Description
Object description
Canadian NCO served as rear gunner with 76 Sqdn RAF in GB, 1941-1943; POW in Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany, 1943-1945
Content description
REEL 1: Background in Canada; family; father's service in First World War; enlisted with 19th Alberta Dragoons, 1939; civilian employment; question of anti-Japanese feeling in Canada; reason for enlisting with Air Force, 1941; basic training; uniform; Air Training School; amusing story of greatcoat; trained as pilot; opinion of instructor; Tiger Moths; landing; take-off; failed course; memory of Americans; re-mustered; exam; description of training as air gunner; small arms; description of voyage to GB, 6/1942. Aspects of training with RAF in GB, 1942: posted to Operational Training Unit; description of crewing up and role of crew members; opinion of Halifax bombers; nationalities of crew; conversion. Aspects of operations with 76 Squadron RAF in GB, 1942-1943: accommodation.
REEL 2 Continues: problem with kidneys; attitude to role as rear gunner; casualties and question of replacement crews; problem of navigation; description of various missions over Germany; story of Norwegian airman; turret guns; visibility and navigational aids; description of role in raid on Peenemunde; further comments on Halifax memory of crew members; problem of crew shortages; conditions in rear gun turret; problem of cold; use of pigeons to carry messages; equipment; opinion of pilots; story of bomber getting lost; fear of fire; story of being shot down, 10/1943.
REEL 3 Continues: description of baling out and landing in Germany; story of capture and interrogation. Aspects of period as POW in Germany, 1943-1945: attitude to being POW: question of escape; memory of guards; opinion of Germans and Austrians; attitude to death; story of emergency landing on bombing mission; problem with pay; religious beliefs; opinion of Russians; description of daily life in Stalag Luft 111; accommodation and messing arrangements; food parcels; question of sharing; story of badly burned friend.
REEL 4 Continues: end of story; relations with guards; problem of ferrets; story of period in Buchenwald camp and liberation, 1945; question of rank; attitude of Germans to Russians; memory of VE Day celebrations in Brussels, 1945; question of prisoner exchanges and attitude to repatriation of Russian POWs.