World War 2 Talk - View Single Post

George Wilkinson · 05-05-2008, 06:46 PM

cont
In a Wellington Bomber, or Wimpy, the 1st pilot is captain, 2nd pilot is co-pilot, and the navigator is the most intelligent (to me) on the aircraft. He has to get you to the target and try to hit it with the bomb load, usually 350 to 400 pounds of bombs. Wimpys have no bomb aimer as such and the navigator gets you home.....
The wireless operator helps the navigator. The front gunner is a gonner if the plane catches fire. In his little nest in the nose of the plane , he must ward off fighters attacking from the front. And if the medical staff can see daylight from one ear through to the other, he gets to be a rear gunner--- but seriously as most fighter attacks come from the rear, the mortality rate is much higher for the rear gunners.
Without the ground crew we couldn't have flown. They were very important and took great pride in their work. We could be shot up to hell one night and the plane would be ready to fly the next. We never had an engion failure due to them. When we were late arriving home from a raid, they were wating for us. I often wondered when they slept.
We had some real characters on the squadron. There was Popeye ( nickname) who was squadron leader--- I volunteered to fly with him as rear gunner on a sweep of the North sea, looking for downed flyers in a dingy. It was daylight and we flew towards the Dutch coast at about 100 feet above the ocean, but there was no sign of the dingy. We were so close to fighter bases I thought we would be attacked any minute. We headed back to the squadron and I had--- with the prvious raid put in about 17 hrs flying.
Our Groupie, group Capatian Powell, CO of our station at Feltwell was quite a guy; he would fly raids with us and would be the lowest plane on the target. He didn't have to fly but he gave us a message by his example.......
The days followed same as usual, night flying tests, raids, getting our planes ready for raids and booze ups at the local pubs and mess.
All told I did 14 raids as a rear gunner but went on a refresher coarse on my 13th. At this time my regular crew were shot down and the rear and front gunners were killed. The rest used a dingy in the North sea and were picked up by the Gerries.
When I got back to the squadron I applied for a pilots course and was accepted because of my pilots lesson, but I had two weeks to wait to be shipped back to Canada for training. During this time I flew as a spare gunner filling in for gunners who had been killed. On my 14 op I was shot down over Germany and was one of two not killed. I bailed out at 800 feet and the chute opened as I hit the ground....
to be cont.

05-05-2008, 06:46 PM	#63 (permalink)
George Wilkinson Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Burlington Ontario Posts: 63	cont In a Wellington Bomber, or Wimpy, the 1st pilot is captain, 2nd pilot is co-pilot, and the navigator is the most intelligent (to me) on the aircraft. He has to get you to the target and try to hit it with the bomb load, usually 350 to 400 pounds of bombs. Wimpys have no bomb aimer as such and the navigator gets you home..... The wireless operator helps the navigator. The front gunner is a gonner if the plane catches fire. In his little nest in the nose of the plane , he must ward off fighters attacking from the front. And if the medical staff can see daylight from one ear through to the other, he gets to be a rear gunner--- but seriously as most fighter attacks come from the rear, the mortality rate is much higher for the rear gunners. Without the ground crew we couldn't have flown. They were very important and took great pride in their work. We could be shot up to hell one night and the plane would be ready to fly the next. We never had an engion failure due to them. When we were late arriving home from a raid, they were wating for us. I often wondered when they slept. We had some real characters on the squadron. There was Popeye ( nickname) who was squadron leader--- I volunteered to fly with him as rear gunner on a sweep of the North sea, looking for downed flyers in a dingy. It was daylight and we flew towards the Dutch coast at about 100 feet above the ocean, but there was no sign of the dingy. We were so close to fighter bases I thought we would be attacked any minute. We headed back to the squadron and I had--- with the prvious raid put in about 17 hrs flying. Our Groupie, group Capatian Powell, CO of our station at Feltwell was quite a guy; he would fly raids with us and would be the lowest plane on the target. He didn't have to fly but he gave us a message by his example....... The days followed same as usual, night flying tests, raids, getting our planes ready for raids and booze ups at the local pubs and mess. All told I did 14 raids as a rear gunner but went on a refresher coarse on my 13th. At this time my regular crew were shot down and the rear and front gunners were killed. The rest used a dingy in the North sea and were picked up by the Gerries. When I got back to the squadron I applied for a pilots course and was accepted because of my pilots lesson, but I had two weeks to wait to be shipped back to Canada for training. During this time I flew as a spare gunner filling in for gunners who had been killed. On my 14 op I was shot down over Germany and was one of two not killed. I bailed out at 800 feet and the chute opened as I hit the ground.... to be cont.