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Lancasters Over Kynance by Stephen Brown.
DHM2487. Lancasters Over Kynance by Stephen Brown. RAF Lancasters over Kynance Cove in Cornwall, returning from a daylight sortie over Northern France in the winter of 1944. The Avro Lancaster played a leading roll within Bomber Command during WW2. It formed the backbone of a continuous 4-year offensive by the RAF that eventually culminated in the Allied liberation of Europe. Signed by Flt Lt Phil Ainley DFC, Warrant Offier Ron Legg, Warrant Officer Roy Last, Flying Officer Fred Osborne, Flt Sgt Jeff Palmer, Warrant Officer Don Say DFC, Flt Lt Jack Stidard AE, Flt Lt Robert Stone, Croix de Guerre, Flt Lt B S Turner DFC and Warrant Officer Bernard Warren Signed limited edition of 275 prints. Image size 28 inches x 20 inches (71cm x 51cm)
Website Price: £ 95.00
All prices are displayed in British Pounds Sterling
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| Signatures on this item | | Name | Info | | Flt Lt B S Turner DFC | Volunteered for the RAF in 1940 and trained as a Heavy Bomber pilot flying Tiger Moths, Airspeed Oxfords and Wellingtons at Hatfield, South Cerney and Pershore respectively. His first operational posting was to a grass field aerodrome at Feltwell where he flew Wellingtons with 75 NZ Sqn. After a tour of 37 trips mainly over Germany he then spent two and a half years as "taxi driver" with various navigation training flights and some two years later was posted to 61 Sqn at Skellingforth for a second tour of ops flying Lancasters - flying 'N' for Nan on her 100th trip. After 21 ops he went to T.R.E. Defford as an experimental pilot. At that time the Air Force was preparing Tiger Force for the invasion of Japan, but because of the atomic bomb being dropped the invasion did not take place. Flying at Defford was with radar 'boffins' testing their various offensive and defensive radar equipment in about ten different types of aircraft. In 1946 Fly Lt Turner left the Air Force. | | Flt Lt Jack Stidard AE | Joined the RAF in 1942 and trained as a navigator at No 1 CNS, Rivers, Canada. He eventually joined 90 Squadron at Tuddenham in early 1945 and was still in the early stages of his tour when the European war was ended. He felt privileged to take part in four Operation Manna ops in late April / early May, when food was dropped to the starving Dutch, but he did not appreciate how desperate the situation was until post war visits to Holland with the Manna Association. Released from the RAF in 1946, he served in the RAFVR for 14 years in the Intelligence branch and was also OC of an ATC Squadron. | | Flt Lt Phil Ainley DFC | Phil was 15 when war was declared on the 3rd September 1939. He had always wanted to be a pilot and the only way to do this was to join the RAF or the RAF Volunteer Reserve. However, he couldn’t join until he was 17 and so he took up an engineering apprenticeship. When Phil tried to join up again he was told he couldn’t because he was in a reserved occupation. Phil finally joined the RAF in November 1941 when he opted for aircrew as this was the only way he could get out of his apprenticeship. However, he couldn’t start his flying training until he was 17½. In November 1942, Phil was sent to St John’s Wood, to the Air Crew Receiving Centre. Here he was given a uniform and white flashes to put in his cap to show that he was aircrew. He and his colleagues spent five weeks marching around London and having inoculations. After St John’s Wood, Phil was sent to Manchester’s Heaton Park. This was a holding centre for volunteer aircrew and from here everyone was sent for specialist training as pilots, navigators, bombardiers and wireless operators. Phil was sent for pilot training in Silloth, Cumbria. Here he received just a few hours of flying in Tiger Moths and then when he was safe to fly he was passed back to Manchester. From here, Phil was selected for pilot training and was sent with a batch of naval ratings to the US Air Base Gross Ille, Michigan, USA. It was extremely cold, but even so physical exercise had to be carried out at 5.30 in the morning and in singlet and shorts! Phil passed out from his basic flying training and then proceeded to the US Aviation Base, Pensacola, Florida. Here, Phil learned to fly single engine aircraft of various types. In December 1942, Pearl Harbour was attacked and American patriotism was everywhere even on the pats of butter. Any Britons were treated as honoured guests and were adopted by local families. It was decided that Phil was better suited to multi-engine rather than single-engined aircraft and so he was sent to train on Catalina, flying boats. In May 1943 he passed out as a pilot and was awarded his American Naval Gold Wings. The advantage of Phil’s training was that he learned seamanship as well as airmanship. Once back in Great Britain Phil went to Moss Bros to purchase his brand new Pilot Officer’s uniform. His pay had gone up from 5 shillings a day to 10 shilling and 6 pence and beer was only 9d to 10d (old pence) a pint! Unfortunately, there was no need for more flying boat pilots but as Phil had multi-engined experience, he was sent to fly 4 engined aircraft. This meant further training as landing aircraft on land rather than the sea required a different technique. Once this new technique had been mastered Phil was sent to a Wellington Operation Training Unit. Here people were either picked or they did the picking of aircrew. Phil picked a Pilot Officer from the Canadian airforce as his Navigator and a fellow British Pilot Officer as his bomb aimer. It was when training on Short Stirling aircraft that Phil met the rest of his crew; a wireless operator, a Canadian mid-upper gunner, a rear gunner and a flight engineer. Phil’s wireless operator was only 17 ½ as was his rear gunner. Although they had flown in the aircraft for only a few hours, they were seen to be ready to fly Lancaster bombers and were sent to Nottinghamshire for training. This consisted of 14 hours flying time on the Lancaster, 7 hours during daylight and 7 hours at night. On the 15th May 1944, Phil and his crew were sent to 57 Squadron East Kirby, Lincolnshire. He then experienced his first operational flight, sitting alongside a ‘veteran’ pilot. They flew to Amiens where they were due to deposit bombs on marshalling yards. However, they returned with their bomb load! Phil’s first operational flight with his crew was on the 24th May. Their target was the marshalling yards in Antwerp. Things were building up for the D Day landings and so the aim of the bombing raids was to cause maximum disruption to the Germans.
Although the crew were not told when D Day was to happen, they returned from a mission in the early morning on the 4th June and saw numerous ships and barges, so they knew something was occurring. By July, Phil and his crew had flown 14 missions and they were flying almost every other night. After the troops had been landed in France there were more trips into Germany and more aircraft went missing. In the summer of 1944, Phil’s logbook recorded two trips, one with 31 missing and one with 49 missing and each of those aircraft had a crew of 7 men. On the 16th August 1944 the crew were briefed to do a ‘gardening’ mission. Gardening was code for dropping sea mines. The area to be mined was the Stettin Bay Canal in Germany. The mines had to be dropped from only 250 feet and this area was fiercely guarded. Only 6 crews had been detailed to fly down the canal and Phil’s was one of them. Command had laid on an attack on the town of Stettin itself to draw attention away from the Canal. However, the bombing was delayed as the marking for the bombs was off track and the aircraft had the terrifying prospect of orbiting the target at only 250 feet, whilst marking was relaid. The aircraft in front of Phil was blown up and they had to negotiate the debris. Out of the 6 aircraft earmarked to bomb the Stettin Canal, one was blown up, one did not reach Stettin and one went missing. It was for this mission and pressing home the attack that Phil was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Having successfully completed 33 missions Phil and his crew left the Squadron on the 6th October. In 2002, after 58 years Phil was re-united with his Navigator at a Re-union at East Kirkby, the Station from where they flew during the war. | | Flt Lt Robert Stone, Croix de Guerre | Volunteered for flying duties in 1941 and was trained as a pilot in Canada. On returning to the UK he trained on Blenheims and was posted to North Africa early in 1943. He was invalided home after a short period, having suffered a rare tropical disease and was posted to Bomber Command and trained on Wellingtons. He was subsequently posted to 550 Squadron, No1 Group, stationed at North Killingholme in Lincolnshire, flying Lancasters. After completing 29 operations he was grounded (having developed a duodenal ulcer) and was discharged from the RAF shortly afterwards. He was subsequently awarded the Croix de Guerre. | | Flt Sgt Jeff Palmer | Volunteered for aircrew duties at the age of 20 in 1941. He later trained as Nav/BA in South Africa. After further training he joined 195 and 9 Squadrons and took part in ops over Germany. Towards the end of the war he took part in Operation Manna over Holland. After the end of the war he flew to India with 9 Sqn and took part in victory demonstrations. He was demobilised in 1946. | | Flying Officer Fred Osborne | Joined the RAF in 1941 for pilot training and after going 'solo' (Tiger Moths) at Fair Oaks, Surrey, was posted to the USA Detroit then Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida. He spent an enjoyable two or three months at Pensacola but was devastated at being scrubbed and remustered to Observer course in Canada; his offer to be a glider pilot was refused. He eventually served as Bomb Aimer with Bob Sexton's (Australian) crew and served on 101 Squadron and 7 Squadron PFF. His tour and ops flying ended after a mid-air collision whilst returning from an op on Leipzig. He cannot recall the actual crash but owes his life to the late T Shaw who rescued him from the burning aircraft. | | Warrant Officer Bernard Warren | Joined the RAF on 25th January 1943 and qualified as an Air Gunner from No7 AGS Stormey Down in July 1943. After ITW he was posted to 28 OTU in August where he crewed up as a Rear Gunner. The crew then moved to No 1662 Conversion Unit at Blyton until they were posted to 103 Sqn - 1 Group - Elsham Wolds. His first op as a spare Mid-upper Gunner was to Augsberg on 25th February 1944. On the same op his pilot went with another crew and failed to return. With a new pilot they commenced ops and had completed seven when they were shot down and baled out over Dusseldorf on 22nd April 1944. He spent the next 12 months in POW camps and left the RAF in August 1946. | | Warrant Officer Don Say DFC | Joined the RAFVR in March 1939 and was sent for Aircrew training to Calgary and Hamilton in Canada in 1941. He qualified as Observer (armaments) aimer and served first on Vickers Wellingtons with 466 Sqdn (Aus) completing 20 operations before moving on to 196 Sqn for a further ten operations over France and Germany on Stirlings. After six months as Instructor, his second tour of 23 operations in Lancasters was with 514 Sqn. The picture evoked memories of a daylight operation on oil refineries at Bordeaux on 4th August 1944. Crossing the Cornish coast on return at very low level, everyone reported nude sunbathers running for cover, as 300 Lancasters roared overhead. His total war service was six and a half years between 1939 and 1945, completing two operational tours. He was awarded the DFC in 1944. | | Warrant Officer Roy Last | Was called up early in 1943 upon reaching his eighteenth birthday. He trained at 7 AGS Stormydown and crewed up at Wing OTU. He started ops at 101 Squadron, Ludford Magna on 18th April 1944 on Aachen and was selected for Pathfinders after six ops with 101 Squadron. He completed 30 ops with 582 Squadron at Little Staughton, carrying out several master bomber raids. He was wounded by flak in September 1944 and returned to the Squadron. He rejoined his skipper and completed another ten ops before being posted to PFTU as a gunnery instructor. | | Warrant Offier Ron Legg | Joined the RAF at Lord Cricket on 12th July 1943. Prior to that he was an engineering apprentice with a well known Bristol company. He was called to the Aircrew Selection Board at Oxford and chose to become a Flight Engineer and following a minor operation on his nose, he went to Lords Cricket Ground. After three weeks initial training in London, he went to Torquay and then to St Athans for the six months training as a Flight Engineer. He passed out in March 1944 having never flown in an aeroplane. When on his first leave, friends would say "What's it like up there?" he was embarrassed to admit that he had not yet flown. After his leave, he was posted to Scampton where he met the lads that had been crewed up at OTU and were destined for the Lancaster. His next posting was to Winthorpe, 1661 Heavy Conversion Unit. The aircraft was the Stirling and he flew with Sgt Anscombe for a full course; this was mainly to gain air experience. He was then crewed up with F/L Oldacre and did the same course again as the F/E. An experienced F/E flew with them until he was satisfied that they were competent. The next posting was with his crew to Syerston for a conversion on the Lancaster and then to 9 Squadron, Bardney where they did a total of about 12 hours on training flights. The pilot had to do one operation as a 2nd pilot, on that trip he was shot down but he baled out and evaded capture. They then returned to another HCU 1654 Wigsley, once again on the Stirling and another pilot W/O Ross. From there the course was completed and they went through the Lancaster finishing course once again, then to 57 Squadron East Kirkby for operational flying. the first op was a daylight raid on Wilhelmshaven 5th October 1944 and the last on 7th April 1945. His total was 31 operations. He was then posted to a holding unit for redundant aircrew and never flew again with the RAF. |
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