daily routine and de.briefing
An Air test was nearly always carried out on the morning of an Op. The flight usually took around an hour and was made at around 5,000 ft. This was in order to practice some three engine flying and to check the feathering procedures and I would refer you to previous threads of mine when I related what went on when all four engines feathered when a single button was pressed.
Crew cooperation in getting out of an aircraft was sometimes practised. (Up to a point of course !) A lot was left to the Captain and very little checking was ever done by more senior Officers. I was never a strict disciplinarian but discouraged idle chatter over the intercom as you never knew when it would be vital that the intercom was was clear in case of an emergency or in the sighting of an aircraft which could be vital to take the appropriate action.
The various categories of the crew members would make their checks very differently. The Gunners would be testing their turret manoeuvres and also their guns. By the way, we always had live ammunition available for night flying and air tests. The Bomb aimer would be cooperating with the navigator on the checking and rechecking of their respective instruments and Gee or H2S and most Captains would pose various emergencies such as sudden violent turns and dives whilst inthe middle of parachute drill. This was very unpopular and obviously had to be limited in it's scope. The parachutes were all of the chest type and it was vital that everyone knew the position of his own 'chute as well as the position of the others.
The W/op would be sending and receiving although this was sometimes forbidden to prevent the enemy getting some foreknowledge of impending raids from the amount of radio messages that would be picked up. The F/E would be the one whom the Captain would probably be giving a spot of flying practice as he was the one most likely to take over if the Pilot was incapacitaated or worse. This would be very limited in trying to show how to hold the aeroplane straight and level. Sometimes the Bomb aimer or Navigator would have been on a pilot's course and had failed but this was rare and I have never heard of a non pilot crew member bringing an aircraft back and landing in England or even in succeeding in the crew bailing out
Some people were able to sleep for a while during the afternoon but I can't remember getting very much. I know that a lot of letters were written and given to crews to hand on, who were not on Ops that night. During the day the various fitters and armourers would be loading the aircraft with their deadly cargo and the Bowser people would be very busy fuelling up the aircraft. The amount of fuel going on would soon become very well known around the crews who would make educated guesses as to the whereabouts of the target. The Ruhr, or Happy Valley, as it was known would mean a much lighter load than Berlin or Munich.
It would soon become time to pile into the transports that were all awaiting and we would go to the parachute section and draw our chutes to the usual stale jokes "If it does'nt work, bring it back..."etc. and then we would be dropped off in crews at the various dispersals where the ground crew who had been working all day were there to welcome us. The "Chiefy" would tell the Captain all the little things that had been done to his precious "Kite" and we would get in to our respective places, go through the Check lists meticulously and await the start up signal, usually a "Very Light " but sometimes by R/T. Then the ponderous, waddling , heavily laden 'planes would start their taxying to the Takeoff point. There would always be a huge crowd of the Station personnel to see you off and it was a very emotional moment when your Green light came and you opened up the four engines and slowly gathered speed to the waving and ,I know for a fact, tears of the many onlookers from the Station Commander down to the lowest airman and airwoman.
From there on it was the slow climb to cruising altitude which would not always be reached until you were well over the North Sea and you would see the myriads of others all pointed in the same direction scattered all over the darkening sky but with the sun setting behind them they would be very clear.
Then, all too soon, the Navigator would say "Enemy Coast ahead" and the battle was on. Reg
Last edited by regle; 6th Jun 2009 at 21:24.