大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Barbara Collins -Newing and has been added to the website on behalf of John Long with his permission and he fully understand the site's terms and conditions鈥�.

Dictated by Wing Commander John Long at the VE/VJ celebrations at Etchinghill Village Hall.

I am a Normandy veteran. I was 19 when the war started and already in the RAF, having joined as an apprentice. Before the war I served as a wireless operator /air gunner in Demon aircraft. This is an open cockpit aircraft and the gunner was connected to the floor with a chain, which was called a 鈥渕onkey chain鈥�. This was to stop them falling out. The difficulty was getting in. As you moved the machine gun round it came to a notch and this made the gun go up in the air and down again. This was to stop the air gunner from shooting the tail off his own aeroplane. These were squadron aircraft intended for combat but never used. I then went on to fly in Blenheim aircraft.

The Blenheims were flying up and down the North Sea looking for German shipping. The government forbade the RAF from bombing Germany in the first year of the war. They were worried about retribution, as we were not ready for war. We were allowed to drop leaflets and attack German shipping.

I was never in combat and had a change of career. I eventually went on to become a signal officer. We helped to arrange the control of aircraft. The mosquito aircraft were attacking Panzer divisions coming towards Caen and trying to stop them attacking the British troops. It was a very important job. I was stationed in East Anglia, at Martlesham and during the war on the continent. I landed on Utah Beach with the Americans because Mosquito aircraft were supporting the Americans. I landed from the sea on a landing craft. The ramp went down and I drove off up the beach to the beachmaster, who very kindly persuaded me not to swim back to England! They pointed me in the direction of Ste Mer Eglise. That was the first town that was occupied by the Americans during the war. There was a parachute hanging from the church where an American parachutist landed. It was made into a film. The American pretended to be dead so that the Germans below would not shoot at him. Eventually, St Mary Eglise was taken and he was released from his perilous perch. I forget his name.

We followed behind the front line as it moved up to Amiens. We operated from an airfield outside Amiens, called Amiens Glise. That is where I saw my first Ensa show. It was in the main hanger but they could have held it on the runway, as there was no roof to the hanger. It had been blown off by the RAF whilst the Germans were occupying the area. We stayed in barrack rooms for the first time there as we had been in tented accommodation since landing. This was to make sure that we were fully mobile and could move at a moment鈥檚 notice.

A group of officers and myself thought we would go into Amiens. There was no electricity and water. It was a pretty dismal place. We spoke to a local who told us that if we wanted beer and music that there was a place we could go. We went where he had indicated and there were 13 houses in a row. When we opened the door there was music and light. They had obviously used some influence to obtain some standby generators to operate the lights. The reason for their existence was that we had discovered the red light district. A blowsy lady came over with an unlit cigarette in her hand and said 鈥淒onnez moi du fer鈥�. I blushed to my knees and patted my pockets and said 鈥淪orry I don鈥檛 smoke鈥�, in my fractured French. She went back to the other girls and said, 鈥淭he young Englander has no fire鈥�! I was so embarrassed I persuaded them to drink up and went on to the next house. It was a similar situation, music and girls and in one corner we saw a RAF officer. This was late August or early September in 1944. This officer was in his overcoat with a scarf around his neck. We crowded round him as we recognised him 鈥� he was the Roman Catholic padre. We asked him what a religious person, was doing in a place like this? He replied he was studying human nature for the benefit of his flock!

Immediately after this I had to take command of some radar screen wireless operator units which were to go up to our front line area on the Dutch canals. They were to provide early warning of V1鈥檚. We could see them come over and with the radar units we were able to provide accurate information on the track and speed. We would then signal this information back to an operations room. This would be by Morse code to a royal signals department in a fort just outside Antwerp. They had an operations room and would control the guns in such a way that they were knocking down 100% of these V1鈥檚. Of course the Germans were intent on making sure that the British as a supply base would not use Antwerp. They were bombing it furiously with these V1鈥檚.

I walked through Antwerp, crunching on glass from the damaged buildings. I went to a hotel that the army had taken over near the station. As I walked in there was a young lady, in uniform, at the reception. She said "Yes sir, we can provide you with a room for the night. You have a choice. You can have a room with a bath and no windows or a room with windows but no"!

Whilst in the frontline area I saw quite a bit of air activity. On one occasion I saw three or four Typhoons coming up from Eindhoven. As I watched I was amazed to see another aircraft join up behind those four. I recognised from the yellow nose that this was an ME109, a German fighter. In the few seconds that I recognised him I saw rather than heard the fourth Typhoon disintegrate from the cannon fire from this ME109. He went on to shoot the second one down and then he was attacked. When the first one was attacked the pilot fell out 鈥� he didn鈥檛 eject 鈥� he had no parachute. He landed about 100 yards from me across the road. He was quite dead. He was a Canadian warrant officer. I arranged for him to be loaded on to the back of my 15 cwt. By the time I had got to Eindhoven it was dark and a sentry challenged me. He said 鈥淪orry Sir but I am going to have to look in the back of your vehicle鈥� Well I am a callous brute. I let him look in the vehicle and he came back very shocked and white faced having seen this dead body. At least he could direct me to the mortuary.

On another occasion a ME262, which was the first of the German jet aircraft to be seen flew over my radar and dropped a couple of anti-personnel bombs. Fortunately, they landed in a field beyond without any damage. Many years later I met a German general who I found out had been one of the very few people who had flown the ME262. His name was Walter Krupinski. I said to him one day did you ever drop bombs on my unit, in the front line area in Spring 1945. He put his hand on my shoulder and said 鈥淛ohn would I do such a thing to you?鈥� I think he had a conscience as he sent round a signed photograph of himself. He had been an Air Ace with 129 victories. (I think most of the victories had been on the Russian front)

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