My late father, Thomas Collin was a navigator in 630 and 617 squadron. He flew on his first op to Bourg Leopold on 15 May 1944 and later told me that he was so terrified that he went to the medical Officer to try to get off ops even if it meant being termed “lacking moral fibre” with all the humiliation and stigma involved. Instead the MO told him that he had German measles and would be grounded until it cleared up. The crew went off with a spare navigator on the next op but sadly we’re never seen again.
My father went on to complete his tour of 30 ops with 630 squadron and 10 more with 617 in 1945 when they delivered the Tallboy bomb to a number of targets. Despite the fact they flew a special ops Lancaster capable of carrying the Grand Slam bomb they never dropped one It seems that the big bomb was in short supply due to manufacturing difficulties and only the very best crews got to deliver it. His last op was on 25 April 1945 when they delivered a Tallboy to Hitler’s Eagles Nest at Berchtesgaden. Unfortunately Hitler was elsewhere.
On 16 May he was navigator on a Cook’s Tour to take groundcrew to see the damage to Germany that they had contributed towards. His regular pilot, an American volunteer, Bill Adams, decided to buzz workers in a field and crash landed their Lancaster PD139 near Oberg. Everyone escaped without injury.
Adams claimed that the crash was due to a malfunctioning autopilot and was awarded the DFC and returned to the USA! I have recently discovered that just a few days before, Bill Adams delivered a Lancaster to Lossiemouth but impatiently landed too long down the runway in front of a training aircraft and couldn’t stop. Another write-off! My father was not on board on that occasion and I wonder if he ever knew about it. He never mentioned it.
My Dad must have overcome his terror of ops but how and why will never now be known. I don’t suppose that there was much help available at that time.
My father went on to complete his tour of 30 ops with 630 squadron and 10 more with 617 in 1945 when they delivered the Tallboy bomb to a number of targets. Despite the fact they flew a special ops Lancaster capable of carrying the Grand Slam bomb they never dropped one It seems that the big bomb was in short supply due to manufacturing difficulties and only the very best crews got to deliver it. His last op was on 25 April 1945 when they delivered a Tallboy to Hitler’s Eagles Nest at Berchtesgaden. Unfortunately Hitler was elsewhere.
On 16 May he was navigator on a Cook’s Tour to take groundcrew to see the damage to Germany that they had contributed towards. His regular pilot, an American volunteer, Bill Adams, decided to buzz workers in a field and crash landed their Lancaster PD139 near Oberg. Everyone escaped without injury.
Adams claimed that the crash was due to a malfunctioning autopilot and was awarded the DFC and returned to the USA! I have recently discovered that just a few days before, Bill Adams delivered a Lancaster to Lossiemouth but impatiently landed too long down the runway in front of a training aircraft and couldn’t stop. Another write-off! My father was not on board on that occasion and I wonder if he ever knew about it. He never mentioned it.
My Dad must have overcome his terror of ops but how and why will never now be known. I don’t suppose that there was much help available at that time.
Submitted by Peter Collin