In 1943 Wynford Vaughan-Thomas (an accredited War Correspondent) flew in a 207 Sqn Lancaster on a raid to Berlin. With him was a BBC sound engineer Reg Pidsley who as a civilian was made an Acting Sgt (unpaid) on 207 Sqn for 2 days in case they were shot down and captured. The problems they had are at the link on post 02 above. Significant excepts from the recording can be downloaded at
Documents Section
I was on 207 Sqn in 1983 and in September that year we hosted a re-union to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the event. It was organised by Ben Lyon who found that all but one of the Letford crew had - hugely against the odds - survived the war and all were in the UK except Ken himself who was in Vancouver. Ken came to the UK and this was the first time they had been in contact since the war
Wynford was up for it and Ben had also found Reg Pidsley, now very frail and living with his son in North London. Reg's family had never had any contact with the military apart from his one flight in a Lancaster, of which they knew nothing and they were sceptical about involving this old wheelchair bound chap in anything. However, they were persuaded that we meant no harm and Reg and his son were brought to the dinner on the Saturday night. It was an eye-opener for the son as he had no idea what his father had achieved and we played excerpts from the recording during the evening. To a man, they were un-assuming gents and it was a humbling experience being in their company.
Ken Letford deserves a book on his own. With a total of 4 Bomber Ops tours including a further tour on Lancasters, he ended the war as a Flt Lt with DSO (and Bar) DFC. He stayed in the RAF and when flying Sunderlands in the Far East he was again a hero landing under fire on the Yangtse River to rescue the wounded from HMS Amethyst. For this he got another DFC as well as the 'Yangtse Medal'. He finally left the RAF after a tour on Valiants.
The next day, when we had a BBQ on the Squadron, Reg and his son turned up again (they had always said that they would only be at the dinner) andReg presented the Squadron with the original aluminium disc that he had cut lying prone in the belly of the Lancaster. The disc sat in my office for a couple of days but since we couldn't play it on anything, I rang the BBC sound archives. When I finally got hold of one of their senior staff and described what I had in front of me, they couldn't get out to Northolt fast enough and reverently bore it away almost wrapped in cotton wool. I understand they still regard it as one of their most significant recordings.
Somewhere in my attic I have a couple of cassettes with the programme as broadcast and also with the un-edited contents of the disc. I will dig them out soon.