Hugh Verity, an RAF fighter pilot and later a squadron pilot worked with the Special Operations Executive (SOE), carrying out missions to France. Flying the Westland Lysander, he completed 24 successful operations and 5 more in the Lockheed Hudson. Hugh’s work was vital to the war effort, involving the secret transportation of agents into France and back to the UK. When asked about memorable experiences, Hugh explained he made it his business to not make any. He recalls harrowing stories of his predecessors, one ambushed on the ground in Belgium. But while German forces remained the obvious threat, Hugh tells us that his greatest adversaries as a pilot were fog and mud. The elements made landing on fields extremely difficult and dangerous. Some pilots had no choice to leave their aircraft’s which had sank into the ground. Hugh does recall one significantly tumultuous journey due to fog. Hugh proudly covers his time in the war, talking of the ability of the Lysander, weather challenges, and meeting secret agents he had previously piloted during the war. Hugh’s story captures the intense, clandestine work of RAF pilots working to insert and extract agents in France. For his military efforts Hugh was recognised and decorated for gallantry five times.

Bob was in Birmingham when it was bombed during WW2. A love of flying from an early age led him to join the RAF toward the end of the war and he was assigned to Coastal Command. He learned to fly the Sunderland, a four-engine flying boat, but before his training finished, he was sent to Berlin to assist with the Airlift. After qualifying as a pilot, he was assigned to Hamburg on the River Elbe where his squadron assisted in supplying Berlin with food and household goods. On their return trips they sometimes brought back malnourished children for care, as well as German export goods. He saw the Russians as confrontational, while relations were thawing with the Germans. During the period of the Airlift there was no leave for his squadron, but they were close to the centre of Hamburg where they could relax in the evenings. He thought that the Airlift was an important event but that the role of the Sunderland squadrons has received insufficient attention. After further overseas duties his squadron was assigned to Korea where war had just broken out. He flew coastal patrols, aiding the US navy in their search for enemy submarines. The Malayan Insurgency was also occurring during this time and the Sunderlands also helped the British army in their battle against communist guerrillas.  On leaving the RAF he spent many years as a flying instructor with various air forces in the Middle East before taking final retirement in 1976.

Even though Michael was in a protected occupation he joined the RAF as soon as possible. He trained as a flight engineer and was assigned to a Halifax bomber squadron, aged eighteen, in 1942. On their ninth flight the crew had to bail out over Britain due to lack of fuel. His parachute malfunctioned and did not initially open. It opened just in time and he went to a nearby farm. The rest of the crew thought he had been killed. His aircraft flew several sorties for Special Operations Executive, dropping agents into occupied France before D-Day. These missions were at low altitude and attracted a lot of fire from German light anti-aircraft guns. Many of the shells went right through the Halifax without causing too much damage. Eventually Michael and his crew completed a ‘tour’ of forty missions, although this took a toll on him, especially when he would notice some of beds in the barracks had not been slept in, meaning that those men were not returning. Michael was often physically sick at the start of a mission and kept a tin in the plane for this purpose. During his tour he went to see the base Medical Officer (MO) and said that he was not feeling well, to which the MO replied that it was Lack of Moral Fibre. Michael told him to f*** o** and just left. Michael wonders that, if there is a God, why he let all the killing of the war take place.