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At the outbreak of War in 1939 I was 17 years old and had just left school. We lived in Sale in Cheshire. I went to work for the well known Engineering firm of Metro-Vickers. There the heavy Bombers, ‘Manchesters’ were made; soon to be followed by the famous ‘Lancasters’ which had twice the engine power.
In 1942 I was called up to serve in the Forces and as I wanted to be Air Crew I had to report to Lord’s Cricket Ground. I was sent to Stratford on Avon for the Initial Ground Training, then to Wolverhampton for flying training.
The planes we flew were Tiger Moths. We had 12 hours of flying before going solo. We were assessed for our abilities. We were then sent on to Heaton Park, Manchester where we were further divided into Pilots, Navigators or Bomb Aimers. I was selected to be a Pilot and in August 1943 went out to Canada to train. It was a big change to be in Saskatchuan, with endless Prairie growing wheat, no rationing and flying multi-engined aircraft. I returned with my Wings, to wartime reality, in April 1944, just in time for D day.
disappointingly after all the time and training I still did not achieve my ambition to become First Pilot of a Lancaster. Due to the Empire Scheme there were 100,000 trained pilots so now I had to choose between the Fleet Air Arm, Gliders or training as a Flight Engineer Second Pilot on Lancasters. I chose the latter.
Finally in March 1945 I went on my 1st. Operation - a daylight raid over the Ruhr. We carried one bomb of 4,000lb & 14 of 5OOlbs. We were badly hit and lost one engine. Subsequently I flew on raids by night and day, including to Potsdam when we only carried incendiary bombs. These made the heaviest loads as the bomb bays could be packed solid with not an inch wasted. It took 8hours 30mins. for a round trip to Berlin. We would set off from the airfield in Cambridge as a group of 12 or so and gradually would join more and more groups until there were as many as 1,000 planes. The Master Bombers went ahead to drop the coloured beacon lights to indicate the target area. With the coloured markers and the different colours of the burning targets, it was like looking at a fantastic firework display. I celebrated my 23rd birthday on the day we flew on a daylight raid to Heligoland. In all I did 7 operations over Europe.
By May 1st resistance had crumbled and we flew over to Holland to take food to the people. We flew much lower than was wise to see the situation. For half a mile in 2 directions beyond the drop area were queues 12 people wide. We saw the German gunners at their posts but this time they ignored us. We had the pleasure of flying released P.O.Ws back from France and Italy. We expected to go to the Far East but the sudden end of the war in August stopped all our flying.

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