In search of bomber command

[ricardian]

Have not seen this film publicised on here before
o7b_w5EX04E

[50+Ray]

Thanks for posting the film. I had never seen it before, but know a lot of the locations.

[PPRuNeUser0139]

I believe this is the one colour film in existence that portrays life on a front line RAF Bomber Command station and it was filmed by Group Captain Iliffe Cozens (http://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Cozens.htm), station commander of RAF Hemswell (14 miles north of Lincoln). He was a keen amateur photographer and his film stands as a unique record of the Bomber Command's raids made on Germany during World War II.

[papajuliet]

It is the unique film "Night Bombers" with, it seems some extracts from the original wartime " Memphis Belle" film.
Night Bombers was filmed by Air Commodores Iliffe Cozens, the commander of 15 base [the airfelds of which were Scampton, Hemswell and Fiskerton]. The station commander at Hemswell was Gp. Capt. W. C. Sheen [seen in the film].
The briefing part of the film was made on 9th. Mar. 1945 after cancellation of an operation just before briefing. Cozens made use of the cancellation to make his film sequences.
The squadron shown is 170 commanded by W/Cmdr. Templeton-Rooke.
All this information is taken from the book "Bomber Intelligence" by W.E.Jones, the Hemswell intelligence officer at the time - he, also, appears in the film.
Incidentally, Cozens was the C.O. of 19 Squadron,at Duxford, when it became the first unit to equip with the Spitfire.

[Flap62]

Absolutely fascinating film.

[rlsbutler]

About 40 minutes into the film, we switch to Wing Commander Jack Currie talking from post-war Wickenby. He reprises some of the anecdotes he tells in "Lancaster Target", the second of three books he wrote about his war. The books are engrossing and it is interesting to see and hear the author, even if his persona was (or had become) something like that of the actor Roger Moore.

[Fantome]

There is a parallel here in that the late Kym Bonython who flew
in the RAAF on ops in Beauforts (and I seem to remember Mossies)
took a large footage of film on ops with his 8mm colour cine camera.
One or two are held by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Sadly the bulk of Kym's archive was lost in the bush fires in 1983
that hit hard in the Adelaide hills where he lived.

Kym wrote evocatively of his RAAF service in his autobiography
'Ladies' Legs and Lemonade'. Strange title? When aged five or six
an aged maiden aunt asked the boy , "What things do you like Kym?"

My late friend Jack Koerbin of Hobart was a WAG in the same squadron as Kym in New Guinea. Jack said that Kym's nickname was 'the boy bastard'.

Kym, apart from the camera he carried surreptitiously, also carried round
the tropics with him his gramophone player and a stack of classical
music records. He recounts in his book how when he ran out of needles
he managed to get a few minutes play by using the very sharp thorns of
a native tree.
--------------------------------------------

An extract from Wiki -

Kym Bonython attended St Peter's College, Adelaide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Peter%27s_College,_Adelaide). In 1940 he began training as a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Australian_Air_Force) . Bonython served in the (then) Netherlands East Indies and New Guinea, experiencing several "death defying" near misses. He was in hospital in Darwin (with dengue fever) during the 1942 bombing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Darwin)- he had just evacuated and taken cover when the ward he had been in took a direct hit. During his time with the RAAF, Bonython filled the roles of aircraft captain in 1941, and chief flying instructor with the rank of squadron leader (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squadron_leader) in 1943. On 1 September 1944, Flight Lieutenant Bonython (Aus.280778) was awarded the Air Force Cross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_Cross_%28United_Kingdom%29) (AFC), and on 22 February 1946, Squadron Leader Bonython AFC was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distinguished_Flying_Cross_%28United_Kingdom%29) (DFC)

[rolling20]

we switch to Wing Commander Jack Currie talking from post-war Wickenby. He reprises some of the anecdotes he tells in "Lancaster Target", the second of three books he wrote about his war

'Lancaster Target' was his first,then 'Mosquito Victory' and finally 'Wings Over Georgia'.

[Royalistflyer]

Last Lincolns were retiring just as I entered the Service. I knew some of the pilots well as they transferred to other types.

[rlsbutler]

Rolling20

You are right of course, but I was thinking of the chronology of the three texts.

You might also have picked me up on the rank I gave for Currie. I do not know where I got it from. He deserves a page in Wikipedia, but none of us have set that ball rolling. Elsewhere on the internet and in the credits at the back of the three books, I can only find him recorded as Squadron Leader.

[rolling20]

rlsbutler, no problem. I believe there is a Wiki page and a Facebook page as well. Squadron Leader was as far as he went , I believe.
I understand Jim Cassidy was still alive as of last summer.

[Boy_From_Brazil]

Ricardian,

Thanks for posting the link to the fascinating film. The colour makes it all come back to life.

It was extremely interesting to see what daily life was like with an operational squadron and the cramped conditions inside the Lancaster. It makes me extremely proud, and in even more awe, of my Father who completed his full tour with 57 sqn.

[walter kennedy]

It strikes me that it was so cramped it would have been so hard to get out in an emergency - would have been hell

[Boy_From_Brazil]

Cramped conditions, an out-of-control aircraft, fire, almost total darkness, parachutes stored in another location.....

I am amazed that anyone survived.

[Danny42C]

Knowing nothing about Lancasters, would it have been at all possible to secure the big canopy with explosive bolts, so that the whole "glasshouse" could be jettisoned in emergency ? In that way everyone in front of the spar would have an easy exit.

Didn't the Vampire have these ?

D.

[MightyGem]

Would the dual controlled aircraft have been the BBMF one borrowed for the film?

[Danny42C]

Reverting to the film, I was surprised to note that the "cookie" has the "windmill" safety caps on the fuses wired up (6.47), but when in position on the rack, the safety wires are removed (8.30), so the bomb is 'live' from then on.

That raises a question: if you need to dump the bomb load to "lighten ship" in emergency, there is no way to return the bomb to 'safe'. No problem over the sea, fair enough over enemy territory, but over friendly territory ? - and even more, over the UK ?

In Burma, we dropped 250 GP and 500 GPs using a "fuse-link" system described in my Post (Page 134 #2680 on "Gaining a RAF Pilots' Brevet in WWII" Thread). It seems strange if no such method was in use back at home.
I hope we have a bomb-aimer or armourer in earshot who can set me right on this.

D.

[Guernsey Girl II]

I've not seen this before, the first 40 mins or so are an edited version of Night Bombers narrated by David Savile (he played the First Lieutenant of HMS HERO in the first 3 serries of 'Warship' on the BBC in the mid 70s). Although the link to the original documentary of 'Memphis Belle' isn't in the hour long Night Bombers on YouTube (see below)

http://youtu.be/eqQAA2rcBno

Perhaps this was aimed at the viewers in the US

The second documentary is I think "Lancaster Legend" made by BBC North in 1980 (see below)

http://youtu.be/2tH8OVAICjQ

[Lancman]

In the event of a bale-out the Flight Engineer, Navigator, Bomb Aimer and Wireless Operator would go out through the hatch in the floor of the nose compartment; F/E first, folding his seat politely before leaving. The Rear Gunner retrieved his parachute, turned his turret abeam, opened his doors and fell out backwards. The Mid-upper Gunner used the main entry door. Theoretically everybody had a fairly clear route. The pilot engaged the auto-pilot and followed the rest out of the nose. Simples, theoretically. It worked OK for my brother.

[rolling20]

Bail out rates were poor, only 25% of Hallibag crews escaping and just 15% of Lanc crews. Freeman Dyson, the Bomber Command Operational Research scientist ( he is still alive and in his 90's) ' estimated that 10,000 or more Lancaster crewmen died solely because Bomber Command did not *care* about their welfare, and was not interested in finding out why the survival rate from downed Lancasters was so much poorer than from other British bombers. (Almost certainly it was because the escape hatch was two inches narrower). Mike O'Loughlin, one of Dyson's colleagues in RAF operations research, spent two years fighting totally unresponsive management to get the hatch enlarged. By the time he succeeded, the war was essentially over'.

Freeman also estimates that removing gun turrets from a Lanc would make it 50mph faster. That of course is another story...

[MightyGem]

Here's the USAAF's version:
pl6CaJWif1M

[Colonal Mustard]

Watched the Lanc & B17 films , i'm speechless at the bravery these folks displayed, always indebted to their sacrifice (mentally and physically.)

I do love how they say it exactly as it is and dont pussyfoot around with the way they act, it shows how we as a society have changed today for the worse.

And to those who comment on the survivability of the lanc exit....having been in the BBMF one i was astounded that even with a 34" waist i would not get through the hatch in the glass canopy, made me realise that once you were in, you were in..