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SamPover

A veteran interview with

Sam Pover

Sam Pover was a civilian Navigator on the Berlin Airlift. He’d already seen similar action during the partition of the British Indian Empire.

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About Sam Pover

Sam was well travelled and hitch-hiked through Germany in 1938-39, where the atmosphere seemed to change as war neared. After joining the RAF in 1941, he was sent to Canada for training before heading to RAF Leuchars in Scotland where he hunted enemy submarines.

Following a relatively uneventful period of wartime flying, Sam used his navigator training to join a charter aircraft company flying around Europe. He was then sent to fly planes rescuing Hindu refugees from persecution during the 1947 partition of India.

Sam subsequently captained civilian planes during the Berlin Airlift. Unlike RAF pilots who took commands from operations officers, he was responsible for deciding when weather conditions made flying too treacherous. He recalls near crashes with a Russian plane flying off course and an RAF York whose pilot disobeyed tower landing commands. He worked hard during the airlift and had little time for leisure while flying 3 flights per day and sometimes at night.

After returning to Jersey in December 1948, Sam joined a civilian carrier that later became British Airways. His account sheds valuable light on the essential role civilian charter companies played in the Berlin Airlift.

Credits

Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker
Reviewed by:
Natasha Norris

Transcripts:
Please note that transcripts and closed captions in the video player are automatically generated by Vimeo.

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Home | Veterans | Sam Pover

A veteran interview with

Sam Pover

SamPover

Sam Pover was a civilian Navigator on the Berlin Airlift. He’d already seen similar action during the partition of the British Indian Empire.

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Cite this interview:

MLA Style:
Pover, Sam. A Veteran Interview with Sam Pover. Interview by Martin Bisiker. Legasee, 27 Nov. 2012 https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/sam-pover/. Accessed 15 Jul. 2025.
APA Style:
Pover, S. (2012, November 27). A Veteran Interview with Sam Pover [Interview by Martin Bisiker]. Legasee. Retrieved July 15, 2025, from https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/sam-pover/
Chicago Style:
Pover, Sam. 2012. A Veteran Interview with Sam Pover. Interview by Martin Bisiker. Legasee, November 27. Accessed July 15, 2025. https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/sam-pover/
Harvard Style:
Pover, S. (2012). A Veteran Interview with Sam Pover. [Interviewed by Martin Bisiker]. Legasee, 27 November. Available at https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/sam-pover/ (Accessed: 15 July 2025)
Vancouver Style:
Pover, S. A Veteran Interview with Sam Pover [Internet]. Interview by M. Bisiker. Legasee; 2012 Nov 27 [cited 2025 Jul 15]. Available from: https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/sam-pover/
An interview with

Gerald White

The remarkable service of Gerald White who worked at RAF Gatow as a Technical Adjutant for many allied planes during the Berlin Airlift.

Gerald White provides a captivating account of his time in Germany, working as a Technical Adjutant in the RAF during the Berlin Airlift. As a boy, Gerald witnessed the remains of a V-1 flying bomb which exploded onto the grounds of his school during the Blitz. It would not be the last time he would bear witness to such a display. After the war ended, he began training as a young aeronautical engineer. His skillset would lead him to RAF station Gatow in Berlin where he contributed to the repairs of various planes for the Berlin Airlift, including the Dakota and Avro York aircrafts. He experienced a steady workflow at the bustling station but he was no stranger to incidents. He recalls two converted Lancaster planes, one a skyways tanker which blew up on the airfield and an Avro Tudor (belonging to Air Vice Marshall Donald Bennett) which his team managed to recover after it crashed into a sand bank. Unfortunately, a year later, the same Tudor would be involved in the Llandow air disaster, resulting in the tragic deaths of eighty-three people. He describes a strenuous situation involving the removal of a Stratofreighter which was on a course to a welcome reception in Tempelhof before being forced down to the airfield where it got stuck in the tarmac of a runway. Gerald reflects on his time at Gatow fondly, describing it as an astonishing experience. His work in Germany offers insight into the impact of RAF engineers who served on the Berlin Airlift and the significance of the aircrafts they aided.
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker
An interview with

Tony Iveson

From his dreams of flying as a young lad to the realities of flying in warfare, Tony openly shares his experiences of his time in the RAF, particularly Bomber Command.

Aviation was a passion of Tony’s from a very young age. He was always keen on joining the RAF and enlisted with the volunteer reserve. He has happy memories of the training and the thrill of flying, especially his first time in a Spitfire. Tony recalls in tense detail his first encounter with the Luftwaffe and how he survived a miraculous landing in the sea, something for which he was never trained. At the age of 21 Tony travelled to Durban to become a flight instructor. He remembers this time of adventure in a new country with great fondness although it comes to a somewhat sticky end when Tony is lucky to escape a court martial for crashing a Tiger Moth. More luck is on Tony’s side when his restlessness at being sent back to the UK threatens to see him in trouble again but an amenable Station Commander looks out for him and recommends Tony join the Bomber Command. Tony does so and volunteers for 617 Squadron, aka The Dambusters. Tony was well aware of the squadron’s reputation and, seeing it as a great honour to join, works incredibly hard to maintain those standards. He talks in detail about his training and the mission to take out the German Bismarck-class battleship Tirpitz. Tony dedicates this interview to Bomber Command and reflects on the airmen whose lost lives are now commemorated with a memorial in London, a fitting tribute which means the cost of war should not be forgotten.
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker
An interview with

Marian Jones

Marian Jones was a member of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) working in Wireless Telegraphy (WT) for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) from 1942-45.

Marian Jones first heard about the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) in 1941/42 when someone on leave visited her school which had been evacuated to Cornwall. During her two-week basic training she was tested for aptitude on morse, after which she received 6-9 months of wireless telegraphy (WT) training before becoming an operational radio operator, receiving messages from agents abroad. She emphasises the secrecy that was impressed on everyone involved because of the danger to agents: she signed the Official Secrets Act, let her mother believe she was a nurse, did not speculate or discuss her work even with colleagues. She recalls some memorable incidents: speaking in clear to agents during the liberation of Paris and Arnhem; very brief periods of leave; a map showing agent locations, which few people saw; the FANY uniform providing excellent cover because people assumed they were ATS or NAAFI.
Service:
Interviewed by:
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