Ep.130: Coastal Command Chapter 7 – Australian and Allied aircrews

Welcome to our Coastal Command series. This is Chapter 7 – Australian & Allied Aircrews.

In this chapter we hear the reports and stories of aircrews from Australia, Jamaica, Canada and Morocco. Their commitment, heroism, and ultimate sacrifice.

We talk to Keith Webb about the Australian aircrews and his personal links through his uncle Flying Officer Keith Wathen who was sadly lost in combat.

Keith is an experienced cinematographer, editor, writer and voiceover artist. Over the past 35 years Keith has directed thousands of Video and TV projects. Keith is also Project Director for the Temora Aviation Museum’s Unsung Heroes project, a video archive comprising hundreds of interviews with veterans from WW2, the Korean War, Vietnam and beyond.

We have an insert piece recorded by The Australian War Memorial for the Keith Murdoch Sound Archive and we kindly acknowledge the use of this recording for our programme here. It is with Flight Lieutenant Tom Fitzgerald, a Navigator in 547 Squadron talking about his time flying the Liberators in Coastal Command.

Finally, we turn to Andy Bird who gives us an insight in to three characters who served in Coastal Command from Jamaica, Canada and French Morocco. Andrew Bird studied at Reading College of Art & Design and served in Royal Air Force Reserves based at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire working extensively with The Artists Rifles (Reserves). Andy is an author and military historian, publishing books in particular on the maritime air war in Europe. He started researching and corresponding with former Coastal Command Anti-Shipping Strike aircrews and ground staff 32 years ago and has a wealth of material and scanned images.

Two Hampdens 415 Sq RCAF) with D415 piloted by PO Keith C Wathen were lost on a night torpedo mission 17 May 43 © Artwork by Anastasios Polychronis

He is the author of ‘A Separate Little War’, ‘Coastal Dawn’ and ‘Heroes of Coastal Command: The RAF’s Maritime War 1939’. He has written for several newspapers and magazines and has also written, presented, or acted as a historical consultant in documentaries, for BBC Radio and Television, C4, and NRK in Norway.

Recorded August & October 2021

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Keith Webb

• Temora Unsung Heroes Project https://aviationmuseum.com.au/unsung-heroes/
• Wings Over New Zealand podcast (Wings Over Australia – Keith Webb Episode) https://cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WONZShow/2015/12/episode-90-woa-keith-webb/
• Image Control http://www.imagecontrol.com.au/

Thomas Michael Fitzgerald, as a Flight Lieutenant, Navigator, 547 Squadron Royal Air Force RAF, interviewed by Tim Bowden for the Keith Murdoch Sound Archive of Australia in the War of 1939-45 © Australian War Memorial

• Full Interview, Transcripts and Supporting data https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C87910

Black Friday attack on destroyer Z33

Andrew Bird

• Web http://andrewdbird.com/
• Twitter https://twitter.com/andydbird
• ‘A Separate Little War’ and ‘Coastal Dawn’ https://grubstreet.co.uk/gs-author/andrew-bird/
• ‘Heroes of Coastal Command’ https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Andrew-D-Bird
• Coastal Dawn – Blenheim’s in Action from the Phoney War Through the Battle of Britain https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coastal-Dawn-Blenheims-Through-Britain/dp/1906502692
• Coastal Dawn Review http://aircrewbookreview.blogspot.com/2013/01/coastal-dawn-andrew-d-bird.html

Flying Officer Keith Wathen

• https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3mrkv
• https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?302203

Wing Commander J.M. Guedj DSO, DFC

• https://www.ordredelaliberation.fr/fr/compagnons/max-guedj

Flight Lieutenant David Errol Chance

• https://www.caribbeanaircrew-ww2.com/?p=39

Flying Officer Allan Bundy

• http://rcaf-arc.forces.gc.ca/en/article-template-standard.page?doc=flying-officer-allan-bundy-the-rcaf-s-first-black-pilot/il3c31n7

Other Useful Links

• IWM Sound Archive Australian JOHN APPLETON, served with RAF Coastal Command in GB, 1942-1943; NCO served with No 210 Sqdn RAF Coastal Command in GB, 1943-1944 including operations over Atlantic and Arctic and sinking of U-347; served with No 131 Operational Training Unit RAF Coastal Command in Northern Ireland, 1944-1945; officer served with No 4 Operational Training Unit RAF Coastal Command in Northern Ireland, 1944-1945 https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80015083

ROYAL AIR FORCE COASTAL COMMAND, 1939-1945. (HU 93031) Oblique aerial photograph taken from a Bristol Beaufighter TF Mark X of No. 455 Squadron RAAF, during a joint attack by the Langham and North Coates Strike Wings on shipping lying at anchor off Marsdiep, between Den Helder and Texel, Holland. Here Beaufighters can be seen attacking German minesweepers with rocket projectiles and cannon fire, as a salvo of RPs from the photographing aircraft is rel… Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205023373

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