大象传媒

An edited oral history interview with members of 582 No.8 (PFF Group), Little Staughton (officially formed on 1st April 1944) and Mr. Harry Hughes, Navigator of 692 Squadron, Graveley which was part of the Light Night Striking Force.

Interviewees - Mr. Edward 鈥楾ed鈥� Stocker, DSO, Air Commodore Gerry Bennington, Mr. Reg Cann, Mr. Harry Hughes, Mr. George Hall, Mr. Roy Pengilley, and Mr. Howard Lee conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum. The interview took place at the Moat House Hotel, Bedford on 18th June 2005. This was on the occasion of the final re-union of RAF personnel and their families of the No.8 PFF Group.

The raid described below took place on Pforzheim 23rd/24th February 1945. Captain Edwin Swales, Master Bomber of the raid, was awarded the VC posthumously.

鈥淢y name is (Air Commodore) Gerry Bennington and I was with 582 Squadron, Little Staughton, Bedfordshire. My position was Flight Engineer in a Lancaster crew.

My 35th operation as Flight Engineer started at 1635 hours on 23rd February 1945 when Lancaster bomber PB538 60M of 582 Squadron, piloted by Captain Edwin Swales of the South African Air Force took off from RAF Station Little Staughton. Our target was Pforzheim. Our role was Master Bomber and our objective, to destroy the factory making fuses for the German V2 rocket warheads.

Our outward passage was uneventful and we arrived at our target on schedule. We quickly identified our objective and at 1958 hours we launched our target indicators which were to be the aiming point of the bomber force following in our wake. About ten minutes into the attack a German Messerschmitt night-fighter, BF110, was spotted on our starboard and seconds later bullets poured into our tailplane and rudder trim control. A second attack followed quickly and we lost the starboard inner engine. A third attack put the port inner engine out of action and holed our number 1 fuel tank. The Captain ordered the crew to prepare to abandon the aircraft, but this order was rescinded within a few minutes and we headed for home - defenceless, leaking fuel, losing height and finding control of the aircraft difficult particularly since the blind flying panel was inoperative. Using the cloud as cover against further enemy attacks we eventually reached friendly territory. Between clouds I saw the moon on our starboard side and after emerging from another bank, spotted it again, but this time on our port side, we were going round in circles. As our height or lack of it, was dangerously low and control of the aircraft now extremely difficult, the Captain for the second time ordered the crew to abandon the plane.

The Bomb Aimer jettisoned the forward escape hatch and speedily parachuted out. I took his place on the edge of the hatch still connecting the second ring on the parachute to my harness - my launch into space was assisted by the right foot of the Navigator - who was to follow me out. My ascent was swift, and as I reached the ground, I saw a large burst of flame and knew that our Captain had perished.

Together with the Bomb Aimer, we were escorted to a nearby farmhouse by armed local civilians and later picked up by American Forces and taken to an USAF flying base where we were given food and shelter. Before leaving for England on the following day our hosts took us to the scene of the crash, and I saw Captain Swale鈥檚 right boot still on the rudder bar and his right hand clutching the control column.

This attack on Pforzheim is recognised as one of the most concentrated and successful of the war. Regrettably, four fifths of its buildings were razed to the ground and 21,000 of its population killed.鈥�

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