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 Lees 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.

鈥淚 am George Hall, Pilot, 582 Squadron, Little Staughton. I came from 101 Squadron in Ludford Magna in Lincolnshire. Incidentally 101 Squadron is still operating. It was formed in 1917, First World War and it鈥檚 still operating and if you watch the Fly Past for the Queen鈥檚 birthday the big aeroplanes that came first were a tanker squadron of 101 Squadron.

But I counted myself as a semi new boy on the Pathfinders. I didn鈥檛 join them until just after 582 Squadron was formed in April 1944 and I鈥檇 only done half a dozen trips with 101. Mind you they鈥檇 been Essen, Frankfurt, Berlin, Stettin, Nuremburg, out of the six five of them were a fair initiation into Bomber Command and you know we came back and we were appalled by the number that were lost. At Nuremburg we lost half the Squadron that night. We lost 96! We lost half our Squadron. Anyone on 101 thought we were absolutely out of our silly minds and we did think about it but there you are.

We were new boys really at 582, I mean compared with these gentlemen you know, we knew very little really when we started and we finished up 57 altogether. While we were there of course along came 鈥楧鈥� Day and that changed the situation really because whereas before 鈥榟eavies鈥� had done mostly night flights - along came 鈥楧鈥� Day and the Army on the beach head and we were called upon to support the Army in daylight.

Now earlier on the night flights - the aeroplanes were 20,000 feet upwards but when we started bombing buzz bomb sites, railway terminals and Panzer Division we were down at about 6,000 feet which made a difference in a Lancaster, it鈥檚 a bigger aeroplane at 7,000 from what it is at 20,000 feet. And the other thing is of course that at 20,000 feet you were shot at by 88 millimeter guns, the same as the things they had in the Tiger tanks. But at 6,000 feet or 7,000 feet all the light flak that there was - was aimed at you, 30 millimeter stuff and you could see the people who were firing at you. In fact on one occasion we did because my Bomb Aimer said to me, 鈥楾hey鈥檙e firing at us you know!鈥� and sure enough they were because one or two came through the wings. And on one occasion, well that was the reason, on one occasion we had to make an emergency landing at Thorney Island because we got part of the way back across The Channel and the Flight Engineer said, 鈥業鈥檝e got nothing on my gauges at all!鈥� He said, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know how much fuel we鈥檝e got, how much we鈥檝e lost, whether we are going to make it.鈥� So I said, 鈥榃ell, the best thing is to land at the first available鈥� which was Thorney Island which was a Coastal Command station, not far from Portsmouth. We landed there and when we got out and when they told us afterwards they said, 鈥榃ell, you wouldn鈥檛 have got to Little Staughton because you didn鈥檛 have enough fuel and you were losing it so quickly.鈥� Circumstances had changed so much.

Well with this business of the daylights after 鈥楧鈥� Day then we were attacking buzz bomb sites because the V1s were coming and the V2s. We were attacking buzz bomb sites all along the French and Belgian coast and they were a much smaller target so you didn鈥檛 have as many aeroplanes - you might only have 50 or 60 aeroplanes. But you had a system were you had a Deputy Master Bomber who went in first and marked the target, as he thought. Behind him came the Master - who came in and assessed whether he鈥檇 put them down in the right place. And when he鈥檇 done that he then started circling the target and in came the Main Force - who may only be 50 or 60 aircraft compared with 500 on somewhere like Berlin. And through that attack you would have backers-up - one every minute and it would all be over in 10 minutes but of course you were low down because it was daylight. The flak was concentrated defending the buzz bomb sites because they knew you were coming to attack them and it wasn鈥檛 all light anti aircraft fire it was 88 millimeter heavy stuff.鈥�

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