Description
While approaching Hamburg, their bombing site, they where called off as the Canadian troops pushed into the city.
Rev Jack Western
Mr. Western was born on July 20, 1923, in Bradford, England. His father, a businessman, sold coal but due to the UK General Strike of 1926 switched to selling fresh vegetables. Mr. Western joined the Royal Air Force with the intention of becoming a pilot partially because of the stories he had heard from First World War pilots. Unfortunately, he was unable to become a pilot due to the requirement for a high level of mathematical skills. As a result he became a tail gunner and flew 22 missions before the war ended. After the war Mr. Western became a police officer. He lost his leg while he was the police chief and went on to serve as a civilian in police services for a total of 20 years. For the next 28 years he worked as a court administrator and also as a Justice of the Peace for the Province of Ontario. When he retired in 1995 he became a pastor. He currently resides in Sarnia, Ontario.
Transcript
We went to the target in Hamburg and we started the run-up and as we start the run-up, the bomb aimer's counting down "Ten, nine, eight, seven..." He gets to six or five and a voice comes over the intercom, outer intercom because you're out, you're tuned outside as well, from the master bomber. "Whitewash, whitewash, whitewash, everybody whitewash, whitewash." And that was a scrub, don't drop your bombs, get the hell out. So we just simply peeled away and went away. What had happened, the Canadians got in, alright, at the time we were there, as we were approaching the Canadians were in there and then, they were recalled or pushed out or driven out and the second lot that went in were Halifaxers. And they dropped, they bombed. But we were stuck with no bomb... with still the bombs and the instructions were, we had to come all the way back to the North Sea and drop the bombs in the North Sea. What a waste, you know, for us. After seeing your buddies get the chop. And we were flying over a town and it was 12 noon, nice sunny day. And right below us, you see this big factory and all the people are coming out. It's 12 noon, lunch time. A bomb aimer fell in the bomb compartment and pushed the button by mistake. I don't know how the bomb aimer... bomb doors happened to be open at the time but he said, he accidentally pushed the bomb button. We lost another factory but we had to come back and say we dropped them in the North Sea! "Did you drop you bombs in the...? " "Yes, yes, we dropped them in the North Sea."