A Pathfinder's War by Ted Stocker

Author:Ted Stocker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781909166714
Publisher: Grub Street Publishing
Published: 2009-08-18T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

TOURING

The war in Europe may have ended, but the war in the Far East still had nearly four months left to run, and the RAF began preparing ‘Tiger Force’ to support the final push and the ultimate invasion of Japan. Any hopes of me joining such a force, however, were dashed in the middle of July when I was asked to join a ‘special duties’ flight. Of course we didn’t know what we were letting ourselves in for beyond that it wouldn’t be what we had been used to. Over the next few days we had various vaccinations and drew a quantity of special kit, including some tropical gear, and were given a couple of days to pick up civvies.

Squadron Leader Bob Cairns was to be our pilot, and at the CO’s conference on July 18 we were told that we had been chosen to escort Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris on a good-will tour of Brazil. With that, we collected a new Lancaster, one of the new Lancaster VIIs – coded NX689 – with Merlin 24 engines, and flew an air test very early in the morning of July 19 to get used to the aircraft and the rest of the crew. Later that same day, Cairns flew an Oxford (an Airspeed Oxford twin-engined training aircraft used as the station ‘hack’) down to Staverton, with me onboard, for a more detailed briefing of what was required.

The flight, it transpired, would comprise three aircraft, all crewed by highly experienced officers not just from Pathfinders, but representative of the whole of Bomber Command:

NX687 ‘A’ Abel Wing Commander C.C. Calder DSO DFC and crew

NX688 ‘B’ Baker Wing Commander A.J.L. Craig DSO DFC and crew

NX689 ‘C’ Charlie Squadron Leader R.M.B. Cairns DFC and crew

‘Jock’ Calder had latterly been a 5 Group man having volunteered to fly with 617 Squadron in late 1944. He was a true Bomber Command veteran, however, having started his tour of operations on Whitleys with 78 Squadron before becoming a flight commander with 76 Squadron flying the Halifax. Awarded the DFC by the end of 1941, he was appointed officer commanding 158 Squadron and later chief flying instructor at Marston Moor Heavy Conversion Unit before joining the legendary ‘Dambusters’. With 617 I believe he was credited with dropping the very first of their 12,000lb Tallboys.

Allan Craig was also a veteran who was the last wartime commanding officer of 156 Squadron. A Volunteer Reserve sergeant pilot, he had been commissioned in July 1941 and won his first DFC whilst with 7 Squadron in July 1944, the citation crediting him with ‘a large number of sorties… demanding a high degree of skill and resolution’. He added the Distinguished Service Order a few months later in the rank of acting squadron leader, and completed more than a dozen trips as master bomber.

Bob Cairns was a Scot, who was also inevitably christened ‘Jock’ by his crew. He too had an impressive wartime career. An officer of the Volunteer Reserve, he was trained at 83 OTU and 1667 HCU before joining main force as a pilot with 625 Squadron.

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