Lancaster Bomber

Just gone over Tankersley, what a sight!

 

Wife's uncle who was born and bred in Wombwell was a rear gunner on Lancasters and
flew countless missions during World War 2. Miraculously, himself and his original crew mates
all survived and were demobbed at the conclusion of the conflict.

Lived through some truly harrowing times and returned to work at the Bassett sweet factory in Sheffield.
Finally retired and went on to enjoy a good life with his wife, son and daughter in law on the
Isle of Anglesey.

 

Hope he got the recognition he and his pals deserved!

 

Couldn't agree more!

 

He did indeed. On Rememberance day, he sported a chest full of medals. I have never ever met such a modest man. He was truly inspirational and always had time to engage with the younger members of the family. He was a very humble guy with modest tastes. As a Barnsley lad, whenever we met, he always quizzed me as to how the Reds were doing.

My wife's Mum suffered a stroke during an operation and he once insisted on supporting my wife's Dad ( his brother)
to visit her at the Northern General Hospital.

I had a day off from work to drive them both to the hospital and during the trip, Uncle Reg told me that the one
regret in his life, was that he had never owned a fountain pen.! It just so happened that as an office worker, over
the years, I had amassed quite a collection, some of which were worth quite a bit of money.

When I got home, I boxed up a quite expensive Parker pen. It was pure Mother of pearl with a solid gold nib
and had been presented to me as a gift when I left Doncaster Council to work for YPO in Wakefield.
I bought a bottle of Quink fountain pen ink and mailed them on to him.

I kid you not, when some days later, I received a thank you note, you would have thought I had sent him a cheque
for a million quid he was that grateful. Right up to his death in 2014, he would send us birthday and Christmas cards
signed using that very pen. A lovely bloke and a true hero.

 

One flew over tarn the other week. Managed to get a crap video of it. Great sight. When i lived in Boston you would have current stuff flying over every day, spifire and lancaster quite ofter too, always impressive.

 

Thought you was gonna say he was born in a Lancaster!!
All joking aside, been on a taxi run in one of these and how they sat in there for hours in the air I don’t know.
Sometimes we don’t know how lucky we are

 

Went on holiday to Tattershall other year, our caravan was right at back and on first day Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane came over to land at back of us.
We could literally see and wave to pilots, which kids loved.

Everyday for the 4 days they took off and landed repeating the spectacle

 

My granddad (from South Wales) was also a rear gunner in a Lancashire as part of 103 squadron at Elsham Wold in 1944/5. Family legend is he dreamed one night of getting married in a church he'd never seen before to a woman he didn't know. Shortly afterwards he met her, and the church was the one in Scunthorpe where they married. He went on to be involved with the trade union movement, then the RAF Elsham Wolds veterans association for nearly 20 years from the 70s until his death in the early 90s.

Apparently he nearly fell out once over the Channel...

Another family legend is that he flew in PM-M2, which was the box photo for the Corgi Lancaster kit in the 80s and which undertook the most missions of any Lancaster. I can't confirm that without re-reading his book.

 

My grandad flew with the Aussies (he was a proud Scot) in 460 squadron out of Binbrook as a Lancaster bomb aimer. Crashed on return from Germany near Caistor, he survived the crash & injuries but his war was finished. He was therefore very lucky in more than one way! We also stayed at Tattershall last year for the first time, which is a very cool place to be when the Lanc’ takes off. Understandably I am very proud of him RIP. I recently found out that one of the lads (rear gunner) in his crashed plane only died this year and was very much part of the new memorial to Bomber command in London a few years ago.

 

When my youngest son had a temporary disablement ( Perthes disease), to while away the hours he spent lying in bed, I bought him glue, paints and a few aeroplane kits. It is a hobby he has continued to this very day. At some point he joined an elite modelling group , who I know down the years have collectively won several local, national and international trophies for their creations.

After some years, my son stopped kit modelling in preference to " scratch" modelling. In essence he would look at the plans for say a World War 2 German tank and using sheets of plastic and any scrap materials he could lay his hands on, he would cut out, construct and paint the finished article. Some of the models he made were stunning and went on display in specialist modelling retail outlets.

As a result of modelling a particular aircraft from scratch, he was contacted by a very high ranking former RAF officer. Basically, in around six months ahead, he was hosting a commemorative dinner with his crew and members of his squadron to mark a particular anniversary and as a table centre piece brought some photographs for my son of the plane he had flown in the hope that my lad could construct a scaled model.

My son accepted the commission and was involved for some months in creating a model of the particular aircraft. When he showed it to me, it was honestly breathtaking. On the appointed day, the Officer turned up at ours to collect the plane and was so moved, that he broke down in tears to the point that we had to sit him down with a cuppa until he could gather himself to take it away. You could visibly see what it meant to him.

Such was his delight with the finished article, that I recall he voluntarily paid a couple of hundred quid over and above my lads agreed asking price which was a very nice touch for the time and effort he'd put in.

 

Never used to discuss his missions, but my wife's Dad who is ex-RAF himself, once recounted that
when Reg first returned to the family home in Wombwell after the war, they shared a bedroom and
one night his brother had a really bad nightmare.

He told him that if a Lancaster returned after an engagement with the Luftwaffe, more often than not,
the rear gunner was a sitting duck and quite often after the planes had landed, him and his mates were
helped by ground crew to clean the aircraft out.

He had on one occasion had to hose pipe the blood of one of his deceased mates from Wombwell out of the rear
gun turret and it always prayed on his mind that he could be next and for years after the cessation of
the war, he suffered flash backs.

We owe those lads such a lot, in as much as through their bravery and that of our troops on the ground, we have
been privelidged to enjoy an unbroken period of seventy five years of peace.

 

My great uncle was a radio operator in a Lancaster bomber which was shot down over Denmark. Very sad. It’s nice to read stories of those who survived and went on to lead full lives. My grandfather (his brother) was in some proper scrapes in the war but made at through and lived to the age of 90. Wonderful man.

 

I was at the Goodwood Revival a few years ago when there was a fly past of a Lancaster (from Canada), plus flying and on the ground were Spitfires, Hurricanes and a ME109. That plus all the cars and music, what a fantastic weekend.

 

I live in Duxford and we’re lucky to be seeing old legendary planes flying over as an everyday experience but you never get used to watching Spitfires Hurricanes and Mustangs and others flying over.
There have been two outstanding sights while I’ve been living here. One was the final flight of the Vulcan when it was on its farewell flight and the other was when the Canadian Lancaster came over and flew with the Lincolnshire one. To see the last two flying Lancasters both together and to hear the sound of the engines took your breath away.

 

Some very brave lads from WW2 are still alive in the country, but sadly their numbers are now decreasing.
One touching moment I personally witnessed was on a coach visit I made with my wife when we were in Italy.
We signed up for a day trip to Monte Cassino. On approach to the British cemetery , before the bus
started its climb up to the monastery, it stopped.

Two veterans who were wearing their regimental blazers, medals and berets, alighted with their carers
and after abandoning their wheelchairs , walked with some difficulty into the cemetery to pay their respects
to their comrades who had fallen during the engagement.

It was quite humbling over dinner back at the hotel that night, to hear them recount the harrowing
details as to how fighting alongside comrades from Poland, Scotland, England and other members of
the allied forces, they had withstood the withering fire of the enemy, to eventually force the Germans
to retreat.

I was absolutely in awe of such brave men, who even though their lives were probably coming
to an end, had overcome their disabilities to take the time to undertake a visit to show their eternal
appreciation of colleagues who they had fought alongside all those years ago, all of whom had made
the ultimate sacrifice. They were two truly inspiring blokes.

 

They'd be from Holbeach I would imagine. I spent a lot of my school holidays in a village called Langtoft, between Market Deeping and Bourne and we could hear the practice bombs being dropped at Holbeach if the wind was in the right direction.

 

Yeah thats the one. I lived in a village called Fishtoft on the marshes. Im 31 so at the time of my youth it was Tornados doing bombing runs. Really low. The sounds of them was amazing, much better than the Typhoons now.

Also my dad lived in Holbeach, the bombing range wasnt there but on the marshes near another village, i forget the name (Holbeach St. Matthews?)

A lot of the towns and villages in Lincolnshire have deep connections to WW2 RAF, so they get a lot of flyovers on ceremonious days.

 

Were they looking for groups of 7 or more breaking curfew?

 

RAF Coningsby is the home of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight