Martin W Bowman - Legion of the Lancasters

Legion of the Lancasters

Legion of the Lancasters

Martin W. Bowman

First published in Great Britain in 2022 by

Pen & Sword Aviation

An imprint of

Pen & Sword Books Ltd

Yorkshire Philadelphia

Copyright Martin W. Bowman 2022

ISBN 978 1 52674 607 8

Epub ISBN 978 1 52674 608 5

Mobi ISBN 978 1 52674 608 5

The right of Martin W. Bowman to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

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Some people seek riches; others are in pursuit of power.

I chase history.

Anon

Iam indebted to Len Traynor for his wonderful prologue and to Geoff Reynolds, Secretary of the Mildenhall Register and author of Orphan Airman for kind permission to adapt and use his unpublished story and to Dick Breedijk, author of Ted Robbins Bommenwerper Piloot (for which he literally earned a medal from the Dutch Government in honour of his researches!) I would also like to thank Mike Wooldridge for his generous help in the preparation of the story about Kaisers Crew and as well, Squadron Leader Clive Rowley

MBE RAF

(Retd) and also the late Squadron Leader Francis Frank Ridley Leatherdale

DFC

and his family for kind permission to quote passages from his unpublished memoir. Equally, Squadron Leader Ed Bulpet

RAF

(Retd) for his help and direction concerning Rustle of Spring; Elizabeth Morris for kind permission permitting me to quote her fathers stories from Pathfinders by Wing Commander Bill Anderson

OBE DFC AFC

; John Hoyte; and the late Ronald Homes

DFC AGAVA

. I am most grateful to Jerry and Rosemary Nice for kindly providing me with several accounts and photos relating to the events concerning the late Squadron Leader Backwell-Smith (Rosemarys father) and Norman Sirman.

Several invaluable reference works have been very welcome and they include RAFCommands.com; Henk Weltings Database, W. R. Chorleys RAF Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War Vol.9 Roll of Honour 19391947; The Bomber Command War Diaries: An operational Reference Book, 19391945 by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt; the International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) records; Nacht 1516 Marz 1944 by Fred Trendle Buch and Luftwaffe Night Fighter Combat Claims 19391945 by John Foreman, Johannes Mathews and Simon Parry (Red Kite, 2004)

Last but certainly not least I am grateful to the late Flight Lieutenant Steve Stevens

DFC AE*

(The Air Efficiency Award given for ten years meritorious service to airmen) and his dear wife, Maureen and equally, to Steves niece, Rita Gulliver and her husband Peter for kindly allowing me to include the transcript they made of Steves 1943 wire recording which was used in their delightful booklet called Steve: A True Story of WWII which is the result of interviews with Steve and Maureen in 2011. The wire recording had been painstakingly transferred first to reel-to-reel tape, then to cassette and finally to a CD. I shall never forget my visits to meet this delightful couple in their home in my native Norwich. Maureen, who was then 94 years of age, introduced herself and her husband who at 92 she described as her toy boy!

We will never see their like again.

Martin W. Bowman, 2021

Ever since I can remember I have been a voracious reader as a child I read all the classics such as The Three Musketeers, Treasure Island, Oliver Twist, and the rest. Over the years I have read over sixty books on Lancasters and Bomber Command and have read as many books on films and film stars, but my special interest has been modern military history. At the age of eight I learned an Irish forbear of mine served in the Union Army during the American Civil War which fired my passion for that conflict. I have a library of two and a half thousand books on the war. So after all those years I like to think I know a good author or two. Some are dull and boring.

Others like Martin Bowman fire the imagination and transport the reader to the events as they are written. The way he writes is like being in the aircraft and smelling the flak. After finishing his books I feel I am entitled to receive the DFC. I hold him and the late Charles Bruce Catton in the same league of gripping and exciting writers. Catton was a narrative American historian and journalist, known best for his books concerning the American Civil War, featuring interesting characters and historical vignettes, in addition to the basic facts, dates, and analyses.

My interest in Bomber Command was motivated by my Uncle Jack Pilot Officer Arthur George Jackson Chadwick-Bates

DFC

my mothers younger brother who served as a rear gunner on 460 Squadron

RAAF

. My memories of my uncle are still fresh, like it was yesterday even though I last saw him in 1942 when he visited us, on his last leave before going overseas to become an aircrew member in Bomber Command operating against occupied Europe.

Uncle Jack was born of English parents in Wellington, New Zealand, on 16 August 1910. His parents owned a copra plantation in New Hebrides, a French colony in the South Pacific and Chubby, as he was fondly known to the family, grew up in the idyllic surroundings of an island paradise and of course became fluent in French.

In his late teens the family resettled in Australia, spending some time in Victoria, before moving into a house in the Sydney suburb of Lane Cove. Being a natural sportsman, he excelled in rugby, cricket and golf, his favourite sport, which he played on a regular basis with his father at the local golf course.

Even though it was in the midst of the Depression, he managed to qualify as an accountant and secured employment with A. E. Goodwin, an engineering company at Lidcombe, a Sydney suburb. He remained with them until his enlistment into the Royal Australian Air Force on 19 July 1941, to be trained as a wireless operator/air gunner.