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Flight Lieutenant S.W. Yarker |
Warrant Officer R. Fulbrook | |||
The following piece was written by F/L Yarker some years ago. He was posted to 103 Squadron with his skipper and friend W/O Fulbrook. In early January 1942 they were posted with their crew to 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds and commenced operations flying Vickers Wellington bombers. The Night We Buzzed Reading I first met Reggie Fulbrook in September 1939. We had both been posted to RAF Benson as instructors to train the Polish and Czech air crew arriving from the Continent after the Nazi invasion of their countries. With Reggie as pilot and myself as navigator, our job was to familiarise the foreign airmen with flying conditions over Britain, and RAF procedure. Our friendship developed when it was found that both Reggie and I had been boy apprentices at the same time at Halton. At this time I had just met a girl in Henley, who was later to become my wife, I also became the proud possessor of an SS sports car. Reggie who lived in Waltham Road, Twyford, often caught the train from Henley to Twyford and the two of us spent many a happy hour around Benson. Reggie was a good and experienced pilot, and as I had the reputation of being a competent navigator, we complemented each other as we flew our planeloads of Poles and Czechs around southern England. We soon knew the countries of Berks and Hants like the back of our hands. Much of our flying had to take place at night, and Reading with its railway station and gas works was always easy to locate as a marker for Benson. As the war progressed so did we, both being promoted to Warrant Officer. Coupled with this, the casualties suffered by Bomber Command over Germany each night were mounting, and Reggie and I found ourselves posted to 103 Squadron at Elsham Wolds in north Lincolnshire. There we commenced another apprenticeship together, starting with the bombing of the invasion barges and thence to targets in Germany. Routing on these raids was normally left to the pilot and navigator, and it became the custom for the two of us to fly down the Thames to Henley, down the railway line to Twyford thence Reading to Chichester, finally across the Channel and to our target. This became our usual procedure, and as it was usually getting dark before we sighted the Thames, my last glimpse of England was generally St. Mary's Church, Henley, whilst Reggie always insisted on flying over his old school at Pole Hampton, Twyford. After 25 bombing raids together we had become a crack crew, with the addition of two Irishmen as nose and tail gunners and Jimmie James, a Scotsman as wireless operator. The 1st April 1942 dawned as my birthday, together with a summons for all air crew to report to the briefing room. There we were told that the Germans had taken over a French factory at Poissy in Paris and were forcing the French to build tanks for the Germans. We were to go and demolish it that night. Different factory buildings were allocated to each aircraft, and we were given the drawing office. As the briefing officer put it: "You can't miss it, it's the tallest building there". The attack was to be done at low level, whilst other bombers bombed from higher up. Time on target, just at darkness. Another routine raid we thought as we went to check our Wellington bomber. | |
