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‘To Force the Enemy Off the Sea’ -  RAF Coastal Command’s North Coates Strike Wing 1943-45

 Thursday 6th November 2025, 18.30

This lecture examines the important and hard-fought but little-known anti-shipping campaign successfully conducted by Coastal Command’s North Coates Strike Wing from early 1943 onwards.

After three years of war, heavily armed German shipping convoys were still sailing down the North Sea into Rotterdam, carrying supplies of high-grade Swedish iron ore destined for the armaments factories of the Ruhr. With great courage the “Cinderella Boys” of RAF Coastal Command had attempted to curtail this enemy supply line, but with limited success and while incurring heavy losses.

WWII: Relative Events - the Air War

The story of Rudolf’s father - James Raphael Williams, provides the backbone for this presentation, revealing how many West Indians came to join the RAF and how, as a radar fitter, technological advancements changed the face of the air war. 

The War proved a foundation for James's successful career in microwave communications; however, Rudolf also shares remarkable witness accounts of relatives who found themselves at the wrong end of fighter bombers on opposing sides. A very personal reflection pieced together from historical documents.

Testimony and Truth

Memory and memorialisation. Exploring the evidence behind the account.

57 Squadron Wireless Operator Keith J ‘Steve’ Stevens’ name appears on a tour and a half’s worth of operations with Bomber Command. Steve took part in his first operation whilst at OTU in September 1942. Arriving at Scampton he resumes his tour in December which culminates in June of 1943. He would stay with 57 moving to East Kirkby and becoming the Squadron’s Signals Leader. Now commissioned Steve continued to fly on an ‘ad-hoc’ basis with various crews, finding himself shot down in July of 1944. Steve successfully evaded capture and was liberated by American forces advancing through Clermont in September.

Steve recorded his memories in a 2003 self-published account titled Flak, Fighters and Fliers. Armed with this book and various archives his nephew, Alistair, has trodden the well worn but often problematic path of memory versus the evidence.

Here in discussion with Dr Dan Ellin of the IBCC Digital Archive, Alistair explores how we are able to be critically analytical about testimony and explore the evidence whilst remaining respectful of the courage and professionalism of our veterans.

The speakers:

Alistair Campbell-Grieve is a keen amateur historian of conflict. Working within the intelligence space for the Police, Alistair’s day job is focused on evidence and developing information. It is this skill that Alistair has brought to his current book project focusing on his Great Uncle’s career.

Alistair served with 2 Royal Tank Regiment in Helmand Province, Afghanistan and enjoys cycling, collecting records and rare books.

Dr Dan Ellin is the archivist for the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive housed at the University of Lincoln. A Social and Cultural historian, Dan’s research examines the lives and emotions of the men and women who served with Bomber Command during the Second World War, and how the bombing war is remembered.

The Invisible Campaign - Bomber Command Gardening Operations 1940-1945 with author, Jane Gulliford-Lowes

Aerial mining by RAF Bomber Command was a vital part of the Allied war effort, claiming far more tonnage of Axis shipping destroyed than direct attack by either Coastal or Bomber Command itself. Minelaying operations commenced in April 1940 and expanded dramatically as the war progressed, yet today this vital campaign and its wide-ranging achievements against Axis merchant vessels, Kriegsmarine ships and U-boats are virtually unknown.

Historian Jane Gulliford Lowes looks at the aims of the campaign and how it was implemented, together with the measure of its success and how it compared against the mining operations implemented by the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. The role of Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris in overseeing minelaying operations is assessed and the experiences of the men who delivered the campaign, particularly the hazards they faced, are explored.

In this lecture, based upon the book of the same title, Jane Gulliford Lowes sheds new light on a little-discussed but important and ultimately highly successful aspect of Bomber Command's operations. 

The evening starts with a delicious hot supper in The Hub Café at 18.30.

‘As for the Ruhr, well - the whole valley is just a mass of rubble.’ RAF Bomber Command in 1945

In 1945, Bomber Command’s operations created a firestorm in Dresden, fed thousands of starving people in Operation Manna, returned liberated prisoners of war to the UK, and undertook sightseeing ‘Cook's tours’ for aircrew and ground personnel to view damaged German cities. Dan Ellin considers how Bomber Command’s final operations in 1945 have had an impact on the way Bomber Command is remembered today.

Dr Dan Ellin is the archivist for the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive housed at the University of Lincoln. A Social and Cultural historian, his research examines the lives and emotions of the men and women who served with Bomber Command during the Second World War.

The evening starts with a delicious hot supper in The Hub Café at 6.30pm.