大象传媒

My father Frank May, was asked to write a chapter by former Dutch resistance fighter Ben Van Eerden for a book he was writing. Dad was in 295 Squadron, based at Harwell at this time and served as rear gunner from the start to the finish of hostilities. The chapter was this:

A chapter written by Mr Frank May, who was an airgunner in Stirlings, and took part in the weapon dropping (unsucessful), the 11th October 1944, which was the start of the battle of Rustenburg.

I have always admired the courage and skill of the RAF crews, who could find a meadow in a blacked out country, had to avoid the German Flak, and had to fly low enough to find us, the receiving party, with three little lights in boxes as the only markers for the dropping area, the bomb doors would open after the letter Z was given in Morse by one of us with a hand torch.

I asked Frank, if he could give me an oversight of a routine day of operation, and he has done a splendid job and again my, thanks. Ben Van Eerden.

An operational day with the Stirlings.

The day would normally begin by reporting or just showing up in the crew room near the squadrons hangar. Then after acknowledging other members of the crew, move on to your own section office, navigation, wireless or gunnery, to make one's presence known.

By this time, the list would be up on the operations board, stating which crews would be on ops the coming night, and their A/C plus the type of operation ie S.O.E etc. Most likely it would give the time for briefing later in the day.

The crews operating would be taken by crew bus to the A/C dispersal pad to check over their own particular equipment they operated, bomb sights, wireless, guns etc. The ground crew would have already carried out their daily inspections and signed form 700, to say all was servicable. Possibly an air test of three quarters of an hour would be carried out. The aircraft returned to its dispersal pad and left for the armourers to do their part by bombing up, although in this case, it would be containers.

Half the day gone, the crews would return to the flight office or crew room, then the midday break and a meal. Briefing would take place in the early afternoon with operating crews assembled in the main briefing rooms, to await the arrival of the C/O to give his little talk and a broad description of the coming op, petrol load etc. Then would follow the intelligence officer, the navigation leader, wireless officer and the met man. At the end of this all would have been told the latest on enemy defences, what courses to steer, the signals of the day, and the wind and weather conditions expected at the largest area and on return to base - with fingers crossed.

With wishes of good luck the C/O would conclude the briefing , the crews return to their billets to relax, before the evening meal. These were often served at seperate times to the operating crews, according to take off times.

Flying rations would be drawn, the amount varying according to length of the flight, 4,6,8 hours upwards, and would consist of chewing gum, chocolate, Horlick tablets, sandwiches, an apple, perhaps a flask of coffee.

A hour or so before take off it would be back to the crew rooms, pockets emptied of all personal belongings, flying gear donned and parachutes drawn and with the crew bus to dispersal, a last smoke and a pee before climbing aboard the aircraft.

Once having struggled into his cramped position, each member would be called up on the intercom by the skipper to ensure all was well. The bomb aimer forward, the pilot comfortable in his seat with the flight engineer at his shoulder, usually standing. Immediately behind the pilots position and backrest, sitting sideways, the navigator at his little table with wireless operator besides him.

These A/C Stirlings are not fitted with a mid upper turret, there is no gunner amidships, but isolated behind the tail unit is the rear gunners position.

With the tolley acc plugged into the A/C pilot and flight engineer go through the drill to start engines in the correct sequence, that is those engines driving other units first. All four engines are run up on the brakes and permission obtained from the control tower to taxi and wait at the end of the runway.

Given a green from the watch tower, swing on to the runway, full bore on the engines starting the heaviley laden A/C, lumbering down the runway to take off.

Once airborne and safe height gained, we do a circuit of the drome climbing and setting course for the point given at briefing, with the land behind us I.F.F. off and no trigger happy naval type below, set course again for the Dutch coast, over that cold and grey and most uninviting stretch of water, the North Sea I have the best forward view and strain my eyes to detect the flourescent ripple of the sea breaking on the enemy coast line. Then a check with the navigator to verify the crossing point from which to plot the course to the dropping area. During the latter part of the crossing and on the coastline, any flak-ship, or flak-positions we will have noted are passed on to the navigator and plotted, so that these may be reported to intelligence at debriefing.

With good flying conditions, height may be lost gradually as navigational aids help to find the dropping area and a visual search begins for the dropping zone itself. Until the restricted glow of the pattern of lights is located and the recognition signal given, a sweep round, the bomb doors open and bombing run can commence under the bomb aimers directions. The containers released and away, as any unneccessary activity would ony tend to draw attention to the area where the ground reception party, still had to do their difficult and dangerous job, and were at their most vulnerable stage of the operation.

With the course set for the crossing point of the coast, we make our way home to base, thankful to have found the dropping zone and delivered the weapons to our allies in the resistance. During the flight we had fair weather conditions and no enemy opposition.

Approaching the English coast, switch on the I.F.F. to warn the defences that the approaching aircraft is friendly and after crossing , the navigator will give the pilot the course for base. On arrival they call up the watchtower, give the call sign and wait for permission to land. The groundcrew will have returned to the aircraft's dispersal pad awaitng its return, they want to know if the operation was a success and how the aircraft behaved, any faults will be corrected during the next work period.

So into the crew bus and back to flights and debriefing, where there may be coffee and rum. Questions will be asked on defences, how the actual weather conditions compared with those forecast, the location and recognition of the dropping zone. Since the trip turned out to be one of those smoother trips and of less than four hours duration, briefing is soon finished. The crew goes to the dining hall for the traditional operational breakfast of bacon and egg, and a talk over the events of the night, with the knowledge that the rest of the day will be a stand down.

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