The story of Rudolf’s father – James Raphael Williams, provides the backbone for this presentation, revealing how many West Indians came to join the RAF and how, as a radar fitter, technological advancements changed the face of the air war.
The War proved a foundation for James’s successful career in microwave communications; however, Rudolf also shares remarkable witness accounts of relatives who found themselves at the wrong end of fighter bombers on opposing sides. A very personal reflection pieced together from historical documents.
The evening starts with a delicious hot supper in The Hub Café at 6.30pm.
The IBCC Events programme raises money to support our charity’s work with Learning and Outreach. To find out more about the range of events please click here.
The Invisible Campaign – Bomber Command Gardening Operations 1940-1945 with author, Jane Gulliford-Lowes
Aerial mining by RAF Bomber Command was a vital part of the Allied war effort, claiming far more tonnage of Axis shipping destroyed than direct attack by either Coastal or Bomber Command itself. Minelaying operations commenced in April 1940 and expanded dramatically as the war progressed, yet today this vital campaign and its wide-ranging achievements against Axis merchant vessels, Kriegsmarine ships and U-boats are virtually unknown.
Historian Jane Gulliford Lowes looks at the aims of the campaign and how it was implemented, together with the measure of its success and how it compared against the mining operations implemented by the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. The role of Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris in overseeing minelaying operations is assessed and the experiences of the men who delivered the campaign, particularly the hazards they faced, are explored.
In this lecture, based upon the book of the same title, Jane Gulliford Lowes sheds new light on a little-discussed but important and ultimately highly successful aspect of Bomber Command’s operations.
The evening starts with a delicious hot supper in The Hub Café at 18.30.
The IBCC Events programme raises money to support our charity’s work with Learning and Outreach. To find out more about the range of events please click here.
About the author:
Jane Gulliford Lowes is former lawyer, author and military historian from the North East of England. She holds a Masters’ Degree in Second World War Studies. She was awarded the RAF Museum’s prestigious academic prize in 2023 for her Masters’ Thesis on Bomber Command minelaying operations. Jane has written three books, and is currently working on her fourth, on the Lofoten Commando raids of 1941. In her “spare” time, Jane produces and co-hosts the popular Bomber Command podcast, Never Mind the Dambusters.
Memory and memorialisation. Exploring the evidence behind the account.
57 Squadron Wireless Operator Keith J ‘Steve’ Stevens’ name appears on a tour and a half’s worth of operations with Bomber Command. Steve took part in his first operation whilst at OTU in September 1942. Arriving at Scampton he resumes his tour in December which culminates in June of 1943. He would stay with 57 moving to East Kirkby and becoming the Squadron’s Signals Leader. Now commissioned Steve continued to fly on an ‘ad-hoc’ basis with various crews, finding himself shot down in July of 1944. Steve successfully evaded capture and was liberated by American forces advancing through Clermont in September.
Steve recorded his memories in a 2003 self-published account titled Flak, Fighters and Fliers. Armed with this book and various archives his nephew, Alistair, has trodden the well worn but often problematic path of memory versus the evidence.
Here in discussion with Dr Dan Ellin of the IBCC Digital Archive, Alistair explores how we are able to be critically analytical about testimony and explore the evidence whilst remaining respectful of the courage and professionalism of our veterans.
The evening starts with a delicious hot supper in The Hub Café at 18.30.
The IBCC Events programme raises money to support our charity’s work with Learning and Outreach. To find out more about the range of events please click here.
The speakers:
Dr Dan Ellin is the archivist for the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive housed at the University of Lincoln. A Social and Cultural historian, Dan’s research examines the lives and emotions of the men and women who served with Bomber Command during the Second World War, and how the bombing war is remembered.
Alistair Campbell-Grieve is a keen amateur historian of conflict. Alistair has a background in intelligence, his day job is focused on evidence and developing information. It is this skill that Alistair has brought to his current book project focusing on his Great Uncle’s career.
Alistair served with 2 Royal Tank Regiment in Helmand Province, Afghanistan and enjoys cycling, collecting records and rare books.
At the Quebec Conference of September 1944, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt estimated it would take a further 18 months to defeat Japan once the war in Europe was over. Churchill proposed that Bomber Command would then provide a very long-range bomber force to fight alongside the Americans against Japan in the Pacific. Known as ‘Tiger Force’ it would be made up of squadrons based mainly from Lincolnshire.
Phil Bonner from Aviation Heritage Lincolnshire will talk the about the build up for ‘Tiger Force’, the challenges of deploying out to the Pacific and its subsequent disbandment following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The evening starts with a delicious hot supper in The Hub Café at 6.30pm.
The IBCC Events programme raises money to support our charity’s work with Learning and Outreach. To find out more about the range of events please click here.
‘To Force the Enemy Off the Sea’ – RAF Coastal Command’s North Coates Strike Wing 1943-45
Thursday 6th November 2025, 6.30
Find out how the introduction of Coastal Command’s new ‘Strike Wings’, dramatically changed the anti-shipping campaign from early 1943 onwards. Discover the way this important and hard-fought, but little-known, offensive was successfully conducted.
After three years of war, heavily armed German shipping convoys were still sailing down the North Sea into Rotterdam, carrying supplies of high-grade Swedish iron ore destined for the armaments factories of the Ruhr. With great courage the “Cinderella Boys” of RAF Coastal Command had attempted to curtail this enemy supply line, with limited success and incurring heavy losses.
North Coates was the first unit to be equipped with the tough and versatile Bristol Beaufighter, and manned by specially trained aircrew using new tactics, developed to overwhelm the enemy convoys’ defences. Using cannon, rockets and torpedoes in carefully planned and co-ordinated attacks, the Wing succeeded in closing the sea route to Rotterdam and so ‘forcing the enemy off the sea’. 241 Beaufighter crew from North Coates were lost but over 150,000 tonnes of enemy shipping was sunk.
Referencing original sources and using battle photographs, maps and diagrams, the lecture explains why the Wing, comprising Nos. 236, 254 and 143 Squadrons, was formed and how its tactics were developed and executed, describing in detail some of its major ‘Wing Strikes’ and other operations. It also looks at the diverse backgrounds, careers and character of the participants, and their wartime life on the North Coates station.
Finally, the effectiveness of Coastal Command’s Strike Wings anti-shipping campaign is assessed generally and the lecture questions whether a larger, earlier and more extensive deployment of its Strike Wings might have led to a more rapid degradation of Germany’s industrial capability.
The evening starts with a delicious hot supper in The Hub Café at 18.30.
The IBCC Events programme raises money to support our charity’s work with Learning and Outreach. To find out more about the range of events please click here.
lecture presenters and book co-authors John Vimpany (left) and David Boyd (right).
Speakers
John Vimpany is the son of an RAF officer who flew as a Beaufighter navigator on the North Coates Strike Wing. He was brought up on RAF bases in the UK and overseas. John worked first in the management of international trade fairs and exhibitions, when he travelled extensively overseas, as well as major public events including the operational management of the Liverpool International Garden Festival. He then turned to cultural projects, including museum and heritage management, serving as Chief Executive of the Mary Rose Trust. He also created a new museum for the Royal Artillery (‘Firepower’ at the Woolwich Arsenal) and was the English Heritage Project Director for a new Stonehenge visitor centre.
David Boyd worked as a specialist corporate investor relations manager for a number of public listed companies in the UK and internationally, and previously held a range of general business and financial management and advisory roles in the UK, USA, and Belgium. In 2018 David’s research paper “Bridging the Gap – Exploring the role of the Staff during the 1916 campaign in Tanganyika” was published in “There Came a Time … Essays on the Great War in Africa” (TSL Publications, 2018).
David Boyd & John Vimpany are co-authors of the book ‘To Force the EnemyOff the Sea’, recently published by Helion Books Ltd. Available on-line from www.helion.co.uk
The Battle of Britain: Dowding vs Bader vs Luftwaffe. – Thursday 9th October 2025 6.30pm
From the middle of the 1930s, it was increasingly obvious that both Germany and Japan were building their military strength and capability. Gross underinvestment and fighting between different arms of the UK’s armed forces meant that we were hugely underprepared for what would become a completely new type of conflict. New technology was rapidly evolving but slow getting into service. How should this technology be used? How should the new but very scarce aircraft be used? Did we have enough pilots being trained? While the Luftwaffe was doing its best to destroy the RAF, a deeply political and messy battle was fought between factions within the RAF and UK Government.
A lifelong fascination with speed and flight and, in particular, aviation in World War II, has kept Simon Kemp’s evenings and weekends fully occupied. He works full time in IT, writing software for a variety of clients in various industries, as well as being a member at Metheringham Airfield Visitor Centre
The evening starts with a delicious hot supper in The Hub Café at 6.30pm.
The IBCC Events programme raises money to support our charity’s work with Learning and Outreach. To find out more about the range of events please click here.
