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Jim Reilly was 19 years old when World War II started. He had been working at Oxford University studying Greek and Latin, before he started training to become a Bomb aimer, working as a navigator. He did lots of training. Firstly he became a member of the Initial training wing, which taught him how to navigate and aim correctly whilst in an aeroplane, this took place whilst he was in Canada. He stayed there for 3 months and he took part in his first major battle, which was the battle of Wsel, his job simply to drop bombs in the correct areas. He realised that war had officially started when he heard the first air raid siren in Gelsankirshan, Scotland. He was still in training when D-Day happened and he thought that his 4 years of training were not going to be any use to the forces, but as we know now it was! He says that his four years of long hard training was a very different experience from school life. He didn’t feel to bad about having to leave home, though his mother didn’t want him to leave! He never felt that afraid as he knew that it was only his duty to serve his country, he also believes that war is the end of political failure. He told me about the uniform which he had to wear, light blue for air bombers and he said he also had a change of clothes a much more smart uniform for parades.
On his average day he would wake up early and make sure he was ready for 9pm so he could attend briefing and nobody could afford to be late. He did not always carry weapons with him as he only used bombs stored in the planes, the only essential things that he carried would be helmets, respirators and a first aid kit. Jim told me that learning the basic gun skills was hard work and took a lot of practise, through as he had been training in navigation he was good at aiming precisely on targets. When it came to food Jim was adamant that war food was not all that bad. Egg and chips were a usual quick treat for the fighters and they were given all the basic food they needed. He told me that there were lots of qualified cooks working hard in the kitchens, though the thing Jim most looked forward to, was his occasional drop of rum! He slept in a small room with only a bed and his collection of many books. The washrooms were in his own words ‘not very glamorous’ but he says that they could have been a lot worse. He did receive many letters of parcels, letters usually off his worrying mother back home and occasionally off his father. His parcels usually contained delicacy foods such as cakes and biscuits, he was sure that his mother thought he was being starved!
To sum up his job in the war, basically he dropped bombs from special bombing planes, and with the help of navigation, mathematics and map reading skills he became a very important part in battle. He did not like to feel important as he mentioned that the fact many other 1000’s of people were fighting and that it narrows the importance feeling, and you just get on with your job. The only points in which Jim ever felt slightly worried was when his aircraft would take off and when they reached the bombing site, these are the only times which he felt under pressure. He visited some foreign countries such as Egypt, Israel and Germany all these countries he was involved in battle. Jim thought that the home population were always very supportive as when he received leave (usually every 6 weeks) he was always praised and he saw the close communities puling together. He was never taken hostage or prisoner and he was recorded officially as a Flight Lieutenant. One of his main memories was when VE day came he was celebrating in Piccadilly Circus! He also frequently mentions how he made very close friends with his crew and likened them to a football team!
Jim thought that the reason more children should learn about war is to show curiosity and how life was like before and after war, that changed so many people’s lives.

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