Description
Object description
British officer served with 58, 601, 238, 219 and 176 Sqdns RAF in GB and India, 1940-1945.
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Portsmouth, GB, 1915-1935: family; education; sporting activities; memory of watching Schneider Trophy; further education. Aspects of training with RAF in GB, 1935-1937: reason for joining RAF; description of training as officer at flying school in Cheshire; uniform; accommodation; attitude to discipline; further training as bomber pilot with 99 Sqdn, RAF Mildenhall, 1936-1937; description of training for night missions including aircraft and crews; recreational activities; opinion of officers. Recollection of operations with 58, 601, 238 and 219 Sqdns RAF in GB and India, 1940-1945: posted to 58 Sqdn and description of flying training as pilot on Armstrong Whitworth Whitley; attitude to outbreak of war; mission dropping leaflets over Germany, 1940 including emergency landing in France and return to GB.
REEL 2 Continues: description of duties with RAF Coastal Command, 1940; role in setting up parachute training school at Ringway Airport, Manchester, 1940, and description of training regime; posted to 601 Sdqn for training as Hawker Hurricane pilot, 10/1940; comparison of flying Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Hawker Hurricane; posted to 238 Sqdn as Flight Commander and description of operations during latter stages of Battle of Britain; returned to 601 Sqdn as Commanding Officer and nature of duties; morale in squadron and memory of Churchill speeches; posted to RAF Northolt 12/1940; change of role to offensive operations over France; opinion of Polish pilots; visit to film studios making 'Dangerous Moonlight'; shot down and wounded, 4/1941; period of convalescence in Torquay; opinion of German pilots and comparison of Hurricane and Messerschmidt fighters; reasons for gaining DFC; posted to 219 Sqdn flying Beaufighter on night operations; role as flight commander; reasons for not flying over France and use of airborne radar.
REEL 3 Continues: further comments on effectiveness of radar; opinion of fighter aces; description of role as flight operations instructor in Scotland, 1942; posted to 10 Group Headquarters in charge of training programme, 1942; posted to 176 Sqdn, Calcutta; role of Hurricanes as night-fighters and description of operations against Japanese; posted as Station Commander to RAF West Malling, Kent, 2/1944, and role of station in night operations; demobilisation, 5/1945. Various aspects of post-career with RAF: reason for returning to RAF; description of role as NATO Attache in Tel Aviv and Paris, 1950-1955. Reflections on career with RAF.