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My late father Harry Tattersall (Service no. 1041503) was called up on April 18th 1941 for basic training in the RAF at Padgate, Lancs; probably due to his civilian job, a process engraver for Kensley Newspapers, Manchester, he was transferred to the RAF School of Photography, Farnborough, Hants. Here he was trained in the use of cameras to be fitted to aircraft and the processing of photographs and cine-film for intelligence work.

After training he moved on to RAF Newton near Nottingham where he met and made friends with Polish airmen who had managed to escape from Poland before the Germans invaded. One of them sent me back a book ‘How to Draw Planes’ for Christmas. His next posting was to the wilds on Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, part of Coastal Command, where the fitted cameras were used on reconnaissance looking for and attacking enemy submarines and warships.

From the cold and windy conditions there he was posted to the hot, sunny climate of RAF Gibraltar on 23 November 1942 just after ‘Operation Torch’, the allied landing in Morocco and Algeria. This formidable rock fortress with a long chequered history was again to play a big part in this war a well as keeping open access to the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal.

Photographic intelligence around Gibraltar was crucial. Apart form enemy agents and spies infiltrating from neutral Spain, Italian 2 man human torpedoes were operating from a submarine the ‘Scire’ in the Bay of Algeciras against shipping in Gibraltar. An old Italian tanker, the ‘Olterra’ was also scuttled by its captain so it didn’t fall into British hands when Italy declared war. It was salvaged and towed to Algeciras to be repaired and sold to a Spanish company. However it was secretly fitted out by the crew with a workshop in the hold and an underwater hatch so the 2 man human torpedoes could slip out undetected to prey on Allied shipping.

It was while my father was in Gibraltar another fascinating story emerged. On July 4th 1943 a Liberator bomber crashed on take off killing the exiled commander in Chief of Polish troops, General Sikorsky and his daughter. Only the pilot, of the remaining passengers and crew, survived. The Germans said British Secret Service had murdered the General but after an enquiry no proof was found but rumours and controversy still remain.

When the Afrika Korps and Italians were cleared from North Africa, servicemen were going there from Gibraltar sightseeing. My father told me about the time he visited Fez in Morocco. He bought my mother a small wrist watch from there which I still posses today. He also sent us bananas from Gibraltar which were unobtainable back home during the war.

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