CREW 150, 466 SQUADRON RAAF – A PROUD HALIFAX TEAM

This tale was relayed to ‘us’ by P/O John McManus but he ‘forgot’ to inform ‘us’ of the names of the ‘irresponsible’ pair.

A friendship between a RAAF ground-staff sergeant and a RAAF pilot had developed to such a degree that a foolish task was undertaken.

The pilot agreed to take the sergeant on board a Halifax during a daylight bombing raid on a German airfield target. The sergeant had served in England for at least three years and wanted desperately to experience the causes of damages to the many aircraft repaired by him in his time in England.

The pilot seated the sergeant in the rest position jump-seat which was midway in the aircraft and used in cases of treating injured personnel.

As the target was approached, visibility was good and flak was moderate. The pilot requested the sergeant to lower the jump-seat, on which he had been seated, and stand in a position to the right of the pilot. The top of the sergeant’s head was level with the bottom of the windscreen, thus his view was limited but he could move quickly to an escape hatch, if necessary, and also not impede the passage of escape of crew members in the case of a serious mishap.

Suddenly, a hole appeared in the right-hand side of the windscreen at a height level with the sergeant’s body if he had remained in the jump-seat. Half the base plug of an 88mm shell had passed through the screen, grazed the arm of the flight engineer and buried itself in the cushioning of the jump-seat.

As in the situation of getting the sergeant on board without being noticed, the unloading of him on reaching base in daylight required similar guile.

In Sydney, in the 1960’s, the pilot learned from the sergeant that, after the pilot had left 466 Squadron on completion of a tour, the sergeant inveigled another RAAF pilot to carry out a similar act in an operation at night.

Both of these irresponsible acts, if detected, would result in most serious disciplinary actions, inclusive of court martials.

Re Crew 150 of 466 Squadron:  they finished their tour. The Captain, J B McManus did his 2nd pilot trip during operation B133 (Homberg) with Joe Herman’s crew (131). Later, McManus did testing and ferrying in RAF Maintenance Command, then served in RAAF 76 Fighter Squadron in the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. Alan Swinfen and Ken Hawkins were commissioned after completing a tour. Swinfen served in 246 and 511 Squadrons of Transport Command and flew to India and Singapore before being a member of the RAF Volunteer Reserve. Hawkins served with the RAF Regiment in Palestine. John Hancocks served with the RAF in Germany. Because of ill health prior to B161 and B162 raids, Ron Oatt was replaced by Arch Walmsley (Crew 145) and G Wallace (Crew 148) respectively for the two raids. For good luck, Ken Hawkins took a mitten-type monkey on each operation.