Jones, Edward Scott (Oral history)

British NCO served as wireless operator with 428 Sqdn, RAF in GB, 1943-1944; POW in Stalag Luft VI, Heydekrug and Stalag 357, Fallingbostel, Germany, 1944-1945

REEL 1 Background in Liverpool, GB, 1922-1939: family; education; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 9/1939. Aspects of period as member of Home Guard in Liverpool, 1940-1941: role guarding blockhouse; accident with discharge of rifle; blowing up of ammunition train at Edge Hill; incendiary bomb in garden of family home in West Derby; bombing of Jolly Miller Public House in West Derby; German bombing of city, 5/1941. Aspects of enlistment and training with RAF in GB, 1941-1943: enlistment, 2/1941; Morse Code training in Blackpool; reasons for prolonged training at RAF Yatesbury; role of Flight Sergeant Cox during Bruneval Raid, 2/1942; opinion of training; attitude of public towards RAF aircrew; crewing up procedure at RAF Atherstone, summer 1943. REEL 2 Continues: leaflet raid on Orleans, France; character of Canadian aircrew; flying in Vickers Wellington. Recollections of operations as wireless operator with 428 Sqdn, RAF in GB, 1943-1944: posting to squadron at RAF Middleton St George; loss of pilot Len Rogers flying as second pilot, 2/8/1943; responsibilities of wireless operator in Handley Page Halifax; tinselling work to jam German communications; use of Fishpond; raid on Leipzig, Germany, 19/2/1944; character of raids on Berlin, Germany, 11/1943-2/1944; preferences for targets in Northern France; psychological effects of service on crew member; treatment of lack of moral fibre cases; coning of aircraft over Amsterdam, Netherlands, 27/9/1943; damage to aircraft on raid to Bochum, Germany, 29/9/1943. REEL 3 Continues: realisation that Bomber Command strategy has switched from German cities to France, 1944; attitude to operating in Handley Page Halifax; bailing out of aircraft after attack by German night fighter over Lens, Belgium, 20/4/1944; how his aircraft got back to GB, 20/4/1944. Aspects of period as POW in Belgium, 4/1944: attempt to evade capture; capture by Germans; interrogation by German Air Force officer in Menin; encouragement from Belgium civilians in Menin; his use of five pound notes for toilet paper. Recollections of period as POW in Stalag Luft VI, Heydekrug and Stalag 357 Fallingbostel, 1944-1945: pattern of POW captivity; a helpful German guard at Stalag 357, Fallingbostel; POW rations; Gestapo searches; forging railway tickets. REEL 4 Continues: character of Stalag Luft VI, Heydekrug; second hand story of POWs sabotaging German effort to POW photographs; difference between long term army POWs and RAF POWs; mockery of German commandant on white horse at camp at Torun; bartering with German guards. Question of effect of experiences during Second World War.