大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Graham Lewis for Three Counties Action on behalf of Mr Eric Saunders and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Saunders fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

On the night of 30th May 1942 one thousand bombers took off from various aerodromes in
England to bomb Cologne in Germany. This was the largest collection of aircraft ever made at one time for one raid.

I helped in the assembling and preparation of this great air fleet.

Earlier, in March 1942, I had been sent with several of my mates from Halton air station to my first posting - Bassingbourne near Cambridge - after a two-year training course. It was considered to be an excellent posting. Bassingbourne was a new type of RAF station with all types of modern facilities. We were allocated various duties according to our trades and I was placed in the 鈥渙dds and sods鈥� section run by a Sergeant Baker, who was also an 鈥淓x-Brat鈥�, as former apprentices were called. In this section you did odd jobs and stood in for anyone who was either sick or on leave.

My first job was on the Westland Lysander of the Station Commander鈥檚 Flight. This suited me fine, as it was the type of aircraft I had passed out on at Halton, so I was very familiar with it. As the aerodrome was quite big, we were issued with bikes and I was able to put my tools in the plumber鈥檚 holdall and be on my way. To my surprise, there was a WAAF mechanic there but she was very good and we got on fine: she knew her job and I knew mine.

After Easter there was obviously a 鈥渇lap鈥� on and we knew we were going to be involved in a major RAF operation. We were called into the hangar for a special lecture. Afterwards some of us were chosen to go to the Vickers factory at Weybridge, which we did by coach the next day. We spent three days at Vickers where we were shown, according to our trades, the modifications that would need to be carried out to get the Vickers Wellingtons (known to us as 鈥淲impys鈥�) of the Officer Training Units (OTUs) operational. In order to get a thousand bombers operational at one time, many had to come from the OTUs.

The aircraft used in greatest number was the 鈥淲impy鈥�. Those that came from the OTUs were usually captained by staff instructors and the rest of the crew were trainees. Many of these aircraft had already seen a great deal of service, having been operational since 1937, so they needed to be checked over very carefully. The 鈥淲impy鈥� was designed by Barnes Wallis (of 鈥楧ambuster鈥� fame) and was of his familiar geodetic design. It could withstand a lot of punishment, but the engines, the Bristol Pegasus, needed upgrading to meet the operational requirements of a bombing raid.

The Pegasus radial engines were going to be a crucial factor and as I was an 鈥渆ngines鈥� man, I was detailed, to my surprise, to assist with the testing. Our Engineering Officer and our 鈥淐hiefy鈥�, together with a 鈥渃ivvy鈥� from Vickers inspected the 鈥淲impys鈥� and then they were brought out to the perimeter of the runway, the so-called 鈥淏anjo鈥�, where we tested the engines; then they were run down the runway. The runway was marked off in lengths and each aircraft was tested to reach various speeds but not to take off. To my great delight I found myself sitting in the seat next to the pilot, clipboard in hand, reading the instruments and looking out for the markers. We had to do this for every aircraft we were sent and then again when they were each given a load which was calculated from the reports we made on them. Of course there were some that failed early on.

For me, this was a great and very unexpected experience as my first posting. I think we managed to get ten of our 鈥淲impys鈥� on the raid.

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