In His Own Words

A few years before his death, Roy wrote down a few of his memories for his grandson who was doing a school project. This was written by Roy with the aim that children could understand it, but it gives an interesting insight straight from the man himself.

What Was It Like To Be A Bomber Pilot In World War II?
By Roy Calvert

Firstly I must stress the importance of training - no one is of much use until they are thoroughly qualified for the job they are asked to do - and that applies to every occupation. Even in war time, in Bomber Command, pilots were not asked to go into action against the Enemy until they not only could fly their aircraft safely and well but also knew how to cope in case of emergency such as engine failure, fire or other damage to the plane.

In my case it took 18 months from the time I joined the Air Force to the time I was posted to an Operational Squadron in England. I was six months in N.Z. doing elementary flying training on Tiger Moths and Airspeed Oxfords - the rest of the time in England doing Navigational training and learning to fly Wellington and Manchester aircraft. We did a lot of cross-country flying all over England, Scotland and Wales by night. There being a total black-out of course, except for flashing beacons usually near aerodromes which flashed a Morse code signal for which we had charts, giving us our position.

In daylight of course it was no great problem; the maps were so good. They had almost every detail marked on them - all roads, raliway, even small patches of bush and anything else of note. Some aircrew from Canada, America or Australia found it difficult for a while as they had been used to wide open spaces and towns with their lights on which you could see miles away.

Our navigation in 1942 was quite primitive by today's standards - it was called D.R. (Dead Reckoning). You flew on a certain course which had been adjusted for compass error and a given wind velocity and direction - then as you received a "Fix" of your position you were able to get a new wind direction and so fly an adjusted course in order to get to your objective. As time went on and we received better navigational aids (Radar) we could even bomb through 10/10 cloud (total cloud cover) until Germany found a counter to it. If the sky was reasonably clear it was quite easy to pick out rivers - even from a great height - especially if there was some moon showing.

Before every operational flight we would first of all have a short flight to test our plane to make sure everything was working satisfactorily - the engines to make sure you had maximum revolutions for take-off; and the hydraulics O.K. for rotating the gun turrets, etc.

We would then have a meal, probably bacon or sausages and eggs, and go to a briefing for the whole crew. We would be told the target for the night - and the reason for it. It might be an arms factory; an industrial centre; railway junction; flying bomb site; shipping; laying mines at low level - anywhere throughout Europe. We would be told where all the heavily defended places were on our route, especially close to the target and the weather expected over target and when we got back to base.

My first two Operational trips on 50 Squadron were taken with experienced pilots to give me confidence over enemy territory I suppose, but they were easy ones as things turned out. We were flying Manchesters, which were really twin-engined Lancasters - the "Vulture" engines had not been sufficiently tested and did not produce the power they were designed to do. Also they had a reputation of being liable to catch on fire. My third trip was my first as Captain of aircraft. We went to "Le Mans" in France dropping leaflets -which was quite common at that stage of the war - mainly to inform the French people what was going on in the world outside and to combat German propaganda.

A heavy bomber crew consisted of seven members: Pilot, Navigator, Flight Engineer, Bomb Aimer, Wireless Operator, Mid-Upper Gunner and Rear Gunner.

My fourth trip was a different proposition - it was the first 1,000 bomber attack on Cologne on May 30th, 1942, and we were loaded with incendiaries. There was no mistaking our target as we made our run in to bomb at 9,000 ft. The city was ringed with searchlights and stood out clearly on a bend of the river Rhine, and was well alight as we dropped our load. The next moment our starboard engine burst into flames. In a slight dive to clear the area quickly I pressed the fire extinguisher button for that engine and fortunately the fire went out.

I then feathered the airscrew which turned the blades edge on to the slipstream thereby reducing drag. I found I could not maintain my height with the port engine doing as many revs. as I dared let it do - we had a long way to go. I decided to try the starboard engine again - to see if I could get a little help from it - but it immediately burst into flames again. So I shut it down again and refeathred the airscrew.

Then I told the crew to put their parachutes on ready to abandon the aircraft if necessary and to throw anything movable overboard. We gradually lost height and crossed the coast about 200 ft up, determined to get back to England. We then entered low filmy cloud so I asked the gunners to get rid of their guns and ammunition. We were now down to 100 ft. I closed the radiator flaps - giving us extra speed and climbed up to 200 ft. The engine overheated so i opened the flaps and the engine cooled down as we gradually came down to 100 ft again.

I kept repeating that process all the way the Channel until we arrived in the Thames Estuary. We were getting lighter in fuel and on arriving over land once more received extra lift and I found I could even climb without the engine overheating. We dropped down at Tempsford aerodrome and an inspection showed a piece of shrapnel had burst the coolant pipe and Glycol, which has alcohol in it, in contact with a hot engine had been the cause of our fire.

Incidentally my Navigator on the trip was Terry Taerum, a Canadian who later flew with Guy Gibson on the Dams raids.

Shortly after this trip we converted onto the four-engined Lancaster with Rolls Royce Merlin engines. A relaible and beautiful aircraft to fly.

The foregoing will give you some idea of the life of a Bomber Pilot. Operational trips were unpredictable - you could strike trouble on your first trip just as easily as your last one. Bomber Command decided that 30 trips consisted a tour of operations, then crews were stood down for a rest and were then posted to a training squadron to pass on their experience to new crews. Quite a number of pilots decided after some months of instructing that it was almost as dangerous as being on operations and applied to go back on operations again. A second tour was supposed to be for about 20 trips. I was fortunate enough to do 33 trips on my first tour and 26 on my second. So you see I was very lucky to survive as we ranged over the whole of Europe bombing targets in Germany, Italy and France.

My first tour of ops was in 1942 and it was fairly free and easy in those days. Owing to the smaller number of aircraft involved we were able to choose our own height and direction over the target and the route over and back was not critical as long as you stayed clear of heavily defended areas. In 1944 on my second tour conditions had changed dramatically - the numbers of aircraft involved had quadrupled. The danger of collision was high so every squadron was given a height (within 300 ft) a certain time (within 3 mins.) ove rthe target, and a definite course to fly on. The variation in height for 500 to 800 a/c would be about 17,000 to 21,000 ft, and would apply to targets such as Hamburg or Berlin, etc.

I have just had a request from a Historian for further information so I must get on with it. I hope this will serve your purpose and i appreciate your interest in the subject.

Well, this interesting article certainly has served a purpose here, even though it was not this project that the essay was written for. Thanks to Mrs may Calvert for kindly allowing Roy's essay to be used here.