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zip29
17th Jul 2020, 05:13
During the football drought I needed something to replace the podcasts that I listened to everyday, and came across these personal histories. They does not seem to be a list that I can find, you pretty much seem to have to think of a name and see if there is a recording.
In my experience they are all fascinating stories but are often (almost) ruined by the interviewer. The best seem to be where the subject is just allowed to ramble on ( e.g. Jeremy Larken, captain of Fearless during Falklands). There are others who have a very interesting tale to tell but are held back by inane questions ( .....".tell me what you felt about the Jet Provost?").
My favourite has been AM Sir Peter Harding. He is a natural raconteur ( and sounds identical to General Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth). The 30 hours of tape ( that's right 30 hours) whizzes by.There are many others worthy of discussion.
Anyway,just interested to find others who have found gems to be unearthed.

Georg1na
17th Jul 2020, 08:27
Just pop in a name here....................https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/sound

Chugalug2
17th Jul 2020, 12:00
Thanks OP and Georg1na. Couldn't find Sir Peter but did listen to Johnny Rowlands, Skipper on 48 Sqn Hastings when I was a Co-Pilot. Seems he did the full PC stint. This recording was in 1994 at Lyneham when he would have been 55. Great guy!

radar101
17th Jul 2020, 14:13
Can search for other keywords - I tried "56 Squadron" and got Taffy Higginson, Geoffrey Page etc from 1940.