Peter Langstaff.

25/9/42
Well, I have passed out as a Sgt A/G at Manby and I hope I shall soon be on Ops flying. Up to now I have seen no thrill in flying but I expect I still have that to come. One day we had to use the reserve oil pump as the undercarriage wouldn’t come down; also we didn’t know if the wheels were locked and we were told to get ready for a crashed landing and still I wasn’t bothered. Anyway the undercarriage was locked and we made a perfect landing.

26/9/42
I have just heard that six of us are going to 29 OTU North Luffenham and also that it is in Lincolnshire which suits me. It seems the leave we all hoped for will only be three days so we are all rather disappointed.

29/9/42
Well we have arrived at Luffenham and it seems a quite decent place. The food is good and we have decent sleeping quarters. Tomorrow we have to go for a lecture at 9.30 am, I think it is to get crewed-up. Yes, I was right, we were all mixed up, Pilots, Nav, BA, WO/AG, A/G and we can decide amongst ourselves who we go with. Today I have spoken with nearly everybody and now I have got crewed-up. Pilot Sgt Sharp, Nav Sgt Dash, BA Sgt Humphris, WO/AG Sgt Morris and myself. To start the ball rolling we all went to the ‘local’ - we were all soon the best of friends.

2/10/42
I thought we had finished training when we left Manby but it seems we have to do some more here. The lectures are getting me down. I had a chance to stay at Manby and have another course and be an instructor but I couldn’t stick the lectures and I want to get on Ops – (I wonder what I shall think of them when I start).

25/10/42
I have had a shock today. A crew on our course were taking off and they got the speed up to 90 mph but the kite wouldn’t take to the air and they went through a hedge, over a dyke and finished up in a field. Two of them were slightly injured but it was nothing serious, but to see the kite you would wonder how they got out alive. When I heard about it, it ‘shook’ me; I don’t know why unless it was because I knew all the lads in the kite.

27/10/42
Our Pilot has been ‘solo’ today and he made some good take offs and landings, but I was glad every time we got off the deck. (I was thinking of the kite which crashed yesterday.)

30/10/42
We have made some more good take offs and landings and it doesn’t bother me at all now.

7/11/42
Today we have been on a X-country and most of the way we flew about 6,000’; it is surprising how clearly we can see roads, railways and buildings from that height. I quite enjoyed this trip and I seem to want to fly more every day.

8/11/42
Today we have been practice bombing at Wainfleet Flat, we went over Boston and I could pick out a lot of the streets from 4,000’ and we were doing about 160 mph.

9/11/42
We have been on a Cine Gun exercise today, a Spitfire attacks us and we have a shoot at it with a camera gun. It was quite good fun, I could do with more of it.

10/11/42
I saw the film of the shots I took yesterday and they are quite good (so I am told).

15/11/42
Today we have been on a Cine Gun exercise again and we had about two and a half hrs altogether, I really enjoy this.

16/11/42
I saw my films today and they are again quite good. This afternoon we did some air-firing and I fired 1,000 rounds and managed to get 8%, which is very good. The last course’s average was well below this.

24/11/42
We have been on a X-country today and it took 4hrs 15 mins. I was quite tired when we got back and fed up.

30/11/42
Another long X-country today, nearly 6 hrs this time. I was more than fed up, after about two hrs I came out of my turret and went to sleep on the bed. I suppose I should have stopped in to get used to the long trips as most of the Ops will be from 5 to 9 hrs.

8/12/42
We have arrived at Bruntingthorpe today to do our night circuits and landings as all our flying has been in the daytime up to now.

9/12/42
No flying for us tonight as the weather is u/s. I hope we soon get out of this place as our food is awful and we sleep in tin huts.

12/12/42
We managed to get just over an hour flying last night. It’s queer flying at night. If the Pilot banks slightly and you don’t know, you can see lights in the sky (or you think you can) and you begin to wonder what is going to happen.

20/12/42
Well, we are back at Luffenham again and last night we went on a X-country for nearly 4 hrs. It wasn’t too bad but I was cold and came out of my turret.

24/12/42
Another crash - the same crew, except the Pilot. This time they were landing and didn’t get inline with the flarepath. The Pilot was killed and two of the crew were injured. The Pilot would have been 21 tomorrow and so the young lads die while half of Britain still thinks of war as play.

28/12/42
I must say I felt a bit shaky when we came in to land tonight but I expect I shall soon get over it again.

29/12/42
We have been on another X-country and we had to land at Wyton as the weather was too bad at base. We had to make several attempts to land before we got down, but we made a good landing.

30/12/42
We returned from Wyton today. My pal who was the gunner in both the crashes has decided to give it up. I don’t blame him if he doesn’t feel too good about it, as he says he is frightened to take off and he is frightened all the time they are flying until they land.

Well the time has come when we have to leave Luffenham and we shall have to go to a Conversion Unit as we are going on Lancasters now, which is what I wanted. All the same. I am sorry to lose the Wellington (Wimpy) and she is and always will be the ‘Queen of the Air’.

We have now got nine days leave and I shall make the most of it. After going back to Luffenham we have to report to Barkston for an Aircrew Commando Course. The course was only for seven days so it wasn’t too bad, but it was enough to make us tired every night.

Manchesters at Wigsley. What a place, what a dump! We are treated like pigs here. Food awful, billets dirty and miles to walk to the ‘drome. We have started on Manchesters and our Pilot hasn’t got on too well with them. I think they are too heavy for him.

26/2/43
Today we landed and bounced about 40’ into the air, so they opened the throttle and we went round again. This happened three times today.

28/2/43
Today we did some air firing in the Wash. I fired about 600 rounds into the water. What a waste this is. If we had something to fire at it would be OK but to fire into the sea! The Home Guard are only allowed about 5 rounds to practise with.

6/3/43
Fighter Affiliation - this is good stuff. A fighter comes to attack us and we tell the Pilot a certain way to turn so the fighter misses us but we can swing our turrets round and catch him as he goes by.

20/3/43
We had a narrow ‘do’ today: we were taking off and we swung off the runway at about 70 mph and we only just missed a gun position on the drome - a few yards the other way and I shouldn’t be writing this now. We managed to get off OK the next time; everything went OK and we have finished on Manchesters.

When I was away the Crew were started on Lancasters and they told me the Pilot made some good landings - which surprised me!

8/3/43
We have been on a X-country today at 20,000 ft and we could see the details on the ground quite well; in fact we went over 600 miles by simply picking out rivers, roads, and towns and finding them on the map.

10/3/43
We have made one or two bad landings but nothing serious. We are about finished here and we are going to 61 Sqn at Syerston.

We have finished here but we are not going to 61 Sqn now, we were to be posted to Waddington 44 Sqn. This Sqn has a good record and was one of the first to have Lancasters. Also Sqn Ldr Nettleton VC is there, who flew on the Augsburg raid.

19/3/43
Waddington. What I have been waiting for has now come into being - on a squadron. This is the place where everybody looks up to the aircrew because they know the danger they go through. We aren’t sneered at here and called the ‘Brylcream Boys’. I wonder how many of the people who call us that would fly in a plane - not many. Wg Cdr Nettleton is our OC and he seems a decent chap, regardless of what I have heard of him.

20/3/43
We have to do two X-countries here before we go on Ops and we went on our first one today. We made a pretty bad landing but it wasn’t the Pilots fault as
we hit a bump on the drome and we bounced into the air again.

23/3/43
Yes, it has happened, you may say what! Well I have been expecting to crash for a bit now and it has happened. We came in to land after a X-country and the Pilot levelled out when we were about 40 or 50’ above the deck and as he thought he was only a few feet above the deck, he cut the motors and we dropped like a stone. No one was hurt, except me. I got a knock on my lip which made it three times the normal size, but if I hadn’t been ready I would have been knocked out. The starboard undercarriage broke and landed on top of the wing, the port inner engine broke off and just missed my turret. To save a lot of writing the kite was wrecked and it’s a wonder any of us got out alive.

24/3/43
The MO has put me unfit for flying for 3 or 4 days ,which suits me. The OC has decided to send us back to Wigsley to do some more circuits and landings and he thinks the Pilot needs some more practice! I shall not go as I am not to fly.

29/3/43
The rest of the crew have arrived back from Wigsley and they say the Pilot made some good landings. But what was the use of them going back there as it is a lot easier landing on concrete runways, and our ’drome is grass?

31/3/43
Today we went to the Wash to do some air-firing. On the way back we went over home. We are on a X- country again tonight.

1/4/43
We had to land at Linton in Yorkshire last night as the weather was very bad. When we arrived in their mess they were having a party and the beer was free, which suited our crew. Tonight we are going to do some circuits and landings to get used to the ‘drome.

2/4/43
The landings we made last night were pretty good. Today we did some more Fighter Affiliation.

3/4/43
Last night we did some more circuits and landings. When we were taking off one time we swung to port (left) and came off the runway but we managed to get the machine stopped. ‘Very shaky do.’

4/4/43
This afternoon we did an NFT (Night Flying Test) as we are going on Ops tonight on Kiel.

5/4/43
Ops! We took off at 9.06 pm with a bomb load of one 4,000 bomb, or ‘Cookie’ as we call them, and 96 x 30lb bombs. We gained height over the drome and set course at 9.30. Then we climbed most of the way over the North Sea until we reached 18,000’. “Flak to starboard” somebody shouted! I thought I would have a look at it as I have never seen an AA shell. I swung my turret round, but was disappointed as I couldn’t see any. I very soon got a rude awakening as flack was bursting all around us. It was a grand sight but I was a bit nervous - not frightened. I saw several Lancs.around us as I was looking for fighters. The cloud was at 10,000’ so the searchlight couldn’t get at us, although it was as light as day above the clouds. When we dropped our bombs we gave her full power to get away from the target. I could still see a red glow about 100 miles away, so somebody’s bombs hit the target. 565 aircraft went and 12 were missing. (5hrs 34 min.)

6/4/43
Today I flew for 20 mins with Wg Cdr. Nettleton VC. Afterwards we went to the Wash to do some air firing. On the way back we flew over home three times.

8/4/43
We did a NFT today and flew over home again.

9/4/43
We are not flying again tonight and all the rest of the crew have gone to Lincoln. I suppose they will come back drunk. I cannot see what they get out of it but still, we never know what is going to happen and I suppose they are having their fun while they have got the chance.

10/4/43
We are flying again tonight, or I should say in the morning as we are due to take off after midnight.

11/4/43
We went to Frankfurt and it was another decent trip, although it was failure really as the target was covered with 10/10 cloud. I had my nearest escape from death when we were taxying out. We were just off the track waiting to take off when an aircraft behind tried to get in front of us so our Pilot swung our kite to stop him. With swinging our kite, the tail-end swung round and I missed the props of the other kite by about 2 or 3 feet ! Another move and I would have been cut in thousands of pieces. That really shook me; in fact I was frightened for quite a long time after. We didn’t see any flak until we were nearly up to the target and most of it was only coming up to 12.000’. We were at 15,000’ but had one or two bursts quite near. There were plenty of searchlights but they couldn’t get at us as there was thick cloud about. After we left the target we climbed

up to 21,000’ so that when we got to the fighter belt we could put the nose down to get plenty of speed on. Anyway we didn’t see any fighters at all.

585 aircraft went and 18 were missing. We took 1x 4,000lb and 9 x 30lb bombs. 5hrs 48 mins.

12/4/43
Today we did some practice bombing at Wainfleet Flats. We should have been on Ops tonight but the weather is u/s so it has been scrubbed.

13/4/43
We are on Ops tonight and our target is in Italy. We are to bomb their fleet (if it’s there) to try and stop them staging a ‘Dunkirk’ out of N Africa. Our target is Spezia.

14/4/43
Our time for take-off was 8.43, which was daylight. The Pilot got the speed up to 45 mph when his foot slipped off the rudder bar! Anyway he got it back and kept the throttle open and we just managed to get off the deck at the end of the runway. That was a ‘near do’.

It was still light when we got to the French coast and we had to be careful of fighters. So, as we were at 15,000’, we put the nose down slightly to get plenty of speed on (190 mph). When we were past the fighter belt we were down to 5,000’ so we kept there for about another mile or so and then we had to climb to get over the Alps. After ‘stooging’ along I saw the moon reflecting on the sea, so I told the Nav and he said we should still have about 50 miles to go before we came to the sea. So we kept going but I could still see the water. We were supposed to look for some green flares which were going to be dropped over the target by some machines which went early. This would help the kites which were off-track to see the target. We didn’t see anything at all so we guessed we must be miles off track, so we turned slightly to port so we were bound to find Italy sometime.

By this time we were all getting worried as we only just had enough petrol for the return journey. It seemed ages after when we came to land, so we followed the land to the north. After about ten more miles we could see flak bursting ahead. Also we could see fires, so we made straight for it. It must have been about 60 miles further north from us so you can guess how far we had been. In fact when we retraced our track later we must have gone over Corsica! When we got to the target we were getting all the flak at us, as we were the only ones on the target and were an hour late. We didn’t see any ships so we decided to bomb the building near the dock. We were down to 8,000’ so we could see everything quite well and the dock and town were one mass of fire. The dock front for about five miles was one big red glow and the fires reached about four miles inland. In fact everything there was burning. Just on the outside of the town were some big hills about 1700’ high. Somebody had dropped their fire bombs there and they were one mass of fire from top to bottom, so we guessed they must have been covered in heather.

All of a sudden a searchlight got us and we were getting flak all around us, so we weaved about, put the nose down and finally managed to get out. It’s a wonder we weren’t shot down as we had been flying straight and level. After we left there we found we had been over Turin! So the Nav found out how far we had drifted off course owing to the strong wind, from the target to Turin and then he allowed for it on our way back. Then we knew how we got lost going. The winds were blowing a lot stronger than we were told and it blew us starboard off track. We were at 4,500’ when we saw a mountain loom up in front of us and we had to go round it. Most people think they are pretty but we all thought how grim and barren they looked. We got over them alright and began to take things easy again as we were being careful with the petrol as we used a lot when we were getting out of the defences over Turin.

After an endless time we came to the French coast and were we glad! We had just enough petrol left to make for the nearest drome in England and we landed with the arrow pointing to empty on the fuel clock. I have never felt the air so fresh as when I got out of the kite. For one thing the drome was near the coast, another we had been flying 10 hours and also we all doubted getting back. 208 aircraft went and only 3 were missing. 10 hrs 3 mins.

15/4/43
Today we did some air firing in the Wash. We passed over Bolingbroke and I saw mother come out into the yard and wave but we didn’t go round again; we wanted our lunch as it was then 1.00 pm.

17/4/43
Another long trip, this time to Pilsen, which is in Czechoslovakia. We took off at 9.25. We swung off the runway on take off but managed to get straightened out. We were at 20,000’ before we got to the French coast so we put the nose down to get bags of speed to cross the fighter belt with. After we crossed the fighter belt we climbed up again to 15,000’. We were to starboard of track when we got over Germany. We passed over a town and had bags of flak pumped up at us, some of it was coming pretty close to be comfortable. Shortly afterwards we saw a kite, which looked as if one of its engines was on fire, then we saw him drop his bomb load and turn back. About 4 mins later we saw the kite burst into flames and fall into the deck but I think the crew had plenty of time to bale out.

From there on we had a pretty decent trip. When we got to the target we came down to 7,500’; by this time the target was well-ablaze. We saw several kites around the target and we nearly hit one of them. Just as we had dropped our bombs they started pumping medium flak at us and it was coming very near. In fact I could hear it burst; anyway we managed to get away alright. On the way back we could see flak bursting either side of us so we used to weave round the towns. When we got back to France we decided to come back at 0 feet, as the moon was as light as day and we would have been an easy prey for fighters. As we passed over villages we could see them putting on the lights and pulling the curtains back and opening the doors to let the light show out. I don’t know why they do it unless they think they are helping us.

When we got to within 50 miles of the French coast we decided to go up to 10,000’ as there are a lot of defences on the coast. We made a good landing and we were just about out of fuel again. 356 aircraft went, 37 are missing. The same night 241 aircraft went to Mannheim and 18 are missing, making a total of 597 aircraft and 55 missing. 9 hrs 33 mins - none of ours missing.

44 (Rhodesia) Squadron aircrew 1943