Library Reference Number: 205
Members of Aircrew I Have Known
A Review of Over 200 Aviation Memoirs
The initial concept of creating a repository of written aviation memories was suggested to me by Bill Reid, VC. One day in 1998 Bill said “Sit down Jack and I shall give you a factual account of events leading to the award of my Victoria Cross, I am increasingly annoyed by magazines and books twisting my story around.” On recording Bill’s account to his satisfaction he then said “Well don’t stop there, collect as many other personal accounts as you possibly can from other members of aircrew, far too many other valuable accounts have already been lost.”
It will therefore be noted that Bill Reid’s foresight and vision of collecting aviation eye-witness accounts is reflected in the above title, and I have indeed been privileged to meet, discuss and edit all the contributed aircrew memories within this collection. An added incentive to implementing Bill Reid’s project was the happy coincidence of meeting Alan Donaldson, proprietor of ‘Advision Web Design’ who subsequently became an Honorary Member of the Aircrew Association for his professional expertise in creating and developing our Website Library.
I am frequently asked for my views on the most striking or interesting account within this collection. With the remarkable variety of experiences recorded this is an extremely difficult question. However among some extraordinary stories within this review, I recall two accounts which had an enormous bearing on the outcome of world war two and the people of Britain. The first one being “Invasion in the Offing” by Andrew Jackson.
On 9th September 1940, the ‘Daily Mail’ carried the headline “Enemy threats of invasion by sea were countered by a series of RAF attacks on Channel ports. Direct hits were made on a concentration of invasion barges at Ostend and Dunkirk.” This is in line with Andrew’s story “Invasion in the Offing” (No. 6 in our Website Library) where Andrew described his successful operations in destroying German invasion barges lying in the Channel Ports ready to change the lives of British citizens for many years to come. Had the large fleet of invasion barges been allowed to cross the channel, it is unlikely the ill-prepared defences in this country would have prevented the inevitable flood of gas chambers and concentration camps to follow. Those harsh conditions already prevailing all over Europe, the Allies would also have been deprived of a base on which to take the fight back into Europe.
The second experience which I felt had an enormous impact on the course of the war was Iain Nicolson’s account of “The Peenemunde Raid.” Peenemunde on the Baltic coast north of Berlin, was the location of the notorious V1 & V2 rocket development and launching pads. London and southern English towns were being constantly bombarded by those unmanned rockets which were being regularly developed to create greater deadly damage. Gone unchecked, this rocket project could have been sufficiently developed to spread havoc even greater distances and who knows, if uninterrupted may even have reached inter-continental range and the shores of USA. This account (No.15 in Website Library) states that 40 aircraft were lost over this heavily defended German target and Iain Nicolson states "I remember the Peenemunde raid so well, much more clearly than all my previous raids. Even the Pathfinder operations in which I later took part, did not provide the tension that the Peenemunde raid did. After 57 years, the memory of the Lancasters going down still remains vivid."
Being a world-wide conflict, stories reviewed covered flying events from every part of the universe. Countries not actively embroiled in military operations were havens where flying training could take place. South Africa, Canada, USA, Nassau, all provided accounts of flying training. However just across the channel, many incredible events took place. Harry Fisher being shot down over France, bailed out and led a hazardous life being taken from one safe house to another by various members of the French Underground.. Although one attempt at escaping across the Pyrenees failed, after many adventures Harry eventually returned to UK by a special operations aircraft, but not before a spell of operations with the French Maquis. (Stories 94, 143, 148, 168, 188).
Another contributor who was shot down over France and evaded capture by the enemy was Jack Little. In these accounts (Nos.16 and 155) Jack spent a whole year travelling to several countries before eventually returning to UK During this long period evading capture Jack Little made it to Switzerland where he spent some time enjoying skiing activities, then Resistance Workers arranged transit to Italy, North Africa where he was finally flown to Cornwall.
Mystery, danger and intrigue were ingredients of the Special Duties flown by several members, none more so than operations flown by Bill Leckie. In the title “No.148 (Special Duties) Squadron” (story 158), after taking part in air-dropping supplies flown from Italy into Poland following the Warsaw Uprising, Bill became involved in dropping secret agents into Austria. The agents Bill dropped in were intent on spoiling Hitler’s attempts to destroy over 6,000 of the world’s greatest works of art, including paintings by Titian, Goya, Rubens, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and numerous others. Those were the intended spoils of the victorious Hitler and top Nazis if they had won the war, but little gratitude appears to have been shown to those agents for saving those world famous works of art when Hitler realised his efforts were doomed to failure. The magazine 'Military Illustrated' dated April 2002, provided a great deal more information on this Special Duty carried out by 148 Squadron, with Halifax 'T' for Tommy flown by Bill Leckie.
No attempt has been made to adhere rigidly to a chronological pattern of aviation history as accounts were installed in our website library as they arrived. We were even fortunate enough to go back to world-war-one when Dr Whitelaw related memories of his father‘s aircrew service, and Vic Campden also contributed his father-in-law’s Royal Flying Corps experiences, both being involved with the ’RE8’ aircraft (103 & 116). In no particular order we moved on to 1939 with George Conway describing his experiences of flying in Hawker ‘Harts’ and ‘Hinds’ (12) closely followed by Andrew Jackson giving an account of early Bomber Command days “Before the Advent of the Bomber Stream” (2 & 5). This led to several experiences concerning RAF Bomber Command.
Needless to say, The Aircrew Association played a major role in bringing former aircrew members together and acting as a vehicle for collecting flying experiences. This became even more significant when I re-met Gilbert Gray unexpectedly at a Glasgow meeting in 1988. Although we had never met pre-war we found ourselves together when volunteering for aircrew duties in 1942 and our RAF service numbers were one digit apart. As Bob Hamilton explained in our second Branch Book ‘60 Aviation Experiences‘ (p.243) “Not one of us had any control where we were sent.” This was absolutely correct, as after training together as Flight Engineers I spent three years in the Far East while Gilbert Gray joined No.106 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 5 Group, and contributed his experiences in stories numbered 11, 32, 33, 34, 118 and “Remembering and Friendship” No.176.
For some time, events recalled from RAF Bomber Command crews seemed to dominate the incoming supply of memoirs. Obviously, having lost 55,000 of their members regaining a foothold and freedom back in Europe, it was crucial that we captured the eye-witness accounts of those who survived. “Survived” being the operative word, for at a recent meeting in Glasgow (Feb.2010) it was noted that the place normally occupied by the close-knit ’Bomber Command boys’ - the table was empty! Gone were the contributors who gave me such a difficult time teasing out their stories from memories that sometimes still caused hurt. Iain Nicolson, DFC,DFM, with 96 operational missions under his belt. Iain had flown with 207 Squadron which had carried out 540 operations for the loss of 154 crews killed or missing. Peter Rae - also gone! On completing an operational tour, Peter had set up a Convalescent Unit at The Leas-Hoylake golf club for NCO aircrew recovering from injuries sustained on flying operations (story No.26).
Another member of this group missing from their usual place was Iain MacDonald who had spent 31/2 years as a prisoner of war. After Christmas each year Iain wrote “maybe next Christmas we shall be released” as he witnessed each Christmas arrive and depart still in captivity. (71 & 124). After I edited Iain’s first story, he asked for an extra copy to show his wife and daughter. He stated it would be easier to show them this than try to tell them of his experiences as a prisoner. Later, Iain wrote a story of a prison-camp hero who was given little credit on his return. This was “Recollections of Dixie Deans, MBE” (124). This POW had numerous opportunities to escape as he had a good grasp of the German language and had cultivated a useful rapport with guards and developed several escape routes from captivity, but stayed behind to help other prisoners escape – a truly remarkable person.
In addition, several other prisoners-of-war contributed their remarkable experiences, and one wonders how on earth they survived to tell the tale. Bill Taylor for example gave us an incredible number of brilliant accounts giving a clear picture of the marvellous spirit of the POW during forced marches and other appalling circumstances. The astonishing memory for detail gave us Nos.4, 23, 39, 43, 50, 60, 61, 81, 108,117 and175. George Thomson also contributed a number of Stalag Luft accounts, and to this very day attends conferences with POW Associations. George claims he almost became one of Hitler’s hostages in story 132. His other accounts are contained in the following Nos.78,130,131,184,195. By extraordinary bad luck two of our members were taken prisoner after experiencing the worst kind of ’friendly fire’ - bombs being dropped from a higher altitude. This happened to Angus Galloway and also to Bill Reid (No.1 story). Bill Comfort was in the final minutes of his tour flying Spitfires in Italy when he was shot down. With his prop gone and engine spraying oil on to his windscreen, Bill put one leg over the cockpit to bail out, then realising he was far too low, he pulled his leg back in and braced his feet against the instrument panel crashed to the ground and was taken prisoner (story No.29).
Among the many nations participating in world war two, the South African Air Force was heavily involved in operations in the Mediterranean theatre. Ernest Wall flew with No.24 S.A.A.F. and contributed accounts of several operations where the Glenn Martin Marauder aircrews played an important role (stories 10, 92, 111, 152, 190, 200).
South African Forces and SAAF defeated the Vichy French holding Madagascar as a base for Japanese and German submarines intent on destroying Allied shipping. This took four months of hard fighting and had they not been successful Allied Forces in Middle and Far East could have become isolated from those in UK and Europe.
Also engaged in operational flying many miles from home was Ted Bracken where he and his colleagues were flying operations over the world's highest mountains from northern India into China - the notorious 'Hump.' Altogether Ted Bracken completed 34 single crossings of the Hump. 'Single crossings' in the sense that they were not always just return journeys, but sometimes from Kunming, onwards to Chungking, Hong Kong and various other points in China only identified by a map reference. Ted recalls flying the trusty Dakota over the world's highest peaks in stories 21, 42, 104, 157, 189. Ted Bracken also points out that modern aircraft fly at very high altitudes, whereas during his Dakota days in WW2 they had to concentrate on flying around the peaks as they were unable to reach high enough altitudes to fly over them. Lyn Seabury also gave us really interesting operational accounts (stories 20, 46).
Numerous interesting characters contributed towards our collection of aircrew memories, one of those being Sam Liggett who described one of his experiences “The Cliffs Were Just Too High” (27). This relates to Sam being the captain of Halifax JD157 returning from an operation over the Ruhr Valley and finding his aircraft too badly damaged to clear the cliffs of Dover he decided to ditch at the foot of the cliffs. When an air sea rescue craft showed up to attempt a rescue, Sam waved them away as he had heard the plane grinding to a halt on gravel, and he was able to wade ashore much to the relief of Sam and crew. Assigned the task later to collect abandoned aircraft all over UK, he notched up many hours flying 42 different types of aircraft with ATA.
Another interesting character where we were rather late in retrieving stories was a rather ailing Hamish Reid. I managed to get two accounts from Hamish (79 & 115) but felt he had many more if he had survived. Hamish had flown anything from Hurricanes to Walrus aircraft. Later in the project I managed to extract a story from our only Royal Navy Pilot George Gibb (No.178). This gave an entirely new dimension to flying where George described flying from (and landing) on a constantly moving carrier deck; his favourite aircraft being the Fairey ‘Swordfish’
My own obsession with the B24 Liberator produced stories 18, 41, 56, 93, 110, 120, 140, 163, 167, 170,180,185, & 203. In complete contrast we had a very welcome contribution from Sq/Ldr Bill Campbell who had spent over 30 years in the RAF flying Helicopters (Nos.128, 129, 138, 144, 145, 146, 191, 192, 193,194, 196, and 202. Those were incredible experiences of total commitment in saving lives whether in mountain or sea disaster situations. The number of experiences at sea was maintained by the account “Lost, Found – Lost again” (74) where Ron Holton described the fate of the destroyer ‘Laforey’ with the loss of crew and Captain Armstrong, DSO, DSC. Ron also contributed stories 89, 90, 187. Nos.89/90 being the story of the much-loved poem ‘High Flight.’ Lack of space prevents a much greater appreciation of the number and quality of valued accounts to be included here, and the reader is requested to consult www.aircrew-saltire.org Branch Library section which has been carefully developed and maintained by our member and webmaster Alan Donaldson.
Towards the end of the European conflict in world war two, over 20,000 Dutch people died of starvation. The humanitarian facet of the RAF showed through when Bomber Command Lancasters filled their bomb bays with supplies instead of bombs and delivered a total 6,680 tons of food to the starving population in the Netherlands. This operation has been recorded by participants Alastair Lamb (story 30) and Anderson MacCormick (161). Each member has been recognised by the Dutch Government, and Dutch individual responses have expressed their gratitude and thanks. One response from The Hague “Hunger Winter” is shown in story 171; this coming from a former Lecturer at University of Amsterdam. He was a 15 year old resident who witnessed the situation existing in Holland at that time. Anderson MacCormick (mentioned above) also described “Longest Seconds of my Life” (159) when his plane failing to gain altitude stared up at the open bomb-bay doors of a Lancaster with bombs ready to fall.
One would have thought that surviving two tours of operations over Europe would have been enough for one person’s war effort, but in 1946 Harry Wilson, DFM, was posted to Germany as a member of No.4 Missing Research Unit. His task to seek out information on the whereabouts of crashed Allied aircraft - seek out and look for bodies and remains of aircrew members of Commonwealth Air Forces. Having discovered remains, (perhaps buried in temporary graves) it was then a further task to re-bury the bodies in Military Cemeteries (story No.17) This title “The Aftermath” brought to light the horrors of war where in Bomber Command alone 55,000 members of RAF aircrew failed to return from operations over Europe. Harry also contributed stories 64 and 87.
In the immediate post-war period operational flying continued to take place, and Vic Campden kept us informed with conditions in Aden and the Middle East flying the Bristol Brigand with stories 31, 65, 98, 121, 165, and 186. From there we have been so fortunate on many counts. F/Lt Neil Whitehead contributed his account of service in Iraq (127) and Branch Chairman W/Cdr Brian Thornton contributed a comprehensive account of flying the Meteor, Vampire, Sabre and Venom jet aircraft (story 181) Brian also contributed account No.44 “Aden Adventure” which was a great revelation to most members. Hopefully we can have further supplies of those more recent accounts to provide an incentive for additional younger and more recent aircrew members to join us.
When looking back over this brief overview of 200-plus eye-witness accounts, one begins to sense an awareness of not only aviation history but also a much wider and matching perspective of world history. From mention of the early beginnings of the Royal Flying Corps in world war one to the latest Eurofighter, aviation has played its part in tracing events. Many of those who contributed their experiences are no longer with us, but brief as their accounts may have been, at least they have provided a glimpse of how events appeared to them during that period.
We were extremely fortunate to capture and record some personal accounts just in time, as some contributors died before their stories had time to appear on our website. One such case was “Mixed Loyalties in Wartime” (story 66). Archie McIntosh was on his way to meet me and hand over his story at an Edinburgh meeting when he took ill and collapsed in the street. He never arrived at the meeting, but sent me his story and explanation from a hospital bed. Full marks to an honest citizen of Edinburgh who witnessed Archie collapsing in the street, collected his scattered notes and gave them to the ambulance driver. We never met again, Archie never survived but his story did!
A few months before Archie died he wrote to me saying “I believe that time is now running out for inclusion in the Records - -“ In 1998 a German researcher had contacted Archie who was so pleased when researcher Peter Menges declared that he did not classify Archie as a ‘Terrorflieger’ but rather as a Liberator. It turned out that the researcher Peter Menges as a 10 year-old German schoolboy had been appalled by the carnage of burned alive, killed, and seriously injured members of RAF aircrew. In the fields surrounding his village of Waldsee, he witnessed his first crash when a Halifax II was shot down by a German night fighter. He recalled that all seven members of aircrew were killed, the youngest 20-year old, the oldest 28. This had such an ill-effect, that he spent a great deal of his time in later years researching RAF crash sites in order to point out to younger generations the horrors of war having access to German squadron records as well as British.(story 105 “Counting the Cost”)
Another story we almost narrowly missed was No.84 “Combating Stress-Then and Now” where William Morrison had been a police officer in Greenock. The German bombing there probably focused on the Fleet (including HMS Hood), but civilian casualties being so severe, William Morrison finding his own house demolished decided to volunteer for aircrew to seek revenge. Following a tour as a Bomb-Aimer he reported “I sent all and everything down - and saw everything coming up.” William suffered post-traumatic stress but agreed to write his story. Sadly he also died before his eye-witness accounts could be published in Newsletter or Book.
Alex Bowie transported us to almost every Continent in “Memoirs of an Inter-Continent Navigator”(162) while exciting Spitfire experiences came from Alex Walker (3) and Norman Brown (97 & 156). Bill MacDonald described his Air Gunner’s role with 514 Squadron (story 147) while Seth Owens covered events in North Africa (25). Seth’s story covered an important event where the shooting down of a 216 Squadron Bristol ‘Bombay’ on 7th August 1942 changed the entire face of the North African campaign, as the newly appointed Commander of the 8th Army General Gott was killed in the crash, and replaced by the second choice for this post – General Montgomery. The pilot survived and Seth visited him in hospital to learn of all the details (story 62). The pilot 19-year old Jimmy James told Seth that while flying with General Gott on board, he had been 'jumped' by six ME109s who strafed his plane from nose to tail. Riddled with cannon and bullets, the Bombay caught fire. Jimmy told Seth he had managed to land the plane, but while still moving (no brakes) the 109s swooped down time after time and strafed the aircraft repeatedly guessing that someone may still be alive. Seth felt the Germans had learned of the aircraft passenger’s identity.
The work of No. 298 Squadron was described by Alex McCallum (77). Alex’s experiences covered such events as glider towing at Pegasus Bridge, and also ’Arnhem’ (story 201). Further afield, Bill Ross contributed events in Burma (story 75) and Peter Smith wrote “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”(141). David Cumming described “The Invasion of Sicily – Op Husky” (37), while Harry Tait gave us “News from Home”(38) “The Lone Survivor”(76) & “From Boy to Man” (151). Still from overseas, we had an account from David Caldwell “Sunderlands over Malaysia” (182). Then a family story “Five Brothers Go to War.”(100) from Alastair McNab followed by “Sgt Robert McNab, W.Op/AG” (113) Sgt McNab, 42 Squadron, took off from RAF Leuchars on 12th August 1941 and died on operations over Norway. Pilot Jack McKerracher relates how after flying training in Canada he was assigned to flying gliders (story 149)
The hazards of fog was described by Jimmy Vallance in “Wartime Landing In Fog-Bound Britain” (183) when he stated that while flying with 90 Squadron, a system known as FIDO was brought into use. The most recent story to date (Feb.2010) comes from Jerry Dawson who states in July 1943 he was first wireless operator on Catalina ‘F’ of No.210 Squadron. Shot down in battle with a U-boat, Jerry survived a rough landing and spent four days in a dinghy before being sighted by two vessels which in turn were attacked by a German Focke Wulf (story 204).
As stated at the beginning of this Review, no attempt has been made to place these accounts in chronological order, but they have simply been installed in our Branch Website Library as contributors felt ready to do so.. Personally, I frequently denied being a former member of aircrew for over 30 years, as it was far too distressing to be met with disbelief of events in the Far East by persons who had no understanding. Becoming a member of the Aircrew Association opened the doors to mutual understanding of persons with similar experiences and eventually the ability to write and record those experiences. I trust that other branch members have benefited from sharing experiences.
Little editing has been required, as the large number of subscribers have adhered to our aim of being relevant and to the point. Therefore by general agreement, little extraneous content has been mentioned of schooldays and lengthy autobiographical material which sometimes precedes aviation experiences.
My apologies for not mentioning all accounts in this brief review, but rest assured that every single experience is valued and was truly appreciated. I have tried to fulfil the promise made to Bill Reid, VC, in encouraging aircrew members of all ages and categories to record their experiences. My only regret has been that we didn’t begin earlier as many of our older members unfortunately took their valuable memories with them. Hopefully, we have avoided the pitfalls of ‘shooting a line’ but our belief has always been that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. We also hope that future readers will find that one factual eye-witness account is better than a thousand pieces of supposition and guesswork contrived later.