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Forum: Chat Room
Thread: On this Day |
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Thread Status: Locked Total posts in this thread: 716
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 11th February 1945.
----------------------------------------My brother had been invalidated out of the S. Lancashire Regt., but I still had many cousins in the forces. My cousin Ivor, in the R.A.F., had applied for Air Crew training, but been turned down on medical grounds, apparently for having flat feet. This seems a little peculiar to me, as air crew do far less marching than ground crew. In addition, Ivor had been goalie of our school soccer team and never complained of foot trouble. Knee trouble, yes. He had had a cartilage problem in one knee. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Mar 9, 2009 4:49:06 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 12th February 1945.
My former neighbour and school friend, Sgt. (Air Gunner) Aubrey Crystal baled out over Germany and was never heard of again. It was feared that he was a victim of civilian atrocity. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
At a later date; An R.A.F. crew member wrote:-
On February 13th , aircraft IQ-Louie took off from base at 21.25 hours to attack Dresden, the capital of Saxony, a very distant target about 150 miles south and slightly east of Berlin. It was an important industrial centre; its marshalling yards and harbour handled a considerable amount of rail and river borne freight. A force of 200 bombers had hit the target three hours earlier, visibility was good and fires started by the first attack served as a beacon for the second bomber stream. The Master Bomber skilfully controlled the crews and achieved well concentrated bombing in areas not hit in the earlier raid. Despite the long trip back across Germany, losses were light, much of the success being attributed to the action of “window” fouling up the enemy’s radar system. We “pancaked” or touched down at base 10 hours and 20 minutes after take-off. This was to be the longest time spent in the air on any of our raids. It had come to light since the war that some sources think this was not so much a tactical raid, as a “propaganda” raid. They feel that it was staged to show the nearby advancing Russians what might happen should Russia step out of line. If such was the case, it is sad to think of the heavy loss of civilian life, and some people still cynically refer to this operation as “The Dresden Affair”. However, at the time and until much later, bomber crews just considered it as another successful raid. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
The very next night, February 14th , we were designated to fly IQ-Willie to another distant target along with 23 other aircraft from our squadron and 170 Squadron. Because of the great distance involved, all planes had maximum fuel load but carried a smaller than normal bomb load. This time we carried no “cookie”, but did carry four 1,000 pound high explosives as well as eight containers in incendiary bombs designed for starting fires. Each container would hold about 100 individual incendiary bombs, each about 15 inches long and 2 inches square.
Our target was Chemnitz in the province of Saxony about 200 miles south and slightly west of Berlin. It was an important textile manufacturing centre, but also was one of the major rail junctions with railway repair shops among the largest in the whole Reich. At briefing, it was pointed out that the raid would be split between two forces of 300 and 120 aircraft with a three hour interval between them. We were to be in the first attack. Take-off was at 20.25 hours. We circled base to a height of 10,000 feet before setting out on the first leg. We finally broke through cloud at 18,000 feet as we passed about sixty miles north of the Ruhr Valley. Miraculously the cloud dissipated and the rest of the way to the target was clear; ideal conditions for the German defence. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
“Master” searchlight beams, those with the bluish light, could be seen waving back and forth, trying to pick up a bomber in its beam. When that happened, it stayed on the plane until seven or eight more came on, and the plane was “coned”. This would allow heavy flak units the opportunity to concentrate on the plane and shoot it down in flames, or a direct hit on the bombs would destroy the plane with a terrific explosion. Sometimes the flak would slack off to nil, and the German fighters would move in to shoot down the “coned” plane.
Not only were there five actual bombers observed either exploding or going down in flames, but the enemy proved that they were masters of psychological warfare as well. At least eight “scarecrows” were observed as we flew on the 090 degree course toward Leipzig. These were most nerve racking, particularly to new and inexperienced crews. Past Leipzig we turned to fly directly south to hit our target and immediately were over cloud at 15,000 feet. Because cloud conditions prohibited the use of ground marking methods, we were forced to use “Wanganui” or sky marking procedure. In this case red flares were dropped by parachute. Out of the bottom of these red flares dripped brilliant green stars. This colourful display was used as the aiming point for bombers flying well above the clouds, and if the flares were properly placed, would allow the bombs to hit the specified target on the ground. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, February 16. 1969
On this date forty years ago, PFC ROBERT WALTER WHITNEY, USMC, was killed in action in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. He was my friend. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sorry about your loss, Dave. These wars "to end war" never seem to do that, do they?
----------------------------------------Crews reported that many fighter/bomber encounters were made on the way from the target to the coast, but after all the excitement on the way in, we were fortunate and saw no fighters and only scattered flak. We landed safely at base at 05.30 hours. When we were awakened in the early afternoon, we were informed at the bombing section on the Squadron about two jagged holes way out near the end of the starboard wing. We concluded that it had been caused by two incendiary bombs which had hit and had passed right through the wing without igniting; no doubt dropped by a plane flying well above us. It was just another example that luck was with us. Monday, February 16th, 2009 I am now waiting for an ambulance to call. There is little to say about the next few days - The memory recalls nothing and probably there was no time for writing home. Nevertheless, comrades who did manage to leave notes. . . The ambulance called while I was writing the above. [Edit 2 times, last edit by Former Member at Feb 26, 2009 11:36:56 AM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, February 26th, 1945
: Corregidor's last gasp http://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6724 For the next week or so we were wandering in illogical directions, presumably to confuse the enemy, and succeeding in confusing ourselves in the process. Unlike as in Blighty, where there had been no road signs for five years, direction signs were still standing here, though not necessarily pointing the right way. If, as some said, we were looking for V2/A4 launching sites, we never seemed to have found evidence of any. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, February 27th 1945
It turned out that we had been in the Goch area since 19th February. The first battle was 19th-22nd February and we retook the fortified town this day but I have no memory of what others have described as, “Sheer hell,” or, “Four days and nights of unmitigated misery.” |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 28th February 1945
Newspapers were arriving once more, so we now had a topic of conversation. Banner headlines asked, “Where is the Second Army?” We had an idea where we are going, but no clue to the route we were taking. The rest of the four-page broadsheet was nearly all war news, with maps of last weeks’ campaigns. The Second Army was prominently absent. We wondered what the papers found to report in peacetime. The only peaceful item was the leader, which gave details of the Beveridge report. We did read something of this during our first battle, but today’s article was in detail. The new health service would build Health Centres immediately, and all primary care would take place in them. It seemed as if the new service would need a lot more doctors, nurses and health auxiliaries, and there should be plenty of suitable appointments for us, the ex-servicemen of the R.A.M.C. |
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