Description
Object description
British aircraftsman trained as pilot in GB and Canada, 1941-1943; officer served as pilot with 195 Sqdn, RAF in GB, 1943-1944; served with 197 Sqdn, 146 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force in GB and North West Europe, 1944; POW in France and Germany, 1944-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Guildford, Plymouth and Bournemouth, GB, 1922-1941: family; family circumstances; employment; early interest in aviation and drawing; further details of employment in outfitters business; degree of awareness of situation in Europe pre-1939; outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; improving education qualifications; fire watching duties; bomb damage to Bournemouth during Second World War; hearing German aircraft formation on route to bomb Coventry, 11/1940; reaction to sight of Supermarine Spitfires during trip to New Forest; clothes rationing system. Recollections of enlistment and training as pilot with RAF in GB and Canada, 1941-1943: parent's reaction to his volunteering for RAF.
REEL 2 Continues: volunteering for RAF, 4/1941; voyage from GB to US, 1942; pattern of training at Air Crew Reception Centre, St Johns Wood and with 13 Initial Training Wing, Torquay; course failures; discipline; leave; rations at 13 Initial Training Wing; move to 21 Elementary Flying Training School, Booker, 1/1942; pattern of flying training in De Havilland Tiger Moth; spinning aircraft; reasons for maintaining forward motion on take off; story of flying De Havilland Tiger Moth as taxi aircraft during later squadron service.
REEL 3 Continues: in transit at RAF Heaton Park; voyage from GB to US; arrival in New York and train journey to Canada; pattern of training in Canada; navigation training; instrument flying; story of being off course with 195 Sqdn; soloing; cockpit instruments in North American Harvard; flying clothing worn; need to wear oxygen mask in Hawker Typhoon; relations with Canadian civilians.
REEL 4 Continues: Canadian attitude to presence of aircrew; contact with home; opinion of instructors; ground training with parachutes; commissioning; voyage from Canada to GB; move to 7 Advanced Flying School; contrast between flying conditions in Canada and GB; reaction to night flying; operational training with 559 Sqdn. Recollections of operations as pilot with 195 Sqdn, RAF, GB, 1943-1944: continuing operational training; formation flying in squadron; prior recollection of aerial combat training in Hawker Hurricanes at advanced flying school.
REEL 5 Continues: battle formation flown; aerobatics in Hawker Hurricane; scrambling against targets; targets attacked in France; atmosphere in squadron; effects of attending party at RAF Woodvale and during subsequent flight next day; visits to public houses; threat from German anti-aircraft fire; story of loss of squadron leader with 197 Sqdn after D-Day; loss of friend over Normandy, 7/6/1944; attitude towards flying single engined aircraft; reasons for disbandment of squadron, 2/1944. Recollections of operations as pilot with 197 Sqdn, RAF, 146 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force in GB and Normandy, 1944: joining squadron at RAF Tangmere; character of RAF Tangmere; use of airfields in Cornwall for attack on Brest Peninsula; armament carried on Hawker Typhoons; providing smoke screens; question of what should be written in log book.
REEL 6 Continues: effectiveness of squadron; opinion of Hawker Typhoon; bombing targets in Hawker Typhoons; painting of invasion stripes on aircraft; identification of targets; attacks on V1 launch sites; sight of build up of shipping and vehicles prior to D-Day; briefing for operations on D-Day, 6/6/1944; operation on D-Day, 6/6/1944; delegation of air lanes; over flying landing beaches.
REEL 7 Continues: move of squadron from RAF Needs Oar Point; flying to Normandy, 3/7/1944; operations to support Canadian Army; his shooting down during armed reconnaissance south of Le Havre, 13/7/1944; bailing out of aircraft and capture by German troops. Aspects of period as POW in France, 1944: initial treatment and interrogation by Germans; incarceration in French school room; treatment for wounds in German field hospital; how he exited aircraft; post war visit to site of his crashed aircraft; experiences with RAFVR post war; degree of squadron contact with German fighters.
REEL 8 Continues: evasion instruction and kit; move to Paris; attitude of civilians towards POWs in Luxembourg during transit, 8/1944; how parents received news that he was a POW. Recollections of period as POW in Germany, 1944-1945: pattern of imprisonment and liberation; organisation of Stalag Luft III, Sagan; reasons for lack of escape attempts after Great Escape; German counting of POWs; recreational activities in Stalag Luft III, Sagan; POW parcels; use of cigarettes for bartering to supplement rations.
REEL 9 Continues: character of German camp rations; camp morale; German camp commandant; availability and distribution of news; liberation in camp near Munich, 4/1945; return to GB and reaction to sight of returning Far Eastern Prisoners of War. Aspects of return to civilian life in GB from 1946: demobilisation; question of staying on in RAF; return to outfitters. Reflections on service with RAF during Second World War: effects of wounds; lack of psychological effects of service, attitude towards Germans.
REEL 10 Continues: attitude towards Second World War; relations between air crew and ground crews; background to allocation to Fighter Command.