大象传媒

I took over B Flight from Squadron Leader Cooke together with his experienced crew:
Flight Lt. Dunk, DFC, Navigator
Flight Lt. Snowden, DFM, Bomb aimer
Flight Sgt. Dumore, Flight Engineer
Flight Sgt. Bott, DFM, Wireless Operator
Flight Sgt. Tutton, Mid-upper gunner
Flight Sgt. Morgan, Rear gunner.

We quickly formed the beginning of a good working team.

Although I was not yet operational with the Squadron I attended the Squadron briefings which were well organized. All the crews on the raid were there in the Briefing Room agog to know what the 鈥榯arget for tonight鈥� was. The target was kept strictly secret before uncovering the map, showing the target and routes to and from it. The Station Intelligence Officer would outline the type of target and strategic importance together with any up to date knowledge of defences likely to be encountered. The Armament Officer would then confirm bomb load and target indicators to be carried. The Met. Officer would give the forecast weather conditions prevailing at the time and in particular the weather conditions likely to be encountered on arrival back at base. The Navigation Officer went over the routes, course to set and navigational aids. The Squadron Commander would give details of the attack, method of bombing and marking of target. Also given would be times of takeoff, time on target for each aircraft, the amount of fuel to be carried and any operational advice that might be helpful. The Station Commander would then round off the briefing with a few well chosen words and best of luck wishes.

One of my flights stands out in my memory to this day. It was a session of night circuits and landings in R5868 Q for Queenie. At a later date, when the Squadron exchanged Mark I Lancasters for Mark III version, Queenie was transferred to 467 Squadron and became PO S for Sugar and survived the war. After hostilities had ceased this survivor was positioned outside the entrance of RAF Scampton. From there it was moved to RAF Museum at Hendon where I was able to show it to my wife very much later.

Our first operational flight as a crew was on 22 March 1943 in support of the Battle of the Atlantic as target marker and bombing back up. This was in an attack on the docks at St. Nazaire used by U-boats. The occupied French ports were now considered to be the easier type of target against the German inland more heavily defended ones, but quoting a remark made by a crew member in the 218 Squadron days, 鈥淭here is no such thing as an easy target if you get clobbered on it鈥�.

The next two trips we did to Berlin - the Big City. These were of seven and three-quarter hours at the controls. Due to the length of flights our rations included coffee and chocolate bars and were much appreciated as were the 鈥榣ittle penny bottles鈥�!

The heating system in the Lancaster was much better than the Blenheim and the Wellington and the crew mostly flew in battledress with extra items of clothing if required. The exceptions were the two gunners who were more exposed to the elements in their turrets and wore thick protective Irvin jackets and trousers with warm linings. On the other hand, the Navigator鈥檚 position was on the warm side, particularly when the screening curtain was drawn. I also wore a red silk scarf which eventually became one of our lucky charms 鈥� in fact on one occasion I forgot to put it on which was firmly brought to my attention by the crew and had to dash back to the mess to get it. Superstitions don鈥檛 change!

In early April we volunteered to have sound recording equipment set up in our Lancaster, T for Tommy and take the operator, Flt. Lt. Sweeney from a specialist RAF unit to work it. We were in the early part of the attack and saw one of the leading Lancasters coned by searchlights and subjected to intense predicted heavy flak. As we approached the aiming point marked by the Oboe TIs [Oboe was a radio navigating system guiding us to the target and TIs were target indicators dropped by Pathfinders on the target to guide the following aircraft] we were caught by a controlled searchlight which were then joined by several more forming a cone of dazzling light. From there on for 13 minutes we flew through searchlight cones bombarded by the predicted flak. Nearing the target, we were peppered by shrapnel in the nose and front gun turret, but fortunately nobody was hit. We managed to fly out of the searchlights and carry out the bombing run and drop our load of TIs and bombs on the Oboe markers. Flt. Lt. Sweeney was pleased with his flight, taking the violent weaving in his stride and the recording of the crew drill and comments extracts of which were put over on the radio news bulletins. During the 13 minutes of concentrated attention, two of the crew were heard to say, 鈥淐ould do with a pint right now鈥� and 鈥測ou could light your fag on any of these鈥�. I was never a hard swearing type, but being in the service, when necessary could hold my own and used a four-letter word (It鈥檚 a bit ****ing hectic!). This needless to say was not broadcast; instead a substitute voice was used.

During August 1943 I was having some time off duty and went in to a music shop to buy the latest Bing Crosby records and I received a very big surprise: on the counter in a record catalogue, was listed 鈥榓 recording of the raid over Essen鈥�. It gave some details of a raid on Essen on 28 May which I was not part of and also from the one I was in, starting from the moment you hear , 鈥淏ombs gone鈥� and 鈥渂omb doors closed鈥�. There was more from our raid on 3 April. Of course, I promptly bought one. I wrote the names of the crew on one side of the record label, which I still have.

One trip I well remember when the weather forecast was not too good. Cloud with some clear patches was forecast at our altitude of 20,000 ft. with the possibility of icing conditions building up. We flew into dense cloud more than was expected. As we progressed, the mid-upper gunner, Flight Sgt. Tutton said, 鈥淪kipper the navigation lights are on鈥�. This of course was completely against normal procedure, but on checking I found that they were definitely off. A little later, he called again and asked, 鈥淎re you sure they are off?鈥� And looking closely at both wing tips there was a distinct glow on each one, which began to appear on the leading edges of both wings. Each of the four airscrews making them look like large Catherine-wheel fireworks. Then static electricity flowed around the windscreens and gun turrets. The aircraft was now aglow with St. Elmo鈥檚 Fire.

This lasted for a considerable length of time and created an eerie sensation for us, like the old sailors of ghost ships. There were occasional breaks in the cloud with some lightning flashes and we caught an occasional glimpse of other aircraft. We thought we saw one of the bombers struck by lightning, but could not be certain. But it seemed unlikely that a fighter was responsible for bringing it down in these conditions.

We continued to complete our raid on Hamburg as briefed but as we turned back for base, all of a sudden the starboard inner engine gave a loud bang followed by a shower of sparks and we had to switch it off. Then the starboard and port outer engines lost power and we began to lose height. To add to the problem, the port inner just quietly stopped. As the Flight Engineer was dealing with the two outer engines, I gave the order to prepare to abandon aircraft. We broke cloud still over land and the Flight Engineer attempted to restart the port inner, which he did. We crossed the German coast and now that we were over water, which would be very cold, I cancelled the preparation to bale out by parachute and substituted this order with 鈥榮tand by to ditch鈥�. As we continued to lose height, the two outer engines began to regain power and we were now down to 900 ft. but able to maintain this height. Therefore I cancelled the 鈥榩repare to ditch鈥� order and eventually made a three-engine landing back at Wyton. This was the fourth and last raid by Bomber Command of Operation Gomorrah 鈥� the destruction of Hamburg. Over the four nights of this operation, there were 40 鈥� 50 thousand people killed and 40,000 injured; the majority of casualties and destruction were caused on the first raid. Bomber Command lost 87 aircraft and 174 damaged.

My last operational flight with 83 Squadron took place on 6 September 1943 to Munich and was the end of my second tour. This consisted of:

218 Squadron : 5 ops in Fairey Battles,
13 in Blenheims
18 in Wellingtons

83 Squadron : 24 in Lancasters

TOTAL 60.

Details of other operations in which I was involved are recorded in my story filed at RAF Museum Hendon under reference no. X 003-8863 and my log books are listed under no. X 003-7856/003 and 004.

During my tour of duty in India after the European War was over, on a very hot night I was involved in a formal Mess guest party. I was talking to some WAAF Officers, one of whom was explaining what was wrong with the Merlin Engines in flight. Apparently these particular engines were fitted with new Stromberg direct carburretters which were subject to freezing up, and it was this that caused the problem.

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