My crew. I am second from left in the back row.
Alf, the Australian pilot, is in the middle of the back row.
Flight School.
Training on the Lancaster engines.
Graduation from Flight School. Proudly displaying the Flight Engineer’s Brevet on my left breast and my Sergeant’s Stripes.
A page from Alf’s log book.
The official record of the mission in which we were attacked by a fighter.
The raid on Berlin, 9 1/2 hours.
We sank the Admiral Scheer!
We called this, “The Last Cigarette.” Standing around, waiting for take-off.
Alf kept this copy of the Daily Mail for 60 years. Alf’s handwriting at the top reads,
“We were on the last raid on Berlin by Lancasters on the night of 14 April, 1945 — 9 – 10 hours. The night before we went to Kiel. 5:35 hours. Came home on 3 motors. The Berlin raid was on Potsdam a virgin area — Political deal made with Roosevelt at the time of the Yalta agreement. Later Stalin signed his peace treaty there.”
Margaret and I are married.
Alf and I meet up again in Australia in 2001, 55 years later.
The Lancaster today.
