John spent part of his childhood in Canada but later he returned to Britain and joined the RAF as an apprentice aged fifteen. When war broke out he volunteered as aircrew and was posted to Canada for training. He enjoyed this, partly because there was no food rationing. After finishing he was sent to Egypt to ferry aircraft, such as the Martin Marauder and the Bristol Beaufighter, to India. These trips took three to four days. After the start of the Airlift, in October 1948, he was sent to Germany as a relief crew and based in Lübeck. From here he flew Dakotas (C-47s) to Gatow in Berlin, often two or three round trips a day. The cargo was sometimes coal and one of the American air traffic people composed a ditty: “C-47 with a blackened soul, Bound for Lübeck with a load of coal.” Coming into land one night at Lübeck the weather was bad, with rain and dense fog. Under these conditions the radar did not work well. When he descended through the cloud cover, he realised that they were too low and the underside of the Dakota hit some trees and, despite trying to fly up and away the plane crashed. He dislocated his shoulder, and someone pulled him out of the burning aircraft. A mother and child onboard died, as did his co-pilot. He recuperated but it was two years before he could fly again and after a while he could only fly as second pilot.

Leo Hatcher shares his memories as a young Royal Air Force (RAF) conscript in 1947 aged eighteen. With an older brother already in the RAF as an engine fitter, Leo was inspired to do the same. He instead became an airframe technician, or ‘rigger’, on the Sunderland flying boats (also known as the Short Sunderland). Stationed at Finkenwerder near Hamburg, Germany, supporting the Allied Forces’ post-war operations in June 1948, he recalls witnessing first-hand the utter devastation wreaked upon German cities from the air.  In contrast to the tensions between the Allied Forces and the Soviet Union in Berlin, he remembers the friendliness of Berliners who would gather on the beach of Lake Wannsee to watch the Sunderlands come and go. Told with warmth and poignancy, Leo’s reflection of his role during the Berlin Airlift offers a vivid account of what it was like to fly in one of these iconic aircraft, in addition to describing the logistics of delivering vital aid to a divided city.

Aircraft-obsessive Ken Plowman grew up painting models and flying rubber motored planes across his hometown before deciding to join the Royal Observers Corps at just 16. One year later, he joined the RAF where he trained and served as a First Pilot in the Glider Pilot Regiment during WWII. In this interview, Ken recalls the important moments in his 20 year Flight Lieutenant career, particularly the highlight of his service in Operation Varsity in 1945. Ken was a quick learner and was allowed to fly solo after only 6 hours of Tiger Moth flights. As well as training as a firefighter and a train driver whilst on camp, he became an eager fan of aerobatics. Sadly, a lot of these his comrades lost their lives due to the danger of the job, especially during Operation Varsity as Ken flew to the mission with 440 other gliders and 6000 paratroopers. He considers himself lucky to still be alive as memories of close encounters with Germans, jumping out to avoid crash landings and faulty prop blades fill his memory even to this day. His service to WWII is greatly acknowledged in this interview.