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Came Boxing Day and I did Duty Signals officer for the first time.
Gilly – the Station Signals officer had taken me to several Ops Briefings and we sat and listened as the various specialist officers told the assembled crews what the target would be – the speed to travel – the route – the hazards of guns or balloons etc – the weather etc etc take-off time and so on.
All Wireless Operators were provided with the call-signs of the day etc and the necessary information for that flight.
Later, as they landed and came to interrogation, they were questioned as a crew together and then the wireless operators would come to the Signals officer and be de-briefed again.
So, I went to briefing and then later – in the middle of the night to do de-briefing. Most Wireless operators were young – some younger than me. One young guy I de-briefed that night was in trembling shock. They had been attacked by fighters on the way back and their Flight-Engineer killed
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He kept saying to me that the plane had holes all over it just like a colander (a strainer).
If I wasn’t involved in this side of de-briefing I used to hand out hot coffee and cigarettes and a tot of rum to returning crews. Dee Delius would wake me up in the middle of the night and we would go up to the de-briefing hut together and give out hot drinks until the crews were landed.
They came in like browns cows. F/O Olley always wanted to get back first and often did. As the crews landed the surname of the pilot was written up on a board. One night all names were up except Baskerville. Harry Ellis (the wireless op) was the first to come for his coffee and I just about blew his head off. Who did he think he was … etc etc. But they were down and they were safe. Apparently there had been some mix-up with the velocity of the wind and their ground speed was much slower than they realized. A hazardous situation – but all was well.
