by Peter Rees
Rollo Kingsford-Smith’s recollections about the Nuremberg raid are sourced from his memoir I Wouldn’t Have Misssed it for Quids.
Background to the results of the Battle of Berlin was informed by Dan Oakman’s article ‘The Battle of Berlin’, at http://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/25/article.asp
The quote from Ursula von Kardorff’s diary is sourced from Charman’s The German Home Front, pp. 144–146, 147; and from AJR, Vol XVIII, No. 8, August 1963.
Report on the effects of air attacks on German morale was prepared by the Air Ministry Directorate of Intelligence, 2 April 1944; National Archives, London, catalogue reference: AIR40/1494.
21 TROUBLE ON THE BASE
Rollo Kingsford-Smith’s recollections and observations on the issue of reinforcements are drawn from his 1999 memoir I Wouldn’t Have Missed it for Quids. While his diary has been lost, there is no reason to believe that he did not accurately reproduce the relevant extracts from it, particularly as they mesh with details in Air Vice-Marshal Wrigley’s diary.
Wrigley’s comments are sourced from his diary, a copy of which is held by Air Vice-Marshal Peter Scully.
Ted Pickerd’s observations on Bonham-Carter’s hearing aid were made to the author during a personal interview.
Perc Rodda’s recollections are sourced from an oral history interview conducted by Laurie Field.
22 NO EASY ANSWER
Ted Pickerd’s story about his fruitcake comes from personal interviews with the author.
Douglas Hawker’s story about his kitbag comes from a personal interview with the author in Christchurch, New Zealand, September 2008.
Peter Dale’s comments on fear are sourced from his papers at the Australian War Memorial, PR01130.
Rollo Kingsford-Smith’s recollections of the LMF incident were sourced from his memoir and a personal interview conducted by the author. Other material relating to the death of Charlie was sourced from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC’s views on LMF are drawn from Patrick Bishop’s Bomber Boys, Harper, London, 2007 p. 250. Bishop cites a report on numbers on p. 255.
Jack Lukies’ comments are sourced from his memoir held by the Foran family.
John Egan’s account is sourced from the Laurie Field archive.
Harry Wright’s recollections are sourced from an interview in the AWM sound archive.
The Leigh Johns’ LMF account was part of an interview with Peter Scully. Other material on LMF come from a memoir by Ron Friend at http://www.friendfamily.com/rff/ronmemos.htm
23 THE QUICK AND THE DEAD
Bill Purdy’s recollections of the Brunswick raid were related to the author during a personal interview. For background to the invasion planning, see Gordon Harrison’s book Cross-Channel Attack, Centre of Military History, United States Army, Washington, D.C. 2002, p. 223.
For background to the planning for D-Day, see Sir Arthur Harris’s Bomber Offensive, Greenhill Books, London, 1990, p. 192.
Rollo Kingsford-Smith discussed D-Day in a personal interview with Peter Scully on 23 July 1997.
Rollo Kingsford-Smith’s recollections are sourced from his memoir, I Wouldn’t Have Missed it for Quids.
The Argus report on Sam Balmer being listed as missing was published in Melbourne on Friday, 30 June 1944.
The Operations Record Book of 467 Squadron is sourced from Conway, Trenches in the Sky, p. 78.
24 GOOD LUCK, BOYS
Air Vice-Marshal Wrigley’s recollections of ministerial visits are drawn from an interview with the AWM on 13 March 1986. His account of John Curtin’s visit was sourced from his diary.
Rollo Kingsford-Smith’s comments about John Curtin are sourced from his memoir, I Wouldn’t Have Missed it for Quids.
Dan Conway’s recollections of Curtin’s visit come from his Trenches in the Sky, pp. 154–155.
AVM Wrigley’s recollections of the incident in which Rollo Kingsford-Smith earned the DFC are sourced from his diary.
Dan Conway’s Trenches in the Sky is the source of the Operations Record book entry for 467 Squadron regarding Curtin’s visit, pp. 154–155.
Perc Rodda’s recollections of Curtin’s visit to Binbrook are sourced from his interview with Laurie Field, 12 October 1988.
AVM Wrigley’s views on the impact of Curtin’s visit come from his AWM interview, 13 March 1986.
The National Archives of Australia was the source of letters regarding the return of ground staff and other matters. See Representations by RAAF personnel to Prime Minister during his visit to the UK (May 1944), 1944–45; A816, 58/301/126 for letters on 26 May 1944, 11 July 1944, 19 December 1944. Further background material came from Herrington’s Air War Against Germany and Italy, p. 291.
25 FACE TO FACE WITH THE ENEMY
Noel Eliot’s account of his crash is sourced from his family memoir.
Material on the escape kits is drawn from Alick Roberts’s memoir, A Roberts Family History.
Enid Eliot (née Stumbles) provided the author with copies of her husband Noel’s letters.
26 D-DAY
The Keith Woodward material is sourced from his AWM file, MSS 1495.
Perc Rodda’s recollection of the cricket match is sourced from his AWM interview with Laurie Field.
The Bomber Command order is sourced from Kingsford-Smith family records.
Rollo Kingsford-Smith’s account of destroying the fort at Pointe-du-Hoc is contained in a draft article he wrote in March 2004 that is now part of his family’s records.
Background to the RAAF’s role in the Normandy invasion is sourced from John Herington’s Official History, chapter 5, The Assault, p. 122.
Eric Silbert’s account of the Caen raid is sourced from his book, Dinkum Mispochah, p. 163.
Les Munro’s recollections are drawn from Kevin Wilson, Men of Air, Phoenix, London, 2008, p. 292.
27 DEATH ONLY A MATTER OF TIME
Bill Purdy’s recollections come from a personal interview conducted by the author.
Rollo Kingsford-Smith’s account is drawn from his memoir, I Wouldn’t Have Missed it for Quids, and from his log book for 6/7 June 1944, held by his family.
John Curtin’s quote is sourced from his diary for 7 June 1944.
The Noel Sanders story is sourced from H.M. Blundell’s They Flew From Waddington!, 463–467 Squadrons Association NSW, Sydney, 1975.
The Eric Rosenfeld story was related by his son, Peter.
Background for the story about Eric Silbert changing his religion on his dog tag from Jewish to Church of England is sourced from his Dinkum Mispochah, p. 153.
Material relating to Bill McGowen comes from the 463 Squadron website.
Figures for French civilians killed by bombing around the D-Day invasion were sourced from Wikipedia. Altogether, Anglo-American bombing between June 1940 and May 1945 killed 68,778 French people. See: Bombing of France during World War II.
28 THE BATTLE FOR RECOGNITION
The Alan Evans pistol story and Arthur Kell’s recollections are sourced from Burgess’s Australia’s Dambusters.
Background for the Saumur attack is drawn from http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/bombercommandsaumurtunnel9thjune1944.cfm
The Bunny Lee material, including the Alex McKie quote, is sourced from Burgess’s Australia’s Dambusters.
Sir Arthur Harris’s satisfaction with the performance of Bomber Command during this period is recorded in his book Bomber Offensive, p. 208, from which (p. 213) the Montgomery quote also comes.
Ross Stanford’s experience on the Mimoyecques raid, when his Lancaster was shot up, is sourced from Burgess’s Australia’s Dambusters.
For background to the raid on Vitry-le-François, see Vitry-le-François, (Municipality, Marne, France) on Google.
29 THE SWEETEST WORDS OF ALL
Bill Purdy’s account of the raid on the tunnels at St-Leu d’Esserent was given to the author in a personal interview.
The message from Air Vice-Marshal Ra
lph Cochrane is sourced from Bill Purdy’s personal files.
Keith Campbell’s story comes from a personal interview conducted by the author.
The Bert Heap story is sourced from his letters for 10 July and 20 July 1944, contained in his file, AWM PR01654.
The Jim Rowland material is sourced from his unpublished memoir.
30 NO BACKWARD GLANCES
Material for this chapter is sourced from Noel Eliot’s family memoirs.
31 SHOT DOWN
Material for this chapter is sourced from Bill McGowen’s memoirs, at the 463 Squadron website. Joyce Edgerley’s account is sourced from Overseas War Brides, pp. 127, 136.
32 THE STRAIN OF COMMAND
Rollo Kingsford-Smith’s views are sourced from his memoir, I Wouldn’t Have Missed it for Quids.
Bill Purdy’s comment is drawn from a personal interview with the author.
Alick Roberts’s assessment is sourced from his personal memoir, A Roberts Family History.
33 LETTERS FROM THE FRONT
The Margaret Kay letter is sourced from Bert Heap’s AWM file PR01654; other material was sourced from Commonwealth War Graves Records.
The Eric Rosenfeld material came from his son, Peter.
The Nobby Blundell story is in the papers at Peter Dale at the Australian War Memorial, PR01130. It is an expanded account from his own book, They Flew From Waddington!
The Allan Stutter material came from a personal interview.
Alick Roberts’s account is sourced from his private memoir, A Roberts Family History.
The Tom Lynch material is sourced from an AWM interview for the Murdoch Sound Archives.
34 THE CLAIRVOYANT
Jim Rowland’s thoughts on the Pathfinder eagle are drawn from his family memoirs.
Dan Conway’s views on the USAAF are sourced from his book, op. cit., p. 164.
Eric Silbert’s views on the same subject are sourced from his book, Dinkum Mispochah, p. 168.
The Bill Olley story is sourced from the Laurie Field archive at the AWM, MSS 1489.
Jim Rowland’s experiences in London are sourced from his family memoir and from letters, including one written on 25 November 1944, held in family archives.
Material relating to Phil Martin is sourced from Burgess’s Australia’s Dambusters, and an obituary in the West Australian, ‘Perth pilot was Dambuster hero’, 4 February 2010. Burgess’s book also provided quotes from George Lovatt, Don Day, Jack Blagbrough, and Jack Sayers.
35 DOUBLE SCOTCH, THANKS
Alick Roberts’s recollections are drawn from his family memoir.
Eddie Ward’s recollections come from a personal interview conducted by the author.
36 THE BEAST
Bruce Buckham’s account of the sinking of the Tirpitz is sourced from material filed in the Laurie Field AWM archive, MSS1489.
Background regarding the Tirpitz is sourced from Burgess’s Australia’s Dambusters as are the quotes from Bob Barry, Keith Astbury and Bill Carey.
John Holden’s quote is sourced from an interview in the Keith Murdoch Sound Archive at the AWM.
The John Troeger story is sourced from the article ‘Sink the Tirpitz!’ by Mark Baker, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 October, 2004.
37 THE SPECIAL DUTIES BOYS
This chapter is based on an interview conducted by the author with Angus Cameron, and other material he supplied on the subject.
38 SMOKE PUFFS AND FLAK BARRAGES
Material for this chapter is sourced from Alick Roberts’s family history.
Jim Rowland’s recollections are sourced from his family memoirs.
39 FOREBODINGS
The Colin Flockhart letter is quoted from his file at the AWM, PR84/091. Background material and the account of the day the telegram arrived announcing Colin’s death, comes from his sister, Mrs Alison Aitken, who also holds the letters from Flying Officer Dennis Godfrey and the mother of rear gunner Tony Murdoch.
The letter from the commanding officer of 619 Squadron RAF is part of Colin Flockhart’s file at the National Archives of Australia, Series number A705; Control symbol 166/13/381.
Flight Lieutenant Charlie Ellis’s recollections are sourced from his AWM file, PR84/361.
40 THE PRISONER IN THE CELL NEXT DOOR
Material for this chapter is sourced from Jim Rowland’s memoirs; his letter to Barb Woodward and the description of the collision with the second bomber are sourced from his file at the National Archives of Australia, Series number: A705, Control symbol 166/36/436. The file also contains the letter from his CO to the Rowland family.
Background regarding the British Freikorps is sourced from the article ‘British Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII’, by Jason Pipes, at http://www.feldgrau.com/gb.html
41 SHROVE TUESDAY
Blue Connelly’s recollections about Dresden are drawn from a personal interview conducted by the author.
The statement that by December 1944 Bomber Command had devastated eighty per cent of all German cities with a prewar population of more than 100,000 comes from Sir Arthur Harris’s Bomber Offensive, p. 242.
The Sir Charles Portal quote is sourced from Norman Longmate’s The Bombers, Hutchinson, London, 1983, p. 332.
The quotes by Sir Norman Bottomley, Sir Winston Churchill and Sir Archibald Sinclair come from Frederick Taylor’s Dresden, p. 212, 213.
Further background to the planning for the Dresden attack is sourced from Richard Overy’s Bomber Command 1939–45, HarperCollins, London, 1997, pp. 130, 131, 133.
Air Marshal Saundby’s quote is drawn from his foreword to David Irving’s The Destruction of Dresden, Macmillan, London, 1985.
For report identifying Dresden as a possible target in February 1944, see the UK National Archives: catalogue ref: AIR40/1680.
Background to the military production contributing to the German war effort, and importance of Dresden as a rail hub, is sourced from Taylor’s Dresden, pp. 65, 169, 186 and from Historical Analysis of the 14–15 February 1945, Bombings of Dresden, prepared by the USAF Historical Division, Research Studies Institute, Air University, at http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=304620#304620
The Bomber Command order for Dresden is sourced from Max Hastings’ book, op. cit., p. 342.
The Brian Fallon and Don Huxtable material is sourced from Fallon’s privately published Press on Regardless.
Gerald McPherson’s quote comes from a personal interview conducted by the author.
Alick Roberts’s account is sourced from a paper he wrote for the AWM, held privately.
Bill Kynoch’s comments come from a personal interview.
Details of the lack of preparation in Dresden for the raid are drawn from The Destruction of Dresden in the Night of 13–14 February 1945, Michael Schmidt, Sonnenblumen-Verlag Dresden, 2010, p. 59; and Taylor’s Dresden, p. 155.
Jack Rose’s comments come from a personal interview with the author.
Details concerning the death toll and how the figure was manipulated, are sourced from Taylor, Dresden, pp. 402, 424.
See Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, pp 187–188.
The Dresden Commission of Historians’ report can be found at: http://www.dresden.de/media/pdf/presseamt/Erklaerung_Historikerkommision.pdf
See also: David Irving (2003), Hitler and Holocaust Denial: Electronic Edition, by Richard J. Evans—(iv) The ‘Final Report’ of 15 March 1945. http://www.hdot.org/en/trial/defense/evans/52odiv#norelink-evans_520div7p549n164
42 AN UNEARTHLY THING
The Bruce Otton story is sourced from a personal account he wrote in Pearson’s Australians At War in the Air.
Background to weather conditions at Chemnitz is sourced from Middlebrook and Everitt’s The Bomber Command War Diaries, p. 664.
Background to the US Eighth Air Force follow-up attack is sourced from John Herington’s Official History, ‘Bomber Command and the Transportation Plan: Spring 1945’, pp. 420, 421.
Don Huxtable’s comments we
re made in a personal interview with the author.
Flying Officer Austin Dowling’s comments come from a statement he sent to Laurie Field, in the Field archive at the AWM, MSS 1489.
Alick Roberts’s comments are sourced from the paper he prepared for a talk at the AWM, privately held.
Geoff Taylor’s comments were published in the Age, Melbourne, on 11 February 1989.
Ruth Andreas-Friedrich’s diary entry comes from Charman, The German Home Front, p. 190.
The Portal quote comes from Richard Overy, The Air War 1939–1945, Penguin, London, 2010, p. 106.
The Churchill memo of 28 March 1945 is sourced from Taylor’s Dresden, p. 430.
A copy of the Dresden Stadt Museum commentary was made by the author during a visit to Dresden in July 2011.
43 SHARING BREAD
Background to the death of Wing Commander Eric Langlois comes from the Wartime Memories Project for 467 Squadron: http://www.wartimememories.co.uk/allied/royalairforce/467sqd-raf.html. See also National Archives of Australia, Series number: A933. For details of Wing Commander Bill Forbes’s death, see Department of Veterans’ Affairs—Invasion to Victory: April 1944—May 1945.
Details of Rollo Kingsford-Smith’s posting to 627 Squadron RAF are sourced from his family memoir, and details of the Tonberg raid from a personal interview conducted by the author.
Background to the attack on Berchtesgaden is sourced from Neville Johnson’s description in a letter to Laurie Field, in the Laurie Field archive at the AWM, MSS1489.
For background to Harry Payne’s Lancaster being shot down, see the article by Neil Wilson, the Herald-Sun, 23 April 2000.
Jim Rowland’s account of his experiences is drawn from his private family memoir.
Eric Silbert’s account of high jinks in the mess is sourced from his book Dinkum Mispochah, pp. 182–183.
Details of Australian involvement in the proposed Tiger Force are drawn from Cabinet papers 1945, File, Tiger Force Control symbol: 22/94/org, Barcode: 3035953; Tiger Force Control symbol: 22/97/org, Barcode: 3035947.
44 AN AIR FORCE DIVIDED
Jim Rowland’s views about the situation he found on his return are sourced from his private memoir.
Angus Cameron’s recollections come from a personal interview with the author.
Tom Fitzgerald’s recollections are sourced from an interview with Tim Bowden for the Australian War Memorial.
