大象传媒

This is a story about my Father in-Laws time in Bomber Command alas he died shortly after the VE celebrations at Hendon on the 31/05/05 i would like tell it as he would.
SUMMERY OF SERVICE IN THE ROYAL AIR FORCE DURING WW2.
JOHN ANDERSON HURST- 1470142
JOINED THE SERVICE AT RAF CARDINGTON 15-12-41 DEMOBBED AT RAF UXBRIDGE 1-8-46 TRADE,AIR GUNNER-GUNNERY LEADER
AIRCRAFT IN WHICH FLOWN-
BOLTON AND PAUL DEFIANT*, AVRO ANSON, BLENHEIM BOMBER, VICKERS WELLINGTON AND HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX.
I flew a tour of ops as tail gunner on Halifax鈥檚 MK2,with 102 Squadron based at Pocklington,Yorkshire,in 1942-43,it1 was part of 4 Group, and had the second highest losses in Bomber Commando
The majority of my ops were over the Rhur,we hit most of the main cities,Essen.Munich,Cologne,Frankfurt,Manheim,Stuttgart etc Then of course there was Berlin and three to Italy- Turin and Genoa-a 9hr trip- ,as well as mine laying around the Friesian Islands, so I had an exciting and eventful war, and lived to tell the tale.
As a child I was fascinated by aircraft, and would often cycle 8 miles to an aero club to watch Tiger Moths flying from their grass field. My pocket money was spent on model aircraft kits, and I spent many happy hours flying rubber powered models. I now do so, with ray grandsons, and still enjoy it! Stay young I say
As soon as I was old enough,! joined the Air Training; Corps, and when war was declared was eager to get into the RAF as aircrew However I was classed as being in a Reserved Occupation, as I was employed making Reticules for Browning gun sites and Gate Glasses for aerial cameras. I flew in 17 different Halifax鈥檚 during my tour, and I wondered how many of them had these components that I had made. By the end of my tour 9 of the 17 Halifax鈥檚 had been shot down or crashed, some only a few days after they had got us home safely
So determined was I to fly with the RAF that I constantly pestered the local RAF recruitment office, and in October 1941 I went before an Aircrew selection board, and was accepted for Aircrew, my ambitions were about to be achieved! But I had to wait until the 15th December before I was taken into the RAF at Cardington in Bedfordshire, where I was kitted out and given the White Flash that trainee aircrew wore in their forage caps, and I was very proud to wear it. ;
I
A couple of days later we were sent by train to Padgate near Warrington-a mill town with cobbled streets, and each (morning we were woken by the mill girls as they noisily made their way to work wearing wooden clogs. At Padgate we were given more kit, and lectures about the RAF and shouted at by NCO'SII We only stayed for two days, but I still recall Padgate as the most depressing RAF station I was based at. At one time I thought of writing a book about my RAF days, and thought of calling it "From Padgate To Berlin"!1
We were next sent by train to Blackpool, and 5 of us were billeted with an elderly couple in Albert Road, a grey road of terraced houses. Looking back I feel sorry for the couple, and hundreds of others who had teenagers dumped on them, and were paid a pittance, they certainly did not want us there. We had to do many of the daily chores, washing up,-making the beds, peeling potatoes,etc but the lady of the house did the cooking. We were out of the house from Sam to 6pm,much of the day being spent endlessly drilling on the promenade, in aircraft recognition classes, on the rifle range and being taught Morse by civilian instructors etc.Christmas in Blackpool was bleak, we were not wanted in the house- understand ably so- a group of us found the local Salvation Army! Hostel, and were made very welcome and were well fed, and invited 拢o return on Boxing Day, which we did. Ever since I have had great respect and admiration for the Salvation Army.
I
January 1942 was very snowy in Blackpool, and the hundreds of RAF based there were kept busy on snow clearing, A vast length of the prom had to be cleared each morning before "square bashing" could commence, the snow was often 6""deep. But we were allowed to go in groups to the Woolworth cafe beneath Blackpool Tower, for tea and buns after "our stretch" of the Prom was cleared. The Winter Gardens had been taken over by the RAF,and we had pay parades there every fortnight, and PT was done in the Palace Ballroom. We were off duty on Sundays, and could go free of charge to the Opera House to listen to The Squadron airs -a well known orchestra of the time-also variety acts, including the late Max Wall. He was our drill sergeant, and would strut around with a pace stick under his arm, bellowing at us whilst we were drilling. Dinghy drill was held in the Derby Baths, where we had to swim around, inflate the dinghy, and clamber in, and paddle it around. No wave machines in those days, so it was not very realistic, It would have [been somewhat different doing it for real in the North Sea )on a cold dark winters night, maybe with injured crew members aboard. Never the less hundreds of aircrew lives were saved by the dinghys,and the gallant Air Sea Rescue boys. Prior to joining up, I jaws a keen amateur boxer, and therefore willing boxed for my Wing When volunteers were called for. We boxed in the Tower Ring beneath the Tower,! recall winning a cup on one occasion
I was at No3 Recruit Centre Blackpool until March 1942 when I was posted to 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds in Lincolnshire, where there were Wellington Bombers. There I stayed until June. I got the feel of the atmosphere of an operational station, and loved it. And was fascinated and envious watching the Wimpys taking off on bombing raids. I was sent there as a stop gap whilst awaiting
gunnery training. But had to earn my keep, and I was detailed to
work with the Adjustments Officer. This entailed collecting the
kit of aircrew who had not returned from the previous nights
assorting it, and returning personal items to their next of
kin. There was just an admin F/LT and myself doing this and as
there were heavy losses we were kept very busy. We had to vet
personal letters and wallets, and use our discretion as to what we
returned to the next of kin, so as not to add to their grief 11 111
Seeing these nightly casualties did not put me off wanting to be
aircrew. I
I
On the 22nd June I was posted to the Aircrew Reception Centre at ST Johns Wood billeted in what were private flats, of very good quality. We had our meals at Regents Park Zoo! I land did PT at Lords cricket ground. I found it interesting and enjoyable, all the NCOs were good types and seemed to respect us as future aircrew, but did have the attitude of "rather you than me mate"
A week later I was posted to No 2 Air Gunnery School at Across several miles north of Inverness. Here I was to fly for the first time,airbourne at last. We flew in Bolton and Paul Defiant-a single engine aircraft, somewhat like a Hurricane with a mid upper gun turret housing two browning The Pilots were Polish, and "flew with gay abandon鈥� but more about that later. At the start our training consisted of classroom work. Learning about the Browning 303 machine gun -that fired 1150 rounds a minute, we had to be able to strip it down to its many parts, and reassemble it in the dark in 3 menswear spent hours learning about Bolton and Paul and Fraser Nash turrets, and aircraft recognition was high on the agenda, as were fighter tactics At last we were issued with flying kit and, ready to fly in the Defiants for air to air firing.
I
Having climbed into the aircraft, and settled myself into the turret-I recall that there was very little room, and the aircraft had a strange smell about it, a strong smell of oil, glycol and aviation fuel-moreso than any other type of aircraft jl flew in-the pilot taxied to the run way, and we flew to the air firing range-a flight of about 15 mins,The range was about 4 mile from the coast over the North Sea. Here we were met by a Westland Lysander towing a drogue.Our aircraft and the Lysander flew parallel with the coast, the Lysander being about 800 yds from us on the seaward side. The pilot then told me to fire at the drogue when ready, this I did in short bursts until all 500 rounds had been fired, we would then return to base where the hits on the drouge would be counted and recorded. This routine continued, punctuated by classroom work for 8 weeks. Earlier I mentioned the pilots approach to flying, They were not content as "bus driver pilots鈥� flying us trainees to and from the air firing range. So they brought some excitement into their flying-mine too- when returning from the range, by lowering the undercarriage and attempting to spin the wheels on the wave tops, this was done in conjunction with another Defiant pilot that we would rendezvous with. We would fly at wave height and the pilots take it in turns to fly as near the wave tops as they could or dare, The whole time they would be laughing and chatting in Polish. Then when we reached the coast they would continue to fly at low level. And at the last second pull up and skim over the cliffs. One of these pilots that I flew with on several occasions, had only one eye!
He delighted in removing his artificial eye, and rolling it around
in his hand, Never the less, it did not have an adverse, effect on
his flying, and I was happy to fly with him. But looking back-a one
eyed pilot flying at such a low level-rather dodgy, but as a
teenager I enjoyed it. |
After two months at Dalcross we had our passing out parade, and were presented with an Air Gunners Brevet, and given our sgts stripes, and went on leave for seven days, having been told to report to RAF Harwell in Oxfordshire at the end of our leave.
RAF Harwell was where pilots, navigators, wireless operators flight engineers, bomb aimers and air gunners were crewed up. There was nothing formal about this, it was up to individuals to crew with whoever they wished, no pressure was put on anyone. The choice each person made in joining a group of 7 other newly trained aircrew could be a major factor in relation to whether or not they survived operations. Yet one had no way of knowing how efficient others were at their job in an operational aircraft, or how they would cope with the many hazards of the job.
I
It was an informal atmosphere, and we were all chatting and drinking the coffee or tea provided. I eventually joined a tall slim fair haired pilot, fresh from flying training school, who I felt 1 would be happy and confident to fly with his n*ame was George-and I certainly made the right choice-.That day my name was changed! no longer was I to be John but Jimmy. The reason for this was because the pilot, had already been joined by a navigator whose name was John, and to have two Johns in a crew would cause confusion especially over the intercom. George assembled a complete crew that day, and we flew many hours together, although sadly, two did not survive. They were shot down and killed when flying with other crews.
A couple of days later all the newly formed crews went by train to RAF Topcliffe in Yorkshire, which was a Heavy Bomber Conversion Unit. Here the crews flew together for the first time. Our aircraft were Halifax鈥檚 Mk2.We did many circuits and bumps during the day and at night, so that our pilot could get used to flying the 22 ton aircraft. We flew cross countries-day and night-to various places in the UK so that the navigator could gain experiance.On one flight we were lower than we should have been, and found ourselves almost in the balloon barrage over Liverpool-we did have cable cutters on the wings-but were not keen to, test them! We did search light liaison flights over various cities, in which the search light crews were to pick us up, and our task was to avoid them, they never did get us, unlike the German searchlights. Another activity was fighter liaison in which the Browning鈥檚 in the turrets were replaced by camera guns. We would then be attacked by a Spitfire that also had a camera gun, and we practised our evasive action drill, and the Spit pilot his attacking technique, all of which was recorded on 16mm film, which we were shown later. After about a month at Topcliffe crews were posted to various squadrons. Ours was one of several that went to 102 Squadron at Pocklington in Yorkshire. We were all keen to go on ops,little did we know that our crew was to be the only one to

survive. We were a happy confident crew, no bickering or arguing we just gelled.(.We almost won the Croix de Geurre in 1943 !The French government sent our squadron 7 of them -they must have been impressed with our efforts-.The names of the crews involved were put into a hat and those drawn were given the medals. What a way to win-or not to win-the Croix de Geurre.)
Our first operation was mine laying off Amerland in the Fresian Islands on 6th November 1942.Mines were dropped from 200ft,and at such a low height we received a lot of attention from ground fire. Tracer was hosed around us, but we were not hit. That was our "baptism of fire".But we had yet to encounter night fighters. They were always a problem. The worst encounter that we had was with a FW 190 that attacked us from astern. .He was very determined, but I had seen him before he was within range and warned the skipper. At the critical moment as he came !in I told the skipper to corkscrew, this entailed the aircraft diving a few hundred feet to port or starboard and then climbing again on the opposite tack in a corkscrewing motion, this could be quite a violent manoeuvre, but effective in shaking off a fighter. A few minutes later the fighter found us again, and came in from port, and I told the skipper to turn hard to port, and as the 190 broke away the mid upper and 1 gave it a short burst. He again came at us, this time from starboard and we repeated our evasive action and as he broke away he gave us a burst but did no damage. And we did not see him again.
Most of our ops entailed flying through areas heavily protected by anti aircraft guns, it sound like hail as it hit the aircraft after the shell had burst above us, this was not too lethal as it was in freefall on its way to the ground. The most dangerous was from shells that burst close to the aircraft, and the hundreds of hot jagged fragments had the momentum to penetrate the plane and kill or injure crew members, and cause mechanical damage. Often resulting in it crashing. On one occasion we were on our way to Essen in very heavy flak, when there was a loud explosion in the aircraft, and a rush of cold air, and the plane bounced, around. The skipper checked on the intercom that we were all ok,and the flight engineer went to see what the damage was.
I
What had happened was that a piece of shrapnel had detonated the photo flash which exploded and destroyed its launching tube, and blew a jagged hole in the starboard side of the fuselage just behind my turret. We measured it back at base, and it was about 5ft long by 3ft high. This resulted in a gale blowing through the aircraft, and made it very difficult for George to handle. Never the less we flew to the target-Krupps-and bombed it-no photo of course-and set course for base. About half way home -still over enemy territory we lost an engine due to mechanical trouble, this
reduced our airspeed even more, and we lumbered home an hour later than the rest of the squadron. Being behind the main stream and flying low as we approached the English coast we attracted the attention of the navy, who fired at us with pom poms,despite us firing off the colours of the day, I recall sitting in my turret and hearing the pom pom pom of the guns above the sound of our 3 engines. These days this would be termed friendly fire. When counting the hits on our plane-as we always did -we wondered how many were from enemy fire, and how many from the navy. It was surprising how much damage the Halibags could sustain, and remain

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.