大象传媒

When World War II started I was still a schoolboy, never dreaming that one day I would be involved in it.

Living within the sounds of Barton aerodrome gave me an interest in aviation and aeromodelling, so it was pretty obvious that I might aspire to being a pilot. My parents advice was that if I must join the RAF, I should at least remain in the engineering trade. When I reached 18, flight engineers direct entry were being called for, so this just about solved the problem.

Full of enthusiasm in 1943 I was called to report to London. This was very much an adventure as the farthest I had been from home was North Wales and the Fylde coast. On arriving at Lords cricket ground, I was kitted out, proceeding later to ITW at Torquay for six weeks and bombed by FW190s along the promenade, three airmen being killed.
The next posting was to No. 4 School of Tech training at St. Athains for flight engineers course. I received the brevet in January 1944 without ever being airborne. Continued to heavy conversion at Blyton, then on to the Lancaster finishing school at Hamswell. During night circuits we had a fire in the starboard inner engine, and by the time we had managed to extinguish the flames we were lost, and subsequently crashed at Riccall. The aircraft was a complete write off but we managed to walk away from it. This was the start to my flying career.

Eventually we were posted to our operational squadron at Kelstern 625 squadron. On our 7th Op, our rear gunner shot a night fighter down and received the DFM. I had always understood that was his job; so why the fuss?
On my 23rd Operation to Stuttgart, the thing we all dreaded happenned. This was the third operation to Stuttgard in one week, all by the same route, and on this night the Luftwaffe were waiting. The sky was full of night fighters. We corkscrewed our way to the target but finally got caught by a night fighter. The starboard inner engine burst into flames, and the u/c fell down with the tyre blazing. I froze with fear at the sight of that Merlin blazing away; within seconds flames were reaching beyond the tail, the fuselage was filling with smoke. Feathering and use of the Graviner extinguisher had no effect and the pilot was fighting the controls to avoid going into a fatal spiral dive.
The pilots voice came over the intercom, "Get out chaps I can't hold it much longer". I had already found my chute and clipped it in place. Thoughts flashed through my mind. My mother and my girlfriend would never know how the end came; I wasn't going back for my egg and bacon, I was going out of the hatch in the floor, probably to be shot if I reached the ground alive.
As soon as the bomb aimer had made his exit, I followed head first. I remember seeing the Lanc go over my head and then perfect silence as I drifted down from 10,000ft. My past life pased before me and I prayed to God that I would survive this experience. It was a long drop, and of course I had to pass through the height the flack was bursting.
I hit the ground with quite a solid thump. But no bones broken. I just lay there until I sorted myself out.
The date and time, 29th July 01.02hrs, and I did not dare to light a cigarette. I heard noises which gave me a fright initially, but then realised it was just the wildlife. Looking westwards, the fires of Stuttgart could be seen so that would not be the best direction to progress.
As the dawn broke I decided to travel north, and soon approached the rear of villlage. A woman was feeding some chickens int he garden so I approached and asked the way to Switzerland. She looked startled and went back into her house. I thought perhaps she might bring me a cup of tea but what she did bring was two farmers with guns, sho obviously knew what I was and took me to the Burgomiester house where a policeman now joined us. The frau of the house took one look at me and bowed her head and said "Kinder". She obviously thought I looked too young to be in the war.
After two or three days in a police cell we (two of my crew had also been captured) were transported to Dulag Luft Interrogation Centre near Franfurt. We travelled by public trasport and it was quite obvious that the two guards were there to protect us as I am quite sure that if the general public could have got their hands on us we would have known about it.

To me it was an education to travel through the bomb damaged cities and towns and to see at first hand how the German people lived. I thought how much they were like us and I began to wonder what this war was all about. May it never happen agian!

Certainly that last flight was an experience I shall never forget.

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