New Episode Alert!

WONZ 288 – Wings Over Britain: The BBMF is now online. In this episode I visit The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire. I was accompanied by Barbara Hunter of the New Zealand Bomber Command Association, and we were given a personal guided tour by BBMF Guide Julian Maslin.

Julian describes each of the aircraft in this amazing collection, which remain on the RAF’s Order of Battle, and he talks about the day to day running of the BBMF.

https://cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2023/11/wonz-288-wings-over-b…

The newest episode is also in Lincolnshire, this time I visited the International Bomber Command Centre at Lincoln. I met Dr. Dan Ellin, of the University of Lincoln, who is the archivist for the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. Dan is responsible for the digitisation of letters, diaries, and photographs that come into the centre from veterans or families, and he also records oral histories with veterans. Since 2015 the archive has recorded over 1,000 oral history interviews and over 100,000 digital files. 

As curator of the exhibition for the IBCC visitor centre, Dan was also responsible for the content of three galleries that tell the stories of the bomber crews, the stories of those on the ground and how Bomber Command has been remembered since WWII.

I also met Peter Jones, who also works in the archive, digitising content. Peter’s father served with RAF Bomber Command during WWII. 

https://cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2023/10/wonz-286-wings-over-b…

New Episode Alert!

WONZ 285 – Wings Over Britain: East Kirkby is now online. In this episode I visited the former RAF Station at East Kirkby in Lincolnshire, home of the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre. This museum is famous for its taxiing Avro Lancaster NX611 Just Jane, and the also taxiing de Havilland Mosquito HJ711, but it is in fact dedicated to all things RAF Bomber Command.

The Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre was created on the former WWII RAF Bomber Command station by brothers Fred and Harold Panton as a place to house their Lancaster bomber, which they’d purchased as a tribute to their brother Christopher, who lost his life while flying operations on Handley Page Halifax bombers with Bomber Command.

I spoke with the deputy chief engineer John Marshal-East while he was on site about the efforts of keeping the centre’s aircraft maintained and running, whilst also working on restoring the Lancaster to flying condition at the same time.

At the time of my visit the centre’s manager Andrew Panton was away, but we caught up later on Zoom to record the second half of this episode. The grandson of the late co-founder Fred Panton, Andrew talks about the museum’s history and his family’s connection, as well as current projects and future plans. Andrew is also one of the pilots rated to give taxi rides in both the Lancaster and the Mosquito to the paying public, both very popular attractions at the LAHC.
https://cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2023/09/wonz-285-wings-over-britain-east-kirkby/

Not a Wings Over Britain episode, but maybe one that people here will enjoy listening to. I interviewed 99-year-old David Barnston a few days back. He was in the RAF and he flew Hurricanes in training, and then Thunderbolts in action in Burma during the war, and Indonesia after the war in another small war that is long forgotten by most. Then he flew Spitfires and Vengeances, before he left the RAF and moved to New Zealand, where he spent five years flying Mustangs with the RNZAF Territorial Air Force.

https://cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2023/09/wonz-282-david-barnst…

More Wings Over Britain coming soon.

Thanks Denis. I am looking forward to eventually getting to release the episode I recorded with you and Jim, that was a great day and I enjoyed hearing the history of RAF Hundson and the various squadrons that were based there.

Thanks for confirming that, Paul.

Thanks Prop Strike. I tracked down Jo and these lovely photos, and she allowed me to use them in the current edition of the magazine. I am hoping to find some taken at a UK airshow for the next article.