Thinks He's a Bird by Ian Campbell

Author:Ian Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Big Sky Publishing
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The photo from Keith’s Lancaster on the Darmstadt operation, night of 11/12 September 1944.

(Keith and Norah Watson family collection)

27

Bowels Open and Trust in God

With the next op over a week away, they all drove down to see Jimmy at the hospital in Sleaford. There they learned he was permanently grounded because of his burst eardrum. They suspected as much, but making the effort to see him at least showed they valued him as part of the crew. Jimmy seemed unconvinced his flying days were over but it was not his decision to make.

Incredibly, on 15 September, after Keith had done only three ops (two with his crew), they were ordered to the Path Finder Force Navigation Training Unit (PFFNTU) at RAF Warboys. They flew in the following day and started lectures, only to be returned to Metheringham because PFFNTU had taken in too many crews. ‘Boys thoroughly browned off.’1

Keith arrived back to find he was skippering O Oboe. On 19 September, they were briefed for Bremen but the weather intervened, making the marshalling yards at Rheydt, south of Mönchengladbach, the final selection. Once again Keith and his crew were put to the test. This account interweaves Keith’s diary entry for the day with extracts from a letter he wrote to his parents the following evening. One can only imagine what was going through their heads when they finished reading.2

Letter to parents:

There’s a marvellous spirit of cooperation and friendship among all the ranks on the squadron and we’re like one big happy family. We have a marvellous CO here and we all think the world of him. Every night there is ops on, he comes around to all the dispersals in his car and has a word to each individual crew before they go. In fact we never get in and start up before Groupie has been around. It never fails to send a quiver of pride down my back to hear from him just before we get in the familiar, “Well, best of luck tonight Watson, good trip and Godspeed.”

The squadron commander and section commanders also do the same, when they’re not flying with the boys, to see everything is bang on before they go. Then there’s always a crowd at the end of the runway to wave each kite off. It does give us all a great kick as we taxi onto the end of the runway, stop, and open up our four engines to 0 boost on the brakes for a couple of seconds, to catch a fleeting glimpse of all the dear familiar faces waving and wishing us luck before we lift our eyes to the end of the runway, release the brakes and roar down the flare path and into the fading light. It gives us a great feeling inside to start the trip.

I’ve a super ground crew here looking after my own aircraft, O Oboe. They’re as proud of that kite as could be and nothing but the very best work is good enough for it.

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