Lancaster Bomber Crew Intercom Talk

[AlexP]

Ian,

Very sorry to hear about your dad, wish I’d stumbled across these recording earlier so that you could have shared them with him. :-(

Thank-you very much for sharing the photo of your dad’s cousin and crew. You’re right, it really does add wonderfully to the recordings.

Peter,

Sounds like you have a cracking sound card and speakers to hear the recording so clearly. May I ask what set up you’re using?

Alex

[TSR2]

Very sorry to hear about the loss of you Dad. Thanks very much for taking the time to share his photographs. We really do have it easy these days don't we.

[Filonian]

Sorry to hear of your sad loss Ian. Sincere condolences.

Thanks for sharing the picture.

Graham

[Techy111]

My thoughts are with you Ian......And what a thought provoking photo....

Hold your head up high mate.....

Tony

[speedbird591]

Gentlemen, thank you for your kind words, it's good of you all to think of me. I know he was very old and was ready to go and had had a good life and his ashes have been scattered in a beautiful spot with fantastic views and with those of the love of his life etc. But I still miss him.

Anyway, if you'll indulge me a wee bit more, here's another iconic photo of Teddy dated 1940. The bike is a Triumph Tiger 80 and ironically I acquired one of these as my first bike in 1962. I remember telling Uncle Jack, Teddy's father and he took me down to his shed and showed me Teddy's bike, still sitting there where it had been since his death. Jack couldn't bear to part with it, but it was in poor condition and he gave it to me for spares.


Going back to Dad. I found this photo amongst his stuff.

On the back it says 'First Flight 1932'. In his memoirs he writes that his first flight was in an Avro at an air show at Hamsey Green Warlingham. The operator was Alan Cobham's Air Circus and Dad's big brother treated him to the flight which cost 7/6d (38p). Obviously I couldn't be with him on that flight but I was on his last flight in 2001, when he accompanied me on a working trip to San Francisco at the age of 85. 69 years later. His last flight was on a BA747-400 and the Captain invited him on to the flight deck for landing both at SFO and LHR. His first memory was of a Zeppelin raid on Croydon and being carried by his mother to shelter in the cellar of Croydon Fire Station where his father was a fireman. He remembered the all-clear being sounded by a soldier with a football rattle sitting in the turret of an armoured car. He also remembers seeing the R33 moored at Croydon aerodrome and he also saw the ill-fated R101 passing over Surrey in moonlight at 10pm on its last flight.

Anyway, thanks again. Still got dozens of cigar boxes of photos to go through so there may be some more of interest later! Bless him!

Ian

[DanKH]

What wonderful pictures!

I miss my father too sometimes although it is about 30 years since he took off. Guess it'll never really let go, but fortunately it goes into the nice memory area of the "Hard-disc"

Amazing that your dad has almost lived through the whole era of aviation There is quite a leap between his first flight and his last, aircraft-wise! ;-)

Do post some more as you find them!

[DispatchDragon]

Grand Stuff Ian

There must have been something about RAF lads and motorcycles back then - Somewhere my mum has a photo
very much like that - even down to the the white aircrew candidate flash- my old man had already adopted the "top
button undone" style, something that apparently got him on jankers a couple of times . The 504 is a wonderful
picture - I knew Cobham used Ns but had never seen a photo of one of his . I have a beautiful framed 504K pen and ink
drawing in bright red, that belonged to my father (the drawing not the aeroplane) this particular K used to do 5 bob
a flip rides at Blackpool flying off the beach there.


memories are a wonderful thing

Leif

[jonesey2k]

Pilot: "I could do with a pint"

[nazca_steve]

Absolutely stirling pics and memories there, Ian , thanks a lot for sharing at this difficult time. Sounds like your Dad had quite a life and makes a lot of ours seem pale in comparison! Quite hard to live up to the milestones he saw but you keep all those memories alive through places like this. I did listen to the Lanc bomber talk, in fact passed it around the office to certain friends who were suitably impressed. In someways the laconic nature of their transmissions reminds me a bit of the 'Green Leader' transmissions from Rhodesia that you can hear on You Tube (Sean K knows all about that).

[petermcleland]

Peter,

Sounds like you have a cracking sound card and speakers to hear the recording so clearly. May I ask what set up you’re using?

Alex,

Nothing really special but my sound card is the SB Audigy 2 ZS and I was listening through wireless headphones by "ARKON" with just basic sound and no effects applied