蜜芽传媒

This is a snippit of the story of my Uncle Toby and some other goings on at Wratting Common during 1945.Toby was my Gramps's brother, who I never had a chance to know, it details a raid that I always heard about, the raid where he got shot down.

The following details are taken from the record books at Kew, with a few other details thrown in, plus a few of the people I've met along the way associated with 195, helping me find the history and the stories, including the feelings of those people.

The likes of Peter Francis,a good friend, Peter was an Upper and occasional Rear Gunner with 195 Sqdn, he and his wife Anne, have shown unspeakable generosity and friendship. Harry Shepard a Lanc Ferry Pilot, Bill Farquarson CO, and Ken "Hammy" Hamilton, who flew side by side with Toby on ops, and who also "borrowed"with my Uncle Dickie, a few Lancasters at the end of the war, to do some sight seeing, visiting Europe, India and Sydney, proved to me by a lovely photo of Sydney Harbour bridge taken from the Pilots seat of Ken's Lanc.

Well, like any Grandson who had ex servise men to grow up with, I grew up as a lad listening to stories from my Gramps telling me about what he did in the war and what his brother did. When my Grand Father died, Harold Wilfred Bird (RAF MU Monkmoore) I decided to find out what really happened, its taken me about 3 years to get this far.

From The National Archives in Kew, I found the station log books and from the dates on the photos I have, I was able to read exactly what happed at West Wratting, May 1945. An interesting story to come out of 115, where 195 was born, was that one chap whilst coming back from a raid had an engine fire, one of his crew got out of the aircraft, climbed out on the wing and put the fire out.

From what I understand, after being trained in Canada, Toby was in 115 Squadron for a short time then they moved to 195 and Wratting Common, 115 flew Wellingtons for a while then Lancasters, I concentrated on 195 Wratting Common station log books, which was amazing in itself, a large blue book, it starts the very day the station becomes operational and ends the day the station closes, with everything in between and it鈥檚 all typed out clearly in AIR28/959.

From AIR 28/959
Nov 13th 1944
195 Sqnd arrived from Wichford, Wing Commander DH Burnside DFC arrived with three flights A B & C.
Sqnd Ldr Farquarson (A flight)
WL Ft Lt DRW Forester (B flight)
Sqnd Ldr HET Pragner (C flight)

Note
As far as I understand it and after speaking to a Bob Franklin, whose father was Sqnd Ldr Bob Franklin, it turns out that he put 195 together from what was left of C flight from 115 at Witchford. Bob tells me that he never knew his father, he was killed on a mine laying mission 2 weeks after his mother was pregnant. Below is a list of the targets for the day, it also gives weather information, number of aircraft sent, what generally happened, also other station info. But we can be sure that Toby flew on pretty much every one of these missions, until he got shot down, quite a lot of flying..It鈥檚 not stated when he returned to Wratting Common.

Missions

Nov 16th 1st operational sortie
(daylight raid) on Heisberg
Nov 20th Homberg oil plant raid
Nov 21st Homberg
Nov 23rd Nordstern oil plant
Nov 27th Kalknord marshalling yards Cologne
Nov 28th Neuss 1st night time sortie, all aircraft returned to base by 0744
Dec 4th Oberhausen
Dec 5th Hamm
Dec 6th Merseburg
Dec 8th Duisburg
Dec 11th Osterfeld
Dec 12th Witten
Dec 15th Siegen but the op cancelled and aircraft recalled
Dec 16th -23nd thick fog over the airfield no flying
Dec23rd Trier
Dec 24th Bonn. Airfield at Hangelar
Dec 25th Officers and NCO鈥檚 served Christmas Dinner to the crews etc. a tradition
Dec 26th St.Vith
Dec 27th Rheydt
Dec 28th Koln/Gremberg
Dec 31st Vohwinkel marshalling yard

Weather; cloudy and moderate visibility, occasional light showers of frozen drizzle
Operation ; 20 Aircraft of 195 attached Vohwinkel marshalling yard through 10/10 cloud. Results were difficult to asses, but some undershooting was observed. A4/L/195 was outstanding, Captain F/Lt Bird. News was eventually received that with the exception of the mid-upper gunner, who had baled out over Germany, he and his crew were safe in allied held territory.(Brussels Airport) All other aircraft returned to safely to base.

From the No.195 Squadron Operational Records Book

Bombing - VOHWINKEL MARSHALLING YARD

Type of Raid - G-H

Twenty-one aircraft were detailed to bomb the target, twenty aircraft returned safely to base, one aircraft crashed landed in Belgium. Weather 5-7/10th clouds with large breaks over the target area. A few sticks of bombs only were seen to straddle the target and the main concentration of bombing was to the south. Considerable H/F experienced on the run in with practically none over the target. No fighters were seen. Aircraft A4-L reported missing, but later reported to have landed in friendly territory. The mid-upper gunner baled out immediately after aircraft was hit. Remainder of crew safe.

Lancaster Mk.B.I PB760 A4-L

Take-Off : 1129hrs
Landed : 1610hrs

F/L A.L.Bird Captain
P/O J.D Burford Navigator
F/O J.Brunt Air Bomber
Sgt G.R Smith Wop/Ag
Sgt J. Brownbridge Mid-Upper
Sgt J.W.Bird Rear Gunner
Sgt J.Hewson Flight Engineer

Bombload 1 x 4000lb, 14x500lb. Primary Target, Vohwinkel Marshalling Yards.

Aircraft hit by flak over target after bombing. Mid upper gunner baled out immediately after being hit. The pilot made landing in friendly territory and the rest of the crew are safe.

STATION RECORDS BOOK

RAF STATION WRATTING COMMON

Operations : 20 aircraft of 195 Squadron attack VOHWINKEL Marshalling yards through 10/10th cloud. Results difficult to assess, but some undershooting was observed. A4/L/195 was outstanding. Captain F/Lt Bird. New was eventually received that with the exception of the mid-upper gunner, who had bailed out over Germany, he and his crew were safe in Allied held territory. All other aircraft returned to base.

No.3 GROUP HQ RECORDS BOOK

Sunday 31st December 1944 :

Vohwinkel Marshalling Yards

Daylight

155 Avro Lancaster鈥檚 detailed.
115 Sqdn (20) 514 Sqdn (10) 75NZ Sqdn (17) 622 Sqdn (14) 15 Sqdn (13) 90 Sqdn (14) 218 Sqdn (17) 149 Sqdn (15)
186 Sqdn (14) 195 Sqdn (21)

Cancelled : 0
Abortive : 0
Missing : 3

This was a unsuccessful attack mainly due to the 40 MPH winds which caused the group to scatter bombs to the south of the target. Flak was moderate to heavy and very accurate on the run in, but over target was practically nil. Fighter opposition was absent, falling bombs caused two of our losses, and the third was seen leaving the target on two engines.

It later transpires that Ken Hammy Hamilton was detailed to go and pick Dickie up, soon after landing the airfield was straffed and both aircraft were unserviceable, so they had a bit of a blast in Brussles for a week.

It goes on, everyday, giving full details of weather, incidents, dances, cricket matches, football teams and the scores, hockey matches, trips made, the base seemed to have a lot to do with Straddishall visiting crews and matches etc, it also gives information on visiting aircraft, bases which were used where returning aircraft on raids had to land, visiting aircraft details, mainly American, it gave one account of a suspected crash of a B-17 close by, the fire crew where sent out and it turned out it was a hay bail on fire in a field, two Thunderbolts arrived from Duxford they couldn鈥檛 make it home one had to belly land the other was OK, then I think a few days later it left it messed up the take off with undercarriage collapsing and ended up across the end of the runway, visitors included some Russian Air force officers, details of WAAF functions, info about buildings etc. Few incidents with aircraft..a spitfire had a problem taking off and the pilot retracted the undercarriage to save crashing into the ditch at the end of the field, Lancasters engines failing on take off, a few mosqitos were there including one from Oakington which had an internal fire after being shot at who鈥檚 navigator nearly fell out as the door was blown off it said he injured his ankle, one guy was killed on his bicycle after cycling into a Lancaster being towed, a local worker being knocked off his bike by a Spitfire鈥檚 wing on taxi, at one point several Horsa gliders about 17 in total parked in front of the control tower. With things like death, all it said were things like 19 aircraft went out and 2 did not return presumed missing, in some cases the log mentions were bombs were dropped that had to be dumped, mainly in the North sea or in the Wash practise runs being done at Otmoor or Rushford Range, ditched crew being picked up, one incident included 3 incendiary bombs accidentally going off after dropping from the bomb bay on the ground injuring the armourers, they were sent to either Endlbrook Hospital in Cambridge or White Lodge Hospital in Newmarket, with burns to the face and hands. There鈥檚 also the mention of one chap who was cleaning an aircraft with a rag, that caught fire on an aircraft, it spread and the ground crew guy put the whole thing out with his hands to stop it spreading, it was noted that he was awarded for it and he saved the plane.

The log also details the odd suspected night fighter, things like films being shown, May 6th 1945 it was 鈥淒ouble Indemnity鈥� around the time those photos were taken, other targets included Hamburg, Essen, Keil, Nurnberg, Berlin, mentions the feeling of the crews, general morale of the base, flak details, the odd crewman being wounded, number of search sights over target, plus teaching station workers about AP bombs or anti personnel bombs, mainly butterfly type as an airfield near by was raided. It also mentions 90 Sqn a lot and things like Exercise Bullseye, the aircraft doing GARDENING type ops, dropping vegetables? Planting vegetables? ( mine laying) Operation Goodwood, Exercise ERIC none of which I鈥檝e heard before, all in the context of operational flights,

Jumping ahead to May 1945 when the photo was taken, clearly this was when things were a bit easier, not much happens in May.

May 1st 1945 Operation Manna
Supply dropping in the Delf area of Holland (only stated food parcels etc)
And in the evening in the Officers mess there was a dance.

May 2nd Supply dropping in Holland
May 3rd Supply dropping in Holland Delf area

The rest of that month was spent doing much of the same dropping supplies, the odd aircraft on a special bombing mission, some on navigational, while other operations that month including the next few months was bringing back ex-POW鈥檚 home, mainly from a French airfield called Juvincourt, they flew back dropping these guys off in Eastbourne, Oakley and Westcott. The squadron was also at that time, involved in what was called, Operation Baedeker, as far as I can gather this was giving ground crews and others tourist trips over Germany to see the damage done, it lists routes, turn points, that included Aylesbury, Koblenz and the Mohne Dam.

After recently talking to an ex Lancaster Pilot for an afternoon, who was a ferry pilot towards the end of the war, he told me this was quite common, one of the things he said that amazed him where the numbers of crashed aircraft he could see, generally B-17鈥檚 and usually all in a line on the same heading.

Aug 14th 1945 195 Squadron disbanded
A Grand Victory Dance was held in WAAF NAAFI

Aug 19th Church parade at the MT Hanger (two of which are still there)

Aug 31st Colour hoisting parade 0830

Then it just lists general weather, the odd flight, aircraft being fixed and then leaving, N0 47 Transport Group took over No51 Sqnd doing air testing, two or three court martials and the expectation that German POW鈥檚 will be arriving.

April 4 1946 on site 2,
76 German Pow鈥檚 arrived.

If you ever want to go yourself you鈥檒l need to look at..

RAF Witchford 115 Sqnd
AIR27/2443 Operation log books
AIR29/171 Operation log books
AIR50/213 Combat reports (on microfilm)

RAF Wratting Common 195 Sqdn
AIR28/959 Operation log books
AIR28/960 Operation log book
(AIR29/612) May have some details in

If you read this, God speed, God bless and always try an remember these chaps once and a while, they gave more than we could ever know.

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