Joyce experienced bombing in WW2 and her mother had a narrow escape. At nineteen, in 1947, she joined the WAAF and trained in air traffic control and radar. The Airlift started the day that Joyce was posted to Germany, and she was initially ambivalent and apprehensive about helping the Germans, due to wartime events. She had never been abroad before and found the experience quite daunting. When she arrived in Germany she became aware of the deprivation that the population were experiencing and how they too were bombed. At the RAF HQ in Ahnsen she worked as a ‘Hoe Girl’ using a table-top hoe to plot the movement of aircraft during the Airlift and this task demanded a high level of accuracy. As well as this duty she worked in communications, relaying messages from aircraft to officers. There were three air ‘corridors’ to Berlin differentiated by height, with an aircraft landing every three to four minutes. The work was hard and constant, with leave once a month, when she and her colleagues were sent to a hotel and during this period she met her husband to be, who was also working on the base. During her time overseas she met Germans of her age and spoke to them about Nazism and the Hitler Youth. They said it was like the British Scouts and tried to explain their enthusiasm for Hitler. These young Germans professed to have no knowledge of the Holocaust, partly because they lived in the countryside.

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.

Dennis loved planes as a child, having lived near the American airbase in Northern Ireland. He joined up as an RAF Halton apprentice at aged 16 and describes an extensive and wide-ranging education, working on Spitfires, Hurricanes and even a Mosquito. On completion of his apprenticeship, Dennis was posted to South Wales for 1 year of improver training, during which he worked on Mark 3A and 4 Meteors and then transferred to Pembroke Dock, where he worked on the Sunderland Flying boats. It was from here, that in 1952 he was posted to Korea at short notice. He was based near the Imjin River with the British Army and tasked with working on the Auster aircraft. He describes in detail the work he had to do to keep them flying and the many experiences he had during his time there. The winters were very difficult and he tells of the ingenuity of the British troops in overcoming some of the hardships. He was also posted to the aircraft carrier HMS Glory for one tour, he was clearly fascinated by the operations on board ship. He returned home to his wife and a 23-month-old daughter whom he had never met.