McGovern, Francis Joseph (Oral history)

British civilian and Auxiliary fireman during German Air Force attacks on St Helens, GB, 1940-1941; NCO served as air gunner with 426 Sqdn, Royal Canadian Air Force, 6 Group, RAF in GB, 7/1943- 8/1944

REEL 1 Background in St Helens, 1924-1939: family and education; employment. Reaction to declaration of war, 3/9/1939. Recollections of German Air Force attacks on St Helens, 1940- 1941: bombs on Pilkington's timber yard; bomb damage in town; excitement caused by issue of gas masks; membership of Air Training Corps an Auxiliary Fire Service; view of inferno on Scotland Road whilst guiding fire engine into central Liverpool, c 5/1941; impact of Second World War on civilian population; effect of introduction of double summer time; attitude towards Germans; knowledge gained in ATC; why he wanted to go into RAF. Recollections of period of training with RAF, GB, 1942-1943: call up to RAFVR, 12/1942; processing of air crew recruits, Air Crew Reception Centre, St John's Wood, 1/1943; how recruits were dissuaded from consorting with prostitutes, Wigmore hall, 1/1943; Initial Training Wing, Bridlington, spring 1943; learning elements of air gunnery, RAF Penrhos; aircraft recognition techniques; use of seat in Bristol turret of Blenheim Mark 4; his attitude to going into action and joining an operational unit, 1943. REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of operations with 426 (RCAF) Sqdn, 6 Group, 7/1943-8/1944: posting to RAF Dishforth, Yorks, 7/1943; move to RAF Linton-on-Ouse, Yorks; allocation to Lancaster crew; daily life of unit; summer 1943; relations with civilians in Linton and York; first operation to Nuremberg, 27/8/1943; coping with need to urinate on long flights; clothing worn on raids; tablets taken by aircrew to keep them awake on operations; personal equipment taken on operations; freezing of his Pepsi supply on 27/8/1943 raid; why McGovern never took stimulant tablets; turning back from raid on Munchen-Gladbach when pilot's escape hatch blew off, 30/8/1943; extra fuel ground crews sometimes put in aircraft; raid on Berlin and view of city's defences, 31/8/1943; raid on Mannheim, 23/9/1943. REEL 3 Continues: raid on Stuttgart on which aircraft coned, 7/10/1943; German Air Force intruder tactics; his position in mid-upper turret and difficulty of escape compared with rear turret; raid on Leipzig in which he was wounded, 20/10/1943; treatment he received for eye and other injuries; loss of his aircrew on raid when McGovern was recuperating and his sense of guilt as a survivor; lucky escape from another fatal sortie, 14/3/1944; 'Night of the Big Winds', raid on Berlin with emergency landing RAF Woodbridge, 24/3/1944; raid on Nuremberg, 30/3/1944. REEL 4 Continues: state of morale in Bomber Command; start of raids on France, 4/1944; measures which improved confidence and made operations easier from, 4/1944; attack on coastal defences, Houlgat, 5/6/1944; Halifax attack on road and rail bridges in which aircraft nearly bombed by another Halifax, Counances, D-Day, 6/6/1944; army support operation, Caen, 18/7/1944; opinion of Halifax; temporary posting to 432 Sqdn; attitude towards daylight as opposed to night raids, 1944; last operation attack on supply depot in Paris area, 5/8/1944; completing 39 operations and attitude of RCAF to men who had been wounded. His feelings today about having taken part in Second World War. Interviewer reads poem 'The Rear Gunner' asks McGovern to respond to it as a depiction of what the rear gunner felt in Second World War. Question of psychological effects of war. Superstitions in Bomber Command.