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John Smythe QC, MBE (mil) OBE was born in Sierra Leone in 1915. When the RAF appealed to the British Empire for assistance in prosecuting WW2, Johnny as he was known to his friends volunteered and was accepted into the force. He passed out of training school as a flight officer and joined Bomber Command as a Navigator on the Short Stirling bomber.

He was shot down over a heavily defended target in Germany on 18 November 1943 and although wounded made a successful parachute jump. He was captured after 24 hours and brutally interrogated before being sent to hospital to have his wounds treated. He was then sent to Stalag Luft 1 in Barth, Germany where he would spent the next 18 months as a Prisoner of War before being liberated in April 1945 by the Russians.

On his return to the UK he was seconded to the Colonial Office where he would play a pivotal role on board the Empire Windrush resulting in the ‘Windrush Generation’. Johnny went on to study law at the Inns of Courts in London and qualified as a barrister before returning to Sierra Leone where he would become Solicitor General and later Attorney General.    

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

Thursday 28th November 2024 – 6.30 – 10.00 pm

Caterpillars, Guinea Pigs and Goldfish begins by briefly covering the history of some of the more well-known and perhaps some of the lesser known clubs that have been associated with flying and aviation.  It goes on to cover in rather more detail, the Goldfish Club, its history and members’ stories right up to the present day.  Art goes on to talk about the events leading up to his qualification for the membership including a short film showing.

William Henry Nelson was a first-generation Canadian Jew whose family name was originally Katznelson. Unable to afford a university education, he went to work in Montreal’s aircraft industry, but in 1936, at the age of nineteen, he left a humdrum life on the ground to go to England, intent on becoming a pilot in the Royal Air Force.

He was among the few Canadians to be commissioned as a bomber pilot long before the war. On completing his training he was posted to 10 Squadron, one of Bomber Commands foremost units. Willie (as his family and friends called him) was also a fine athlete. He was captain of his bomber squadron’s team in Britain’s Modern Pentathlon competitions in 1938 and 1939. While stationed in Yorkshire, he met Marjorie McIntyre. Instantly smitten, they married days before the war began.

Nelson was one of the first Canadians to fly in combat over Germany, only days after the war began in 1939, and six months later he was on Bomber Command’s first bombing operation on Germany. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for determination and courage in battle, particularly in the Norwegian campaign, and so became the pride of Jewish Montreal, his image appearing on recruiting posters and his achievements publicized across Canada.

Stuart has enjoyed over 35 years in the aviation industry in a variety of roles, including Captain of Boeing and Airbus aircraft for a large UK airline. In 2011, Stuart began researching the story of his late father, Alan Green, who served as a Navigator with RAF Bomber Command in World War 2. His talk begins with his Alan’s early life in Coventry, followed by his RAF selection and initial training at RAF Cardington and on the south coast in Torquay, when he learns of the destruction of his home city in the biggest single raid on the UK in WW2 (November 1940). Extracts from an emotional letter to his parents are followed by details of his airborne training in Canada under the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. His return to the UK in 1941 sees completion of his training at various OCUs and his posting to 218 Squadron at Marham. Having covered his first mission in December 1941 on a Wellington, the focus turns to his 3 most notable missions of his 23 operations. The first is the infamous “Channel Dash” when 3 capital ships from the Kriegsmarine broke out from Brest and made their way back to Germany, despite the attention of the RAF and the Royal Navy. The next is a top-secret mission against the Skoda factory in Czechoslovakia, the only Bomber Command mission conducted with the help of ground forces. Having described Alan’s first bale out from a Stirling, which was the result of a “friendly fire” incident, the talk then covers his 3rd most notable mission, the 1st 1000 bomber raid on Cologne. Finally, there is detail on Alan’s second shoot down by a German night fighter over Holland in June 1942. After a period on the run assisted by Dutch farmers, we hear about Alan’s capture and subsequent time as a POW in Stalag Luft 3 along with his 2nd pilot, Des Plunkett, who had a major role in the Great Escape, as “mapmaker” and 13th man out of the tunnel.  To conclude, the talk describes the aftermath of the escape, the “Long March” of POWs and subsequent liberation thanks to the Russians.

Jack Waterfall is Heligoland39 Project Leader. Jack and co-authors Doug Aylward and Caroline Kesseler, have spent the last seven years finding the families and meticulously researching the background and fate of the one hundred and thirty crewmen who flew in the Battle of Heligoland Bight, the first named air battle of WW11.

It is a story to be told. In broad daylight, just seven days before Christmas, twenty-four 1c Wellington Bombers were dispatched from their stations in East Anglia and twenty-two flew into the sights of 200 battle hardened Luftwaffe on their approach to Wilhelmshaven, in bitterly cold winter weather conditions. The outcome was a thirty-minute baptism of fire that resulted in the loss of fifty-seven aircrew and half their bombers. Two Luftwaffe pilots perished that day. A disaster for the RAF.

This relatively small action and the story of those men is published in a six-hundred-page text, ‘Daylight to Darkness’. The book is not available to buy but is lodged for access in selected institutional libraries and education centres across the country including locally, at the International Bomber Command Centre, the University of Lincoln Digital Archive and Bishop Grosseteste University library.

The authors’ involvement was triggered by their personal connection to the loss of Wellington R3236 and its entire crew, three-days before the beginning of the Battle of Britain. It has become blatantly obvious that the crew’s commanders had not entirely learnt the lessons of seven months earlier. The deficiency in their bomber had not been addressed and the effect of Bomber Command’s change of policy from daylight missions to night operations was not fully understood.

The majority of the aircrew in those early days of the war were ordinary young men aged under 23. They came from families with no military connections. The frontline men leading them in the air were slightly older and benefited from flying experience within the RAF. The guidance they were able to give their senior commanders on the ground was crucial. Everyone was dicing with death and on a very steep learning curve.

Have we learnt any lessons as we witness the 110 modern conflicts raging around the globe today? Do modern generations understand the complexity of WW11? and Bomber Command’s controversial role in it? Which now has recognition due to the legacy of Tony Worth CVO and his vision to create the International Bomber Command Centre.

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

Relentless Skies - The Most Efficient Airman

Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett CB CBE DSO FRAeS is best known as the Australian commander of the Royal Air Force's elite Path Finder Force in the Second World War. His drive, determination and passion for excellence saw him play a principal role in prosecuting the bombing campaign against Nazi Germany.
Yet, the full story of his life has never been comprehensively explored. Few can recount his exploits as a pioneering aviator, or know why he was regarded as the most technically brilliant airman of his generation. Fewer still know the man's background, interests, passions and obsessions, or what drove him to his many aviation achievements.