大象传媒

On sunday 3rd september 1939 my father woke me saying that the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was speaking to the Nation. We listened in silence and anxiety to the calm voice on the radio announcing "we are at war with Germany"
Almost immediatley the sirens went off and we all rushed into the tin "Anderson" shelter dug in the circular space field. Beyond the back doors much panic but nothing happened.

Called into the RAF i had to report to Cardington at 8am. From Sunderland i left late at night and travelled overnight. I was 19 and very scared. There were few dimmed lights on account of the blackout and all rail stations had names removed. At Peterborough, two middle aged ladies met the train and took me to the local salvation army cafe for tea and buns at 4 o clock in the morning and then put me on the train for Cardington.

"The square bashing" was as usual but i did have some difficulty in trying to climb up and over the high wall with a full pack on my back and a p.14 rifle!!

An operational Bomber Command station was next being a member of thre operations room . Squadrons of Whtley and Wellington operated from here taking off and landing in darkness. there were many nights when we waited tense and anxious for word of aircfart which had not returned. Sometimes they had landed elsewhere being damaged by flak of fighters and others crash landed on the airfield. It is a stark experience being in a situation being bombed and shot at as it happened on one memorable occasion. When walking to the cookhouse , we heard a plane but took no notice , until bombs exploded near the runways and then the rattle of machine gun fire. We dived behind a wall and the German Aircraft flew low over the airfield and turned away. Unfortunatley my tea mug smashed and the "stores" would not give me another for some days!

A posting to H.Q. Bomber Command in 1941 placed me in an office underground opposite the operations room writing up the raid report from each aircraft on the previous nights raid. In those early days it was eviodent from the raid reports that some aircraft, stating 10/10 cloud and no fires and other crafta stating clear skies, fires and flak, had not been in the same place.

Therefore some technical improvements were brought in to improve navigation and bomb aiming. Air Chief Marshal Bomber Harris and Air Marshal Bennett thought up and developed "the pathfinder force" consisting of the best Squadrons and best Aircrew. When those very heavy raids took place we worked all day and all night.

Bomber Harris has not received , nor been given, the recognition he deserved for his efforts , differnet approach and his determination in carryiny out his policy on Bomber Command's air raids in Germany. The bombing of targets and cities made a tremendos effort on curtailing production, damaging war equipment and the morale of German people. He was the advocate of saturation bombing which proved to be aluable to the Allied Armies, and continued with this policy inspite of some hostile opposion from the "do-gooders." Bomber Command lost 50,000 men in bombing raids. Many men (some just boys) did not survive a tour of ops - usually 30 operations. Bomber Harris tried to protect them with pathfinders and saturation bombing. The "do-gooders" did not fly in the air raids.

Dresden was a city in the path of the Russian Army. Although it was abeautiful city in peace time, it seems to have been overlooked by the "do-gooders" that in war time many of the factories produced war material. In addition there were many German Forces in and around the city as it was near the German Front Line. The bombing assisted the Russian Armies to advance into Germany. Remenber the Germans were clever and crafty Bomber Harris believed that if a war is being fought it had to be done with 100% effort and did not understand the "public schoolboy english" that we had to be kingd to the German people. He did not want to send out aircrews to be shot at if it was not worthwhile.

I do find it very irksome to listen to some of the critics of Bomber Harris and Bomber Command and some television presenters making comments, when the majority of them were not even born in those years and have no idea of war and no idea of the skill, gut, and sacrifice made by the aircrews of Bomber Command. Bomber Harris was the only War Commander not to be given an honour at the end of the war.

I was posted to Istres in the south of France in 1946, sharing an Air Traffic Control Centre with French and American Forces. Need i say that in emergencies the english stability was required to calm the excitment and panic. Some American crews did not understand my english accent!!

During a period of "leave" i was in London when it was being bombed almost every night. It was an amazing sight to see hundreds of people on the stations of the Underground. They had bedding and stayed from early evening until moring even eating and making cups of tea, and going to work or home - if it was still there.

My final posting was to Prestwick in Scotland where i was a member of th Air Traffic Control daeling with RAF Aircraft.

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