Lancaster bomber crew audio archive#
Lancaster bomber crew audio series#

While undergoing trials in the Heligoland Bight it was sighted by Delap, who carried out a diving attack and scored two hits on the boat's hull with impact-fused bombs. U31 was a type VII boat commissioned in 1936. Delap of 82 Squadron describes a successful attack on submarine U31 on 11 March 1940. Further contemporary first-person accounts by Bomber Command personnel can also be heard on CD41-022, For Valour: The Victoria Cross.

Lancaster bomber crew audio series#

While Volume 1 in this series (CD41-013) mainly offers actuality recordings made by intercom during raids by heavy bombers over Germany in 1943/45, the scope of Volume 2 has been extended to include accounts of early raids during 1940/42, operations conducted under the aegis of Coastal Command, and low-level precision strikes by Mosquito aircraft. Reviews: 'This second volume is really special' ( Best of British, 12/07)

Lancaster bomber crew audio archive#

The CD is an absolute must for all historians and researchers, as well as collectors of archive broadcast recordings.ĬD tracklist: Blenheim destroys U-boat (1940) Raid on Danzig (1940) Raid on Munich (1940) Wellington bombs Kiel (1941) Roving patrol by Hampdens (1942) Augsburg - Lancaster VC (1942) Nightingales & Bombers (1943) 617 Squadron - Dambusters (1943) Stirling loses turret & ditches (1943) Dortmund raid - Stirling base (1943) Mosquito raid - Amiens (1944) Normandy ground support (1944) Mosquito base + Osnabruck raid (1944) Work of Rear Gunner (1944) Air Gunner debrief (1944) Mosquito raid - Aarhus (1944) Damaged Beaufighter (1944) An Airman's Letter to his Mother (1940). All audio content has been carefully digitally restored. The booklet features detailed historical notes by James Hayward and images. The album also offers first-hand accounts of early raids (1940-42) in Hampdens, Blenheims and Wellingtons, as well as later four-engined heavies. Running for 73 minutes, the broadcast and actuality recordings featured include raids on Augsburg, Kiel, Dortmund, the Rhine Dams, Amiens gaol and Aarhus, as well as low level precison strikes and the first unaided destruction of a U-boat.

RAF Bomber Command at War (Volume 2) is available on CD and digital download. Largely unheard for more than 70 years, the recordings on Bomber Command at War stand as a tribute to the crews of Blenheims, Wellingtons, Hampdens, Stirlings, Halifaxes, Lancasters and Mosquitos operated by Bomber Command during the Second World War. ‘A remarkable insight into the bravery, determination and skill of British Bomber Command crews during WWII’ Waterstones.RAF BOMBER COMMAND AT WAR 1939-45 (Vol. ‘A fascinating and fast-paced account of the exploits of an Avro Lancaster bomber crew from 97 Squadron RAF’ The Herald. This book has a heart and soul’ The Times. ****************************** Reviews: ‘A sensitive account of the bomber’s life… Price has given the bomber offensive a human face. The drama and anxiety of individual missions – to Kassel, Munich and Augsburg as well as Berlin – is evoked with thrilling immediacy while the military events and strategic decisions that drove the RAF’s area bombing campaign against Nazi Germany are interwoven deftly with the narrative of the crew’s operational careers. From their earliest beginnings – in places as far apart as a Cotswold village and the suburbs of Sydney – through the adventure of training in North America and the dread and danger of the forty-five bombing raids they flew with 97 Squadron, David Price describes the crew’s wartime experiences with human sympathy allied to a secure technical understanding of one of the RAF’s most iconic aircraft. Gloucestershire-born bomb aimer Ken Cook, hard-bitten Australian pilot Jim Comans, Navigator Don Bowes, Upper Gunner George Widdis, Tail Gunner ‘Jock’ Bolland, Flight Engineer Ken Randle and Radio Operator Roy Woollford were seven ordinary young men living in extraordinary times, risking their lives in freedom’s cause in the dark skies above Hitler’s Reich. ****************************** The Crew, based on interviews with Ken Cook, the crew’s sole surviving member, recounts the wartime exploits of the members of an Avro Lancaster crew between 1942 and the war’s end. A moving tribute to the sacrifice and bravery of the fliers of RAF Bomber Command.