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… but before I left I was given the opportunity of flying over the German cities devastated by Bomber Command. Not to many WAAF Officers had this privilege and I am far as I can remember only Val (Intelligence) and myself (Signals) went from Binbrook. We flew in a Lancaster Bomber piloted by Sqd Ldr Frank Lawrence and crew. He was from Maryborough Qld, and I have met him again at Sqdn Reunions since.
Val came in when I was asleep one morning and shook me and said “Do you want to have a trip over Germany?”. I was in my clothes (pants and Battle-Top-Tunic) like a shot and without breakfast out to the plane Frank told me to position myself behind him (no parachute!) so I did and had a wonderful view as we
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took off and made for Holland flying in over the Zuider Zee marshes. We went first of all to the Ruhr Valley in Germany – Essen –
Then we followed the River Rhine down south as far as Wiesbaden. Everywhere was devastation. As I looked down out of the pilot’s windows I could see little “banks” of people slowly moving about. In the cities it seemed as if every building had no roof – just 3 or 4 walls standing and rubble, rubble everywhere. How Germany recovered I cannot imagine, yet she did recover and recovered to be one of the major powers in Europe. There are no victors in war. To me it seems it was the end of Britain and the beginning of the Great industrial might and wealth of Japan and Germany. The individuals who are devastated, tortured, maimed orphaned and killed are soon forgotten on both sides. I often sat to Henry that if there is another war – young people will not offer themselves as they did in WWI and WWII. He says they will – but I doubt it very much. There are too many records both written and visual today to remind us of the uselessness of war.
When we got to Wiesbaden Frank changed course and we flew back over France the S.E. and Central areas of the country which presented a very different sight. We looked out on calm rivers – green forests and rolling country fields. Then on north and up the North Sea and back to Binbrook. About lunch
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time when we were still flying I said to Frank “Any lunch” and he gave me a Mars bar. I was horrified – a Mars bar for lunch! I thought there would be sandwiches and coffee and fruit – but no! By this time my legs were tiring of standing and there seemed to be a black curtain behind me with a protruding little ledge. After a while I eased my bottom onto this ledge and reminded there for the rest of the flight. It was nice and warm.
Eventually we landed sometime in the afternoon. I don’t know how long it had lasted but it seemed about 6 hours or so and when I tried to stand up and get out of the plane my legs seemed not to work properly and I felt as if I had done a very hard days work and I needed my bed and fast!
