Hibbert, Walter Basil (Oral history)

British NCO and officer served as pilot with 226 Sqdn, No 2 Group, Bomber Command, RAF and No 2 Bomber Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force, RAF in GB, 8/1942-2/1944; officer served as pilot with 226 Sqdn, No 2 Bomber Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force, RAF in North West Europe, 12/1944-5/1945; served with Communications Sqdn, 2nd Tactical Air Force, RAF and Communications Flight, British Air Forces of Occupation, RAF in Germany, 1945

REEL 1 Background in Bradford and Scarborough, GB, 1920-1939: family; education; reaction to outbreak of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Air Force in GB, 1940-1942: volunteering for Royal Air Force, 1940; quality of training he received; reasons why he felt he was suited as a light bomber pilot. Recollections of operations as pilot with 226 Sqdn, No 2 Group, Bomber Command, RAF in GB, 8/1942-5/1943: posting to squadron at RAF Swanton Morley; opinion of Douglas Boston Mk III; first low-level operation to Caen area, France, 11/1942; formation flown on approach to target; Operation Oyster raid on the Phillips Factory at Eindhoven, Netherlands, 6/12/1942; cancellation of projected raids; 'Circus' operations, 1/1943; change over to North American Mitchell Mk II, 2/1943-3/1943; comparison between flying Douglas Boston Mk III and North American Mitchell Mk II; Lack of Moral Fibre (LMF) case. REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of operations as pilot with 226 Sqdn, No 2 Bomber Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force, RAF in GB, 5/1943-2/1944: preference of pilots to have own aircraft and crew; origins of squadron personnel; relations with local civilians; testing of dropping of Window on captured German radar equipment at RAF Drem, 1/1944; his readiness for rest period after thirty two operations, 2/1944. Recollections of operations as pilot with 226 Sqdn, No 2 Bomber Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force, RAF in North West Europe, 12/1944-5/1945: return to squadron at B-50 Advanced Landing Ground, Vitry-en-Artois, France, 12/1944; tactical support work; question of possibility of bombing Allied troops; support operations for crossing of River Rhine, Germany, 3/1945; ease with which friendly fire incidents could occur; relations with French and Belgian civilians; food shortages in Netherlands, 4/1945; impressions of devastation of German cities, 5/1945; attitude towards Germans and outcome of Second World War. REEL 3 Continues: attitude towards Prime Minister Winston Churchill; attitude towards role of Sir Arthur Harris and Bomber Command. Aspects of period as pilot with Communications Sqdn, 2nd Tactical Air Force in Germany, 1945: duties with squadron; landing aircraft in Berlin and sight of British Army occupation troops moving into Berlin, 7/1945; devastated nature of Berlin and smell of corpses at 1000 feet above the city; attachment to Communications Flight, British Air Forces of Occupation, RAF from 10/1945; unfamiliarity of Soviet Army troops towards consumer goods; non-fraternisation order in post-war Germany; story of Soviet atrocity reprisal against German men, 5/1945; mugging of British aircraftman and German women by Soviet Army troops.