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Brian Soper
Summary of Wartime Experiences Leading
to Lancaster Operational Period (Part 2)

I remember several trips where we thought we would never get out of cloud, climbing up sometimes over ten to twelve thousand feet, occasionally breaking through to find another layer above. It was like flying through dense fog knowing a hundred others were somewhere very close. On one such trip we also had an intercom failure which could not be traced. Without intercom on the Lanc, the noise of the engines made it impossible to communicate. For a time the navigator had to pass courses to the pilot on paper. The problem was eventually solved; we did at last come out above the cloud and climbed to our normal height, 20 — 20,000 feet. On a good night we could make 23,000ft.

Although we felt sorry for them, we were happier when Halifaxes & Stirlings were also flying. ‘Halis’ rarely got above 18,000ft, which we felt took some of the flak: this was really only wishful thinking. However, later when some of the Halifaxes were fitted with radial engines, the roles were reversed & they could get higher than we could, (hence the episode mentioned earlier with the near collision).

There were of course often crashes on take-off & even more on landing. The Lancs were fully laden with bombs & the six wing tanks carrying the maximum weight of fuel to give the specified allowable all up weight for take-off. I believe this was originally 66000lbs, increased whilst I was flying to 68000lbs, & I believe to even more later. This was achieved by using different methods of take-off such as originally just opening up the throttles & moving forward, to having the brakes locked on and opening up to full power to quickly overcome the inertia. The ‘weights up to maximum’ was arrived at by taking the basic ‘tare’ weight of the aircraft & crew, adding the weight of fuel to get us there and back with a bit to spare, then making up the maximum allowable weight with the bomb load. You then just hoped to get it off the ground. On more than one occasion as we were climbing to gain height over base we saw aircraft from other stations that didn’t make it. Once having set course, it was important for the pilot and engineer to ensure that boost, propeller, and supercharge settings were correctly set for maximum economy to have enough fuel to get back. The engineer also kept a flight log of all engine conditions & checked fuel usage with a calculator to check that gauges were correct.

It was Berlin again on 2nd January 1944,but about 1 1/2 hours into the flight, we were recalled by W.T. The H.E bombs were jettisoned at sea & incendiaries brought back. Following the Berlin raid on 29.12.43. we flew again on 5th January 1944, this time to Stettin. It was a longish trip — about 8 ½ hours. The target was well marked by the pathfinders with red & green T.I.s.

The next raid was Brunswick on 14.01.44.- a fairly standard trip, about 6 hours. On 20.01.44 we were routed to Magdeburg, but after leaving Mablethorpe the port inner engine failed and was shut down. The rear gunner’s heating was also u/s. Unable to maintain height or speed, the bombs were jettisoned into the North Sea and we returned to base.

We were back to Berlin on 15.02.44, the target identified by markers & bombed through thick cloud.

On 19.02.44 we were routed to Leipzig. On this raid we took an additional pilot, a ‘2nd Dicky’ trip, a first raid for a new pilot. This was supposed to be unlucky — but we made it. I believe this was also a diversion raid: we were meant to distract the night fighters to Leipzig while the main force went to Berlin. There was 10/10s full cloud which was very thin, but both ground and sky markers were visible. The duration of this trip was about 7 ¾ hours. The following night it was Stuttgart, quite a standard raid with ground markers. There were heavy fires still seen one hour after leaving the target.
24.02.44 Scheinfurt. This was a raid on ball-bearing factories. Flak & searchlights were very concentrated. I particularly remember the loss of a crew with an Australian pilot, (F.O. Hutchinson), who was very popular. It should have been his final trip — I suppose it was. He had previously arranged a big party in the mess to celebrate — he was one who ‘always came back’.

25.02.44 Augsburg - another 8 ½ hr trip with yellow route markers. We bombed on green and red T.Is. Smoke was seen up to 12.000ft. On 22nd March it was Frankfurt. I seem to remember there always being a heavy concentration of searchlights. With the master beam scanning the sky, it was blinding if we caught the beam, & being radar controlled, once caught, all the other beams would form one large cone and many manoevers would have to be adopted to escape. Meanwhile all the flak would be concentrated upon the victim. Fortunately we never got ‘fully trapped’.
On 24.03.44 it was back to Berlin. As usual it was heavily defended. The main thing on this raid was the loss of 72 Lancasters & Halifaxes. This was the loss of 504 air crew in one night. The bombing was made on red sky markers at 6,000ft at a speed of 165mph.

Probably the most frightening of all the raids on Germany was on 30th March 1944, six days after our raid on Berlin. This was to Nuremburg. 779 bombers set out. It was a clear moonlit night as we were climbing to bombing height. We realised that we were all showing heavy vapour trails. Most of the weather forecast, including wind-speed, was apparently wrong. There were many night fighters about and we saw several aircraft blow up. Because it was so light we also saw aircraft where the crews were bailing out. We had seen Lancs blow up before, but never in so much detail. The pilots changed height several times to try to lose the vapour trails because the night fighters were just sitting above and picking them off from the vapour trails. We also saw what we had been told were ‘scarecrows’, a device which exploded between eighteen and twenty thousand feet with a lot of smoke and flame but were otherwise harmless. We found out a year or two later that, as we suspected, they were just other exploding bombers. There was so much going on during that first leg of the route, that it was difficult to tell whether aircraft were mostly lost to flak or to night fighters. Some of those shot down must have been pathfinders since some burning on the ground contained ground TI colours. We suspected that the early part of the route may have been known to the Germans.
As we continued to gain height up to 22,000 ft - flying at approximately 155mph. We lost some of the vapour trails & felt a little safer although it was still very clear. Most of the losses were around the Rhur area on the first long leg out; Frankfurt, Cologne etc. There was a lot of flak, but I think that the losses were mostly due to the night fighters. We eventually found the target & bombed on red/yellow T.I. markers.

Later reports indicated that the target was generally not effectively bombed. I believe that this was one area where dummy buildings were used with copied target markers to mislead the bombers.

On the route home, at around Saarbrucken, we lost the port inner engine. Losing oil & overheating we had to shut off & feather the engine. I later had to cross feed the petrol to maintain a balance of fuel and weight. This also meant being extra alert for fighter attacks. We subsequently arrived back at Wickenby and made a successful landing on three engines. On this one raid there was a loss of 96 Lancs and Halifaxes. A total of nearly 700 air crew.

The next raid was on Aachen on 11.04.44. This was a relatively short trip, about four and a half hours. We bombed on red TIs & existing incendiaries at 19500ft — 180mph airspeed. No decoys were seen.

Somewhere at about this time there is an episode that is worth recording. On most nights there were normally one or two spare Lancs already ‘bombed up’ on standby in the event of a last minute failure of a crew’s own aircraft. On this particular occasion, on carrying out the final engine checks of our aircraft, we found that one engine & some wireless equipment were unserviceable. This was also checked out by the fitters, & the chief ground engineer. The crew bus was rushed round & all our gear was transferred to the spare Lanc. We ground tested the spare which was found to have similar faults. Yet again another spare. The C.O and chief ground engineer were urging us on. There was always a deadline, after which it was too late to be in the main stream, (I believe that was 10 minutes after the last one had gone). All crews were superstitious about flying anything other than their own aircraft, especially a late changeover to an unknown Lanc. Life was dangerous enough without taking off into the darkness with a full bomb load and six tanks of aviation fuel, (nearly 2,000 gallons), with an aircraft not fully serviceable. Anyway I believe it was George, (the bomb aimer), climbing in first, who fell over the main spar and was knocked out. By the time they got him out the deadline had passed & nobody was sorry. I believe that Arthur the pilot had to report to the C.O., but nothing else came of it.

The next target was Cologne, a short trip — just under five hours. Cologne, like Frankfurt, was well known for its many searchlights. This particular night the pathfinder markers were about eight minutes late and we were hanging around waiting for them to go down. There was 10/10 cloud up to 15,000 feet. Eventually they appeared & we bombed mainly on red/yellow sky markers at about 21,000 feet. The main danger on cloudy nights was that searchlights below the cloud made an illuminated white blanket above which the Lancs made a black silhouette. 2,000 feet above this sat the night fighter waiting to pick us off, of which we often only became aware as the stream of tracer bullets passed by & the dive & corkscrew started. Our bombing time over the target was 02.09 hours & the air speed 170 MPH.

22.04.44 Dusseldorf. Bombed at 01.26 hours at 21,500 feet at 170MPH. The target was well marked, we bombed on red & green TI’s. The trip’s total time was about 6 hrs.
24.04.44 - Target Karlesruhr. Bombed at 00.46 from 21,000feet at 165 mph. Three Lancs 0f 626 squadron failed to return from thus one. One crashed on return near Colchester — all crew killed.
26.04.44 Essen. Effective bombing on red T.I’s at 21,000 feet through some slight haze.
07.05.44 Bruz - Mission abandoned due to fuel starvation of starboard outer engine. Bomb load jettisoned.
11.05.44. Target Hasselt. This was controlled by a Master of Ceremonies who specified by radioed instructions where the bombs should be dropped. However, over the target he was unable to accurately find the centre point & the raid was abandoned. Unfortunately, flying into the target area we were attacked head-on by an enemy fighter believed to be an FW 190. Both gunners replied when it came round for a second attempt; we could see the tracer in both directions. It finally turned over & disappeared towards the ground. We were then fired at by some very accurate light flak which we had to corkscrew violently to starboard to avoid. Fortunately there was no damage to our aircraft.
19.05.44 Orleans. A French target, HE bombs only, concentrated raid, no incendiaries. 10,000 feet at 180 mph — no major problems.
21.05.44. Duisberg. Standard raid. Cloud tops 13,000 feet. Bombed from 23,000 feet at 165 mph. Bombed on red Tis.
22.05.44. Dortmund. A shortish, standard raid on edge of the Rhur. For the second time we took a ‘2nd dicky’ new pilot; but our luck held out. A standard bomb load from 22,000 feet at 175 mph. 4 hours & 45 mins flying time with good target marking — red & green TIs.
24.05.44 Our second trip to Aachen. No incendiaries this time. Marking was scarce — bombed on single red TI at 20,000 feet. A nearly 5 hour trip.
31.05.44 Tergnier (end of tour). Fortunately a short trip of 4hours 10mns. Target illuminated with flares & red/yellowT.Is. This raid was again directed by an M.C. and was very accurately carried out.
Now for 14 days leave. Only 6 days before ‘D’day. Phoned Mary to arrange marriage.

At the end of the tour most of the crew were awarded the DFM, (including myself). Arthur, the pilot, had been commissioned by this time & qualified for the D.F.C. Bill Redding, ‘Wild Bill’, (who wasn’t at all wild), was the only one to be chosen to receive his medal at the palace. The rest of them got hem through the post. The crew split up after leaving Wickenby although most of them came to my wedding with Mary on 10th June 1944.We had quite a problem sorting out arrangements, since all travelling was restricted because of D Day.

Bill Redding, Arthur Rew & myself & our families remained very close friends from then on. Sadly Bill died about 20years ago. Arthur Rew died in 1999. My wife Mary died on 19th August 2001. The rest of the crew, Don, (wireless operator), & George, (bomb aimer), went back to Newfoundland & Canada respectively. I lost touch with ‘Butch’ the navigator & Frank the rear gunner.

To go back to the end of our tour, Bill Redding & I were about the closest of the crew, plus Arthur. Bill had a 500 Norton motor bike on which he used to take part in trials etc before the war. Any weekend or during standard leave periods he used to take me pillion down to London from whence I got the tube while he went on to Chesham where he lived. This was in the days before crash helmets & quite a lively ride. At the start of our 14 days leave after the tour, we were going around the station on Bill’s motor bike & had got out clearance chits all signed up. We were about to leave when a Lanc crashed landed on the runway. The crash trucks followed down. We didn’t know if it was returning from a raid, or if it had a bomb load on. The crash trucks were there & I was on the bike pillion. We decided to make our departure, having done our thirty. I never found out the outcome of that interlude.

After the crew went their various ways, I was sent on an engineer instructors’ course. Following this I went to Rolls Royce at Derby for an advance engine course, which included some early instruction on jet engines. I also had an advance course on the Stromberg Diaphragm Pressure Injection Carburettor as used on the Mark 3 engines.
I was then posted as an F.E. instructor to HCCU 1662 at Blyton near Gainsborough. My flying record for this has gone astray, but a lot of my time there was spent giving ground instruction to new Lanc crews. This particularly focused on fuel & hydraulic systems, pneumatic systems, Stromberg Carburettors, The Dehavilland Constant Speed Propellor, engine handling for economy, and the two-speed, two-stage supercharger etc.
After our wedding Mary had to go back to her war work, while I followed my posting at Blyton. By this time the heavier bombing raids on London had subsided; however it wasn’t long before the V.I.s .(flying bombs), were falling on London and once again it was becoming dangerous. There were heavy civilian losses. We decided that I should try to get rooms in Gainsborough & bring Mary up from London, which I did. In Gainsborough I met Edie & Lol Lawson who offered us a room in their country house which we gladly accepted for a minimal rent & unbelievable amounts of ‘rationed’ food. They kept pigs & chickens. It led to a life long friendship until they died a few years ago.

It was about this time in late 1945 that the chief ground instructor, who sat in on several of my lectures, suggested that I apply for a commission. I seem to remember that this required the filling in of some forms, which were subsequently approved. I eventually received a sum of money to go to London to be kitted out. I thus became a pilot office, & six months later I was promoted to a flying officer. I continued at Blyton as a Pilot Officer/Flying Officer, Flight Engineer Instructor until near the end of 1945 when I was posted to 1668 HCU Cottesmore doing more airborne instruction through until March 1946 when I was posted on to Swinderby in the same capacity.

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