Description
Object description
British officer served as pilot flying Lancaster aircraft with 635 Sqdn, No 8 Pathfinder Group, RAF based in GB, 1944-1945; served with 246 and 99 Sqdns, RAF in GB, 1945-1948; served as flying instructor with No 5 Flying Training School, Southern Rhodesia, 1950-1952; commanded 99 Sqdn, RAF in GB, 1955-1957; served as staff officer with Headquarters, Transport Command, Upavon, GB, 1958-1959; seconded to 62nd Troop Carrier Wing, US, 1959-1961; served as staff officer with Air Transport 4 Planning Dept, Air Ministry, London, GB, 1961-1964
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Mersey Island, East Grinstead and Afreston, GB, 1922-1940: social circumstances and religion; prep school education, 1930-1936; education at Eastbourne College, 1936-1940; parent's refusal of permission to join OTC on religious grounds; Boy Scouts activities; awareness of approach of war; reaction to outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; recruitment and training with OTC, 9/1939. Evacuation with school to Radley College, 6/1940-7/1940: situation in Eastbourne; sharing school premises; training with Local Defence Volunteers. Period in Seascale, 7/1940-9/1940: farm work; story of concealing volunteering to join RAF from parents, 9/1940; question of religious beliefs. Period at RAF Reception Centre, Padgate, 10/1940: attending air crew selection board; medicals. Period working for Forestry Commission, Keswick, 10/1940-5/1941: role making pit props.
REEL 2 Continues: working conditions; cutting up trees for pit props. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine during period as aircraftsman 2nd class with No 5 Initial Training Wing, Torquay, 5/1941-9/1941: reception; vaccinations and kitting out; hotel billets; drill; lectures; navigation; meteorological lectures; Morse code; wireless procedure; theoretical lectures in flight; drill; clay pigeon shooting; relationship with instructors; kit and room inspections; visits to pubs in Torquay; relationship with recruits; desire to become fighter pilot; family reaction to recruitment. Period as leading aircraftsman at No 24 Elementary Flying Training School, RAF Luton, 9/1941-11/1941: question of flying training in US; billets; mar reading and navigation; flying kit.
REEL 3 Continues: fitst flight and training with instructor in dual control Tiger Moth, 10/1941; first solo flight, 10/1941; learning acrobatics including loop, slow roll, spinning and rolling out of loop; practicing forced landings and low flying; question of posting for fighter training in GB. Period at Heaton Park, Manchester, 12/1941-1/1942. Voyage aboard Mount Colmer to Halifax, Canada, 1/1942: conditions; lookout duty; seasickness; question of families of service personnel in Canada; loss of escort in storm; boat drill. Period at Monckton, ca 2/1942: journey; conditions of service; recreation.
REEL 4 Recollections of period with No 33 Advanced Flying Training School, Carberry, 3/1942-6/1942: train journey; reception; ground training; characteristics of Anson aircraft; flying cross country; wireless training; passing out parade and promotion to sergeant pilot. Period at No 7 Bombing and Gunnery School, Paulson, 7/1942-11/1942: prior leave in US; flying as staff pilot towing drogue targets. Voyage aboard Queen Elizabeth back to GB, 12/1942. Period at Harrogate, 12/1942-3/1943: prior leave; surplus of pilots; refresher course flying Tiger Moths at Perth. Period flying Oxford aircraft at No 6 Advanced Flying Unit at Little Russington and Windrush, Glos, 3/1943-5/1943. Period at No 5 Advanced Operational School, Jurby, Isle of Man, 8/1943-3/1944: protest over posting; role flying navigators under training; prior practical navigational course; conditions of service; value of flying experience; promotion to pilot officer, 2/1944; comparison of sergeants' and officers' messes; drinking habits; desire for active service. Period at No 21 Operational Training Unit, Moreton-in-Marsh, 3/1944-6/1944: characteristics of Wellington aircraft; presence of US tanks prior to D Day, 6/6/1944; cancellation of planned operational leaflet drop. Attending survival course at Maltby, 6/1944-7/1944: parachute; map reading; food; question of contacting resistance groups.
REEL 5 Period with 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit, Riccall, 7/1944-8/1944: conversion course on Halifax aircraft; prior formation of crew with Navigator Pilot Officer Derek Dawe, Bomb aimer Sergeant Alex Armstrong, Wireless operator Warrant Officer Don Brown and Gunners Sergeant Tim Wlathew, George Knoght and William Dodds at Moreton-in-Marsh; relationship with crew and their influence in developing socialist beliefs. Recollections of period flying Lancaster aircraft with 635 Sqdn, RAF, No 8 Pathfinder Group, Downham Market, 9/1944: prior interview with Group Captain Hamish MacHadie and recruitment as inexperienced crew for pathfinder operations; prior conversion course and characteristics of Lancaster; dispersed layout of airfield; Nissen hut accommodation; division into 'blind' and 'visual' crews; bombing practice runs; anti-night fighter manoeuvres; pre-raid preparations for take off including breakfast, briefing and flying kit; bombing raid on Cape Grenais, 26/9/1944; daylight raid on Sterkade, 30/9/1944, including failure of bomb aimer to drop bombs, running into predicted anti-aircraft fire and subsequent removal of bomb aimer from crew; role under training escorting master bomber during raids.
REEL 6 Continues: night operations over Cologne and Ruhr Valley; independent flying under own navigation during raids; conversion to 'blind' crew status navigating and bombing using H2S radar; delay to allow photograph of target after dropping bombs; importance of maintaining accurate height; effects of aircraft blowing up beneath them; role of pathfinders dropping flares using H2S to mark target; corkscrew manoeuvring to avoid German night fighters during raid on Munich, 15/3/1945; personal morale; procedure on landing and debriefing; opinion of Air Vice Marshal Bennett; question of gaps between raids; leave; daily routine and training; visits to pub; FIDO fog dispersal system; story of last daylight raid on Berchtesgarden, 25/4/1945, including 'visual' flare dropping, fighter escorts, dropping flares and flight back; personal morale.
REEL 7 Continues: personal attitude to bombing campaign and question of civilian casualties; end of tour celebrations; relationship with ground crew; story of missions dropping food supplies on Netherlands, 4/1945-5/1945; flight to evacuate released British POWs by air from Lubeck, 10/5/1945; volunteering for Far East service; VJ Day, 8/1945; reactions to award of Dishtinguished Flying Cross, 5/1945. Period on conversion to York aircraft with 1332 Heavy Conversion Unit at Dishforth, 9/1945-12/1945. Period with 246 and 99 Sqdns, RAF at Homlsley South, Bournemouth and Lyneham, 1945-1948: role flying supply aircraft to Singapore, relief crews and breaking journeys; cargoes and passengers carried; nature of York aircraft; acceptance of permanent commission, 1947; lifestyle. Period training as flying instructor at Central Flying School, Little Rissington, 1947: aircraft flown including Vampire; question of training methods; question of class barrier to officers. Car accident and subsequent convalescence, 1948-1950. Period with No 5 Flying Training School at Thornhill, Southern Rhodesia, 1950-1952: requirement for pilots during Korean War; ability to get pilots to fly solo.
REEL 8 Continues: ability to get pilots to fly solo; lifestyle. Period as accident prevention officer at Manby, 1/1953-5/1953. Period as junior board member on RAF Selection Board, Cranwell, 8/1953-11/1955: promotion to squadron leader; question of class bias. Period commanding 99 Sqdn, Lyneham, 1955-1957: opinion of Hastings aircraft; status as CO; background to Suez crisis, 1956; intended role dropping parachutists;. Period attending RAF Staff College, Andover, 1957-1958: origins of students; nature of course. Period as staff officer planning airlifts with Headquarters, Transport Command, Upavon, 1958-1959. Period seconded to 62nd Troop Carrier Wing, Larson US Air Force Base, Washington, US, 1959-1961: transporting Minutemen missiles to silos in C124 Globemasters; opinion of C124; evacuation of Europeans from Belgian Congo; relationship with US personnel; staff role. Period as staff officer with Air Transport 4 Planning Dept, Air Ministry, London, 1961-1964: embassy evacuation plans; plans for evacuation of British families from Europe in event of nuclear attack and question of families of Ministry of Defence; background to decision to leave RAF.
