Private Papers of Flight Lieutenant J T Birbeck

Privately published memoir (c 265pp) recalling his youth in Boston, Lincolnshire, in the 1930s, his experiences as a trainee telephone engineer, the advent of war in 1939 when he joined the Boston Post Office Home Guard, volunteering for RAF selection in the summer of 1941, initial training at St Andrews and Perth, pilot, bomb-aimer and navigation training in Canada and the USA during 1942, operational training in the UK prior to posting as bomb aimer to 103 Squadron Bomber Command at Elsham (Lincolnshire) in July 1943, flying in Lancasters on missions to Hamburg, Essen, Peenemunde and Nuremberg, being shot down over that city in August 1943 and taken prisoner by a local 'Volkssturm' unit, transfer to Dulag Luft, Oberursel, describing in detail his confinement and interrogation there before being sent to Stalag Luft III (Sagan) from where he was moved to the sub-camp at Belaria in January 1944, where he remained until January 1945 when the camp was evacuated and force-marched westwards to Stalag IIIA (Luckenwalde), the chaotic conditions of war's end and the arrival of the Russians, his eventual repatriation and the process of readjustment to 'civvy street'; also his Observer's and Air Gunner's Flying Log Book, September 1942 – August 1943; his POW `Wartime Log' issued at Belaria; photograph album and loose photographs, mainly concerning his flying training in Canada and the USA with some photos taken during captivity; miscellaneous documents including his German POW camp record card from Stalag Luft III, a few items of correspondence, wartime newspaper cuttings concerning him etc. [NB: extensive recorded interview with Birbeck held in the Sound collection, ref 31698/8].

Privately published memoir (c 265pp) recalling his youth in Boston, Lincolnshire, in the 1930s, his experiences as a trainee telephone engineer, the advent of war in 1939 when he joined the Boston Post Office Home Guard, volunteering for RAF selection in the summer of 1941, initial training at St Andrews and Perth, pilot, bomb-aimer and navigation training in Canada and the USA during 1942, operational training in the UK prior to posting as bomb aimer to 103 Squadron Bomber Command at Elsham (Lincolnshire) in July 1943, flying in Lancasters on missions to Hamburg, Essen, Peenemunde and Nuremberg, being shot down over that city in August 1943 and taken prisoner by a local 'Volkssturm' unit, transfer to Dulag Luft, Oberursel, describing in detail his confinement and interrogation there before being sent to Stalag Luft III (Sagan) from where he was moved to the sub-camp at Belaria in January 1944, where he remained until January 1945 when the camp was evacuated and force-marched westwards to Stalag IIIA (Luckenwalde), the chaotic conditions of war's end and the arrival of the Russians, his eventual repatriation and the process of readjustment to 'civvy street'; also his Observer's and Air Gunner's Flying Log Book, September 1942 – August 1943; his POW `Wartime Log' issued at Belaria; photograph album and loose photographs, mainly concerning his flying training in Canada and the USA with some photos taken during captivity; miscellaneous documents including his German POW camp record card from Stalag Luft III, a few items of correspondence, wartime newspaper cuttings concerning him etc. [NB: extensive recorded interview with Birbeck held in the Sound collection, ref 31698/8].

Cataloguer SWW