For Five Shillings a Day: Personal Histories of World War II. Dr. Campbell-Begg Richard

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СКАЧАТЬ casts over my eyes and wandered about the ward on dead reckoning, reinforced by directions from all sides. I had Tiersch and pinch grafts and during the course of the operations it was also discovered that I had some cannon shell fragments in my right shoulder, which until then, when extracted, had not wanted to heal up. Archie’s new saline bath treatment helped to heal the third degree burns on my arms and legs and by Christmas 1940 I was allowed out, after much pleading to go home on leave. I must have been in and out of Queen Victoria Cottage Hospital for six months between ops, but I was fortunate compared to many.

      Archie came to see me before the ops and showed me photographs of myself before the burns and said, “How would you like it?”

      I replied, “That’s all right, but I might have the nose a bit bigger.”

      Archie would do his rounds of the wards accompanied by his team and as soon as he entered the ward it was rather like a visit by Royalty. The general tone went up straight away accompanied by smiles and laughter; indeed it was as good as a tonic.

      The Guinea Pig Club was started almost as a joke when one of the patients was heard to observe that we were being treated like guinea pigs to improve Archie’s technique. The reply came back smartly,“ Good name for a club, old boy.” This was the start of the club and Archie was the obvious choice for Chief Guinea Pig.’

      The perspective of the air-gunner in fighter squadron aircraft in the battle is conveyed by James Walker, who joined the RNZAF and was seconded to the RAF. He arrived in Britain in May 1940 where he qualified as an air-gunner with the rank of Sergeant:

      ‘I was posted to City of London Auxiliary Squadron 600, which was stationed at Manston. I arrived there in the middle of an air raid and I witnessed combat between a Spitfire and a Messerschmitt 109, which the Spitfire got the better of, and the Messerschmitt 109 crashed in front of our eyes as we were driving along to the Station, so that was our baptism of fire, as it were. Arriving at 600 Squadron I was met and introduced and I was the only New Zealander there, which was quite a novelty to them, and I was treated rather well and everybody was very friendly. I had my first flight in a Bristol Blenheim, a training flight, and I think the second day or the third day there we really experienced the might of the German Air Force. We were having lunch in the Sergeants’ Mess when the bombing raid took place, which was so unexpected; we had no warning whatsoever, and I remember a concerted dive under the tables. The peacetime Warrant Officers, who at that time had rather looked down on us as jumped-up sergeants without any experience, they were all levelled to the same grade under these tables and it was quite amusing to see these Warrant Officers and us jumped-up sergeants in the same situation.

       James Ian Bradley Walker

      So, after that more precautions were taken and the air raid sirens became more operational and we did get some warning in the future raids. The first raid they concentrated on the hangars and there was major damage. How many planes were lost I do not remember, but I know that there was quite substantial damage done. The runways were put out of action but were quickly re-instated, the holes being filled up. That was the first raid that Manston had experienced and was the start of many.

      We at that time were a night fighter squadron and we were engaged in defensive operations mostly over Southern England, London especially, as London then became the target, the main target for the German Air Force. The fires were burning, the docks were hit; the Germans needed no navigation, they just had to fly over the Channel and the fires identified their target for them. We had very little success, in fact no success in tracking the German bombers, although we had the earliest form of radar, which was operating quite well, but we found that because the German bombers were faster than we were, we had no chance of making contact because they were dropping their bombs and then hightailing it back to the Continent.

      But then we received Beaufighters. Beaufighters had an improved radar on them and some success was achieved. I did not experience any success, although we made contact but we were unable to gain sufficient closeness of range to open fire at any time. From then on the raids increased on our own aerodrome. One air raid shelter was hit with great loss of life, including WAAFs, English girls; quite a number of them were killed and we spent quite a lot of time in the air raid shelters.

      Then on one occasion I was dining, lunch I think it was, in the mess and we were called to immediate readiness and we had to travel quite a distance. I had by that time obtained a bicycle and I rode this bicycle across the aerodrome at the time when, I think it was three Messerschmitt 110s were dive-bombing the aerodrome. However, I managed to arrive at the readiness point but the aerodrome had been damaged so much that no one was able to take off. Fortunately one of the Messerschmitt 110s was brought down by ground fire and that was a rather horrific sight because it crashed in the vicinity of one of the hangars and the crew were all killed. That evening, when we were taking off for a patrol, as we were driving out to our aircraft the cranes were removing the 110 and the dead bodies were very apparent, and we at that time found that rather traumatic, seeing these bodies.

      We took off on our patrol. We patrolled the London area with the fires so bad in London that it was hard to believe that the city could survive. We maintained these patrols night after night and also enduring the many air raids on Manston aerodrome, which eventually became so bad – the aerodrome was damaged so badly, the hangars, the runways were put out of action – that it was decided to evacuate Manston completely.

      We moved then inland to Redhill, Hornchurch and various other stations, which we operated on for the remainder of the Battle of Britain.’

      Norman Ramsay joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve and, when war broke out, qualified as a pilot and was posted to his first squadron as a Sergeant Pilot converting directly from Harvards to Spitfires:

      ‘Here I was given a couple of rides in a Master in the back seat, which is about the same angle as the Spit coming in to land because the slower you get the higher the nose gets – you can’t see forward, you’ve got to look out forward and to the side. I got the general idea and I was pushed in a Spitfire and took off. In those days we had to pump the undercarriage up, and the elevator controls were very, very sensitive, so you had to change hands, take your hand off the throttle to hold the joystick in your left hand and pump with your right hand. It was very difficult not to pump and equally weave up and down in the sky with the stick; as you were pumping forward you tended to move the stick forward at the same time. However, I eventually got it all together in the air and when I turned round and went back, it had taken me so long I couldn’t even see the airfield. So I flew back on a reciprocal and found it and after, I think, I made one approach and overshot and then came in and landed, that was it.

       Norman Hugh Donald Ramsay

      After that they took me for a bit of formation flying and that sort of thing, and then one day they said, “Well, we’re thinking of going over to France this afternoon.” By this time of course Dunkirk was over and we were isolated. “Pop over there, Ramsay, and go and see what the weather’s like over there.”

      So I took off and I wasn’t at all keen on it, I can tell you; it seemed rather a lonely affair going across the Channel on your own and not knowing what to expect when you got to the other side. Anyway, I crossed over to France and nobody shot at me; obviously I couldn’t fly very high else I would have been shot at, but I was fairly low and I had a look around and I could see that it was fairly clear so I didn’t go as far as I was supposed to go, but I just turned round and came back. Nipped back across. I was very pleased when I crossed over the coast again, being on my own, and of course I couldn’t see England, just set a northerly heading and eventually it turned up and I СКАЧАТЬ