大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Clive Bishop of the CSV Action Desk, 大象传媒 Radio Newcastle on behalf of John Oxnard and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

Ralph Edwin Holmes was known to me as Uncle Edwin, he lived in Dibley Street, off Raby Street, Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne. He had five sisters, one of whom, Betty, after the war moved to America and the other four became shopkeepers. In 1939, when he must have been 18 or 19, he told his mother, Mary, that he wanted to go and fight in the war. He had always wanted to be a pilot so he joined the RAF. He was based in Fairford, Nr. Swindon in Gloucestershire and took the pilots course. He was trained to fly a Bristol Blenheim but never mastered the technique of landing. Following this disappointment he took a navigators job and was ultimately promoted to warrant officer rank. During his time he flew in Sterling鈥檚, Halifax鈥檚 and Lancaster bombers.

Edwin鈥檚 future wife lived in a cottage that was built on the edge of the airfield at Fairford. They married after the war and moved to Newcastle but unfortunately she died a few years later.

When he came out of the wartime activities, completely unscathed, he flew in the Berlin airlift operating in the planes that transported fuels and foodstuff such as coal, wood, sugar and butter. He related how the planes were operated twenty four hours a day and were frequently disorganised and very casually loaded, causing weight shifts that would often cause them to crash, sometimes into each other.
Uncle Edwin was based in Egypt after the war and frequently returned home unexpectedly, after scrounging various lifts hopping from assorted airfields, such as Egypt to Africa, then to India and so on until he reached England. Some times his leave ran out before he managed to get all of the way home. Sometimes his stay had to be short in order to get back to base on time.

There were always treats from Egypt for myself and my sister, Irene, usually tins of sweets. Edwin partially lifted the lid and we were told that we could put our hand in and take three, it was difficult to feel my favourite hard centres.

Edwin has one son Rolf, who graduated from Oxford, and now teaches in a private school in Norwich. Edwin died from a brain haemorrhage when he was about 67.

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