Every year, the number of aircrew who served in the RAF during the Second World War sadly declines, and 2012 saw the passing of one wartime pilot who I came across when researching my book about David Maltby.

John (Tommy) Thompson was going through pilot training at the same time as David, and they met at the School of Air Navigation at Cranage in Cheshire. Tommy had a car and at one point, when they managed to scrounge enough petrol coupons, they shared a trip down south so that they could get home to their respective parents for a weekend’s leave. When I interviewed him in 2007, Tommy remembered that they put their navigation skills to the test on this trip, using charts from their course to compensate for the lack of signposts on the roads. They went on together to an Operational Training Unit at Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire, but their paths deviated at the end of this course with David being posted to final training on Hampdens and Tommy to Blenheims.

Tommy went onto operations with 18 Squadron, flying on a series of low level shipping strikes and high level Circus Raids along the Dutch and Belgian coastline until August 1941. The Blenheim squadrons suffered exceptional losses during this period.

He was then posted to Overseas Aircraft Departure Unit at Watton to collect new aircraft to ferry out to the Middle East Blenheim Unit. On 27 August 1941, on his way out to the Middle East, he suffered a forced landing at Aviero in Portugal, a neutral country.  He had to land on the beach and then set fire to his plane, which was full of fuel in the outer wings and packed with incendiary devices in the fuselage. He escaped from Portugal with the assistance of the Royal Navy to Gibraltar and returned to the UK in October of that year.

He was then posted to the Test Flight at 13 Maintenance Unit at Henlow. During the rest of the war, he flew in various air gunnery schools, air sea rescue flights, maintenance units, glider delivery units and air transport auxiliary units.

After the war, he carried on flying, at one point as a civilian pilot for the Red Devils parachute team. In 1968 he joined Hawker Siddeley in Hatfield as Flight Operations Officer and visited many parts of the world including making several deliveries into China.

After he retired, Tommy spotted an advert in an aviation magazine from a young Portuguese journalist requesting information about planes and crews who had made forced landings in Portugal during the second World War. He was able to help the author by providing not only information on his own forced landing in August 1941, but also researching and answering many other questions. He was subsequently invited to Portugal to launch the book and awarded a pair of Portuguese Air Force wings in a special ceremony.

[Thanks to Tommy’s son, Roger Thompson, for the picture, and help with this article.]

And so I’m offering this simple phrase,
To kids from one to ninety-two,
Although it’s been said many times, many ways,
A Merry Christmas to you.

(Tormé and Wells, 1946)

Steve Cooke has taken the time to plot out on Google Earth the route taken by AJ-J on the Dams Raid, as computed by Dick Timmers. You can download the file here.

If you don’t have Google Earth installed on your computer, you will need to download it first. I did, and took the above screenshot showing the Möhnesee as it is today.

With nothing to report except “adverse weather conditions”, let me take this opportunity to wish all readers of this blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you again in January!

One of the spectators at the bouncing bomb drops on Williston Lake (see post below) was none other than Grant MacDonald, rear gunner in Ken Brown’s crew on the Dams Raid. Here he is, on the left, with two of the Buffalo Air staff.

Anyone in London during the next month will have a rare opportunity to see some of Guy Gibson’s personal effects – his log, a hat and some letters. They are on show in the (you might think unlikely) venue of the Lords Cricket Museum in St John’s Wood.
You may wonder why this particular museum has been chosen but an official MoD press release explains:

Few are aware that Lord’s Cricket Ground was once a constituent part of the wartime RAF. After the Battle of Britain the Nation turned its attention to taking the war to Germany, but it was realised that existing RAF selection establishments were unable to cope with the sudden demand for thousands more aircrew.
It was decided to create an [AircrewReceiving Centre] at Lords in London because of its central position in the rail transport network.
Civilian volunteers for air crew training were recruited and given a basic medical and attested at centres near their home. Later they would receive a letter telling them to report to Lord’s. On arrival, they were assembled into flights, each under the command of a Corporal, kitted out and accommodated in a number of requisitioned blocks of flats nearby. Collectively, the assets were known as RAF Regents Park. The ARC opened on 14 June 1941 with the first intake of cadets on 30 June 1941.
The recruits would be marched to the canteen of the nearby London Zoo for their meals. During a two to three week period, they received basic instruction on service life; underwent a rigorous medical and a series of tests designed to weed out unsuitable candidates and identify the most suitable aircrew role for those remaining. From Lord’s they were posted to appropriate Initial Training Wings around the country to continue further training in their selected roles.
With the decreasing need for aircrew in the latter stages of WW2, ARC Lords was closed on the 31st Aug 1944. During the period from 1941 more than 115,000 civilians and 44,000 in-service volunteers for air crew passed through its doors. Many thousands of these young men were later to lose their lives on operations.

Some of the aircrew who flew on the Dams Raid must therefore have spent their first days in the RAF at this ARC, eating meals at London Zoo.
Was it a coincidence that the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster overflew Lords last Sunday in a salute? The simple answer is, I don’t know, but I will do my best to find out!
(Hat tip David Layne at Lancaster Archive Forum.)

I’ve had a few computer problems, which is why there have only been sporadic postings for the last two weeks. The hardware has been fixed, but I’m now going away on holiday. Plenty of stuff to report when I get back, in the first week of August!