Interview with Lachlan McTaggart

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Description

Object description

Australian NCO served as wireless operator/air gunner with No 21 Operational Training Unit, RAF at RAF Moreton-in-Marsh, GB, 1942; served with 40 Sqdn, No 236 Wing, No 205 Group, Western Desert Air Force, RAF in Egypt, 6/1942-11/1942

Content description

REEL 1 Background in Adelaide and Port Augusta, Australia, 1918-1940: family; daily life on sheep station; attitude to Scottish ancestry; education; employment on sheep station; attitude to rise of Nazism in Germany, 1933-1939; memories of German school pupils; question of loyalty to GB; description of activities with Australian Army Cadets; reaction to outbreak of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Australian Air Force in Australia, 10/1940-9/1941: reason for volunteering for service with Royal Australian Air Force, 12/10/1940; enlistment procedure; examinations; selection as air gunner. REEL 2 Continues: attitude towards prospect of death, killing of civilians and survival; training as wireless operator/air gunner; wartime casualty rate amongst airmen; posting to GB; opinion of Germans; service morale. Aspects of journey from Australia to GB via Canada, 9/1941-12/1941: voyage from Australia to United States of America; gunnery course in Halifax, Canada; role as anti-aircraft gunners during convoy in North Atlantic; opinion of Royal Air Force officers; question of Australian character. REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of training as wireless operator/air gunner with No 21 Operational Training Unit, RAF at RAF Moreton-in-Marsh, GB, 1942: reaction to arrival in GB, 12/1941; casualties during training; morale; description of training as wireless operator/air gunner; question of comradeship; characteristics of Vickers Wellington; gun turret; crewing up; personal morale; cases of Lack of Moral Fibre (LMF); opinion of instructors; initial operation over the Ruhr, Germany, 5/1942; casualties and loss of aircraft; participation in 1000 bomber raid on Cologne, Germany, 30/5/1942-31/5/1942. REEL 4 Continues: debriefing; attitude to loss of friends; importance of comradeship. Recollections of operations as wireless operator/air gunner with 40 Sqdn, No 236 Wing, No 205 Group, Western Desert Air Force, RAF in Egypt, 6/1942-12/1942: journey from GB to Egypt via Malta, 6/1942; conditions on Malta; bombing operations to Tobruk, Libya and on Deutsches Afrika Korps armoured formations; opinion of General Bernard Montgomery and Prime Minister Winston Churchill; description of RAF Shallufa, Egypt, including accommodation and sanitary facilities; opinion of American forces; recreational activities in Cairo, Egypt; prior reaction to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, United States of America and entry into Second World War, 7/12/1941. REEL 5 Continues: role in preparations for Battle of El Alamein, Egypt, 10/1942; bombing of ships and supply lines; duties as wireless operator/air gunner; description of being shot down at night in Vickers Wellington Mk.IC (HX 399) BL-S, 19/7/1942, including aircraft being hit by anti-aircraft shell, baling out, escape procedure and hitting ground; story of evading capture and return to Allied lines, including problem of avoiding minefields, dehydration, rescue and return to squadron. REEL 6 Continues: joining new crew; posting back to GB, 11/1942. Aspects of period as officer with Royal Australian Air Force in GB, 1942-1945: role as instructor with Royal Air Force; training as pilot; VE Day celebrations, 8/5/1945; return to Australia; reflections on service with Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Air Force: attitude to service life and discipline; attitude to service with Royal Air Force; attitude towards war.

Object Details

Category: Sound
Related period: 1990 to the present day (production), Second World War (content), Second World War (association)
Creator: IWM (Production company)
Bannister, John (Recorder)
McTaggart, Lachlan (Interviewee/Speaker)
Production date: 2003-07-18
Dimensions: whole: Duration 180, Number Of Items 6
Catalogue number: 25180

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Interview with Lachlan McTaggart

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