RAF Air Gunners

stvfire2

i read somewhere just the other day, (cant remember where) that one gunner only survived because he swopped with the other for a change

That would probably have been in Kevin Wilson’s “Men of Air” – well that is where I read about it.

Getting back to the original question, Air Gunners could fill either position. Talking to a friend who was a Gunner on 460 Sqn, he changed positions on a regular basis. Whilst many crews flew almost unchanged and therefor tended to stay in the one position, others changed crews for a variety of reasons and filled whichever position was required. In my friend’s case his nominal crew pilot broke a leg, and his crew filled in on other crews for a couple of months.

Hello there again 467 sqn RAAF; 51 Base was RAF Winthorpe (1661 HCU), which is where the Newark Air Museum is now located.

The air gunner’s Log Book states that he was at the same base from 15th March 1944 through to 11th April 1944; in his crew the bomb aimer was Australian and the remainder were British.

The museum also has quite strong ties to IX(B) Squadron thanks to the Lancaster fuselage section mentioned in here! I’m a member of the IX(B) Squadron association and I recently attended a memorial commemoration for one of their Lancasters at Milton, Notts, which is detailed here http://www.military-airshows.co.uk/press06/memorialprmay2013.htm

TwinOtter23, no problem i’m just pleased it is of interest to people. The 467 ORB’s state that my grandfather joined the squadron on 23.05.44 from No 51 Base and left to join No 14 OTU on the 03.10.44. I would of thought he would of served 6 months as an instructor before joining an operational squadron again, which i believe was 9 Squadron.

467 sqn RAAF, it’s good of you to post that information, which follows what I have normally seen before. What was your father’s route in to 467 Squadron; OTU, HCU etc.?

Have you tried researching through the 467 Squadron Association?

I knew a 467 Squadron Wireless Operator Stan Bray and he also flew S for Sugar; he was mentioned here http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?113779 also here’s an extract from a FlyPast article that Stand and me prepared 10 years ago:

“Not only did the crew live to tell their tale, but also in autumn 1943 they flew five Ops on perhaps one of the squadron’s most famous Lancasters, R5868 ‘S for Sugar’, which is now on display in the Bomber Command Museum at the RAF Museum in Hendon. Stan does however note that R5868 was not famous at the time but was actually considered an old airframe because it had completed so many flying hours – but it never let them down!”

Top draw stuff there 467 sqn RAAF, neat to see your granddad flew on ‘Sugar’ 😎

thanks, yeah not bad flying your first op on a aircraft that had recently knocked up its century! been doing some bits of research managed to find out that his pilot was awarded the DFC at the end of the tour. cant find out anything else about his crew apart from his room mate Eric Klemm who was killed on ops with another crew.

F/O McLauchlan.D.F.

Sgt Hodgkinson.R.

F/O Phillips.H.C.

F/O Craigen.G.P.

Sgt Smith.A.H.

F/S Klemm.E.J.L.

Sgt Thorp. J.F.

Also found a picture of one of his other aircraft that he flew in, DV277 PO-W “Weary Willy”

Top draw stuff there 467 sqn RAAF, neat to see your granddad flew on ‘Sugar’ 😎

my grandfather flew a full tour exclusively as rear gunner with 467 Sqn RAAF, he completed his tour then went to 14 OTU as an instructor then served with 9 Sqn in India. I seem to remember that he mentioned something about 101 Sqn but cant get access to his service record and he doesn’t really talk to much about what he did. here are the pictures from his log book for those interested.

My Dad trained as a Wop/Ag, the air gunner course (from what he told me) was a standard course that all Ag’s went through, although he ended up as wireless & later radar op on Wellingtons for the duration of WWII.

Once again thanks for the feedback. 🙂

The reason I ask is that yesterday on behalf of NAM I accepted the donation of a Log Book that belonged to a RCAF airman who trained at 1661 HCU – RAF Winthorpe and who eventually went on to Ops with 619 Squadron. Sadly he was killed on the Wessling Raid on the night of 21/22 June 1944.

His main duty with the crew that he was lost with; was as rear gunner; but the Log Book records another duty with a different crew as a mid-upper gunner. This was something that I had not seen before, hence my curiosity.

My Dad trained as an Air Gunner although he still had to learn morse code as did the earlier W/AG’s. He initially started as a rear gunner but he and the then mid upper swapped to see what the other position was like. Both preferred the other turret so with the agreement of the skipper made the swap permanent. Dad did all his Ops as a Mid Upper. The skipper taught all the crew to fly the aircraft straight and level and basic turns on compass so that should he be wounded any of the crew could take over and hopefully get them back to base.
Type683

The gunners did move around a bit even though they had a specific task/position within a crew, as my dad used to tell me being an air gunner himself.
Of course there is also the dual role covered by the ‘title’ WOP/AG as in Wireless Operator/Air Gunner.
HTH.

Thank you for that initial feedback. 🙂

i read somewhere just the other day, (cant remember where) that one gunner only survived because he swopped with the other for a change. also remember my dad telling me of the gunners course he did, “just” did gunnery, not for one specific post.