A little real research   -   My Dad's story   -  Bob Routledge  -   Bill Young   -   July 1944, France   -  44 Squadron
My Mum's pictures  -  Guestbook

These things start so simply don't they! 

My eldest son's school set a Spring project every year and in March 2004 he came home and told me that he had to write 30 pages on a subject to do with the Second World War. Knowing I had my own Father's memorabilia from his time serving in Bomber Command in the RAF I suggested we could base it on that.  

In the process of doing the research for the project we have found out much more than we ever knew before about my fathers time in Bomber Command during WWII and his amazing, and yet sadly commonplace, story. 

The website now displays to those interested what we found with a little simple digging around and is a place to put more detail when I get a chance to look in more depth.

The project was excellent thanks to James' hard work on it, and he got an A+ and won the end of year project prize at his school, Gidea Park College.

James' Project cover

Note that all of the pictures on the main pages of this site are thumbnails. To view these full size, click on the picture in the text and the full picture will be displayed on a new page.

Illustration by James Wainwright, 11, from his School Project

Family Legend

I was brought up knowing that my Dad, John Edgar Wainwright, known by everyone that knew him as Jack, then a Constable in the Metropolitan Police, had survived having been shot down by a Messerschmitt 110 night fighter over France in 1944. He had been picked up by the Resistance, had lived for a short while as a Frenchman near the town of  Beauvais, north of Paris with the Pelletier family and had returned safely. Beyond hearing his hearty rendition of "Alouette" which he had learnt in France and came out on particularly drunken occasions and a doll that had been sent to me by the Pelletier family shortly after my birth (they had heard Michael, decided it was Michelle and I was a girl!) the events of 1944 were always kept a little in the dark.

I guess the actuality of the events were a little overwhelming and my Dad would very rarely actually say much about what went on during his time in the RAF. This has proven to be a common story with the Bomber Command veterans and their families that I have met during this journey. The were almost all reluctant heroes and their country has done them a huge disservice by its embarrassment over what they did in the darkest of times, which was just what they were asked to do by their commanders. This is a theme I return to below.

I was just 18 years old when my Dad was diagnosed with cancer, just starting out in life on my own, and when he died on October 13th 1978 it was a big shock to all of us left behind. He died as a result of smoking, a habit picked up in the RAF so I guess the war did get him in the end.

Then in 1993, shortly after my own first son James was born my Mum also passed away. My sister and I agreed that I got my Dad's medals and that she took the little gold caterpillar which was the badge of membership to the Caterpillar club. I also got a couple of photo albums and a small cigar box of mementos from the war years.

The badge of the Caterpillar Club, engraved on the reverse

Finding the photos, most of which were my Mums, my Dad's forged French ID card, his "missing" and "safe" telegrams and looking at the medals spurred me to write to the RAF asking for any records they had on my Dad's service. Back came a photocopy of his service record, confirming that he had joined the RAF on the 29th July 1941, aged 18 and 6 days and served until March 1947. The records listed a long series of postings including his time with 44 Squadron in 1944, and the word "Missing" against the 5th July, and "Recategorised safe in UK" on the 1st September 1944.

Back then I found this interesting, and even stopped off on my way back from a trip up north in the village of Dunholme in Lincolnshire to see the site of the airfield, but I was a father myself now with a young family and there was no real time to dig deeper so I left things as they were.

My Dad in RAF uniform 1944

I did mount a picture of my Dad in his RAF uniform, with his cap badge and medals in the house on display though, and although they are just campaign medals, this elicited a lot of interest from friends and as they grew a little older, my two boys.

When the school project came along I dug out all my Dad's stuff again and found renewed interest in his story. By 2004 though, I now had the power of the Internet at my disposal in the search for more information. What I found and how I found it, Dad's pictures and documents and my Mum's pictures from her time in the WAAF in World War II are the subject of this website.

I hope you find it interesting.

Site Map

A little real research - How I found out the detail that I have, the websites that proved useful in the search and the information gathered so far with links, and links to other similar RAF Bomber Command personnel tribute sites.

My Dad's story - As best I can, what I have put together on my Dad's time in the RAF including pictures and documents from the time. Linked from here are his RAF Records and the story of his stay with the French Resistance after he was shot down. It is growing all the time!

Bob Routledge - The story of Bob Routledge who was the regular rear gunner in my Dad's crew but missed the fatal flight in July 1944 as related by his wife Jennie. I have also published Bob's flying logbook for anyone interested.

Bill Young - The story of Bill Young, my Father's pilot, killed in July 1944 and his friendship with cricket legend Keith Miller.

44 Squadron - A brief history of the famous 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron with whom my father flew in 1944.

My Mum's pictures - My mother was a WAAF attached to No 460 Squadron RAAF based at RAF Binbrook. I have published some of her pictures here and would appreciate any information on the many unknown people in them if anyone can help.

Guestbook - Please sign my Guestbook. I would welcome all comments good or bad.

The crew of Lancaster ME699, KM-T, in 1944

I will be continuing my search in the coming months, in particular to head to the Public Records Office in Kew where wartime RAF records are held. In the meantime, if you know any of the people pictured, or can tell me more about the crew of Lancaster ME699, KM-T, for instance what became of the other survivor, the flight engineer, Sgt William (Bill) Robinson, please get in touch.

Thanks,

Mike Wainwright

Jack's grandson, James Wainwright, who's school project work started it all.
Stood by the plaque at the RAF Museum, Hendon, commemorating the work of the French Resistance in saving so many Bomber Command Aircrew. 

Be proud of Bomber Command

From a distance of 60 years it is easy to criticise the policy of area bombing by night that was undertaken by Bomber Command during much of the Second World War. Where modern war has been waged we have seen the video game like pictures of bombs being laser guided onto their targets to take out specific buildings in built up areas, and even then occasionally cause horrendous casualties by either missing their intended targets or as a result of bad intelligence.

At the start of WWII the RAF's bombers were only just a few steps on from the biplanes of the First World War, and often flew individually or in very small formations on missions to attack military targets with little more than dead reckoning to guide them there and back. In the early days the RAF Bombers took heavy losses in daylight raids against the German fighter forces and were forced to switch to night raids, meaning that navigation was even more haphazard.

The RAF were hailed as the saviours of the cause of freedom in the summer of 1940 when Fighter Command retained control of the skies above Southern England and prevented a German invasion in the Battle of Britain. Winston Churchill christened the courageous fighter pilots "The Few" in a famous speech to Parliament on the 20th of August 1940 but it is rarely mentioned that in the same paragraph of that speech that he used the famous words "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" he went on to say:

"All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power."

Churchill no doubt knew that his boasts about the effectiveness of Bomber Command were nothing near the truth at that time but they were virtually the last offensive weapon in his hands. As the war moved forward the advent of the "heavies" - Halifax, Stirling and Lancaster bombers - new navigational aids like Oboe and, H2S and new tactics like the Pathfinder force meant that larger bomb loads could be carried further into German territories to damage the infrastructure and manufacturing capability of the Nazi Empire and reduce its capacity to fight back as the tide turned, making Churchill's 1940 boasts into a reality.

The cost was enormous though with over 55,000 men lost in Bomber Command over the course of WWII. More aircrew were lost in the single raid on Nuremberg on the 30th of March 1944 (537) than in the whole of the Battle of Britain (498). That raid was my Father's first operational flight, the aircraft damaged by flak and attacked by a night-fighter before they got home safely.

The various analysis of the impact of the bombing campaign on Nazi Germany often reach very different conclusions on how effective it was, often again making the mistake of applying a modern moral stance or political correctness to a 1940's backs to the wall situation. I believe the best analysis was made by Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris himself in a speech to a Bomber Command Reunion Dinner in April 1977. In it he quoted Albert Speer's views that quite apart from the damage done, the bombing campaign had a huge effect on the German war effort in that it tied up vast amounts of men and equipment on anti-aircraft duties that might otherwise have been fighting on the ground against the allies.

Despite the real impact of Bomber Command on Nazi Germany's capacity to fight back as the war drew to a close and the heroism of the men that got back in their aircraft night after night with little statistical chance of surviving, at the end of the war these men and their commander, Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris, received no specific campaign medal. In fact they were disowned by many as a result of the devastation that they had caused in raids such as the infamous firestorm in Dresden in February 1945 became known. Even Churchill, who had pushed for the raid on Dresden in support of the Russian advance, distanced himself from the force he had championed during wartime once the conflict was over. At the end of the day, Winston Churchill was a politician first and foremost.

So from 60 years in the future, the idea of setting out to drop bombs on targets often in the midst of civilian populations out of dark skies based on flimsy navigational aids seems like a terrible thing to have done. At the time though it employed every technology available and required the utmost guts and determination to see through from the men tasked with flying the aircraft, so many of whom never returned.

The men of Bomber Command played their full part in the Allies victory against the tyranny that was Nazi Germany. Be proud of them, now and forever.

Please support the campaign for a permanent national memorial to the men of Bomber Command in any way that you can. Details can be found here.

 
(Badges are reproduced by permission of the Secretary of State for Defence)

Bomber Command Personnel Links

The following are similar sites to this one, where relatives of people who served, and often died, in RAF Bomber Command have published the information and pictures they have gathered for posterity. All of these sites are wonderful tributes to a group of brave and still under-appreciated heroes.

William Bruce Archibald (Archie) - A pilot who flew with 102 and 35 Squadrons and lost his life during a raid on the Turpitz in March 1942, by Linzee Druce.
Joe Colquhoun - A magnificent site by John Davidson detailing the RCAF career of his "Uncle Joe" who was a Bomb Aimer with 429 Squadron and who missed the fateful trip when his mates were shot down on a Gardening mission in February 1945 and survived the war. A detailed set of notes based on Joe's log book, well worth a look. 
Pilot Officer Thomas Forbes - A painstaking piece of research by his grandson Tom about P/O Thomas Forbes who flew with 12 Squadron and lost his life in the Battle of the Ruhr in 1943.
Ernest 'Sunny' Gledhill - A Wireless Operator who flew with 218 and 514 Squadrons and lost his life on the night of the 22nd/23rd Arpil 1944 in a raid on Dusseldorf, by Tracy Holroyd-Smith.
Harry Hansell - Flight Sergeant Harry Hansell was an Air Gunner who flew with 427 and 434 Squadrons and lost his life on a raid to Hanover on the night of 27th September 1943, by Liz Hansell.
Squadron Leader R.A.V. James - A Navigator/Air Bomber who flew with 106 and 97 Squadrons and survived when his aircraft was shot down over France on the 6th August 1944, by Christopher James.
E.F.C. Matthews - Pilot Officer E.F.C. Matthews who flew with 600, 35, 76 and 78 Squadrons and lost his life on a raid to Berlin in August 1943.
Bertram Pinner - Warrant Officer Bert Pinner served as a navigator with 103, 626 and 101 Squadrons and survived a full tour of operations including some of the most famous raids of 1943 and 1944, by Bill Churchley.
Bob Baxter's Memoirs page - Bob Baxter has collected together the recollections of Bomber Command air and ground crew as part of his Bomber Command site linked elsewhere.
Bombercrew.com - Matt Lacroix has built a site in tribute to Commonwealth aircrew, especially Canadians, who flew with Bomber Command. The site includes the personal stories of several crewmen.
Fighting High - Steve Darlow, author of "Sledgehammers for Tintacks" and several other aviation history books, has launched an excellent quarterly eZine called Fighting High which can be downloaded from this link. The eZine carried various veterans stories and other WWII aviation stories and is a fabulous read for those interested in the subject.

If you have a site that you would like me to link to from here please drop me an email with the details.

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