Joey Jacobson's War

by Peter J. Usher

  The most comprehensive sources on Hampden bombers are Harry Moyle, The Hampden File (Tonbridge: Air-Britain, 1989); and Chaz Bowyer, Hampden Special (Shepperton: Ian Allan, 1976). Technical specifications are provided in TNA, AIR 10/2168 (Hampden Pilot Notes), and details of operational problems in TNA AIR 2/1963, AIR 8/338, and AVIA 15/1967. Among the most useful observations by those who flew Hampdens are Bushby, Gunner’s Moon; Gibson, Enemy Coast Ahead – Uncensored; and Chan Chandler, Tail Gunner: 98 Raids in WWII (Shrewsbury: Air Life Publishing, 1999). Details on the use of pigeons in Hampdens, and the RAF’s pigeon service generally, are found in TNA, AIR 14/1405, AIR 20/1569, and AIR 20/4305. I am especially grateful to John Marshall-East of the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre for sharing his detailed knowledge of the Hampden bomber and its equipment.

  On the social structure of the RAF, see John James, The Paladins: A Social History of the RAF up to the Outbreak of World War II (London: Futura, 1990); Francis Martin, The Flyer: British Culture and the Royal Air Force, 1939–1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

  Joe’s accounts of his sorties are supplemented by 106 Squadron’s Operational Record Book, TNA, AIR 27/832, 836; RAF Coningsby’s Operations Room Log Book, July 1941–February 1942, TNA, AIR 14/2433; 5 Group’s Operational Record Book and appendices, TNA, AIR 25/109A, 115, 116; Middlebrook and Everett, The Bomber Command War Diaries; and the recollections of his pilot, J. G. Roberts, DFC, DFM, “Twenty Years in the Air,” unpublished MS, RAF Museum 024027, and Interview with W/C J. G. (Gerry) Roberts, Catalogue 26580, Imperial War Museum. Bomb loads by aircraft and sortie (in addition to those recorded in Joe’s operational diary) are given in the Form “E” Summaries, No. 5 Group, TNA, AIR 14/3188-93.

  Details of operational casualties among Joe’s comrades are taken from their service files (LAC, RG24, Service Files of the Second World War – War Dead, 1939–47), and W. R. Chorley, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War (Leicester: Midland Counties Publications, vol. 2 [1941], 1992, and vol. 3 [1942], 1993). Information on individuals taken prisoner of war is from Liberated Prisoner of War Interrogation Questionnaires, and Evader and Escape Reports, War Office, Directorate of Military Intelligence (TNA, WO 344; WO 288).

  On meteorology in the early years of the war, and on icing as a flying hazard, see T. A. Fitzpatrick, Weather and War (Edinburgh: Pentland Press, 1992); C. G. Halpine, A Pilot’s Meteorology (London: Chapman and Hall, 1941); R. H. Matthews, “Meteorology in Bomber Command during the War (European) 1939 to 1945,” 5 Group, 1945, Manuscript, UK National Meteorological Library; Royal Air Force, Manual of Air Navigation; TNA, AIR 14/1941.

  On the German air defence system, see Gebhard Aders, History of the German Night Fighter Force (English ed.) (London: Janes, 1979); and Edward B. Westermann, Flak – German Anti-aircraft Defences 1914–1945 (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2001).

  The monthly Navigation Bulletins are contained in BCHQ’s Operational Record Books.

  The Report by Mr. Butt to Bomber Command on His Examination of Night Photos, 18 August 1941 is contained in Webster and Frankland, The Strategic Air Offensive Against Germany 1939–1945, 4:205–13. For Bomber Command’s response, see TNA, AIR 8/440; AIR12/1218. The problems of navigation were continually discussed by senior air staff, whose views are recorded in TNA, AIR 2/4467, AIR 14/64, AIR 14/66, AIR 14/450, and AIR 14/498.

  My thanks to Randall Wakelam for providing a copy of the Operational Research Section’s Report No. 3, Investigation of Raid on HULS – Night of 6/7th September 1941, held by RAF Air Historical Branch, London.

  My information on Canadian air observers in 106 Squadron is derived from the following sources: LAC service files (for individual movements among stations); TNA, AIR 29/655, 16 OTU Operational Record Book (for movements to 106 Squadron; unfortunately, the Operational Record Books for 14 and 25 Operational Training Units do not supply the same level of detail); and TNA, AIR 27/832, 106 Squadron Operational Record Book.

  The mental and physical stresses experienced by Bomber Command crews are discussed by E. J. Dearnaley and P. B. Warr, eds., Aircrew Stress in Wartime Operations (London: Academic Press, 1979); D. Stafford-Clark, “Morale and Flying Experience: Results of a Wartime Study,” Journal of Mental Science 95 (1949): 10–50; and M. K. Wells, Courage and Air Warfare: The Allied Aircrew Experience in the Second World War (London: Frank Cass, 1977).

  For developments in the use of incendiary bombs for target-marking and fire-raising in the latter part of 1941, see TNA, AIR 9/132; AIR14/763. On the Berlin raid of 7–8 November and its consequences, see TNA, AIR 14/1926, 1928.

  Part Four

  Among the books that influenced Joe’s thinking in the last two months of 1941 were Cedric Belfrage, Let My People Go (London: Victor Gollancz, 1940); Hewlett Johnson, The Socialist Sixth of the World (London: Victor Gollancz, 1939); Stephen Swingler, Outline of Political Thought since the French Revolution (London: Victor Gollancz, 1939); and Clive Bell, Civilization (London: Penguin, 1938).

  The status of air observers, and particularly the question of whether they should be captains of bomber aircraft, had been debated within the Command since before the war. See particularly TNA, AIR 14/1941, Status and Future of the Observer, 1 November 1941; AIR 14/753, Present Status and Responsibilities of an Observer in Relation to Those of a Pilot, 17 December 1941.

  On mole operations, see TNA, AIR 14/753, Mole operations, 18 January 1942. For developments in the use of incendiaries, see TNA, AIR 9/132; AIR 14/763. The circumstances of Roger Rousseau’s belated commission are on his service file (Library and Archives Canada, Military service file Roger Rousseau, J96092).

  For details of the Munster operation of 28 January 1942, I consulted, in addition to the sources on operations cited in Part Three, the Operational Record Books of all of the squadrons involved. Weather conditions in England that day are based on the surface synoptic and upper atmosphere conditions available to Bomber Command that day (UK National Meteorological Archive). The Air Ministry’s daily forecasts have apparently not survived. Weather conditions on the ground in the Netherlands are cited in Part Five.

  Part Five

  For much of the information in Chapter 31, I am indebted to Wim Rhebergen, of Hoevelaken, Netherlands, who has documented the fate of downed Allied bomber aircraft and crews in the Achterhoek district of the Netherlands. He arranged for and guided me on site visits in the area in 2005 and 2008, and granted me complete access to the documents, photographs, and interview transcripts he had collected in relation to the fate of AT122. He also provided me with a copy of Westerman’s and Wekking’s films and meteorological data for the Netherlands for the dates in question.

  I am also indebted to Jan Geerdinck of the AVOG Crash Museum in Lievelde, Netherlands, for access to photographs, documents, and interview transcripts; and to Andrew Hodgkinson (Duncan Hodgkinson’s son), of Devizes, England, for information relating to the fate of AT122.

  For accounts of the events, see Henny Bennink, Bezetting en Verzet (Lichtenvoorde: Fagus, 2005); G. Nijs, “Neergestorte Engelse bombenwerper in de Besselinkschans 28 Januari 1942” [Crashed English bomber in the Besselinkschans] in De Lichte Voorde – Lichtenvoorde tussen 1940 en 1950, 31 (1995): 24–25; of other Allied bomber losses in the area, see Wim and Peter Rhebergen, Vermist Boven de Achterhoek (Naarden: Lunet, 1991).

  Meteorological records for Essen, the nearest recording station to Münster in Germany, were provided by the UK National Meteorological Archive. Geographic locations are based on United States air photo 373_CanON-022630-42, 1945, U.S. National Archives; Google Earth (2005); and Topografische kaart van Nederland, sheet 41B (Lichtenvoorde), scale 1:25,000, 2001.

  I am indebted to John Marshall-East, Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, East Kirkby, for his interpretation of the extent of damage to AT122 based on the photographs reproduced in Chapter 31. I am also grateful for letters received from the Air Historical Branch (RAF), the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and Marilyn Farias
(Robin Selfe’s daughter), of Bishops Stortford, England, in response to my requests for information relating to those events.

  On the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during the war, see Gerhard Hirschfeld, Nazi Rule and Dutch Collaboration: The Netherlands under German Occupation, 1940–1945 (Oxford: Berg, 1988); Louis de Jong, The Netherlands and Nazi Germany (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990); and Walter Maass, The Netherlands at War: 1940–45 (New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1970).

  My thanks to Wim Rhebergen (Hoevelaken, Netherlands), John Griffiths (Amsterdam, Netherlands), and Sietze Praamsma (Clayton, Ontario) for translating several of the above-noted documents from the original Dutch.

  Correspondence between the Air Ministry and 5 Group with respect to requests to transfer Canadian aircrew to Canadian squadrons is in TNA, AIR 14/1941. See Connelly, Reaching for the Stars, on the evolution of Britain’s popular memory of Bomber Command and the bombing of Germany.

  Notes

  Part One: Father and Son

  Chapter 1: September 1939

  1 The Westmount High School Annual, 1936, 92.

  Chapter 2: Preston

  1 Joe’s Air Force medical board examinations record that he had 20/20 vision and did not wear glasses. He never mentioned his glasses again, or whether he needed them for map reading and log recording while flying.

  Chapter 3: Enlistment

  1 Also referred to as the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) or Joint Air Training Program (JATP) in its early years.

  2 LAC, RG 24/27825, J. A. Jacobson service file, interview report, 11 June 1940.

  Chapter 4: Toronto

  1 In fact, the Non-Permanent Active Militia, Canada’s part-time reserve force, to be mobilized as required for home defence, but not overseas service.

  2 LAC, RG 24/27825, J. A. Jacobson Service File, Medical Board report, Toronto, 7 August 1940.

  3 Of the six whose fate is known, one was selected for pilot training and succeeded, another was selected for pilot training but washed out and was reselected for observer training. Three (including Joe) were directly selected for observer training, and one for wireless operator/air gunner training. Of those six, five were subsequently killed in service and one was captured as a prisoner of war.

  Chapter 5: Regina

  1 MacLaren Keswick, who had completed three years of a forestry degree before enlisting.

  2 He was navigating a three-hour flight across the dry prairie west and south to the American border.

  3 The General Conduct Sheet recorded infractions requiring disciplinary action.

  4 Dive-bombing was not in fact on the curriculum at bombing and gunnery schools. Generally associated with army tactical support, it was not part of the bombing offensive’s tactical repertoire.

  5 The photo in the Montreal Star was an outtake of the photo at the bottom of page 61 in this volume.

  Chapter 6: Mossbank

  1 The three air observers killed in this flying accident were on their last day of training in course 4 at Rivers. The affinity Joe felt for them is obvious, but he was almost certainly not actually acquainted with them as they were three courses and six weeks ahead of him. The closest they ever got to each other was at Mossbank, but Joe arrived there later the same day that they had left for Rivers.

  Chapter 7: Rivers

  1 This seems fanciful as there was no provision for it.

  2 Joe’s counterpart on outside wing for the McGill Redmen in 1938.

  3 One of Joe’s McGill Redmen teammates in 1938.

  4 NAC, RG 24/27825, J. A. Jacobson service file, Report on Pupil Observer, 21 February 1941.

  Chapter 8: Montreal

  1 Joe’s older cousin, sometime national slalom champion in the late 1930s.

  Chapter 9: Debert

  1 They were Mac Keswick, Cliff Chappell, Les Jupp, Art Hunter, Roger Rousseau, and “Jeep” McLean. All seven would be killed or captured.

  2 Many Americans volunteered to fight in the Canadian forces while their own country remained neutral.

  3 The Dick test consisted of an injection of serum to detect susceptibility to scarlet fever.

  Part Two: Discoveries

  Chapter 10: The North Atlantic

  1 TC convoys were Canadian troop convoys, and HX convoys were merchant shipping convoys, originating in Halifax and destined for Britain, each numbered consecutively since the beginning of the war.

  2 A Royal Navy battleship also serving as convoy escort.

  3 This was Convoy SC28, consisting of thirty-four merchant ships and fourteen escorts, also en route from Halifax to Liverpool.

  4 What Joe saw that day was most likely the flotsam and jetsam from the wreck of the Rajputana, an escort that had left Halifax with HX117 in March and was torpedoed near that location on its return run on 13 April. There is no record of a ship sunk on the 21st.

  5 Classmates who had arrived from Halifax ten days before on the Wolfe.

  6 Lionel had arrived in Iceland on 19 April, on the Montclare.

  7 Joe also claimed that he wrote a letter to the Pony Club immediately upon arrival, but it too was never received. Joe believed this was because he had given it to a stranger to post, who had not done so. Had it been mailed, it might well have ended up in the RCAF’s file of censored letters in London. As it seems not to have done so, Joe may have surmised correctly, although it was also the case that some mail wound up at the bottom of the sea.

  8 Sgt. John Michaels of Westmount, and a graduate of Bishop’s University, joined the British Army before the war while in London, and served in Palestine with the Royal Worcester Regiment. He was killed in action in Sudan on 7 April 1941, at the age of twenty-nine, and is buried in the Khartoum War Cemetery.

  Chapter 11: The Blitz

  1 Balloon barrages consisted of fixed arrays of balloons moored by heavy cables, surrounding factories and towns to deter low-flying enemy aircraft. An encounter between aircraft and cable could be fatal.

  2 The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. By this time, women were widely employed in non-combat roles on every RAF station, in transport, radar, meteorology, communications, maintenance, and catering.

  3 Later in 1941, Britain agreed to tax RCAF personnel serving in Britain at Canadian rates, and refund the amounts already levied.

  Chapter 12: England

  1 L. F. Stevenson to Air Intelligence, 19 and 22 May 1941. DHH 181.009 (D283), Censored Letters, vol. 1.

  2 Joe numbered his first few letters to the Pony Club. The first extant letter to his family from England, dated 1 June, states that he had already sent at least three letters to them. These included, by his own account, the story of his trip across the Atlantic, one about London and the plays he saw, including some programs (both twenty-page masterpieces by his own account), and his first letter from Finningley. Apparently none reached its destination. Percy observed in his diary: “Joe’s letters must have gone down to Davey Jones Locker” (16 June 1940).

  3 Jack McIntyre extract, main supplement. A.I.1(z), Report C.10, DHH 181.009 (D283), Censored Letters, vol. 1.

  4 Joe’s spelling of names was not his strong point. He had by this time known Dave Davies for at least three weeks, and they would soon be posted to the same operational squadron.

  5 Art Hunter, “Jeep” McLean, and Ken Fraser had been among Joe’s closest friends in training in Canada. They and several other Canadian observers were now on operational training at No. 16 OTU at Upper Heyford. Some of them would soon be posted to a newly formed and nominally Canadian squadron.

  6 Leading aircraftman, as Joe had been classified until graduating as a sergeant.

  7 A week later, the secret of radar’s importance in Battle of Britain was revealed in the English press.

  8 Ack ack, variously mentioned by Joe as aak or aak aak, refers to anti-aircraft fire, also known as flak.

  Chapter 13: Operational Training

  1 TNA, AIR 14/1941, AOC-in-C Richard Peirse to Groups, 12 July 1941.

  2 TNA, AIR 14/9, Air Vice-Marsha
l Arthur Harris to Air Ministry, 4 January 1940.

  3 The Distinguished Flying Cross (for officers) and Medal (for men) were awarded for both specific acts of distinguished flying on operations and for consistently meritorious flying. Joe very quickly took on board the common but incorrect assumption that the decoration was automatically awarded upon tour completion.

  4 In this case, “friendly fire” from British anti-aircraft gun crews who did not always correctly identify aircraft entering their range of fire.

  5 This was unlikely in Wellingtons, impossible in Hampdens.

  6 Joe did not say why, but a Wellington had crashed and burned nearby the previous day, killing one of its crew.

  7 The broad inlet of the North Sea that separates Lincolnshire and East Anglia.

  8 Most likely on the daylight-only cameras with which bombers were still equipped, but which would be of no use on night operations. Few operational aircraft were as yet fitted out with night cameras.