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RAF Leeming is in North Yorkshire. The base is still in use by the RAF today.
Squadrons stationed at RAF Leeming
- No: 10 Squadron. July 1940 to Aug 1942.
- 35 Squadron Nov 1940 to Dec 1940 77 Squadron 5th Sep 1941 to 5th Oct 1942
- 102 Squadron
- No: 408 Squadron
- 419 Squadron 13 Aug 42 to 18 Aug 42
- 427 Squadron May 1943 to 31st May 1946.
- No: 609 Squadron
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My father, retired in 1959 as Wing Commander Harry Arthur Lode Lindsay, RCAF. During the second world war he was Flying Officer and navigator with Six Group Bomber Command. I do not know which squadron but I do recall him being based at Leeming, Yorkshire. He passed away in 1981 but he did 75 pen sketches of the life and times of Bomber Command (detailed and all 5" X 7") which he mailed home to my mother. I still have all of these original sketches. SOMETHING should be done to publish and protect them. Also I have a photo album he had with perhaps 50 plus photos mostly air shots taken during the war. These too should be preserved somewhere.
I joined 10 sqdn in August 1940, our C.O. was Group Captain Staton. I was an wireless operator/ air-gunner. We flew Whitleys.I did 33 operations on this particular tour. I was extremely fortunate to have survived, after having "ditching" into our own minefield off Grimsby after returning from a raid over Antwerp this was Whitley p4966 on the night of 15/09/1940 and being picked up by the minesweeper "Kurd"
Then shortly afterwards having to "bale out" out of Whitley p4952 on the night of 14/10/1940 over Northumberland due to fuel shortage after carrying out a bombing raid on an oil refinery in Stettin, Poland
I went on to do two more tours of ops., the second with 259sqdn and 209sqdn (Indian Ocean)on Catalina flying boats (anti sub. patrol) and the 3rd tour with 192 sqdn Foulsham on Halifax. In all I did 87 operations. I left the service in 1946 and was presented with the DFM, by King George VI.
I noticed that a certain Angus McIntosh is listed on this page. Well I "joined up" with Mac my service number was 966637 and his was 966647 and strangely enough we both got posted to the same squadron. I was always pulling his leg and telling him "to get some in"
I would love to contact Angus, if he is still with us, I have not seen him since he "baled out" over Germany. I know he was repatriated just after the war in fact I only missed him by an hour at the domob centre! I would love to contact him or any of his relations, we were great friends.
The Start of it All
I left school at the age of 14 yrs, in 1932. I clearly remember my Father paying £80.00 for me to have an apprenticeship at an electrical contractors called Maitland co.ltd. in Manchester. £80.00 was a lot of money in those far off days. I was there for a couple of years, acting as an electricians mate, there was no formal training, but I enjoyed the work and learned quite a lot. About this time I became very interested in radio (wireless as it was called), and also a new invention called television. I left Maitlands and started working for a firm called Toubkins who had premises in Faraday House Todd Street Manchester, just opposite Victoria Station. I was in the service department.
Opposite Faraday House and adjoining Chethams, was a RAF office, and I noted RAF personnel going in and out each day in their very smart blue uniforms. As the second world war had just commenced I realized that I would be called up, so I decided to join the RAF, straight away and immediately went to Stretford Town Hall, the nearest RAF recruiting office, and volunteered. I wanted to be a "brylcreem boy"
I was sent to Padgate near Warrington, and was disgusted when they issued me with a First World War "dog-collar" uniform. I was so upset that when passes were issued for a few days "home leave", I refused mine, and did not go home until I was issued with proper outfit.
As I had been trained in the wireless and electrical field, I was posted to No.l radio school at Yatesbury Wiltshire and became a wireless operator I volunteered for Air crew duties and did an air-gunnery course at Jurby the Isle of Man. At the end of that course I was posted to my first Operation Bomber Squadron no.10 at Leeming Yorkshire.
Our Whitley crew.
This was early 1940. and they were equipped with Whitley bombers. Most of our night operations were over Germany, but we did go to Antwerp Belgium on one occasion, and it was on this trip that I had my escape. It was on the night of 15/09/1940, we developed engine trouble on our return and "ditched" into the North sea just off Grimsby. We were tossed about in our dinghy for a couple of hours when we spotted a ship coming towards us. As it got closer we noticed that guns were pointing at us. I think they recognized the language we were using and decided that we were on "the same side" they pulled us aboard, then told us that we had landed in a minefield, which they had just laid. These brave men were absolutely wonderful. They carried on with their mine laying for about three hours then took us back into Grimsby for a pub crawl. The RAF arrived later and took us back to Leeming. this ship was called "Kurd" and I managed to get a photograph of it, recently from the web. I became a member of the "Goldfish club"
My second lucky escape was a month later 14/10/1940 we were returning from a successful night raid on a oil refinery in Stettin Poland. As we approached our base at Leeming, we were informed that it was "fogbound" and were given a diversion. When we told base that we would have a fuel problem, we were instructed to climb to 8000ft point the aircraft east and "bale out". All five of us "baled out" and landed safely. It was a cold night on the Northumbrland moors, so I kept the canopy wrapped round me, till the following morning , when all five of us were picked up by the Home Guard and marched to the nearest Police Station. the local squire came along, checked our story, contacted Leeming and afterwards took us to his mansion and treated us to a pheasant dinner, I remember it was awful.
I finished my 1st tour of operations on 08/05/1941 and was posted to an overseas aircraft delivery unit. I had became a member of the famous Caterpillar club
My third lucky escape was when we were given the task of delivering a Bombay aircraft to 216 Sqdn Heliopolis Cairo, who used these for troop movement. The bombay was not designed to travel long distances and so was fitted with inboard ballast tanks from which you could "top up" the wing tanks from time to time. There was a hand pump fitted and it was the job of the navigator to do the topping up. he had to count a certain number of strokes then stop. I was the wireless operator, and suddenly noticed petrol dripping down my porthole window, and reported at once to the pilot. Who sent someone along to stop the navigator pumping, it turned out that he had filled the wing tanks and the overflow was going into the sea. I sent a message to Gibraltar, who immediately sent ML121 out to meet us. Just as well because we had to "ditch" about 20 miles short of the rock. A remarkable achievement, by the pilot, this time in an aircraft with a fixed undercarriage. The skipper of the ML121 decided to tow the Bombay into Gibraltar, and had a hawser tied to each of the two engines, then very slowly moved off. to our amazement the aircraft shuddered slightly and the two engines fell off into the sea. Most amusing. I became a two-ditched "goldfish"
I was then eventually posted to Nanyuki Kenya, precisely on the equator an wireless instructor at 72 OTU. I got a commission and decided to return to operational duty and got a posting to 259 sqdn. Saldanha Bay, nr. Capetown in May 1943 on Catalina flying boats, searching out submarines, I then was posted to 209 sqdn. Mombasa, also on Catalina flying boats, also on sub patrol. We did flights which sometimes lasted 20 hrs, I returned to Blighty early in 1944 and joined 192 Sqdn. This time we flew Halifax's, I was now a special operator, checking on german radar, a most interesting occupation.I was presented with the DFM by King George VI at Buckingham Palace on the 13th. of March 1945, both Mum and Dad came to the investiture. They were thrilled to bits. I was demobbed in 1946. How I survived the war, I'll never know, but as I said before, I was unimaginably lucky. Unfortunately I lost many of my dear friends, and colleagues.
Photographs
If you have any Photographs you would like to share please get in touch.
List of those who served.
- Sgt George W Acorn 408 sqd Read his story
- F/O Donald T Bain. Pilot 408 sqd RCAF Read his story
- Wing Commander Roland "Bee" Beamont. 609 sqd Read his story
- P/O Brant. 10 Sqd RAF Read his story
- Sgt. C.L. Brown. rear gunner. 429 Sqd
- Gp Capt J G Bryans RCAF. Station Commander. Nov 1943 to Jun 1944
- Sgt Bryne 10 Sqd RAF Read his story
- Gp Capt H M Carscallan RCAF. Station Commander. Apr to Jun 1943
- Sgt J J Connolly 408 sqd Read his story
- Sgt J.W.Dale W.Op/A.G
- P/O Robert J Dickinson 10 Sqd RAFVR (d. 15 Oct 1940)Read his story
- Gp Capt C R Dunlap RCAF. Station Commander. Jan to Apr 1943
- Gp Capt E C Evans. Station Commander. May 1945 to Jul 1946
- Sgt H. Fill 408 Sqd. (d.17th April 1943) Read his story
- Sgt A. Gielty 408 Sqd. (d.17th April 1943) Read his story
- Gp Capt S Graham. Station Commander. Jan 1942 to Jan 1943
- W.O. Joseph Jacques Alfred Guay. pilot. 408 Sqd. (d.17th April 1943) Read his story
- F/Sgt L. Haines 408 Sqd. (d.17th April 1943) Read his story
- Sgt W M Halken 408 sqd Read his story
- Sgt Hughes, 10 Sqd RAF Read his story
- Gp Capt A C Hull. Station Commander. Apr to May 1945
- Sgt John I Labow 408 sqd RCAF (d. 31 Mar 1944) Read his story
- F/O Harry Arthur Lode Lindsay. RCAF. Read his Story
- Sgt. Irving MacDonald. airgnr. 408 Sqd. (d.17th April 1943) Read his story
- Sgt Angus McIntosh, 10 Sqd RAF Read his story
- Sgt. F.E. McNally. mid upper gnr. 429 Sqd
- P/O P J Madson 408 sqd Read his story
- Gp Capt J B Millward RCAF. Station Commander. Oct 1944 to Apr 1945
- Mark A. Niman. DFM. W/op. Air Gnr. 10 Sqd. RAFRead his story
- Sgt Leslie P Neville. 10 Sqd RAFVR (d. 15 Oct 1940)Read his story
- Gp Capt W F M Newson RCAF. Station Commander. Jun to Oct 1944
- Flight Sergeant François Rolland Pilon. nav. 408 Sqd. (d.17th April 1943) Read his story
- Gp Capt J L Plant RCAF. Station Commander. Jun to Nov 1943
- Sgt Somerville. 10 Sqd RAF Read his story
- P/O J.Spalding
- Gp Capt W E Staton. Station Commander. June 1940 to Jul 1941
- Fl Lt D G Tomlinson. Pilot 10 Sqd RAF Read his story
- Sgt Walters 10 Sqd RAF Read his story
- Wg Cdr K E Ward. Station Commander. to June 1940
- Sgt R. Winter 408 Sqd. (d.17th April 1943) Read his story
- Sgt E H Wood 408 sqd Read his story
If you have any names to add to this list, or any recollections or photos of those listed, please get in touch.
If you have a story which you would like to share, or a website dedicated to an airfield or aircrew, please get in touch.
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