Description
Object description
New Zealand NCO served as pilot with Royal New Zealand Air Force in New Zealand 1940-1941; served with 149 Sqdn, RAF in GB, 1942-1943; served as small arms instructor with Royal Air Force in GB, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Wellington, New Zealand, 1921-1940: family; story of enlistment officer's reaction to father's birth place being in Prussia, Germany; émigré parents; scholarship to boarding school; effects of Depression; reaction to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's visit to Munich, Germany, 9/1938; question of loyalty to GB and Poland; economic reasons for people joining up. Apects of enlistment and training as aircraftman with Royal New Zealand Air Force in New Zealand, 1940-1941: enlistment, 1940; abortive attempt to enlist in Fleet Air Arm; recruitment in to Royal New Zealand Air Force, 3/1941; maths test; air training in De Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth; construction of training aircraft. Aspects of training with Royal Air Force in GB, 1941-1942: journey to GB, lack of homesickness; posting to No 11 Operational Training Unit, RAF at RAF Bassingbourn, flying Vickers Wellington; criteria for choosing crew roles; instructors; crew formation. Recollection of operations as pilot with 149 Sqdn, No 3 Group, Bomber Command, RAF in GB, 1942-1943: move to RAF Lakenheath flying Avro Wellington, 1942; daylight propaganda leaflet dropping operations to Paris, France; minelaying of Frisian Islands, Germany; conversion to Short Stirling aircraft; opinion of merits of Short Stirling and Avro Lancaster; leave; story of acquiring rail warrants; unofficial visits to Dublin, Ireland.
REEL 2 Continues: Irish recruits to Royal Air Force; reaction of British crew to having a New Zealand pilot; attitude to flying 70 operations; end of tour; minelaying operations; of night operations, 1942-1943; briefing; role of pilot; pre flight meal; wireless operator feeding back sound of engines into German radar posts; story of breaking into German and British Broadcasting Corporation frequencies; story of Royal Air Force slang used on operations; story of British Broadcasting Corporation recording an operation and not using tape; importance of training; identification of targets; evading actions; issue of rum ration on return; reaction to aircrew cracking under stain of operations; story relating to air gunner VC; personal moral during operations; reaction to being over target; question of fatigue; atmosphere inside aircraft; use of oxygen; question of use of Benzedrine; view over target; anti aircraft fire and searchlights; story of being caught in searchlights on coast of France; question of amount of damage that Short Stirling aircraft could take; effect of weather on aircraft; story of bad weather while flying in New Zealand, 1945.
REEL 3 Continues: story of baling out of badly damaged aircraft over Kent; refusal to take commission; reaction to aircrew deaths; debriefing; end of operational flying; opinion of operations carried out by No 3 Group. Aspects of period as small arms instructor with Royal Air Force in GB, 1944-1945: role and duties on a commando course in Scotland 1944; winning British small arms championship; return to New Zealand. Reflections on post-war life and employment: background to career in accountancy; reaction to rehabilitation scheme; question of effects of war; question of tactics employed by Air Chief Marshal Arthur Harris; reaction to civilian deaths; opinion of GB and Commonwealth.
REEL 4 Continues: post-war trip to GB.