F/Lt Alan A Castle DFC

101 Squadron – Lead Navigator

1922 – 2016

Alan Castle

As an 18-year-old RAF volunteer in 1941 from Leicester, Alan Castle was like most trainee volunteers of the time sent to Canada by boat for several months of aircrew training. These young men arriving in Ontario often found themselves being billeted with local families during this period as he was. As Alan was a relatively high achiever at School, passing his initial RAF intake assessment he was selected for Navigational and Bomb Aiming training, and upon completion of his courses promoted to Pilot Officer.

On returning to England in September 1941, he was posted to No 23 OTU Pershore to continue training on Wellington Bombers taking part in practice day & night training missions. A loss of his first Logbook due to a fire at RAF Bourn means we’re not sure of his exact activities before late 1941 however we do know he completed various training flights and courses in Air Observer Navigation, Astro Navigation and Air Observer Armament and was posted to 101 Squadron, based at Bourn in the new year of 1942.

His first combat operational flight flying Wellingtons took place on the 6^th of January 1942 quickly followed by raids on Essen, Cologne, Bremen, Kiel & Hamburg, these missions marked the start of his first operational tour completing 30 missions by June 1942, culminating with taking part in the first 1000 bomber raids on Cologne, Essen and Bremen, a new strategy for the time.

During this period flying Wellingtons, Alan was both Navigator and Bomb Aimer on each sortie and often dropped flares for target marking as well as bombs or incendiaries. The raid on Warnemunde in May 1942 almost ended in disaster for him coming in off the sea at just 50ft for a low-level attack on a Heinkel factory! Apart from nearly hitting a church spire having been blinded by defensive searchlights they inadvertently hit a barrage ballon cable over the target. But instead of tearing the plane to pieces, luckily the port prop took the brunt of the strike destroying the boss and taking 4 to 6 inches from each propeller tip, the nerve-racking 3-hour return leg was dominated by intense vibrations from the port wing.

With the completion of his first tour, he soon found himself with No 2 School of Air Navigation at Cranage in July 1942 then moving to 28^th Operational Training Unit (OTU) at Wymeswold by late 1942, we think as an instructor training new recruits.

By 1944, Alan was again posted back to 101 Squadron having been recently converted to ‘Heavies’ flying Lancasters and transferred to the newly built RAF Ludford Magna in Lincolnshire.

March 1944 marked the start of his second tour of Operations as Squadron Navigation Leader starting with an operation over Cologne on the  20^th of April 1944. Completing 15 missions in total including the infamous mission on Mailly-le-Camp which resulted in serious losses for the squadron. On several missions Alan remembers being ‘coned’ by searchlights often returning home peppered with holes when it seemed like every flak gun in the area aimed at our plane, recounting on one occasion being illuminated by a master ‘blue’ searchlight over Essen followed by others all homing in on them. For 9 minutes they weaved and dived to avoid the flak. Unfortunately, one mission ended with the death of a crew member when a well-placed flak shell exploded near to the nose section killing the bomb aimer. Alan’s second tour concluded with his final sortie revisiting Cologne on the 28^th of October 1944 as part of an 800 strong bomber raid.

Alan Castle completed 2 tours totalling 45 Combat Operations (545 flying hours) and being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on the 23^rd of March 1945. With his service in the RAF coming to an end in 1946 with a spell in Transport Command, Alan soon found himself busy with civilian life in the post war years having two daughters (Janet & Linda) with Joyce and several successful businesses. Finally finding time in retirement to take up his passion of gardening as well as regularly attending 101 Squadron reunions.

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