SPARTACAN
By the way, just how did the checklist in the Lancaster work? Was it challenge and response or did the whole crew work from memory?
We didn’t have a printed check list, unless the form 700 could be regarded as a check list, but this had few items on it. As I remember it, we only memorised it, not sure , and there are no copies of a check list amongst my memorabilia only appearing in my exercise books.
The scans below , scanned for the gentleman previously mentioned ,may be of interest., all of which were committed to memory. (Sorry will post tomorow have problem with photobucket)
Deidelsdorf.
Before we set off for Deidelsdorf , the old hands advised us not to take any money with us, and to open a post office account, and have our pay credited to this account by the R.A.F paymaster. We did not know how this would work, but did accept the advice .As my pay was then one pound per day, I looked forward to the day I was to be ‘demobbed’ when I could cash in . I also decided to take my Smith & Wesson .38 and ammunition with me as I fully expected opposition from the local citizens, and possible resistance groups. How wrong I was, we were all treated the same as tourists are treated to day, and the opinion of the ordinary folk was that they were sorry we had not joined them to fight the Russians, with the statement ‘Ruski nicht goot’ being frequently repeated. My opinion of the average German began to improve, and that there seemed to be very little difference between them and us. However I felt no remorse, as memories of my demolished home, etc were still fresh in my mind. As the man said “don’t worry about it, we are only doing to them what they have done to us”.
After arrival at Hamburg, we disembarked and took the train to Hanover, then three ton trucks to Diedelsdorf.. Diedelsdorf was a small airfield surrounded by Pine ? Trees and invisible from the roads around. The mess was superb with uncovered varnished pine roof trusses, and various poems written on the wall in a form of Gothic script. I can still remember parts of one Der Deutche infanterie, Spate und fruh, immer fertig etc. The first day , after lunch we went to the mess ( with no money) when the barman asked us what we wanted to drink we replied, nothing thanks we have no money. His reply amazed us for he said you don’t need any, just order what you want. We ordered, and he turned round and with a piece of chalk deducted the cost from a very large number on a blackboard, then took some Marks from a dustbin and put them in the till. Evidently airmen returning for demob threw all their surplus marks in the bin, which were then used for paying for drinks etc. Although these Marks were almost valueless in town they could be used for purchasing , soap, cigarettes, and whisky, in the mess, which then evidently were used as currency on the ‘black market’.
Many binoculars, watches, cameras, were bought using this method.
Another fiddle was to ‘buy’ a bar of soap each day in the mess , visit
Hanover in the evening, sell the soap to some one in the street for sufficient Marks to pay for an evening in the Hanover W/Os and Sergeants club. We then had enough money to have an excellent dinner accompanied by whatever drinks we wanted , and three wandering musicians playing the music of our choice. After this we still had enough Marks to purchase a bottle of whisky and visit a local pub, where we were very popular. The reason for this was that the German beer sold had no alcoholic content, this we fortified by the addition of whisky, and at the same time topped up the locals beer.