Minnie Driver In Tears Over Fathers Role In War | Who Do You Think You Are

minnie has come to brooklyn's museum in surrey to meet historian robin holmes hi robin good morning minnie good morning very nice to meet you nice to meet you nice to meet you please okay great robin and his team spent eight years salvaging and partially restoring the only surviving aircraft to have taken part in the battle of heligoland bite it's called a wellington bomber that the big one there your father flew in an absolutely identical plane to that one biggest raid in history up till then very beginning of the war he was in a very prominent position he was right at the very front of it in the gun turret wow this is a photograph that was taken on the raid as your father flew across the harbour this aircraft here dropped three 500 pound bombs on these german ships okay and another plane but we don't know which one it was could have been your father's plane also drop bombs on those ships and then that's when the luftwaffe hit them like a ton of bricks did they know what was coming at them not really no the uh the germans were using their new messerschmitts that's the bf109d very fast very fast 350 miles an hour that was the very latest fighter that the germans had the bombers were defending themselves with these that's a 303 rifle bullet and that's what your father was defending the aircraft with what the germans were attacking them with with these ah that's a 20 millimeter cannon shell and the german fighters were equipped with those so you can see the disparities here this was their ammunition and this was our ammunition yes actually there was an account of this whole battle and that was published at the time for six months epics of the raf there we go another wellington forced out of its formation was swooped on by a swarm of german fighters which swept over it continuously spraying it with machine gun fire the bottom of the front gun turret had been blown away and the turret set on fire later i heard from the lips of the pilot himself the story of that nightmare journey home my gunner was very prompt with the fire and beat it out with his gloved hands that's dad that's your father yes but for him the aircraft would have been well alight in a few seconds his quick action saved our lives and for his actions he got the dfm a medal which he truly deserved i gotta read this next bit because it's good please please when the bottom of the gun turret was blown away the gunner found that his leg was dangling in the air over the water but his huddle position kept him from falling through the hole into the sea it's probably because he was so big as well would you show me where though um so none of this was here this was all shot away so this is what they're saying where his leg was down down all the perspex had been shot away from the turret i think it would be rather nice if you were to see where your father actually sat in the plane yeah right can you manage yeah oh my god now if you go up and stand on the little platform so stand up there okay holy cow can you look forward forward into the gunter can you get along yeah you've got to be kidding me my dad was huge i can't really had all his flying gear on as well because it was very very cold i can't believe how tiny it is in there how you're completely and utterly unprotected nothing between you nothing between you apart some perspex his very best friend was called lily air craftsman lily and he was in the rear gun turret and sadly he did not survive the battle your dad actually lost his best friend on the battle paragliding bite ronnie driver and his best friend walter lilly both belong to raf 9 squadron while most of their contemporaries have passed away one man who served alongside them is still alive many i would like to introduce mr derek allowing hello hello minnie very proud to meet you now 93 derek alloway is the last surviving raf veteran to have been involved in the battle of heligoland byte and remembers ronnie driver well so how exactly did you know my dad ronnie used to be a mechanic working like i was working looking after the aircraft i think he joined the squadron just a little time after me we did see each other quite a bit rowing the boats in the hangar or in the nappy or in the harlington fox and a little drinking drink having a little drinky drink that doesn't surprise me was he a happy young friend he was very happy very happy he was one of us one of us were you there on the day of the battle of heligoland i was there in the day that was there in the day when he took off i don't suppose you remember how he was feeling on that morning do you the last time i saw him he was taking stuff from his pocket giving him to a friend of his like his personal stuff yeah you know because he didn't know if you were coming back that's right that's what i remember last we really saw him and that wasn't until the next morning that we found out that ronnie was one of the aircraft but ditched in the north sea you might care to read the official report of what actually happened to his aircraft aircraft and driver subsequently succeeded in launching the dinghy and assisted in saving the remainder of the crew some of whom were wounded it was largely due to his exertions that the crew of this aircraft were brought to safety that's right that's right that is right he had to get the dinghy first he made sure that the dengue was out and that they got the ding in and he's like the crew eventually got all the crew out except his friend lily who was he was dead he was in the back of the aircraft they got him out of the turret laid him on the floor and paul lilly went down with the airplane did you see dad again did you no i never saw that your daddy guy no i understood that a couple of crew were in hospital with their injuries and i think ronnie's a bit shaken up and yeah he had a bit of a problem with his health after that for a bit that's about all i can tell you really that's when i last saw ronnie that morning when he took off on that particular mission [Music] i've never met anyone in my life that knew my father when he was 18 years old and to sort of hear it's really who he was he was a good bloke and a good friend that's a really really good feeling it was quite shocking hearing that dad was unwell at the end of that battle and i really want to know what happened to him next because that's that's as much as i know [Applause] you

Channel: Who Do You Think You Are?

Views: 852,740

Keywords: who do you think you are, wdytya, who do you think you are uk, who do you think you are BBC

Id: F8mLVIcx8cc

Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 13 2022