大象传媒

In 1939, I lived in the East End of London next to the docks. That area was our whole lives - we didn't have money for buses, so if you wanted to go anywhere, you walked! We were so poor we often didn't have cutlery and had to acquire it from Lyons tea houses etc!

Our house was bombed with many others in the dock area in 1939, and consequently we were made homeless or "bombed out," along with most of my school friends. My father was stationed in Finchley, so we went there, but were told we would have to be evacuated. My mother and 5 children were sent to Sandy in Bedfordshire. I had recently started work in an office, but had to move to a building site when we went to Sandy. I went back to London to do more "war work" as I got older.

I found this work really boring and dull, so I decided to join up - my mother wasn't sure they would want me! I went to the recruiting office and was told the only jobs going were air gunners. I said this was OK and waited to be called up. I didn't have to wait too long and reported to St John's Wood in London, before moving to Pembray in Wales. After a stint in Bridlington, I was in Bridgnorth when I heard my name called - "Billy" - I didn't think they wanted me, but turned round and found my friend Dennis Field whoI had been at school with from the age of 5 and who had been bombed out at the same time as me in the East End. Amazingly he was also training as an air gunner!

Dennis & I decided to stay together as gunners and we went to Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire to pickup our first (and only) crew. Michael Leslie-Rowe was our bomb-aimer; Chris Christopherson (from Canada) was our wireless operator; Basil Reese and F/O Penney was our officer, he was 22 years old. Sandy Avery from New Zealand was our navigator. Sandy was 26 and we used to treat him like our Grandad as he was so old!

Our runs were mainly to Germany but also up to the fjords in Norway. On this particular occasion we were flying to Heilbronn in Norway. We went in initially to the target area with the bomb doors open. There was a lot of flak and noise, but as we reached the target a cloud moved across the target area and Michael L-R couldn't see. In his lovely plummy voice he said " Got some cloud over the target, so we'll have to go round again". So we had to go through all the flak again before finally dropping the bomb at the 2nd attempt. Christopherson said "Leslie-Rowe - if you ever do that again, I'll kick your arse straight off this plane!"

Dennis met a WAAF and I was surprised one day when he told me that she was "in the family way." They did get married and went on to have 4 daughters. They were devoted to each other - and when his wife died 2 years ago, Dennis died shortly afterwards from a broken heart.

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