大象传媒

Hello there, my name is John Patterson, the recent commemorations to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII and the tributes to the men and women who served their country during the conflict has prompted me to write an entry in this website, adding to the stories from people around the the country and indeed the world telling of their experiences during that time.
I spent the last three years of the war after I had completed my training with 57 squadron as a flight engineer in Lancaster bombers, which in modern terms would be the equivalent of a co-pilot in a civil airliner, it was my job to assist the pilot, keeping an eye on the dials and gauges, leaving the job of flying to the pilot, although on a lot of occaisions I took over flying duties coming home over the channels after a bombing sortie.
I took part in 32 bombing raids over Germany, which is quite an achievement considering there was a lot of young men lost their lives on their first sortie, some raids were quite straitforward, bombing fuel dumps, railway yards and the like, some were a little more scary like raids on the large industrial cities of Dusseldorf and Cologne, and of course Berlin, flying at night which was Bomber Commands strategy, left the USAF bombers like the Fortresses and Liberators to fly their missions during the day, which like bomber command suffered horrendous losses to the german Messerschmidts ME109 and Focke Wulfe 190's.
Flying missions at night, there was a constant fear of being jumped by german night fighters, with their radar and in some cases vertically mounted cannon, where they would fly underneath bomber formations, and in a lot of cases pick off stragglers that were limping home due to damage sustained during the raids, so we all prayed for clear nights that wouldn't give them cover.
Later on in the war I became a flight instructor on Lancs and Stirling's, and it was strange seeing these young men so full of enthusiasm, and willingness to contribute to the defence of their country I sometimes forgot that I wasn't much older than them myself.
Towards the end of the war I was getting ready for my second tour of Japan when the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which brought the end to the war which was some relief as I could finally go home to my family and my future wife Sarah who served in the ATS driving staff cars and ambulances, serving an essential part of the countries defence effort.
After the war I spent some time with 24 VIP squadron flying Dakota's transporting the top brass around, my proudest moment was flying Field Marshall Montgomery on his tour of India and the Middle East, whom I found to be a very personable man despite his hero status, and he was generous to give me a signed photograph, which I have to this day.
After I left the RAF in 1946 I became a joiner to trade and worked for the South of Scotland Electricity Board for a numbers of years before taking early retirement, I now live in West Lothian taking things easy although I try to stay active, helping out at a day centre for the elderly every friday.
I hope this will contribute, in some small way to people's understanding of what ordinary people can be involved in something that is thankfully extraordinary, and I hope we never have to defend our country again and can remain on friendly terms with our european neighbours.

your sincerely John & Sarah Patterson.

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