Description
Object description
British aircraftsman and NCO trained as air gunner with 13 Air Gunnery School, El Ballah, Egypt, 76 Operational Training Unit at Aqire, Palestine and 1675 Heavy Conversion Unit at Abu Swier, Egypt, 1944-1945; NCO served as air gunner with 40 Sqdn, RAF in Italy, 1945
Content description
REEL 1 Background in West Ham, London, GB, 1925-1944: family; employment; character of West Ham; membership of Boy Scouts; fire watching duties at bank, 1942; contact with Jewish refugee, 1939; German Air Force attacks; rationing; threat of German invasion; father's career. Aspects of enlistment and training as aircraftsman and NCO with RAF in GB, Egypt and Palestine, 1944: initial call up to St John's Wood; volunteering for overseas training; voyage from GB to Egypt; training at 13 Initial Training School at El Ballah, Egypt; incident of swimming Suez Canal to crashed aircraft; gunnery training at 13 Air Gunnery School; move to 76 Operational Training Unit at Aqire, Palestine.
REEL 2 Continues: training as air gunner; crew relations at Aqire; Christmas celebrations, Aqire, 25/12/1944; flying training in Vickers Wellingtons; move to 1675 Heavy Conversion Unit. Abu Swier, Egypt to convert on Consolidated B24 Liberators. Recollections of operations as air gunner with 40 Sqdn, RAF in Italy, 1945: conditions for Italian civilians; joining squadron at Foggia, 1/4/1945; prior recollection of crewing up in Palestine; reasons for being placed on charge; reception on arrival at Foggia; character of accommodation and airfield facilities; squadron morale; first operation to bomb marshalling yards in Yugoslovia.
REEL 3 Continues: briefing for second operation to Italy, 5/4/1945; execution of raid on dockyard, 5/4/1945; abortive raid, 8/4/1945; raid on Innsbruck, Austria, 10/4/1945 in which aircraft coned in searchlights; raid on Argenta to support 8th Army, 12/4/1945; abortive raid on northern Italy in which aircraft threatened by night fighter; attack on bridge, 23/4/1945; chances of sighting night fighter; question of awards; reasons why air gunners couldn't wear parachutes in Consolidated B24 Liberator; communication discipline during operations; reads email received about his last operation on marshalling yards near Freilassing, 25/4/1945.
REEL 4 Continues: reiteration of career prior to raid; account of raid on Freilassing, 25/4/1945; effects of raid on marshalling yard, 25/4/1945; VE day celebrations, 5/1945; how pilot allowed crew to fly aircraft during ferry flight, 5/1945; encounter with Partisans.
REEL 5 Continues: attitude to participation in missions; incidents in which aircraft crashed on landing; ferrying army personnel; reasons for low flying over Trieste, 6/1944; on leave in Sorento; fraternisation with Italian women; relations with ground crew; theatre production. Aspects of period as air gunner with 148 Sqdn, RAF in Egypt, 1945- 1946: move to Egypt; searches for illegal immigrant ships in Palestine; supply of pigs for Christmas celebrations, 12/1945; leave in Alexandria. Aspects of period as clerk with in Palestine, 1946: background to posting to 2923 Sqdn, RAF; incident in café when Irgun burst in; clerical duties in Jerusalem; degree of threat from insurgents in Palestine.
REEL 6 Continues: bombing of King David Hotel and other terrorist incidents; return to GB, 12/1946; duties on return to GB; demobilisation process, 1947; worsening situation in Palestine; relations with Jewish civilians. Reflections on service with 40 Sqdn, RAF in Italy, 1945: attitude to flying with other crews; attitude towards Americans and Germans; attitude to role and Second World War; question of treatment of veterans.