Description
Object description
British NCO served as wireless operator/air gunner with 75 (New Zealand) Sqdn, No 3 Group, Bomber Command RAF in GB, 11/1941-7/1942; served as NCO and officer with No 29 Operational Training Unit, RAF at RAF North Luffenham, RAF Woolfox Lodge and RAF Bruntingthorpe in GB, 7/1942-12/1944; officer served as special wireless operator with 214 Sqdn, No 100 (Bomber Support) Group, Bomber Command, RAF in GB, 3/1945; prisoner of war in Germany, 15/3/1945-27/4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Sydenham and Lewisham, London, GB, 1918-1939: social circumstances and family; education; effects of death of father, 1933; employment as office clerk, 1933-1939; question of approach of war; failed attempt to join Civil Air Guard; declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; Anderson Shelter; blackout; background to call-up to Royal Air Force, 8/1940. Recollections of training at No 10 (Signals) Recruits Centre, RAF at Blackpool, GB, 8/1940-12/1940: question of assignment as wireless operator/air gunner; accommodation; kitting out; drill and physical training.
REEL 2 Continues: Morse Code, semaphore and Aldis Lamp training; relations with recruits and instructors; volunteering for aircrew; recreational activities; further Morse Code training at No 2 Radio School, RAF at RAF Yatesbury, 12/1940-1/1941. Aspects of training at No 7 Air Gunnery School, RAF at RAF Stormy Down, GB, 8/1941: status as wireless operator/air gunner; training on Armstrong Whitworth Whitley; introduction to Browning .303 Machine Gun; firing at drogues; aircraft recognition; storm damage to tented accommodation; promotion to sergeant. Aspects of training at No 2 School of Air Navigation, RAF at RAF Cranage, GB, 1941: flying as wireless operator in Airspeed Anson; prior flight in De Havilland DH.89 Dominie; wireless transmission course and story of near collision with lighthouse. Aspects of period as NCO at No 21 Operational Training Unit, RAF at RAF Moreton-in-Marsh, GB, 9/1941: opinion of Vickers Wellington aircraft.
REEL 3 Continues: cross-country flights; role as wireless operator/air gunner and preference for wireless duties. Recollections of operations as NCO with 75 (New Zealand) Sqdn, No 3 Group, Bomber Command, RAF in GB, 11/1941-7/1942: joining squadron at RAF Feltwell and background to prior posting to RAF Marham; attempt to talk to experienced crews; composition of unit; opinion of pilot Sergeant Ian Shepherd; operations to Dunkirk, France; question of returning with bombs during cloudy weather, 11/1941; nature of bombing raid on Germany, 1941-1942, including prior briefing, supper, flying kit, tests on aircraft, role of ground crew, testing turret hydraulics, take off routine, crash of aircraft on failed take off, flying independently, role as wireless operator monitoring signals, use of intercom, difficulties in locating target, dropping bombs, German anti-aircraft fire and searchlights, environment inside aircraft, return flight, risk of German night fighter attack during landing, debriefing, reporting any wireless problems and breakfast.
REEL 4 Continues: role as front air gunner and personal morale in German anti-aircraft fire and searchlights; length of operational tour; story of acting as front air gunner during raid on Cologne, Germany, 6/4/1942 including assisting in moving wounded Pilot Officer Ian Shepherd to allow second pilot to take over, preparations for bailing out and damage to aircraft; subsequent death of Pilot Officer Ian Shepherd, 27/7/1942; opinion of Pilot Officer Allen Fraser; minelaying operations; participation in 1000 Bomber Raid on Cologne, Germany, 30/5/1942; attitude to raids on successive nights; repeated operations to Essen, Germany, 6/1942; personal morale; recreational activities; later role as entertainments officer; end of operational tour; subsequent death of Pilot Officer Allen Fraser during raid on Emden, Germany, 20/6/1942. Aspects of period as NCO and officer with No 29 Operational Training Unit, RAF at RAF North Luffenham, RAF Woolfox Lodge and RAF Bruntingthorpe in GB, 7/1942-12/1944: role as staff wireless operator; promotion to flight sergeant; move to RAF Bruntingthorpe; role as entertainments officer.
REEL 5 Continues: relations with civilians; background to volunteering for active service, 12/1944. Aspects of training as officer with No 1699 Heavy Conversion Unit, RAF at RAF Oulton, GB, 1/1945-2/1945: role as special wireless operator generating signals to jam German anti-aircraft defences; crewing up with pilot Flight Lieutenant John Wynne, Air Gunners, Pilot Officer Harold Frost and Flight Lieutenant Sidney Matthews and Flight Engineer Flying Officer James Vinall; relationship with crew; opinion of Flying Fortress Mk III. Recollections of operations as wireless operator with 214 Sqdn, No 100 (Bomber Support) Group, Bomber Command, RAF in GB, 2/1945-3/1945: reception at, RAF Oulton; secrecy of special wireless operator role; absence of bomb load; role of pathfinders in locating and marking targets; question of effect of jamming; story of being hit by German anti-aircraft fire and preparing to bailing out following raid on Lützkendorf, 14/3/1945-15/3/1945; escape kit.
REEL 6 Continues: opinion of wireless operator Flying Officer Gordon Hall: prior recollection of promotion to flying officer in 1943; bailing out and landing, 15/3/1945; hiding parachute; attempt to walk west; meeting Flight Sergeant Norman Bradley; subsequent success of Flight Lieutenant John Wynne in piloting aircraft back to GB. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Germany, 15/3/1945-17/3/1945: capture in village; initial treatment by Germans; journey to Baden-Baden; nature of interrogation, 15/3/1945-16/3/1945; move to Baden-Baden Prison; attack by female prison warder; reunion with six crewmates in cell in Baden-Baden Prison; sight of effect of Royal Air Force bombing during lorry journey to Pforzheim, 17/3/1945; protection received from German guards from attack by German civilians in Pforzheim; march to Huchenfeld. Account of escape during attack by German civilians at Huchenfeld, Germany, 17/3/1945-18/3/1945: accommodation in school house boiler room; fatigue; removal by group of German civilians.
REEL 7 Continues: composition of German civilian group; situation; approach to church; realisation of intent to lynch crew; escape into woods; hearing sound of shots; shooting of four of his crew mates in cemetery and subsequent death of Flying Officer James Vinall; problem walking in bare feet; circumstances of surrender to German Army troops soldiers, 18/3/1945; march to Pforzheim Barracks; assistance from German guards to avoid attack by German civilians at Pforzheim Railway Station; train journey to Ludwigsburg; question of fate of crew; gift of shoes from German civilian. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Stalag V-A, Ludwigsburg, Germany, 19/3/1945-2/4/1945: presence of British prisoners of war; conditions including hutted accommodation, food and Red Cross parcels; interrogations; question of escape; presence of Soviet prisoners of war. Aspects of march from Ludwigsburg to Ettringen, Germany, 2/4/1945-27/4/1945: theft of food; prisoners dropping out of line of march
REEL 8 Continues: route; question of food; weather; arrival at Ettingen, 27/4/1945; story of officer persuading mayor of Ettringen to surrender town prior to arrival of American forces, 27/4/1945; role disarming German Army troops; flight from Germany to GB via Rheims, France, GB, 5/1945. Aspects of period as officer with Royal Air Force in GB and Germany, 1945-1946: debriefing; kitting out; leave; investigation into fate of crew and discovery of graves at Huchenfeld; refusal of demobilisation and duties as accountant in GB, 1945-1946; attending war crimes trial at Essen, Germany, 7/1946; question of severity of sentences; attitude towards German civilians and decision never to return to Germany; demobilisation, 1946. Post-war career: return to civilian employment as assistant company registrar; background to reconciliation visit to Huchenfeld, Germany, 1995.