大象传媒

223 BOMBER SUPPORT SQUADRON
This squadron was equipped with Liberator 8-24 aircraft borrowed from the US Army Air Force. We carried no bombs but the space that they would have occupied and its weight was taken up by radio equipment designed to jam German radio and wireless telephony and airborne and ground radar. The tactics were to fly with and above the main bomber stream to provide protection going to and from the target or alternatively to remain over the target while bombing was in progress to jam the radar of enemy fighters who were inevitably attracted to that area. This may sound somewhat hazardous but in fact the losses were less than half those experienced by the main force because one was always flying at high altitude (30000 feet in an unpressurised aircraft - very cold) to gain maximum jamming coverage and at this height there was little fighter activity and one was well above effective anti-aircraft fire. There was a crew of nine; two pilots, navigator, three gunners and three wireless operators in charge of the varied jamming systems.

The majority of France and Belgium had been liberated by this time so operations were entirely over Germany

Although we witnessed plenty of fighter and anti aircraft gunnery activity from our vantage point high up, we were left alone apart from some fortunately inaccurate fire from a British battery near Brussels on one of our return journeys.

MEETING WITH THE SURVIVORS OF MY LANCASTER CREW
I finished my tour in April and a month or so later VE Day arrived signaling the end of the war in Europe; by which time I was on leave awaiting my next posting. This turned out to be a transfer to the technical intelligence branch in south east Asia where the task was to examine and assess the value of captured Japanese aircraft and aero equipment in Burma and in due course in other countries which they had occupied. The day before I was due to fly out to India en route for Burma I received a phone message saying that Archie, Lloyd and Ray had arrived back in England. Needless to say a meeting was hurriedly arranged.
All three had been prisoners in a camp in the far east of Germany, almost on the Polish border. As the Russians advanced all the prisoners were marched westwards in the direction of Berlin. This was very unpleasant as the march to the next camp was more than ISO miles long with little food or shelter at night. The column was not far away from the pursing Russians so Archie and a few friends decided to chance their luck, dodged out of a bivouac one night, walked eastwards and made contact with our allies. They were well treated and after a few weeks were shipped home via a ship from Odessa which took them to Italy and thence home by air. Lloyd and Ray stayed with the main party who were eventually freed by the Americans; they arrived back in England via one of the many RAF bombers which had nothing else to do now that the war was over and which had been given the job of helping to get our rows back home as quickly as possible. Despite the hard time they had been through, they all looked fit. We knew we were going to scatter so we said our goodbyes and I left for the East

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CREW
Lloyd was commissioned in the RCAF as a Pilot Officer and sailed almost at once for Canada. I had a letter from him saying he had had a deliriously happy reunion with his wife but after that the correspondence petered out and sadly we lost touch.

Archie extended his RAF service by six months as he could not make up his mind what to do in civilian life. Finally he settled in his home town of Gosport, worked in the hotel trade and finished up as the landlord of a pub. Unhappily he developed lung cancer and died in his early sixties.

Ray also returned to his home town, Southampton, joined a timber firm where he spent many years as an engineer/machinist. We used to meet from time to time for lunch and enjoyed putting the world to rights. Sadly his health failed and he died last year. I attended and spoke at his funeral.

Myself, I returned to the firm where I had worked briefly while waiting to join the RAF and spent, counting in my war service, almost 40 years with them in a variety of technical and managerial jobs. The firm was a subsidiary of the multi-national Unilever who I think trade in Australia under the name of Lever Brothers. After retiring from them, I spent four years in a semi government job, the National Economic Development Office after which I was invited to return to Unilever on a part time basis to help sort out their archives. I finally retired at 70+.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anastasia Travers a volunteer with WM CSV Actiondesk on behalf of John Maunsell and has been added to the site with his permission. John Maunsell fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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