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As Tony Winser eased himself into the rear turret of his Lancaster Bomber, Peter II, and waved farewell with his guns as he bumped along the runway for his next night mission over Germany, no doubt he thought to himself, “Well, at least this will be something to tell the grandchildren about.” As circumstances turned out, I never had a grandfather to tell me about his wartime adventures, as my own, Tony’s brother Trevor, was not one of the lucky ones to come back, falling victim to a torpedo attack as he travelled to Africa for active service in 1942.

The loss of his brother provided the impetus for Tony to join the Royal Air Force at the first opportunity when he reached the age of 18 in 1943, just as the war was reaching its most decisive phase, as far as the air was concerned. In his determination “to get back at Jerry for taking my brother,” and impatient to confront the enemy, Tony took the quickest but most dangerous course on offer to him - that of Air Gunner in the exposed rear turret where bullets could whip through the clear vision panel, and escape in an emergency was next to impossible. “I joined up in ‘43. And I was on ops by September ‘44,” explained Tony. “I got called up July, so I was 18 on the 15th of July, and I had my calling up papers to report on the 16th: the next day.

It was a fairly quick course, Air Gunners.” Tony’s report describes him as “An average gunner.” Faint praise for a teenager whose experiences would provide a bloody initiation into manhood, and remain with him for life.

Tony was one of the few to complete a tour of 31 ops and return to tell me about it one day in the summer of 1999. Sitting down with Tony’s log book, Air Gunner’s brevet and photographs, I had to comment on the impassive remarks in his training record. “I like this - it’s like a school report!” I exclaimed. “Oh yes - I was average. I don’t know what that means actually, but anyway, I got 75.6. I was at Air Gunners’ School, Andrews, The Isle of Man.” Taking up position in his armchair with his imaginary guns trained on an innocent vase of chrysanthemums, Tony explained how, in training, he had to have his bullets painted different colours, “so that when you got back, you’d know whether you’d hit them or not, because there’s so much deflection, you see. Because if you’re sitting in the turret like this - you fire the guns - the bullets go straight ahead; but as you rotate your turret round, they tend to go back, that’s why you had to have a certain amount of what they call - so many bull, so many incendiaries - and that sort of thing, so you could see where the bullets were going.”

The chrysanthemums, still sitting in the line of fire, looked unconcerned as Tony swivelled in his chair. “And the further you go round this end the more the bullets go that way.” “Was that to do with the air speed?” asked my husband, Giles. “Yes, that’s right,” replied Tony. “It’s pulling the bullets round. So the bullets are going like that,” he explained with an arc of the hand. “So you have to allow so much for deflection for the bullets to hit the target, you see. You’ve got your ring and bead in there and you’ve got to know exactly what aircraft it is to know where you’ve got to fire the guns at. So I thought I’d just get my ring and bead firing the guns, because if you rotate them round there’s going to be more deflection on the bullets.”

“So who are those people in the photograph?”.

“Well there’s Les on there. And that’s Bill, that was the bomb aimer. That’s Les, my skipper; that’s me. I was 19 then. Can you see a resemblance? A proper Winser! Yes, sitting on a dugout or something - we were on the Squadron then. Can you see my stripes? They should be on this side. Should be there, my stripes. My brevet is just underneath my hat. Because I’ve got my hat tucked in there look. I eventually finished up as Warrant Officer. I could have got a commission, you see, if I had stayed in. Never mind. I done all right.”

“Do you still keep in touch with many of your friends from that time?”.

“Not a lot. There’s just Paddy, he’s the only one I’ve got, because Les, my skipper, he was killed over Biggin Hill several years ago now, doing a demonstration. Robbie told me, my Mid-Upper Gunner. He used to live at Littlehampton; I used to go down and see him when I went down to Kent. He kept in touch right up until he died, he died of a bad heart. He was older than me, because they used to call me the baby - the baby of the Squadron. I was only 19 and some of them were about 23, 24, some even more - Bill Cox, I think was about 30. No it’s just Paddy I’ve got, because Les was killed over Biggin Hill. Robbie rang and told me. And then I lost Robbie; he died. And then of course there was three Australians, you see: Phil, Bruce and Barry - they all went back to Australia, and there’s only Paddy, and I didn’t know that Paddy was even at Ipswich.

I think it was Robbie who rang me once and said, ‘Have you heard from Paddy, because he lives near you?’ And I said, ‘No - where is he then?’ And he says, ‘Well, he’s in Ipswich.’ So Mabel and I went down there and saw him. He’s rung me no end of times, to see how I was and that. So he’s the only one really left. When I used to go the Wickenby Reunions which we used to call ‘The Register’ - there was a memorial there with all the fallen on and we used to have a Reunion every year - September, and it was getting to the stage where you’d go there and there was nobody there you knew because they’d gone. I was only 19, you see, and a lot of those were in their 30s. I was quite a youngster you see.”

Tony gestured to the crew photograph. “300 Squadron that was called, and that was at Faldingworth, just outside of Lincoln, and we did a fair bit of training: circuits and bombs, that sort of thing, just to get used to the aircraft. I didn’t like it there because the Polish food was awful. You didn’t have any English food, and the Polish food was all old sloppy stuff.”

“Was that the mosquito base?” asked Giles. “That was up there too,” Tony replied. “Oh my goodness, they were like vultures up there! In the summer time you could go into the Mess, and what was left over from tea, you could just help yourself to. And if you weren’t there at half past seven, and if you wanted something to eat, you ought to have seen the queue! They just took the lot! You’d hardly ever get anything! They were a nice crowd actually, the Polish were. I got on very well with them: I felt ever so sorry for them because they had been through an awful lot. We weren’t there long. We didn’t do any ops from there, and then they transferred us over to 626 Squadron, Wickenby. That’s where we did our ops from.

There was 12 Squadron there as well. There were two Squadrons on the same base, because they wanted full battle order - every aircraft had to go. Old Bomber Harris had given his instructions, you know, saying ‘I want full force up tonight - hundred per cent,’ and whatever he said went.”

“Most of the aircraft you were shooting at, were they ME-109s?”
“Fokker Wolf 190s. Most of them were ME-109s,”
“And they always attacked the rear.”
“They always attacked from behind?”
“Curve and pursuit attack, yes.”
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“A˛ú´Çąšąđ.”

Giles began, “Isn’t it when you’re pulling away you get the best...”

“Well then you get the corkscrew action,” Tony cut in. “You see, you’re flying along like that. You can spot him up there, and then all of a sudden he’ll start coming in. It’s what you call a curve and pursuit attack. He can get you, because you’re still going along like that…” (Tony described his flight path with his left hand) “…but once he gets to a certain speed, and you know by your ring and bead exactly what distance he is away, I have to give the corkscrew action, so when he comes in with his fixed guns, your aircraft’s gone down there.” Tony’s right hand, representing the enemy aircraft, had entered the engagement at this point. “I’ve got my rotating turret, I can get him. But their guns are fixed into the wings...”

“So he’s got to chase you round,” said Giles.

“That’s right,” Tony replied. “He’s got to get round, really, because he’s doing a hell of a speed and he can’t manage it, he can’t get round to get his guns on you - but you could. Then if you don’t get him, he’ll shoot off, and then there’s the Mid-Upper Gunner to finish him off! See what I mean! He’s got two guns, I’ve got four. You don’t fire until you’re in distance of your guns, and then you have a go, and he’s still coming, you’re still going along like this, you’re having a go at him, rotating your turret around like this, he’s got fixed guns, and then, when he gets to a certain distance, if he starts to open fire, I give evasive action - corkscrew - to the skipper. You see he’s coming down at such a speed, from a height, because that’s how they do it, he can’t get round, you see. He can’t get round to me because his guns are fixed in the wings. But I can get him! Because I’ve got all my guns, and I can manoevre it up, down, or whatever. And if you get the evasive action right, you can get him before he’ll get you - if you’re on the ball. And I did seven times.”

“Did he blow up?” asked Giles

“He just went pssst, like that,” Tony replied. “And you could see then, he’d catch alight, and he just went down. But there was one that got away, and went over the top to the Mid-Upper Gunner to finish off. I got him first. Of course, you claim it, and somebody in another aircraft has to report the position where they’ve seen this ME-109 shot down. And if the moon was up, they would always work it so that they came in with the moon behind them. It was a bit of a job to see, because the moon up in the sky was quite bright at night. And then, towards the end of my tour, Jerry knew that we hadn’t got any Mid-Under Gunners, so they invented a gun that would shoot upwards. Up in the air like that.” Tony jabbed towards the ceiling. “So when you were going along, we couldn’t make out why we lost some aircraft when we hadn’t seen any - I wasn’t one of the victims anyway - but they found out what the ME-109s or the Fokker Wolfs or whatever do: they’ve got this gun, so they get underneath the aircraft and shoot it up like that. And so they briefed us after they found out that what we’d got to do was, as we were going along, we’d got to keep going like this with the aircraft.” Tony swung his arm from side to side. “So that the Mid-Upper Gunner could see each half of the aircraft. Like that. It was awkward flying like that, but we had to do it because we’d got no Mid-Under, see, the Yanks had got Mid-Unders as well, Front Gunners and everything. We’d got a Front Gunner with the Bomb Aimer, but they never attacked you from the front.

I don’t know why the front gun was there really, because they never attacked you from the front. And so, us boys, as soon as we’d crossed the English coast, we were getting sort of keen to get back, we used to start taking our guns out, so that when we got back to base, the guns were out and you could get back and get your meal quick, and get it all over, you see. And then of course, Jerry found out about this episode, and started following us back, and once they started firing, we’d got nothing in the bloomin’ turret! So they were very strict on that, so Les always used to say to me, ‘Don’t you take your guns out, Tony.’ ‘No, don’t you worry, Les.’ And there would be a tap on the back door, and old Robbie, the Mid-Upper Gunner would come: ‘Here you are, Tony,’ because we were below oxygen height then, we didn’t need oxygen, and he’d bring me my thermos of coffee, and I’d take my oxygen mask off and drink my coffee, you see. Silly thing to do really, but we used to think, ‘Well, we shan’t get any fighters now, there’ll be nobody, especially night times.’ Of course, old Robbie used to take his guns out. You used to have to take them out and take them back to the Armoury, you see, in the crew bus.”

“So you had to take your guns in and out every time you flew?” queried Giles.
“ Yes, and you had to go round every morning and harmonise them with a special board.”
“To make sure they’re all lined up and all firing at the same point?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Tony replied. “And of course you have to clean them. Even if you haven’t used them you still have to go down to the Gunners’ section and clean them, make sure there’s no rust, because you see, there were no hangers; you were out on dispersal all the time you see, and of course my part was so open because the rear turret was the only turret in the aircraft that had got a clear vision panel with no perspex at all, so you got good vision.

And of course when it rained, the bloomin’ rain used to come in and get onto your seat and soak everything, you see, and then when you got in there, and you had to put all your flying kit on, and your electrical suit and everything and all the electrical gloves, the electrical socks: they were all connected up to the suit with press studs, and when you put the heating on - because it was so cold - really cold - especially in the rear turret because of this clear vision panel. (I’ve even, many a time, went to use the intercom and couldn’t do anything with it because it was all iced up!) So of course the problem was when you used to put your electrical suit on and your seat was soaking wet, it used to cause problems because it was drawing up what was damp! But if they had only had some sort of coverage over the turret when it was in dispersal, you wouldn’t have got that dampness in. Of course your guns were not in, you see, because you had to take them back to the armoury, and then you had to go out first thing in the morning - you knew, first thing in the morning, whether you were on the battle order or not. And outside the Mess, if your name was on there, you knew you’d got a briefing to come, which, say, would be about 14.30 or something like that. And you’d go into the briefing room - it used to be 12 Squadron on that side, 626, which I was on, that side - and there would be seven chairs in a row for all the crew to sit down and the first thing you would look at... it was all locked up, nobody could look in there to see where you were going, it was all secret - until you got to the actual briefing, they would unlock it to let you in, and then you’d see the map there in front of you, with the red tape going from Wickenby down to Reading, Reading to Beachy Head, Beachy Head right across to the target, and you’d go across and have a look and see: ‘It’s that one tonight.’ And then of course they’d brief you exactly what you’ve got to do, what height you were going to bomb - because it’s a thousand bombers, it’s a lot of aircraft in the air, and dark: there were no lights on your aircraft - it was all in darkness. Mind you, you’d probably take off in the daylight, but by the time you got to the target it was pitch dark.” ...

(Please read part 2 for the continuation of this story)

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