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Interview with John Louis Goldby
John Goldby was born in Kent but the family moved to London the year after. He was inspired to join the RAF when a schoolfriend joined and became a Spitfire pilot. John believes that it was a mid-air collision with a night fighter that led to his…
Interview with Janet Hughes, One
Janet Hughes’ father, Reginald Charles Wilson, volunteered for the RAF in August 1941. In January 1942, he was posted to America under the Arnold training scheme and was later re-mustered to train as a navigator in Canada. After forming a crew at…
Interview with Janet Hughes. Two
After flying as a spare, Reginald Wilson (Hughes’ father) formed a new crew and completed their first operation to Berlin on the 29th December 1943. During their second operation to Berlin on the 20 January 1944, the aircraft was shot down. Upon…
Interview with Mervyn Jones
Mervyn Jones is a miners son from Wales. His father wanted a different life to that of a miner for his son and the family moved away to Slough where was plenty of work. Mervyn had always had trouble with his ears and so his father assumed he…
Interview with Lawrie Lawrence
Jack ‘Lawrie’ Lawrence planned on making a career in the RAF and joined in 1938. He enjoyed those early days when it felt like he belonged to a flying club. This was interrupted by the start of war and operational flying. He flew in Blenheims and…
Interview with Peter Liddle
Peter Liddle was living in Falkirk when he and his twin brother both volunteered for the RAF. Peter became a bomb aimer and was posted to 460 Squadron at RAF Binbrook. He was shot down and as he was descending by parachute he could see his burning…
Interview with Mike Cope
Mike is the adopted brother of James (known as Sonny) who was in the Royal Air Force with 460 Squadron. The crew were all English apart from the Australian pilot. James was a wireless operator/mid-upper air gunner. Mike was seven in 1943 when his…
Interview with Peter Thompson
Peter Thompson is the nephew of Fred Denzel James Thompson. Fred’s father was Churchill’s bodyguard. In 1936 Fred joined the Metropolitan Police Criminal Investigation Department and, following a meeting with Winston Churchill, volunteered as a…
Interview with Edward Robert McRae
Ted McRae volunteered for aircrew and trained as a gunner. He was usually in the mid-upper turret but would sometimes swap places with the rear gunner. On one trip repatriating ex-prisoners of war his aircraft crashed. He and the other gunner were…
Interview with Sidney James Richards
Sydney James Richards was born in Greenwich, London and was working in a drawing office in the Arsenal before joining the Royal Air Force. He was originally intending to join the Navy but changed his mind as he decided he preferred aircrew. He did…
Interview with Elizabeth Wickstead
Elizabeth Wickstead was born in Brighton, in 1928, and moved between villages in the Sussex area. Elizabeth remembers the announcement of the war in September 1939, and remembers the arrival of evacuees from London and the schools being separate from…
Interview with Ken Souter
Kenneth Souter was born in Sunderland. His father ran a business importing wooden pit props. Kenneth learned to fly at Cambridge, and his first air experience flight was on the 5th of July 1939, and after training he went solo on the 31st of July…
David Philip Storey's operations
A memoir of David Storey's service from 27 May 1943 to April 1944. He describes his 32 completed operations as a navigator on Halifaxes and including details of incidents and aircraft losses.
This item was provided, in digital form, by a…
This item was provided, in digital form, by a…
Septimus Robinson service history
A brief history of Septimus Robinson's RAF career.
Bomber Command flight engineer log
Engineer log completed by David Sanders for a sortie in Lancaster NG266 on 27 April 1945.
David Sanders personal record of operations
Contains details of 22 operations where David Sanders flew as flight engineer. Includes all up weights, bomb loads, fuel loads, snags, numbers of aircraft, defences, remarks and number of aircraft missing on operations.
David Sanders four leaf clover
Stylised four leaf clover in red pen on graph paper. Title 'Sgt Sanders 189 Sqdn, 5 May 1945
Aircraft
Top - painting of a Lancaster being bombed up. Captioned 'Winter of 43 somewhere in England. by David Shepherd'.
Bottom - photograph - view from above of a Lancaster with Spitfire and Hurricane on either wing over sea. Captioned 'Memorial in Flight,…
Bottom - photograph - view from above of a Lancaster with Spitfire and Hurricane on either wing over sea. Captioned 'Memorial in Flight,…
Ian Archer Wynn memorial book
An album book containing: 1. Photographs of Ian Wynn, his family and his first crew captain. 2. A history of his first captain. 3. Letter of sympathy and memorial scroll. 4. A diary of events from joining the air force up to first operation fully…
Interview with John Lee
John Lee from Shrewsbury volunteered for the RAF hoping to be accepted as aircrew. However, he failed the altitude test and was posted to the RAF Regiment where he guarded crashed aircraft, protected the airfield and manned an anti-aircraft gun. He…
Interview with William Paul Gould
William Gould joined the Air Defence Cadet Corps at his Grammar School in Stoke on Trent. After selection to join the RAF as a wireless operator/air gunner he went to RAF Eastchurch to remuster as a flight engineer, and from there did his training…
Interview with Frederick Joseph Keith Martin
Keith Martin was working for an agricultural machinery merchants in Shrewsbury when the war started. This was classed as a reserved occupation but when he was nearly 20, he decided to volunteer for the Royal Air Force in April 1942 and was selected…
Interview with Percival Trotman
Applying for RAF Bomber Command in May 1940, Percival Trotman was called up in September 1940, training as a pilot at RAF Towyn in Aberystwyth. Being present at Coventry when the town was bombed, he recalls deciding that the Germans deserved to have…
Interview with Anne Morgan Rose Harcombe
Anne Morgan Rose Harcombe was born in London in 1938 and was evacuated with her mother at the start of the war to live with her mother’s family in South Wales