Flight Lieutenant ‘Rusty’ Waughman
Daring Lancaster pilot who survived the most perilous bombing raids of the Second World War
FLIGHT LIEUTENANT “RUSTY” WAUGHMAN, who has died aged 100, completed a tour of operations as the pilot of a Lancaster bomber on a squadron that suffered some of the highest casualties of the Second World War.
In 1943 Waughman and his crew joined 101 Squadron, which operated Lancasters equipped with a special apparatus that searched out and then jammed enemy radio transmissions. To transmit spurious messages to German night-fighter pilots, a specially trained German-speaking operator accompanied the crew. The Lancasters’ transmissions, however, allowed German night fighters to intercept the bombers, and the attrition rate on 101 Squadron was one of the highest in Bomber Command.
On the night of March 30/31 1944, Waughman’s crew joined 794 other bombers to attack Nuremburg. It was a cloudless night, and the German night fighters caused havoc. Bomber Command suffered its biggest loss of the war, with 95 bombers failing to return. Waughman described the sight of falling aircraft as “spectacular and very frightening”.
Two weeks later, on April 10/11 1944, Waughman’s crew were sent to bomb the railway system at Hasselt in Belgium. Nearing the target, another Lancaster collided with their aircraft, causing extensive damage. Waughman managed to maintain control, bombed the target and returned to make a crash landing. The other Lancaster fell away and crashed.
During the next few weeks, Bomber Command flew many sorties in preparation for the impending Normandy invasion, targeting transportation systems and storage areas, notably the large German military camp and armament storage area near the French village at Mailly-le-camp, which was attacked on the night of May 3/4. Due to radio problems, orders from the Master Bomber were confusing and the 346 Lancasters had to orbit the target, which gave German night fighters time to attack.
Seconds after bombing the target, another bomber flew below Waughman’s Lancaster and then exploded, throwing his aircraft on to its back. It plummeted to 1,000 feet and exceeded the maximum permitted speed for the Lancaster, but Waughman managed to execute what he called “a very poor barrel roll”, with the help of the flight engineer, and right the aircraft without stalling. The wireless operator, finding his head covered in warm, wet liquid, said “Blood! Blood!” but it was only the contents of the up-ended “pee can”.
The raid was a success, but 42 bombers were lost, almost 12 per cent of the force sent out on the mission.
The son of a Royal Navy seaman decorated in the First World War, Russell (Rusty) Reay Waughman was born on January 19 1923 at Shotley Bridge, Co Durham, and educated in Newcastle. In May 1941 he joined the RAF and trained in Canada as a pilot as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. On his return to England he converted to bombers.
At the bomber training unit he formed a crew drawn from different backgrounds and from across the UK, with a rear gunner from Canada, but “we all gelled”. The oldest was 26; Waughman, at 20, was the second oldest. His navigator was only 18, having “adjusted” his date of birth when joining the RAF. Five of this “band of brothers” met regularly in later life, and gathered for their respective 80th birthdays.
Waughman and his crew performed well on the Lancaster and were sent to join 101 Squadron at Ludford Magna near Lincoln in October 1943. This coincided with the start of the second phase of the Battle of Berlin. They visited the “Big City” several times and carried out other long-range operations.
Over Munich, their Lancaster was damaged, and they had to return without an air speed indicator, landing after almost 10 hours in the air. They feared the worst when, flying over France in daylight, they saw “two little specks” coming towards them, but they turned out to be Spitfires sent to escort them home.
Then, on a raid over Stettin, their Lancaster was hit by anti-aircraft fire, and they limped back to base on two and a half engines. They arrived so late that they were assumed missing: “The committee of adjustment had been in and started to take our kit away,” he said.
His final sortie was on the night of D-day, June 5/6 1944. The squadron launched 21 Lancasters to jam wireless communications and keep enemy night fighters from attacking the airborne invasion forces.
Waughman and his crew had flown 30 operations and were the first in six months to complete a tour, such had been the casualty rates on the squadron. He was awarded the DFC. He always regretted that none of his crew were decorated. “They kept us all alive, they were doing exactly the same job as I was doing, under the same circumstances,” he said. “Same risks, but nothing.”
In later life, Waughman spoke frankly about the first time he felt terror – a “most peculiar” experience – on an operation to the Ruhr, “the old Happy Valley” as they called it. “We were approaching the area and it really looked deadly... The flak was so thick you could get out and walk on it... Searchlights, fighters around,” he recalled.
“I literally was shaking, and I couldn’t do what I was supposed to do, so I dropped my seat so I couldn’t see outside and, funnily enough, I said a little prayer that I hadn’t said since I was about six years old. Why I said it I don’t know [but] the terror disappeared and I raised my seat, and I could just carry on. You’re still frightened, of course, but all the terror disappeared.”
After completing his time on 101 Squadron, he became a flying instructor before converting to the Dakota. He continued instructing and in February 1947 was sent to Oakington, near Cambridge, where he became the station’s flying training officer for four Dakota squadrons.
With the beginning of the Berlin Airlift, he flew training and crew standardisation sorties, on some occasions spending 10 hours in the air. He later took part in the airlift, flying many re-supply missions from the forward RAF airfield at Fassberg in West Germany. He was awarded the AFC.
After the airlift, Waughman was posted to Abingdon to join 30 Squadron as training officer. The squadron had a VIP flying role and it was Waughman’s task to check all the pilots on instrument flying.
When his young wife Pat was diagnosed with a terminal illness he resigned from the RAF in 1953 to care for her until her death 10 months later. He spent the next 27 years in sales and marketing for a packing company.
In 1990 five of his crew met at Ludford Magna before travelling to RAF Coningsby as guests of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, where they were re-united with the Lancaster. Earlier this year he returned to Coningsby, where he met the King at a reunion for Bomber Command veterans.
The French government appointed him to the Légion d’honneur and he was a strong supporter of the Royal Air Force Association in Leamington.
He was also a silversmith, and micromounted gem stones on to jewellery.
Waughman’s second wife Diana died in 2007. He is survived by two sons and two daughters.