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Alma Leedham's memoir
Tells of early life in London, joining the Woman's Auxiliary Air Force in 1941 and training as a driver. Relates experiences at RAF Scampton and then with 57 Squadron as a tractor driver pulling bomb trolleys. Subsequently went to East Kirkby.…
Interview with Jean Smith
Jean Smith worked as a clerk in the aircraft manufacturing industry before the war and later served as a secretary in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force. She served at 27 Operational Training Unit at RAF Lichfield.
Interview with Herbert Tinning
Herbert Tinning trained as an aircraft fitter but later remustered and flew operations with 51 Squadron as a navigator. After the war, he build a career as a town planner and later as an architect.
Interview with Ronald Davis
Ronald Davis grew up in the East End and worked in London as a solicitor’s office boy. He joined the RAF and served as a fitter airframe.
Interview with Lesley Joseph Loosemoore
Les Loosemore describes his upbringing and employment history in Swansea before joining the war in 1945. He describes the Blitz in Swansea before training to be a mid upper gunner for 61 Squadron. He describes his rather intensive training, including…
Interview with an Anonymous Interviewee
This interviewee was working at Chatham dockyard before he was accepted by the RAF as a mechanic. He then remustered as a flight engineer which fulfilled his hopes to be accepted as aircrew. While waiting for a place on the training course at St…
Interview with Sidney Knott
Sidney Knott was from Leigh on Sea and recalls the day, with invasion apparently imminent, that signs were put up on the local shops advising people that they had to be ready to move within an hour and taking only one suitcase with them. Sidney’s…
Letter to Miss J Edwards
Letter from Air Ministry informing her that she has been approved an appointment as assistant section officer in the women's auxiliary air force.
Albert Cluett's armourers training notes
Note include diagrams on different types of bombs, explosives, fuses and pistols, detonators, tools, precautions, bomb carriage and release mechanisms and pyrotechnics.
Albert Cluett's weapons notebook
Covers all types of fire arms and machine guns including Lee Enfield rifle, Colt automatic pistols, revolvers and flare guns, machine guns including Lewis, Vickers and Browning .303 and 0,5 inch as well as a variety of shot guns. Covers stripping and…
Albert Cluett's armourers training notebook. Two
Notes and diagrams on pyrotechnics, smoke bombs and generators, smoke curtain and anti-landing apparatus, armament documentation (forms), explosive regulations, demolition, detonators, depth charges, fuses, bomb carriers and flares.
Interview with David Fellowes. Two
David Fellowes tells of how he used to build model airplanes and fly them in the fields when he was a boy. The son of an engineer, he first joined the Air Training Corps and then volunteered for the Royal Air Force at the age of 17. Describes his…
Interview with Leslie Temple
Leslie Temple spent four years in the Air Training Corps before joining the Royal Air Force as a radio operator. He completed a tour of 30 operations with 101 Squadron at RAF Ludford Magna, as a German speaking special operator. He describes how…
Interview with William Bullock
William Bullock was born in Marshfield in Gloucestershire in September 1916 and joined the Royal Air Force as an apprentice in 1932. He was posted to Egypt for training - after serving in the Middle East he joined Bomber Command as an engineer. After…
Interview with Geoffrey Lenthall
Geoffrey Lenthall was born in Nottinghamshire but spent most of his youth in Scunthorpe. He happily volunteered for aircrew but found himself working as ground personnel. He eventually trained as a wireless operator and was posted to 9 Squadron. He…
Interview with John Bagg
John Bagg worked as a clerk before joining the Royal Air Force at the age of twenty. He was trained as an Instrument Mechanic before remustering and completing a specialist camera course. He went on to serve on several training stations. After the…
Interview with Frank Tolley
Frank Tolley was born in 1921 in Tipton and left school at fourteen to work as an errand boy for a grocer. He joined the Royal Air Force at nineteen as a ground gunner, and was in at the inception of the Royal Air Force Regiment. After eighteen…
Interview with David Fraser
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…
Interview with Bessie Birkby
Bessie Birkby grew up in Sheffield and volunteered for the Women’s Auxilliary Air Force in 1942. She first worked in Balloon Command in Scotland and then trained to be a driver in North Wales. She was then posted to 625 Squadron at RAF Binbrook but…
Interview with Margaret Habberfield
Margaret Habberfield was born in 1923. At sixteen she joined the Royal Air Force after giving her age as eighteen. She began her six-week general training at Harrogate and was billeted with around 20 other girls. Margaret was then posted to RAF…
Interview with Sylvia Trapp
Sylvia Trapp remembers serving in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force during the war. Describes her training in various stations and her duties as a wireless operator, service life and leisure time at Waddington, how she met her future husband, a…
Letter to his wife from Herbert Gray
![EGrayHMGray[Wi]440715.pdf](https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/square_thumbnails/107/1045/EGrayHMGray[Wi]440715.jpg "EGrayHMGray[Wi]440715.pdf")
Expresses concern over regularity of wife’s letters and length of time that letters take to get through. Mentions that they might not be able to depart on leave until Tuesday as the might be on operations Monday night. Recounts that planned 13th…
Letter to his wife from Herbert Gray
![EGrayHMGray[Wi]440806.pdf](https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/files/square_thumbnails/107/1047/EGrayHMGray[Wi]440806.jpg "EGrayHMGray[Wi]440806.pdf")
Starts with complaint that phone calls from wife are replacing letters which he does not like, but did enjoy hearing his wife’s voice. Letter is then a long explanation of why he cannot answer her last letter as it is in his locker at the squadron…
A poem to Billy
A poem sent to Betty Turner's friend Billy to celebrate their 80th. Betty describes the wartime hardships she endured, hint at the bereavement after the loss of the men she loved, stresses the sense of duty toward her country, friendship and…