Interview with Leonard Frank Bradfield

British NCO trained as bomb aimer with Royal Air Force in GB, 1941-1943; served with 49 Sqdn, No 5 Group, Bomber Command, RAF in GB, 4/1943-8/1943; prisoner of war in Dulag Luft Interrogation Centre, Oberursel, Stalag Luft I, Barth, Stalag Luft VI, Heydekrug, Stalag Luft IV, Grosse Tychow and Stalag II-A, Neubrandenburg, Germany, 8/1943-5/1945

REEL 1 Background in Thornton Heath and Wallington, GB, 1922-1940: family; education; employment; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939 and Munich Crisis, 9/1938; involvement in conflicts with Blackshirts of British Union of Fascists in Brixton and Croydon, 1938-1939; German Air Force Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber attack on RAF Croydon, summer 1940; use of family's brick air raid shelter; objections to Nazism; attitude towards German Air Force crews. Recollections of enlistment and training with Royal Air Force in GB, 1941-1943: initial volunteering for Royal Air Force aircrew, 1940 including white feather atmosphere for those in a Reserved Occupation; enlistment in Edinburgh, 1941; move to No 1 Aircrew Reception Centre, St John's Wood, London, then No 10 Initial Training Wing, RAF at Scarborough; nature of training at RAF Cosford; role as bomb aimer; pattern of training in GB. REEL 2 Continues: types of bomb sights used; crewing up at No 16 Operational Training Unit, RAF at RAF Upper Heyford; bombing practise; dangers of flying in Avro Manchester; composition of aircrew; comradeship between members of crew. Recollections of operations as bomb aimer with 49 Sqdn, No 5 Group, Bomber Command, RAF in GB, 4/1943-8/1943: joining squadron at RAF Fiskerton, 4/1943; leadership qualities of commanders; question of bombing accuracy; effects of air crew losses; anti-aircraft splinter through Avro Lancaster's wheel on first raid to Dortmund, Germany, 4/5/1943; upset to compasses in storm during operation to Turin, Italy in which Squadron Leader John Nettleton VC went missing over Bay of Biscay, 12/7/1943; use of Window during raid on Hamburg, Germany, 24/7/1943; successful raid on Essen, Germany, 25/7/1943; being shot down during German Air Force night fighter attack during operation to Nüremburg, Germany, 9/8/1943. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Dulag Luft Interrogation Centre, Oberursel, Stalag Luft I, Barth, Stalag Luft VI, Heydekrug, Stalag Luft IV, Grosse Tychow and Stalag II-A, Neubrandenburg, Germany, 8/1943-5/1945: attempt to evade capture, 10/8/1943; softening-up techniques used by interrogators at Dulag Luft Interrogation Centre, Oberursel, 8/1943; transfer to Stalag Luft 1, Barth; sense of normal life in Germany; experiencing hostility from German Navy cadets during transfer by coal freighter from Stalag Luft VI, Heydekrug to Stettin; move to Stalag Luft IV, Grosse Tischau. REEL 3 Continues: overcrowding in Stalag Luft IV, Grosse Tychow, 1944; work building chimneys, 1944; contact with despondent German civilian, 1944; march of away from Stalag Luft IV, Grosse Tychow, 1/1945; escape from prisoner of war column, 2/1945; surrendering after suffering from frostbite; amputation of part of feet in prisoner of war hospital in Stalag II-A, Neubrandenburg; capture of Stalag II-A, Neubrandenburg by Soviet Army; incomprehension of Soviet Army personnel that British prisoners of war should want to go home to court martial; belief of Soviet officer that Soviet Army would advance as far as North Atlantic coast; Soviet Army female sniper-nurse; medical treatment on return to GB, 1945; attitude of commandant of Stalag Luft VI, Heydekrug; presence of Italians prisoners of war at Stalag Luft I, Barth, 10/1943-11/1943; question of treatment by Germans; attitude to having served in Bomber Command during Second World War.