ACCRINGTON AND DISTRICT PROBUS CLUB

ACCRINGTON and District Probus Club enjoyed a comprehensive account of RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War.

The speaker, military historian Peter Cunliffe, used the ‘Keynote’ software to illustrate his excellent talk and sound effects of bombers taking off, giving some idea of what it must have been like on the ground as 30 of them took off at two-minute intervals. At the beginning of his talk he took us on a tour of the Lancaster bomber, showing pictures of cockpit instruments, radio equipment and navigation aids.

Peter described the armaments and gave us the sound of a few seconds burst of fire from a Browning machine gun.

He went on to explain why the ‘tail end Charlie’, rear gunner, was the most vulnerable position and how the ‘cork screw’ manoeuvre was used to avoid enemy fighters.

Navigation charts were displayed and he explained how the navigator would use forecasts of wind speed and direction to modify the bearing needed to reach the target.

Once over the target, it was sometimes necessary to drop several thousand feet to avoid the search lights before climbing back to normal height.

Peter then gave us some statistics of the raids: 1,030,500 tons of bombs were dropped, 8,325 aircraft never returned with a loss of over 55,500 aircrew.

In one night more bomber command airmen were lost than fighter command lost during the entire Battle of Britain.

A large number of tanks and anti-tank guns were destroyed.

There is no doubt that bomber command played a very significant part in the successful outcome of the war.

Although Peter avoided the politics of the war, during question time the controversial matter of the raid on Dresden was raised.

While many civilians were killed, he explained why the raid on Dresden was strategically very important. Peter Clayton gave the vote of thanks for an excellent talk, well received by a mixed audience.

At the next meeting on July 4 Peter Watson’s talk is on ‘The history of surnames’.