Goosequill I think at ‘heavy con’ we would have the guns loaded, all the time. On training flights we carried a drogue (shaped like a wind sock) complete with long rope. This was occasionally streamed behind the aircraft and the crew practiced firing from the rear turret. Can’t really remember but would guess the skipper would corkscrew during firing. We also used a firing/ bombing range off the seashore North of Skegness, and also had a bombing range at Alkborough at the point where the Trent reaches the Humber.
ICARE. I think you have had a perfect account from Regle, to which I could not add much, and can only say how fortunate that we have him on board. I seem to remember we climbed on course, and just before nightfall, rendezvoused on the coast south of ‘sunny skeg’ The sight of hundreds of aircraft almost touching wings , and heading East is impossible to describe. As I have recommended before the C.D Night Bomber is a true record, produced during the war, by Air Commodore Henry Cozens . Although I intended to write about my experiences in chronological order I think I should say at this stage, that although we did make numerous trips across the North sea, only three were counted as ops, the rest being diversion raids, dropping window, etc. Did say, and repeat ‘add nauseam’ ,“no tales of derring do”
As Hardie Allbrecht said . We were the lucky ones. I would not have agreed at that time.
I intended to include details of my time at Bottesford next, but decided to ‘brew’ a mug of tea and Skype my friend John of the Halifax rebuild, just to give me a break, and also to arrange a visit in a few weeks time. Amongst other things he told me that his video of the rebuild had been reviewed in the magazine Fly past, with many pics extracted from his video .He told me that the Elvington website now includes a panoramic video of the interior of the aircraft. I googled Elvington air museum and clicked on ‘Halifax cockpit program’ then downloaded ‘quick time plug in’ I discovered that if I clicked on the pic and moved the mouse to the right, the picture panned the cockpit. However the picture is rather small and I would like some of you to try it, and advise how to increase the size. Tried zoom, and control plus all to no effect.
Re my previous question , “was an air gunners flying life about 14 hours in the early stages of the war >? Found this on the Elvington site
-------The Air Gunner's tasks were complicated and hazardous and his life expectancy appallingly short - it could be as little as two weeks before a rear gunner on bomber operations could expect to be shot down or killed----------
I have just found page one of my flying clothing book. This shows the issue of the earlier type flying boots which were of the brown suede/ sheepskin type. Think I have said before the heels were easily trodden down, and then became uncomfortable to walk in. The boots were later modified by fitting a horizontal strap at ankle level which was an improvement but later they were superseded by boots escape. Boots escape had black/sheepskin top, with normal type leather shoe, and contained a small knife for cutting off the top if in enemy territory. It also mentions issue of three pairs of gloves. Linings gauntlet, had a 24 volt heating element incorporated, and kept the hands warm at all altitudes when plugged into the aircraft supply They also kept the hands warm if plugged into a motorcycle 12 volt system at zero feet. Gloves silk , consisted of four thicknesses of silk.
I managed to obtain a better colour on this one.