A Versatile crew

Heroes Remember

A Versatile crew

Transcript

In our Wellington aircraft we carried three wireless operator, radar operators. As I started to say, the radar operator could only man the radar for about twenty minutes because of eye strain. So when he had done his first twenty minutes, actually it, it was closer to half an hour, about half an hour on the radar he would switch with the wireless operator and he would be on the radio then for half an hour, while this wireless operator was on the radar, then they'd switch back. So now the radar operator for the second shift, would have had one hour on the radar. When he had completed that one hour, he would switch with the tail gunner. He'd go back to the tail gunner and the tail gunner would come ahead and go on the radar and then he'd switch with the wireless operator again and back and forth a couple of times. And once again, the man who had been on the radar on two shifts would go back to the tail turret and the man on the tail turret would come forward to the radar. So it was, all night long, it was a rotating shift procedure and we left it up, strictly up to the radar man to say when. And if, for some reason or another, he started slipping by and it was getting to be thirty-five or forty minutes. Somebody would say "Hey! Time to shift",or you know, some such thing and they would.

Description

Mr. Allen discusses the shared responsibilities of the members of his air crew.

Bruce Allen

Mr. Allen was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1923. His father worked in the foreign service of the Royal Bank, and returned to Toronto, Ontario, in 1930. Mr. Allen enlisted at the age of eighteen, completed basic training, and shipped overseas to England where he joined 172 Squadron, Coastal Command. His wartime experience involved convoy protection and submarine patrol. After returning to Canada, Mr. Allen pursued a career in various facets of television broadcasting. He remains very interested in Veterans' issues, and belongs to several Veterans organizations; 403 Sarnia Wing Air Force Association, Royal Canadian Legion, Veterans Club of Sarnia, and the Bomber Command Association.

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