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William Morrison joined the Greenock Police in 1938 and was on duty throughout the Blitz. The sinking of HMS Hood on 24th May 1941 was a decisive factor in his signing up to join the RAF — he felt he had to do something. There followed a period of training in which he passed his flying exams and was sent to Canada for further training. He trained to become a Navigator and on return to Britain he was eventually assigned to 550 Squadron based in North Killingholme, flying Lancaster Bombers. Mr Morrison flew 33 combat missions over Europe.

I did 33 bombing missions on Lancasters — dropping bombs on Dresden, Nuremberg, Leipzig, city centres, railway sidings. I had no qualms at all —I never even thought about it. I was lying on the top of 5 ton of bombs. We climbed to 10000 before we set course over Netherlands and over Sweden and they started shooting at us. We were bombing Stetten — an oil refinery. That was a long flight. 5 hours there and back again.

The next raid was Schemnitz. We dived from 20000 to 12000 — to get away from two ME110’s. We got into the cloud. I worked the Gee to try and get a fix. We were lost because of the dive. I got a fix on Lake Lucerne. We ran out of fuel and had to land on an American base in the south of England. Dresden — I was in the second wave with 600 bombers — and I could see the fires — 2 o’clock in the morning - to the right and left there were 4 or 5 Lancasters and we all opened our bomb doors practically at the same time and never gave it a thought. I saw Coventry and these places bombed to bits
In one raid on Nuremberg we lost 94 planes with 7 crew members in each plane.

In my squadron we lost 330 men — some of the raids I was on — I’d come back and there would be three empty tables — 21 men in one night. I never knew them — that’s how we coped — we never got pally with them — you only got pally with your own crew. Because if they went down..

This little fellow — he was so immaculately dressed he was like that his shoes were shiny and he had his RAF scarf and everything and he spoke to me on the way down and I think I was the last person he talked to — he never came back. That was the kind of thing that happened.

One of the fellows I went up the Municipal Buildings with to Fire Watch — Alex Smith — came from Spey Bay — he had joined the Air Force. I used to go into Grimsby for a night out — and get a drink. I met Alex Smith — he wasn’t on my Squadron the 550 but in an Australian Squadron the 476 or something — I had already done 21 Ops and Alex was so upset he cried — he cried on my shoulder and said “Willie — I can’t take any more of this. And that’s what he said to me. I’ll always remember this. He stayed in Union St with Miss McNab. His aunt was the manageress at the big tearoom in Glasgow. She stood the seven of us who were being called up a meal in the restaurant to say goodbye to us. Anyway I never saw Alex again. After the war I decided to see what had happened to him. He had come back to the police but he never settled. No wonder with the bosses that were there Alex resigned and went back home a few weeks later Scotland were playing England at Hampden Park and I got two tickets from Mr Campbell the lawyer, a director of Celtic. I phoned Alex — I got his address from Miss McNab. I phoned him and said I had got two turnstile tickets for the match — will you come down on Saturday and we’ll go to the match. Certainly Willie he said but he never came — he was found drowned in the River Spey —stress. I was so stressed I also left the police force and hitch hiked across Canada — some years later I was so stressed — I just couldn’t get rid of it.

Joe Granaghan was from Greenock — a clever man - he was in my squadron — he took to the drink. That was stress

Was the flak heavy? Heavy? I could have pushed a wheelbarrow over it, it was that heavy

The plane we were in that night, on the raid on Dresden was old C Charlie — an old boot of a plane but it took us through. Your eyes were popping out of your head some times — you were so close — 500 bombers all heading for one target. Some fellows got knocked out the sky with someone else’s bombs — that happened. I know it did. I saw collisions over the Wash on the way down — one flash and they were away 5 tonnes of bombs and 1200 of spirit

When you got your foot on the ground after a raid you were a very quietly satisfied person. We were lucky. You had to back to the intelligence group and then back to the hut where you maybe got your bacon and eggs and maybe a glass of rum or a cocoa then you went to bed in the Nissen. Then about 11 you got up and then there was the roll for the next night and you just stood hoping to hell that you weren’t on it. Every third night practically you were on it. You just had to do as you were told — you weren’t going to be branded a coward.

We went to attack Plaun but it was cancelled - we had to turn and come right back again — it was still dangerous - I had to fly over the Battle of the Bulge and good gracious the Americans had a go at us too. So that is it — I’ve got it off my chest.

William Morrison

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