Description
Object description
British private served with 5th Bn, Northamptonshire Regt in GB, 1938-1939; served with 4th Bn, Northamptonshire Regt in GB, 1939; served as NCO with Intelligence Section, Headquarters, 183 Bde in GB, 1939-1940; served as navigating officer with 500 Sqdn, RAF in GB, Gibraltar and North Africa, 1941-1942; served as squadron navigational officer with 58 Sqdn, RAF in GB, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Peterborough, 1921-1939: social circumstances; education; work as office boy in sales office of Imperial Chemical Industries, 1937-1939. Recollections of training with Intelligence Section, Headquarters Coy, 5th Bn, Northamptonshire Regt at Peterborough, 9/1938-9/1939: background to recruitment; map and sketch training; awareness of approach of war; weapons training; status of 48th Div; annual camp at Arundal, 7/1939; background to application for short service commission as pilot with RAF including selection procedure and acceptance as sergeant observer; call up as territorial, 1/9/1939. Recollections of period at Swindon, 9/1939-10/1939: chapel billets; route marches; sporting activities; reaction to being left behind as too young for foreign service. Period with HQ Coy, 4th Bn, Northamptonshire Regt at Aldershot, 10/1939-11/1939: nature of unit and presence of volunteers avoiding conscription.
REEL 2 Continues: reception and status as trained soldier; duties as orderly. Period at Wellingborough, 11/1939-12/1939: cookhouse fatigues; question of promotion to NCO. Periods with Intelligence Section, HQ, 183 Bde at Tewkesbury and Bishops Cleeve, 12/1939-5/1940: initial period operating telephone switchboard; attending intelligence course; providing maps for TEWTS; promotion to lance corporal; move to Bishops Cleeve, 5/1940; introduction of guard to HQ, 5/1940. Periods at Belfast and Cookstown, Northern Ireland, 6/1940-12/1940: liaison with police and Home Guard over IRA activities; move to Cookstown, 9/1940; question of German landings in Eire; billets; relationship with Irish civilians; volunteering for RAF service and interview. Period at Reception centre, RAF at Stratford upon Avon, ca 1/1941-2/1941: status as air crew cadets; kitting out. Period at Initial Training Wing, Scarborough, 3/1941-4/1941: aircraft recognition; maps; relationship with cadets; question of RAF casualties.
REEL 3 Period at Elementary Flying Training School, RAF at Perth, 5/1941-7/1941: billets; air experience and dual flying training in Tiger Moth; continued preference for training as navigator and transfer to observer training. Period at Initial Training Wing, RAF at Babbacombe, 6/1941. Period at No 2 Air Observer School, RAF at Millom, 7/1941-12/1941: nature of Blackburn Botha, Avro Anson and Airspeed Oxford aircraft; air experience flight; review of ground navigational training including Merates charts, method of locating position, importance of determining wind speed and wireless training; gunnery training using Fraser-Nash turrets; bombing training; air navigation exercises; casualties; interview on selection for commission, 12/1941; question of accepting commission.
REEL 4 Period at No 3 School of General Reconnaissance, Blackpool, 12/1941-1/1942: background to application and acceptance by Coastal Command; ability to determine wind direction and strength from waves; story of examination. Period as navigator prior to replacement as non-Canadian flying Hudsons with 407 Sqdn, Royal Canadian Air Force at North Coates, 2/1942. Recollections of period as navigating officer with 500 (City of Kent) Auxiliary Sqdn, RAF at Bircham Newton, 2/1942-3/1942: status of regular commission; relationship with crew formed with Flight Lieutenant 'Tubby' Ensor, wireless operator and gunner; nature of Hudson; prior service record of unit including question of length of tour, state of morale ad relative risk of anti-shipping operations; unit failure during search for Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, 12/2/1942; failed nigh search for German armed merchant cruiser off Dunkirk, 15/2/1942inclduign lack of night experience, gooseneck flares and necessity of replying to beacon prior to lighting of flares, use of torch to navigate, prior meal and debriefing; mission searching for German battleship in North Sea, 21/2/1942.
REEL 5 Continues: mission searching for German battleship in North Sea, 21/2/1942, including problems in snow storm, failure of radar and return to base; frequency of equipment failures. Period based at Limavady and Stornoway, Northern Ireland, 3/1942-8/1942: anti-submarine sweeps in front of convoy; move to Stornoway, 4/1942; mission acting as escort to USS Wasp, 9/4/1942; A/S sweeps patrolling in square around detached sections of convoys; opinion of Wing Commander Spotswood; efforts to improve unit morale; officers' mess and drinking habits; role as squadron navigation officer including checking aircraft compasses, checking overall navigational standards, flying with different pilots and checking navigation logs; story of compass problems during flight, 29/4/1942; story of aircraft with inexperienced crew getting lost at sea; routine A/S sweeps; escorting USS Washington; promotion of Flight Lieutenant Ensor to command flight; aircraft lost in mountains. Recollections of period at St Eval, 8/1942-10/1942: triangular A/S patrols in Bay of Biscay; problems with fishing vessels acting as cover for German submarines; story of Hudson shot down by JU 88 and rescue of crew by French fishermen.
REEL 6 Continues: dropping propaganda leaflets and naval intervention against French fisherman. Period of aircraft maintenance at Gosport, 10/1942-11/1942: preparations for overseas service; crash landing in thunderstorm. Recollections of period at Gibraltar, 11/1942: prior movements; issue of maps; role covering combined operations landings at Oran, 8/11/1942; story of sinking of U-411 with depth charges, 12/11/1942; story of U-331 attempting to surrender to aircraft and subsequent destruction by aircraft from HMS Formidable, 17/11/1942; crowded airfield; move to Blida, Algiers, 11/1942. Period on detachment as navigator to Beaufighters of 600 Sqdn based at Bone, 11/1942-12/1942: reconnaissance duties searching for German convoy; evading attack by German fighters; shooting down Italian seaplane. Period with 500 Sqdn at Blida, 12/1942-4/1943: sighting U Boat range and successful depth charge attack, 3/12/1942.
REEL 7 story of nearly attacking British submarine; escort duties for damaged ships; sweep to counter human torpedo attacks on Bougie harbour, 10/1/1943; story of Flight Lieutenant Ensor misidentifying Italian aircraft as Dakotas; collapsed undercarriage on landing, 12/1/1943; A/S sweeps along convoy routes; search for U Boat in cooperation with destroyers, 23/2/1943; personal morale; question of German air activity; end of tour and flight back to GB, 4/1943. Period as bombing instructor at No 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit, RAF, Thornaby, 4/1943-5/1943. Period giving lectures to war workers and assisting with Wings for Victory exhibition while attached to Ministry of Supply, 5/1943-6/1943. Period with No 3 Ferry Training Unit at Oban, 7/1943-2/1944: role of unit ferrying Catalinas and completing training of new crews; role as navigation instructor; story of near crash due to pilot getting Catalina into spin. Attending staff navigators course at Central Navigation School, RAF Shawbury, 2/1944-6/1944: navigational exercises in Wellingtons; theoretical training; low level map reading trial across GB. Period as squadron navigational officer with 58 Sqdn, RAF at St Davids, 6/1944-9/1944: plans for D Day patrols, 'Operation Cork'.
REEL 8 Continues: A/S patrols; opinion of Halifax; anti-shipping role; GEE navigational system; training on LORAN navigational system; role as SNO. Period at Stormoway, 9/1944-6/1945: background to conversion to anti-shipping role and re-equipment with bombs; patrols in Kattegat; forming crew with Wing Commander 'Mouse' Grant; comparison of drills on A/s and anti-shipping patrols; use of GEE navigational radar and role as bomb aimer; nature of anti-shipping patrols; case of ships protected by bad weather; use of radar to allow bombing attacks on ships beneath cloud cover; casualties caused by German night fighters using upward firing guns and consequent policy of flying at 100 metres until ships were located; visit to see wind direction finding attachment to magnify readings from air position indicator as used by 617 Sqdn, 1/1945; unit morale.
REEL 9 test flight with wind direction finding attachment; opinion of Wing Commander Ingle; flights accompanying new crews, 4/1945; last squadron wartime operation, 6/5/1945; continued reconnaissance flights over Kattegat, 5/1945; collecting crew from Denmark; disbandment of unit, 6/1945. Period as navigational instructor at 23 Elementary Flying Training School, Yorktown, Saskatchewan, Canada, 7/1945-8/1945. Return to GB, 9/1945. Leave periods and demobilisation, 1/1946. Post-war career: return to work at ICI; initial inadequate pay; effects of war service.
