trevor Hardcastle.
Publisher
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IBCC Digital Archive
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-10-06
Rights
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This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Identifier
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Ellams, G
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
Bomber Command No 223 Squadron, RAF Oulton, No 199 Squadron, RAF North Creake
Description
An account of the resource
First is of a crew of eight, standing by left mainwheel of a Stirling captioned 'The crew'. ' The crew of aircraft 'N' for Nan. no 199 Squadron from Nov 1944 till April 1945'.
Second is of ten individuals standing and kneeling in front of a Stirling, captioned "The Mechanics".
Format
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Two b/w photographs on two album pages
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
PEllamsG16030002
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. Bomber Command
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
England--Norfolk
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1944-11
1944-12
1945-01
1945-02
1945-03
1945-04
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Photograph
199 Squadron
223 Squadron
air gunner
aircrew
bomb aimer
flight engineer
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
navigator
pilot
RAF North Creake
RAF Oulton
Stirling
wireless operator
-
https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/original/530/23972/LShawSR3002545v1.1.pdf
773c5f8cba859cc92a945416183f8997
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
Shaw, Stanley R
S R Shaw
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
Shaw, SR
Description
An account of the resource
37 items. An oral history interview with Stanley Shaw (3002545 Royal Air Force) Photographs, documents and his log book. He served with a Repair and Salvage Unit and attended many crashes. He later served in North Africa and the Middle East.
The collection also contains two photograph albums; one of his RAF service and one of his time in a cycle club.
The collection has been licenced to the IBCC Digital Archive by Stanley Shaw and catalogued by Barry Hunter.
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-01-14
2016-02-11
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
Stanley Shaw’s observer’s and air gunner’s flying log book
Description
An account of the resource
Observer’s and air gunner’s flying log book for S R Shaw, covering the period from 21 July 1942 to 1 March 1947. Detailing flying with the Air Training Corps and following training as an airframe fitter his service flying, and his flying with the communications flight at Aden, where he was reclassified as flight mechanic air. He was stationed at RAF Burnaston, RAF Ashbourne, RAF Bobbington (aka RAF Halfpenny Green), RAF Hixon, RAF Hethel, RAF Watton and RAF Aden. Aircraft flown in were Magister, Anson, Wellington, Liberator, Mosquito and Lancastrian. The log book also lists his civilian flying details and that of I M Shaw for the period 1963 to 1984.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Great Britain. Royal Air Force
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
IBCC Digital Archive
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Mike Connock
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
One booklet
Language
A language of the resource
eng
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Text. Log book and record book
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
LShawSR3002545v1
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Royal Air Force
Spatial Coverage
Spatial characteristics of the resource.
Great Britain
Yemen (Republic)
England--Derbyshire
England--Norfolk
England--Staffordshire
Yemen (Republic)--Aden
Temporal Coverage
Temporal characteristics of the resource.
1942
1943
1944
1945
1946
1947
Anson
B-24
fitter airframe
flight mechanic
ground crew
ground personnel
Lancastrian
Magister
Mosquito
RAF Halfpenny Green
RAF Hethel
RAF Hixon
RAF Watton
training
Wellington