大象传媒

With war clouds gathering over Europe in the late nineteen nineties, like many young men, I volunteered for service in the Territorial Army which I joined in March 1939 at Grimsby. At the beginning of August, I was called up for a month's full-time training for which the reason for my mobilisation soon became all too clear with the outbreak of the Second World War on 3 September 1939. Little did I realise that I should not see "civvy street" again for almost seven years until I was de-mobilised in June 1946.

Now stationed at South Shields on the River Tyne, I had become very disillusioned with life as a gunner on an Anti Aircraft Battery, standing at the ready by day and night and expecting to engage with German aircraft which never seemed to appear. Shortly after the Battle of Britain in the late summer of 1940, my frustration was finally resolved when Regimental Orders announced that the Royal Air Force was seeking transfers from the Army for aircrew training. I submitted my application for a transfer although I have to say that, at the time, I had never left the ground and I had no idea what made an aeroplane fly! Nevertheless, a change of direction in my service life and the thought of going to war in a seated position had a great appeal!

I had to wait until May 1941 before I finally knew that my application had been accepted when I was summoned to RAF Padgate near Manchester for an education test and an aircrew medical examination both of which I passed.

In July 1941, I joined the Royal Air Force in the Long Room of Lord鈥檚 Cricket Ground. I was, in fact, the first member of my Battery to transfer to the RAF.

I achieved my initial ambition to become a pilot when I was awarded my pilot's wings as a Sergeant pilot in April 1942. Shortly afterwards, I became a flying instructor and, for the next twelve months, I was teaching Army pupils to fly on powered aircraft before transferring for glider training.

In May 1943, I received my commission as a Pilot Officer when, about the same time, the War Office had decided that it had a sufficient number of Glider Pilots trained or still under training. In the place of soldiers, l was allocated four RAF pupils, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, every three weeks. Their training comprised about eleven hours flying during which they were tested between the seventh and eighth hour and between the tenth and eleventh hour and the results of the two lest determined whether the pupils would go forward for further training as pilots, navigators or bomb aimers.

The incessant round of take offs, circuits and landings (known in the trade as circuits and bumps!) was gelling me down and caused me seek an interview with the Chief Flying Instructor when I explained my frustration and asked for a change. I told him that I had joined the RAF to fight the Germans, I had completed about 1.000 hours as a flying instructor and I was more than ready to move. As most of my flying had been on single engine aircraft, although I had qualified on twin-engine aircraft, I opted for Bomber Command in preference of Fighter Command.

In January 19-t4, I started my training as a Bomber pilot with a refresher flying on Oxford aircraft, followed by training on the Wellington bomber when I met my crew. Next came flying the four engine Stirling followed by a conversion on to the Lancaster at the Lancaster Finishing School Finally, in the autumn of 1944, I joined 619 Squadron, 5 Group, Bomber Command at RAF Strubby, a bomber airfield, five miles south west of Mablethorpeon the east coast of Lincolnshire.

5 Group had acquired the reputation of being called "Bomber Harris's Independent Air Force" because it had its own Pathfinder Squadrons and was often singled out for special operations in which it could put up as many as 250 Lancasters. With the exception of three 1,000 bomber raids in which I participated, the rest of my operations were carried out solely with 5 Group.

As I look back on my life as a Bomber pilot, I always feel that I was extremely lucky to have survived a tour of thirty operations. At the same time, I have been asked what it was like to fly on operations, which I find difficult to answer because every raid was different. However, a measure of tension was always present with the prospect of being pounced on by a German night fighter and the almost certainty of meeting searchlights and flak in the target area. Was I afraid? I must confess that at times, I suffered from this turmoil but, as captain, I was able to keep it to myself.

In the summer of 1945, I volunteered to join Transport Command and, after a conversion course, flying the twin engine Dakota (DC 3 aircraft), I joined 187 Squadron at RAF Membury (the Membury Service Station on the M4 is near the old airfield). I made nine flights to India, carrying National Service soldiers on the outward trip and returning with soldiers from the 15th Army who had been fighting the Japs and who were coming home for de-mobilisation.

I was demobilised in June 1946 by which time I had completed 2,519 hours flying as a pilot.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anastasia Travers a volunteer with WM CSV Actiondesk on behalf of John Whiteley and has been added to the site with his permission. John Whiteley fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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