The course of World War Two was governed by massive air power from the very start, and the heavy bomber became the dominant weapon in a new form of Total War. The most potent allied bomber in the European conflict was the British Lancaster. It was an aircraft that would see you through. Flying at night, Lancasters pounded the major cities of Nazi Germany into a mass of twisted metal and smoking rubble. It was truly a wonderful airplane and a major contributor to the victory in the second. World War. The cost was enormous. Thousands died on the ground and in the air. Of more than 7,000 Lancasters built, almost half were lost. Using rare colour film and detailed reenactments, We take a look at and follow the struggle to design and build Britain's most successful bomber and we join a Lancaster crew on their deadly mission, a night raid deep into the heart of Nazi Germany. The bomber first appeared during World War One. These fragile biplanes made of wooden canvas were unable to carry heavy bomb loads or do much damage, but they left a deep impression on the military designers and planners. During the 1920s and early 1930s, European governments became convinced that bombers would dominate any future war. Yet Britain was slow to modernise its Air Force and many of its aircraft designs were obsolete before they left the drawing board. Germany did not make the same mistake. In 1933, Adolf Hitler came to power determined to create a new German superstate, the Third Reich. He had once began a huge rearmament program. Hitler created a modern Air Force, the Luftwaffe. Its chief weapon was to be the bomber. Within a few short years, Germany was openly preparing for war. The British government had last realised the impending danger and launched an urgent program to re equip the Royal Air Force. They turned to aircraft designers like Roy Chadwick. He had joined the Avro company in 1911 as a draftsman and steadily worked his way to the top. Chadwick was a visionary who combined the precision of an engineer with the eye of an artist. He was tall and slender and I remember him in dark overcoats when in his young days with white silk scarf he would have knotted. He had big brown eyes and olive face and dark hair, and he was elegant. He liked kind of elegant things and I think that is translated into his machines. Roy Chadwick had a passion for his work and never stopped worrying about how to improve his designs. Winter and the curtains were drawn. He was sitting in the room after his evening meal, was quietly there with the Manchester Evening News and he would fold it over and I'd see he'd do the crossword puzzle. And then I might go to say Goodnight Daddy and give him a kiss and I'd see all round the edges of the Manchester Evening News. All the calculations. He was doing two things at once. In 1936, the Air Ministry invited designs for a new medium range bomber. The Ministry of wanted an aircraft which could carry 8,000 pounds of bombs, fly round trips of 2,000 miles and do it all with only two engines. It was a very tall order which could have defeated a lesser talent, but Roy Chadwick rose to the challenge. I asked him once how do you design an aeroplane daddy and he said, well I think of all the parts first and then I sit down to do the design. Chadwick designed his bomber around a massively strong central section in the shape of a cross. It was formed by the two wing spars bolted at right angles to a pair of girders forming the roof of a huge Bombay. After months of painstaking work, the plans were ready. Every single component had been designed and drawn, down to the last nut and bolt. Roy Chadwick named his bomber in honor of Avro's hometown, Manchester. In the summer of 1937, the Air Ministry placed an urgent order for 200 manchesters. Even though the prototype had not yet been tested. It was a huge gamble. But everybody now expected a war. It was simply a matter of when. A growing mood of panic swept the country. Londoners began building aero shelters, gas masks were issued and the public were instructed on what to do. If you are provided with a steel shelter and have not erected it, do so at once. Always keep your gas mask handy in the house. When you hear the warning signals, take cover at once. In September 1939, the fragile peace collapsed. Britain was at war with Germany. As Europe was overrun, cities like Warsaw and Rotterdam were devastated by German bombers. Then, in September 1940, Hitler finally unleashed his bombers on London. The Blitz had begun and Londoners found themselves in the front line. There was a lot of shrapnel coming down, pitter pattering on the roof and all that kind of thing, and it was scary. I mean incendiary bombs dropped in our garden. My best pal was there with us at the time and it was then that we decided we wanted to join up. That particular night, actually. The German attack soon spread to other British cities. In one devastating raid, the centre of Coventry was almost completely wiped out. The aim was to terrify and demoralize the civilian population into accepting defeat. The effect was to unite them in a single minded quest for revenge. And that meant bombing German cities. I used to come home on leave and see all the people going down into the underground shelters in London, you know, sleeping down there night after night. And I used to think to myself, you know, this is terrible. But I used to get a sense of pride then, well, thank God we're hitting back. More Bombers! was the slogan. Bombers began to appear not in dozens but in hundreds, and Germany began to get what was coming to her. For the first time, we carried the war into the Nazi camp. But in the early stages of the war, the bombing campaign caused little damage. Most of the aircraft were too small to carry an effective bomb load, and without electronic navigation equipment, the bomber crew's often missed their targets by many miles. Bomber Command was simply incapable of hitting any targets, much less precision targets. They probably killed more cows and and blew up more trees than and damaging any portion of the German landscape that mattered. They thought that they were waging a precision bombing campaign. They simply weren't. If the bombing campaign was to be effective, Britain urgently needed two things, accurate navigation aids and an effective long range heavy bomber. Of considerable aid to the right Air Force is the Big Twin engine bomber known as the Manchester. They carry a heavy bomb load at a high speed thanks to the Rolls-Royce voucher engines, and they have a powerful defensive armament. The hopes were high as Roy Chadwick's Manchester finally entered service with Bomber Command. But behind the brave words, the truth was much less encouraging. Although Chadwick's airframe design was sound, the problem lay with the complex and unreliable vulture engines. Would struggle to get airborne with a full bomb load and regularly failed in mid flight. It just did not work. And they couldn't get the heights and anything else and it was a horrible plane. The official verdict was finally delivered from the Air Ministry. Avro would complete the initial order for 200 manchesters and then switch to building a rival design. For Roy Chadwick, it was a bitter blow. But he would not be beaten. He knew that his bomber could still be a winner. Somehow he had to prove it, and prove it fast. The decision by the British Air Ministry to abandon production of the Avro Manchester bomber forced Roy Chadwick to rethink his design. He saw that what it needed was a set of bigger wings and a lot more power. He decided to remove the two unreliable vulture engines in favor of four Merlin engines. The Merlin was an outstanding design. Which already powered the famous Spitfire and Hurricane fighters of the RAF. After persuading the Air Ministry to give him one last chance, Chadwick went back to the drawing board. In the tracing office they work with pencil and ruler, but without this work the giant bomber could not begin to take shape. He told everybody keep it simple. He always said if it looks right, it is right. The enlarged wings and their new engines were fitted, extra fuel tanks were installed and the finished aircraft was rolled out into the light of day. He said to me this day, would you like to come with me? We're going to test a new machine. Of course I went. Captain Sam Brown, the test pilot, took it up. It was wonderful to see it overhead. And he maneuvered it round, or banking and turning. I never seen such a big machine. And then he came back and landed and everybody at one accord rushed across the field and someone called up to him. How'd it go, Sam? And he said, oh, it was marvellous! So light on the controls, so easy to handle. We got back into the car and we're driving home and I remember actually saying to my father, well, Daddy, you must be very pleased. And he said, well, I am darling, but in this business, no one can afford to rest on their laurels. The flight certificate, duly signed by Roy Chadwick, carried a new name for the Test aircraft. The Lancaster. The machine suddenly looked and felt right. The problems that had plagued the Manchester were quickly forgotten as the glowing reports of the test pilots confirmed Roy Chadwick's faith in his design. This is the weapon upon which the Allies base tremendous hopes. To the people who built the Lancasters, each doing his own task to the best of his ability, their success came as no surprise. Soon, the Lancaster bomber would become a household name. For one man, it would become the key to victory. Early in 1942, Air Marshall Sir Arthur Harris was appointed commander in chief of Britain's Bomber Command. He was an aggressive leader with a single minded determination to destroy the German war machine. Press home your attack. If you individually succeed, you will have delivered the most devastating blow against the very vitals of the enemy. Let him have it right on the chin. Send that message to all groups and station. Bomber Harris did a marvelous job. He was brought in when Bomber Command was at a real low ebb. Harris knew that the accurate bombing of strategic targets was almost impossible. In a controversial decision, he supported plans to adopt the German policy. Of area bombing. Like Hitler's Luftwaffe, the RAF would saturate major centres of population with bombs. And its chief weapon, which Harris called the Shining sword in the hands of Bomber Command. Would be the Lancaster. And here's the bomb rack, which can open up with eight tons of trouble for Hitler. It's 33 feet long when it's released its load, another two or three acres of Germany will never be the same again. The Lancaster soon became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the British bomber force. As it proved its worth in combat, frresh orders poured into the Avro factories. We got a new aircraft and on the side it was HWH and at that time it was a film called Hellzapoppin'. Right, OK lads, this is Hellzapoppin'. So I got some yellow paint, I climbed onto the ring and I wrote I painted hellzapoppin' all the way up. Hellzapoppin' it was. It was a lucky aircraft for us. For many, the Lancaster quickly became far more than just a machine. It was alive. And to its all male crew, the lank was definitely a lady. It was love at first sight. There she was, and she was standing up in these long legs and a black, black beauty. Funnily enough, I didn't feel that there was any rivalry with the rest of the crew, you know, I thought you was my girlfriend, and we all felt that it was our girlfriend, you know? It took a crew of seven to fly a Lancaster the pilot, flight engineer, Navigator, bomb aimer, wireless operator and two Gunners. The most forward position was the bomb aimer, who was laying down in the bomb position. And if necessary, he manned the front gun. And the skipper was on the port side. Next to him was the flight engineers provision. Then you had the curtains and the navigator sat behind those so he could have his lights on on his charts. The wireless operator was behind him. And then you went back over the main spar. And then you had the mid upper gunner. And then you had the tail gunner. If anyone of you didn't do your job, well, that was it. The whole lot of you went. You live and sleep and eat together. You go out together. They rely on you when you rely on them. The pilot in Bomber Command was always the skipper, irrespective of rank and even if the Group Captain, the CO of the squadron, flew with me. I was in charge. You you weren't just a crew of seven. You've got the ground crew. The ground crew were the boys who got that aircraft so they would bring you back. And we had a terrific ground crew we had. We'd do anything for them, and they'd do anything for us. The ground staff who watched and waited back at base played a vital supporting role as the bomber crews risked their lives over enemy territory. In the control tower, they anxiously plotted the course of each raid. They knew only too well that with every Lancaster posted as missing, another seven men would not be coming back that night. The Avro Lancaster's most powerful and efficient bomber in the world and one of the most important war winning weapons yet devised by the United Nations. The Lancaster is a name that is writing war history. Although Chadwick had designed the Lancaster for mass production, it was still a monumental task. Each aircraft contains some 55,000 separate parts involving roughly half a million engineering operations. He had designed the Lancaster in five sections so that it could be made in all the different factories and then brought together and with this simplification they were able to put it together quickly and simply and so much so that at the height, I think it was, 1943, one hundred and fifty Lancasters a month were being produced. Meet a few of the ordinary hard working people devoted to this important touch. Angela Roberts, a Capstan operator. Maisie Rafferty had a press. Dobson Hines and his mate Joan Evans riveting. Every pilot of a Lancaster is confident that he's handling an aircraft into which has gone not only superb designing, but the proud craftsmanship of an experienced army of workers. It's everything you wanted in a in a a a heavy bomber. It had got the strength, the speed. The maneuverability. Weight carrying capacity was out of this world. It took eventually six tonnes more than it had been designed for. Sir Arthur Harris said it was the camel that never knew the last straw. In our training we used to cut two engines on one side and you could stand the Lancaster on its wing tip with two engines cut on one side. Marvelous aircraft. I think the Lancaster was the finest bomber in the European Theater of Operations. It was truly a wonderful airplane and a major contributor to the victory in the Second World. By 1943, the Allies were equipped with enough heavy bombers to launch an all out offensive against Nazi Germany. It was to be a 24 hour round the clock operation. The Americans bombing by day, the British by night. Electronic navigation systems were introduced and the bombing became more accurate. Radio direction finders and radar scanners were installed in selected aircraft, and their hand-picked crews were given special training as pathfinders. It all came together at the end of July 1943, when a series of heavy raids on the city of Hamburg demonstrated the devastating effect of area bombing. Thousands died in the inferno as huge areas of the city were utterly destroyed. Area bombing had not broken the British resolve to fight, but Arthur Harris still remained firmly convinced that this was the only way to defeat Nazi Germany. They sowed the wind, he said. Now they are going to reap the whirlwind. As the scale of the operation steadily increased, so did the weight of bombs falling on Germany. One of the great contributions of the Lancaster in the Second World War is its capacity to carry extraordinarily large bombs. The power of those weapons were such, when combined with accuracy, that you could really wreck big targets. For 12 months, British scientists were working day and night on one of the most remarkable engineering feats of the wall, the 12,000 pounder. And here it is, over five and a half tons of concentrated destruction, the biggest bomb yet known in air warfare. Lancasters eventually carried no less than 22,000 pounds. The ten ton Grand Slam bomb. But most raids involved more conventional loads. The crews knew in advance what bombs they would be carrying. What remained a mystery was that night's intended target. One clue was the fuel load. If they said, oh, it's only 1150 gallons, you think it's a short one, but all but normally it was 2154 that was full tanks, so that was a long one. As dusk was falling, the air crews would go to their briefing. Only then would their target be revealed. When you entered, of course, there was a big curtain up over the whole map of Europe, you see and. That curtain was only drawn back when the CO walked in to tell you what the target was for that particular night. To be a huge wall map with a piece of ribbon marking the route that you'll be taking to the target. First thing everybody looked at was where the end of the ribbon was. You now know precisely the next item on that list. Cross it off. Now the tension began steadily mounting as zero hour approached. I used to go to NAAFI and always write my last letter. Obviously you can't post it and it goes in your locker, and if you shouldn't return, that letter would be taken out of your locker and sent to the family. The average number of OPS or missions or whatever you want to call them. We call them OPS. Was seven and a half After you get over seven and a half, you're living on somebody else's borrowed time. You had one weeks leave every six. There was a block of six of you and anybody on that got got the chop or didn't come back, they name was taken off the list. Everybody moves up one underneath, the new crew go to the bottom. So sometimes in a heavy time you would go three weeks and you'd get another week's leave because three of the boards above you got the chop. Great friend of mine, Sergeant Elsworthy. He was on his 28th trip. And he didn't come back. Elsworthy's fiancee had already lost a previous boyfriend who had also been a pilot. Now she turned to Lorrie for consolation, and the friendship soon blossomed into a romance. But Laurie's superstitious crew did not approve of the match. So I had to drop her, the crew said. You will drop her, skip. She was a jinx. Poor girl. Very nice looking girl too. But for the skipper of a Lancaster in love, as in war, the welfare of his crew always came first. They had to believe their luck would hold as they set off for Germany. You were at the beginning of an adventure. You were at the beginning of something dangerous. You were at the beginning of fear, and you would feel fear. And anyone who said they didn't feel fear were liars or nuts. As the Lancaster crews were driven out to their aircraft, each man knew only too well how dangerous their mission was. Superstition and ritual could not guarantee a safe return. But then again. Perhaps they could. I always wore a green scarf with a little Chinese markings on them which my sister had given me, she says; you might need this scarf. I got married three days before D day. I had a silk stocking from the wife. I tied that around my neck. I never took that silk stocking off until I had finished OPS I showered with it, I did everything. It was my lucky charm. Was that silk stocking. One or two of the crews from the squadron were given dolls by a young girl who used to knit them was lucky mascots. I carried that doll on all the trips I did. I swear blind that that mascot brought me back. You talk about the, you know, the smell of an aircraft. It had that That smell of comfort, and that puts it all in one word. That was home from home. Once you get into your seat, of course, you check all your various meters, pumps, gauges. Once we're all satisfied that everything is in working order, we get the order to move. Then we move off. You have to synchronise your engines, but once you have them synchronized, they just purred. Music to the. Ears. The sound of four Merlins is it's something you wish you'd hear it's beautiful. Weighed down with bombs and fuel, the heavy bombers would line up, waiting their turn to Thunder down the runway and take to the air. This is the moment of no return. This is where the decisions be made. This is where you're in her world. And suddenly it all seems to happen. Got a full Bomb bay and you've got full power and suddenly she's let go, you know? I mean, that moment, it's unbelievable! You roar down the runway and all you can hear is the noise, the noise, and it's a beautiful noise. You've got 1400 yards to lift, about 14,000 pounds. It starts to seem that she's going to lose the game against gravity, but just after halfway you feel that gentle bounce. And then another gentle bounce. And suddenly Vum! And you're weightless, your airborne. There's moments like that.she tells you what she's all about. But she's just magnificent. Just magnificent. She is not. It is magnificent, she. And now, as our Lancaster takes to its element, think again of the importance of every item in its construction. The successful accomplishment of the job it has been assigned to may depend on one of the smallest parts. The lives of its crew, too. You felt safe in a Lanc somehow. When all around you is going mad, you're somewhere safe. You always thought if anything happens, it'll happen to the other bloke, not to you. We were going to do a full tour. We weren't going to get shot down. That happened to other people. We weren't going to get shot down, no! It's always somebody else that gets it, never you until you get it. As the bomber formation reached the enemy coast, the mission entered its most dangerous phase. Ahead lay the batteries of deadly anti aircraft guns and the Knight fighters of the Luftwaffe. But the only sound that reached the crew members was the reassuring drone of the Merlin engines. You had this sort of rhythmic sound of the Merlin there, you know, and somehow that was warm and comforting. And you weren't thinking Then Oh will we ever get there and get back again? Because you had utter confidence in her. You just felt we're going into it now and everybody alert. I used to pass the orders around; Gunners keep her eyes skinned. Isolated in his turret, the rear gunner had barely enough room to move. Most attacks came from the rear. And he was often the first casualty. It was a vulnerable position, I I can't deny that. But not one you could shy away from you, that's the job that you would dare to do, and you did it. Taylor and Charlie, as we called him, he was the fall guy. I think there were more casualties with rear Gunners. than any of the other crew members. As they reached the target, the bombers had to fly through a dense barrage of exploding shells from the German flak batteries. I would say it takes a lot to make me afraid, but I was scared. Really scared at times. Frightened to death. My God, this is it. This is me time coming. I've only had 19 years. I'm on the chop. You are frightened. You are scared. And you just hope that you will come back. You had a lot of other things to think about than fear, and I must say that over the target it was exciting and excitement was over fear that. Bombing this is right, Skipper. Targets insight and ready for the bombing run. And then it's all quiet in the aircraft because he is in sole charge and you do exactly what he says. You're actually going out there to hit a target, the fact that. Civilians may be killed. You you've got the blank that out. The most important thing was to get the correct wind speed and direction. It's sheer hell. Anything from about 15 to 30 seconds seems like 15 to 30 hours. And under your breath you're saying for God's sake, drop the Bloody things. (inaudible radio commands) City. Get rid of these bombs now, just get them away. It's going. You just go up like this. It's amazing. I mean, you, you go up like from one floor to the 10th floor in the car park you Voom! And as soon as he says bombs gone. I through the aircraft over and get the hell out of there. The first thing is to hang on for grim death, because he's corkscrewing Like this you see. At last, they could take evasive action to avoid the fighters and head for home. Flash, flash, flash, flash. Oh, quite clearly. And it's remarkable how fast an explosion travels. Goes out very, very quickly and 100 yards, 200 yards each way. Going back. Because I was the back, I Always felt if somebody wanted to grab you, you know, in the darkness, they want to grab you back for what you've done. Back in England, other hands were reaching out, willing the Lancasters to return to the safety of their home base. They were so close to us that they were almost brothers as well. They wanted us to come back. Because of this long piece of string and they would let you go, they'd bring you back again, you know, so you were tied to them. But for the pilot and his crew, the long night was not over yet. German fighters still prowled the skies over Europe, waiting for the moment to attack. And the bombers were still a very long way from home. The first bombers have dropped their incendiaries and ringed the target, each speck of light a blazing German building. Easy enough to realize the catastrophe, the concentrated chaos that is overwhelming the city below. As they set course for home, the crew could not let down their guard for a second. German night fighters continued to attack the bombers relentlessly all the way across occupied Europe. You see the the flames and you watched the parachutes coming out. I can remember my skipper used to shout at us and say; pay attention, this could be you next. The gunner sort of suddenly called out there's a JU-88 coming in, Skipper. I said, OK, give me your orders as soon as you can. What to do? He's in charge then. And he said prepare to port, prepare to dive port prepared to dive port prepare to dive (gep) and as he said that we were hit and he also fired. At that time. As I put the aircraft over in the to go port down, I saw the tracer go underneath me. Then I went into a screaming dive to port and at the same time, of course there were screams from the rear gunner and the midupper gunner. They've both been hit. I said to the flight engineer, Bill, give me a hand with this control column. Eventually I got out of the dive. I was down to about 6000 feet then, and of course I relaxed some, whipped over again into another dive. You see, that's the same way. We've pulled out at about 2,000 feet and immediately I saw a bit of cloud and I dived into it. The fighter had vanished, but the Lancaster was badly damaged and almost impossible to control. That part of the wing was missing, the fuselage was riddled with holes and both Gunners were seriously wounded. I asked my navigator set a course. I said. I can't turn to starboard at all because I had full right rudder on and full control columns like this, and that's how we're flying back all the time. I was drifting slowly to port. After two hours of fighting with the controls, they reached the English coast and prepared for an emergency landing. The scary part was, are the wheels going to come down? Because we didn't know whether the hydraulics were working, you see. And it was then, I said to the crew. If any of you want to. Jump now the Gunners are staying with me. They had no choice. They said don't worry, skip. You know we're staying with you. I thought the best thing to do so she doesn't flip over is to land at a faster speed. You just sat back and thought, you know, my godfathers, we've done it. You get out and you pat it and say thanks. Right, you'll say a piece of metals lifeless. It is lifeless, but when it's put together with lots of other pieces of metal as a Lanc. It's alive. It's just asleep. Waiting for the next night. But the Lancaster was not immortal, and its next trip could always prove to be its last, as it was for so many crew members. The odds of them surviving a full tour of 30 operations were very low. You go to bed and then when you wake up you find that the opposite beds seven are empty and you may see the adjutant coming in emptying the lockers and you know then and that particular crew didn't make it back. We just didn't see them again. And he saw these empty bunks. Well, they are. And then we we all lost friends. Perhaps on other squadrons. I lost two very good friends. I often missed them. 50% of bomber aircrew were killed. And if you add the training. Accidents and people were lost training. It works out roughly about 6 out of every 10. And in Germany, the cost was even higher. Hundreds of thousands were killed or made homeless as the nation, which had once seemed invincible, was steadily reduced to rubble. No matter how messy the bomber offensive was, it was absolutely essential portion of winning of the war. Without the strategic bombing offensive, one can project an allied victory, but maybe at the cost of another two or three million lives of Allied soldiers and perhaps the war continuing into 1946. But after the war, the destruction of Germanic cities became a controversial issue and an episode which many preferred to forget. Today, there are few memorials to the men of Bomber Command. As far as I'm concerned, we had every right to bomb these places. In view of what Hitler had not only done to Britain, what he'd done to Warsaw, Rotterdam. Well, wherever he invaded, they went in and destroyed everything they could. After the war was finished. We used to go on. Trips to have a look at the damage that was done, you know, Cologne and all those places. Much the same as we suffered over in this country, obviously, but even then that that you looked at and you thought was all that necessary was not another way of sorting this out. But Air Marshall Sir Arthur Harris had no doubts about the bombing policy. Or about which aircraft had made it possible. Writing to Roy Chadwick, he said. Without your genius and your effort, we would not have prevailed. The Lancaster was the greatest single factor in winning the war. We've always got to have a designer before we could have a pilot. The man who contributes something like the Lancaster. That's an enormous thing. That must be the job satisfaction to end all job satisfactions, mustn't it? And that lives forever. My young nephews don't say my uncle was in the Air Force. They say my uncle was on Lancs. That's Roy's tribute. But the Lancaster could never have played its part in the victory without the thousands of brave young men who fought and died in the skies over Germany. There's a hell of a lot of lads who've paid for my privilege to still be alive today. A lot of young men. Have paid the price. That's the ultimate sacrifice. So that I've got children. I've got grandchildren. I'm very, very lucky. I really am very very lucky. I volunteered and became a messenger boy in the ARP, and that was before the war started and the people used to laugh at us with dropping our bags of of flour in the middle of the road and shouting people that they were at their houses and um. My I lost my father, so I have a mother and brother and sister. And when the war started, of course, I'd be seeing them down into the air, raid shelters and then go off on my rusty bike and wheel around the houses doing my messenger job. So I suppose I was very much into the war effort then. And it was like a lot of things subsequently, I suppose exciting and a bit frightening. I mean going around the. The streets with your old bike and bits of shrapnel dropping around, I suppose with the prelude to something else really. But that was my. Sort of. Entry into the feeling of the war, certainly. Well, not really. I suppose it was a sort of devil may care a bit and and the the RAF boys seemed to be in my sort of image and I wanted to do those things with the scarf flying around the neck and so on, rather than digging trenches, I guess. So really it seemed to be horses for courses. But I I never thought twice about Army, Navy or Air Force. But by the time I got to volunteering, I mean one thing was perfectly clear in my mind, regardless of any feelings about those earlier bombings I mentioned. It was clear in my mind that we had a fellow and the Reich. Who were stealing Invading every country. And they had concentration camps and they were dealing with atrocities. And there was only one answer, and that was the get in when you could and do something better. My ideas were quite formulated then in that way, certainly more on the when I was 14. Well, I remember it as as clearly as daylight and and I can remember how I felt and I felt as I just said. So far as previous encounters. Were concerned they were just limited to snapshots and photos and things and yet there was still something there. And and you could even feel there that there was something more than a machine, but I was up at OTU in Kinloss in Scotland, and some Lancasters came over from somewhere South and they were going to the north of Norway for some naval targets. And they. They put down with us, I think probably to refuel because they were on a bit of a a journey. And they stayed with us overnight. And this particular Lanc was behind the Mess and on dispersant, very close. And now what I thought about I really had to get. Get to her as quickly as possible and went over and, and there's no doubt about it, sounded a bit barmy but it was love at first sight. She was absolutely fantastic and she was far more than I'd ever seen in these pictures, which as I said we're gliding through the sky and so on because there she was and she was, she seemed enormous. She was standing up in these long legs, you know. And a black, black beauty. And. You could. You could sense it. I mean, the the motors weren't going, but you could sense that she herself, even without the Merlins, which was powerful, big and powerful. And she could do any job, it seemed, and. I suppose I'd liken it to a to a Sleeping Beauty I suppose who, Who needed the kiss of a Merlin to make her burst into life or into her lives or something like that. But we were then on the threshold and I think perhaps that made it even more evocative. I think she, we were at OTU, which was the training unit before you went on to heavy conversion. So you finished with the twin engines there and so we hadn't been on any four engine. And then once you had the short period owed at heavy conversion, you're on to Lanc, so she was just around the corner. So that that moment is one that will stick with me for always. Yes, yes, it wasn't true, but it was my first girlfriend. In fact, it was true. I think because. To a certain extent you see? Let, let's take an average person. you get three, four, five girlfriends, perhaps. You know, it's the nature of life, and not very often does it happen you get the first one and she's the one for life, and so you get several girlfriends. But she was my first girlfriend because she was the first one that really meant everything. She she seemed to have everything that I wanted at that time. I don't mean I wanted XYZ out of a human girl. It's just that around that time. with the Air Force with the war. With going into the Air Force with. Going up in a plane and so on, she got all this to offer. And to me, going back to the feeling of a human aura anyway, yes, she was my girlfriend. And I I take her and I took her as my girlfriend. And funnily enough, I didn't feel that there was any rivalry with the rest of the crew. You know, I thought you was my girlfriend. And we all felt that it was our girlfriend, you know? And I suppose that was an extension of the fantastic spirit you had in in in the crew. But she was, yes, she was my first girlfriend. Uh, two things about the the regulations and how. And this was part of of the fun of being on the squadron, if you call it fun. And and there were there was fun as well as all the serious side. And that was when we used to, after we'd had our briefing, we'd go out and get ourselves topped up in all these bloody great things and boots and everything, and then get in there, the lorry and away it would go. And there was this precious moment when we used to go through the gates and there was the service police in their hat. And of course, they're all bastards and we all hated. them you see and there they were out there and they the one time they allowed this thing to go by the board, we all had our gear on. Of of course we had the Top of our battle dresses down there and in here because it's handy if you came down in the sea you always had your aircrew whistle so next to your mouth to whistle for your position. So you had this ready. And every time we went past the the Hut on the way to OPS and they knew we were going to OPS and they knew they didn't want to be in our position. And When we went past we, we all of us blasted these things and all gave them this, which I mean, you dare do when you were back on the countdown, London. And of course they, for their part, who would be? What are you thinking about, you know? But they stood to attention and saluted. And the reinforcement they saluted and we gave them two fingers. And to my mind that epitomised the the thought of feeling in a drone really at the at the harsh end of it, the the military police and at the other end of it, what the drone was all about. And for that moment, you know, we respected each other. That was fantastic. Well, first of all, of course, coming towards the target. I mean we've, we've been going quite away now and don't forget this, that if it's a 10 hour journey, you've been going for five hours and watching everything and each one has been doing his job, you know, so you're not exactly as bright and alert, but you suddenly sharpen up. I mean you suddenly, if there's the slightest, there's no real tiredness by then, you're young, you know, but still five hours of Hardish work. And so in my case, my work would be listening, as I mentioned and. Than watching, watching for fighters predominantly. I mean, I also had to watch for collisions. That was a sad thing to think of. But you had to. Particularly over the North Sea where they're all coming back together or going out together and where we're milling around the first point, the first turning point at the beginning of the journey, which was near reading and the stream will be very close. So you had to watch it. And they did happen. And people, quite a few people were killed in collisions. So once watching that and one's watching predominantly the point you mentioned for fighters and so on and when when you're, I don't know how far but but it must be probably an hour or three quarters of an hour. You see that the Pathfinders and perhaps the beginning of the stream have started hit the target. So you see the targets blazing and and you know where it's going and you don't need a navigators set then to be able to find the target. And so it's then. Funnily enough, I suppose. Just for a second, then I get this fear. But it's no longer than a second because you've been so keen on watching everything. And then the next second after your fear, whatever it is you you're watching again. And I think I mentioned that it's purely because we've discussed here, but it's it's momentary because you realise that from that second onwards, but you're seeing it and you're really within its orbit. That means the target. That from in over and out, you've got to be total observation. Thick. Meaning, I don't really thick up here. I mean you had to be as keen as possible in outlook and we uh So the first thing you're thinking of, are the fighters. So as you go in, you're keen on the fighters all the way. The boys in the front start taking over more as as we get near the target of course and the navigator leading you in and you can hear your mates over the intercom and you can. hear the navigator pilot taking over, and then the bomber and the pilot. So all this time you're spending your time, I'm speaking purely with me, not the rest of the crew in searching for aircraft. And there's not much point in searching for anti aircraft because they'll shoot it up anyway. So you just keep your fingers crossed for that. You search a bit depends on the on the place, whether they've got many search like some places have more than others. So you search for that because that is something you've got to divert from. So you'll search, search, search. And by this time you're practically there. And then of course, it's simply a two man act. It's the pilot and the bomb aimer. And by that time you can almost feel the warmth of the target, you know? And you're going over and of course, you're tended to look up there more because you're. Conscious of this silhouette business. And as they go over the target, then the boys are completely taking over the aircraft. And it's left, left, right, right, steady, steady, steady and then. Bombs away and you just go up like this. It's amazing. I mean, you you go up like from one floor to the 10th floor in the car park you Voom! It's absolutely bloody frightening. No, no lift does it anything like it, you know, but 14,000 pounds just hanging on you and suddenly goes, you know, Voom! And up you are like this. And then the next second, you know, whatever the the pilot says something all sorts, you know? Fuck off. Oh,I'm sorry, Or, bugger off. Or all sorts of things. But it's going, you see so you you Corkscrew. And then when they corkscrew the the first thing is to hang on for grim death, because he's Corkscrewing like this you see. Which is which is a standard. It's a standard regulation and of course it's it's ultra effective. One thing they've never had to change from early days to the end of the war. It never changed because it first class because you go left and then you're going right and then you're dropping and then you're rising you're doing everything to counteract and and it's it's hell to try to combat that as an air gunner or as a fighter trying to bring you down. Very very difficult. So that goes on for quite a while until you're fairly sure that you're away from the target area and also there's no one on your tail there might be someone we we were just out in the. One came on our tail that was different, and I mean that's a different story, but. Boom, boom, boom. Boom boom and you're out again. So coming back to your feelings, No Fear at all as you're going near to it, you've got too much to do. And when you dive out of it again, it's too much to do you, you have no time. I think the reason you had no time to think of fear is probably there, but you haven't got any time. And it really, I really found it all exciting, I must say grudgingly, that that it was bloody excited. The whole lot was exciting and even watching for these guys was exciting, you know? When you actually saw one as we did, or saw three, slightly different when they're on your tail. But no, and even then it was exciting. I didn't feel any fear then. It was really exciting. So. Does that answer your question? Well, yeah, as I told you, and this is the most famous part of any raid, because when you're sweating bricks, because you're absolutely dead, you're straight and you've got to go over the target and you've got to be absolutely spot on. And then the bomb Aimer is in charge and the pilot does his wish, hence Lanc does his wish. And he said left, left steady, right, right steady. Left, left steady, steady steady, left, left steady. And then the joke is back a bit. Which of course you could never do sober. But that is the joke of Bomber command. Back a bit. And that you know that that is the moment. That is the moment of all times, I think.
