Book Review | "A Shaky Do" ~ The Plzen Raid 16-17 April 1943 by Peter Wilson Cunliffe (Revised Edition)

Book Review

A SHAKY DO

by

Peter Wilson Cunliffe

Mr Cunliffe writes also in memory of his Uncle,
Flight Sergeant William Waller Dawson
the Macfarlane Crew
Avro Lancaster W4317 QR-R
61 Squadron, RAF,
who, like 385 others that night, did not return on that same Plzen [i] Operation

Second Edition

---

Portrait

THE DATE 16-17 April 1943 is seared into the family consciousness. So, too, The Skoda Works.

I grew up knowing that the portrait of the man in flying kit in Grandma's front room was my namesake and the reason for my name. This was drawn in pastel by the Artist Hicks at the beginning of 1941, when Ken was stationed at R.A.F. Torquay in Devonshire on the south coast, a few weeks before embarkation on board a troop ship for pilot training in Alabama, USA.

RAF and USAAF Wings ~ What a Day

So too, the photograph of a young 20-year-old in Number 1 Dress uniform smoking a ciggie on a very dusty airfield sporting his RAF and USAAF wings awarded earlier that 24th day of April 1942, on Craig Airfield, Alabama USA. Embarking for Britain on the Queen Mary - for the duration, a troopship - he then received his coveted rank of Sergeant-Pilot.

In early years, bearing his name didn't sit well with me, for it seemed a heavy burden to live up to the expectations and exploits of this distant figure who had flown out that night and not come back, and reinforced because my father, five years younger than his brother, seemed an almost identical twin in looks, in love for life, and their love for motor bikes!

There is another date seared into the family consciousness ~ 16-17 January 1945 this time.

RAF Path Finder Force

Awareness of the fate of another plane in the RAF Path Finder Force. Another uncle, a flight engineer, who also flew out that night not to come back, also my namesake.

So, 16/17 is always one of those mystical monthly dates that, certainly as a child, had me thinking up all sorts. But the lives of these two relatives also paved, for me, 21 fantastic years serving in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and wearing those same coveted letters on the lapels that my uncles had worn – VR.

II

Little was known of the Pilsen Raid - as my family always refer to it - on 16/17 April 1943 - other than the eyewitness account brought back to my paternal grandparents immediately after the war by the sole surviving member of the crew, Sergeant Leslie Mitchell, the mid-upper gunner. His account was imperative. It gave them something to hold on to and, to use modern language, to ‘box off’ the terrifying night and events that followed.

My maternal grandparents did not have this lifeline for their son, as none of his crew survived, nor of the other Avro Lancaster, when the two Lancasters collided with full loads.

This is the case with all families of the 57,205 aircrew - worldwide - who perished in the most horrendous bombing campaign and military offensive in history - known officially as the Strategic Air Offensive - that when the Wright Brothers made their first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, USA on December 17, 1903, 39.5 years earlier, quite simply was beyond their comprehension. And the War in Ukraine makes me very aware that aggressors, with hardly a whim, sign the death warrants of thousands of their own troops, even civilians, in the disgusting pursuit of their need to conquer, subjugate and seize for their own use, lands and seas and air space to which they never had any right in the first place, save in their own twisted, demented, logic.

Handley Page Halifax

The pilot, flight engineer and wireless operator at their positions in a Handley Page Halifax, October 1941. Image courtesy of IWM (iwm org uk)

III

Research is imperative. And history relies upon expert research to ensure that facts are properly reported to future generations and not reliant upon conjecture, half-truth and myth. But this is no easy task and when I made my own visit to the Public Records Office at Kew Gardens, London, in the early 1990s I was overawed by the data, even though the internet was, at that time, still in infancy.

But wait on. The records were pre-internet and suddenly everything was about to change. Am I saying it would be easier? No. I'm saying the opposite!

The more data we have, the greater the need to accurately sift through every piece of documentation, cross-check, cross-refer, then thrice-check every fact and interview. Two careers in police and law respectively emphasised the need to accurately report facts. This is difficult at the best of times, but when dealing with a timeline that is often longer than our own lives, it becomes even harder.

Memories tend to embellish or blot out.

IV

It is even harder when interviews will be with elderly relatives, or with second or third generation relatives, who are trying to pass on information as best they can, as it has been reported to them, and handed down within family archives, often just by word of mouth. That is the case in point in my own paternal and maternal family, but supported, in the main, by correspondence and military logbooks.

V

This research must first start with the surviving veterans of Bomber Command. They are fast departing.

It then fans outwards to the families and military organisations.

Like the pebble in a pool the waves move ever wider, taking in the interviews with surviving Luftwaffe personnel, often the very airmen who shot one of ours down, and vice versa, then to their families, then to the people who risked their lives in sheltering downed RAF aircrew, then to members of the French Resistance and every resistance group throughout Occupied Europe, to the German People, too, to those who risked danger in offering help. 



That last paragraph was written and published in April 2013. Little did I know that I would come face to face with the families of Frau Hedi Kraus and Herr Manfred Watta, and the incredible actions of Hedi in her insistence in remembering the downed crew, and of Manfred who, in his last year, provided a very accurate drawing of the crash site of Handley Page Halifax DK165 MP-E in Lachen-Speyerdorf. What Manfred saw, is not what children should ever see.

The bedrock of Peter's work rests upon the single Universal Proclamation that prefaces this Work:

“16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. ”

— As it is written in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18

VI

As Her Late Majesty the Queen put it in April 2013 …

“Whether we be of all faiths, and of none, we need a foundation upon which to build the work that we endeavour to achieve.”

— Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II ER

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of Peter Cunliffe’s work and its historical significance in centuries to come. It thus behoves an author to do that which is never done, to step from behind their preferred pen name. When I turned the page and saw the image that had been in my head from my earliest memory, that of Ken Webb senior, it took my breath away. It was a very moving and very personal and private moment. For even though I did not realise it at the time, I grew up in the house in which he grew up, and by age 13, I knew every nook and cranny, and only now do I realise that nothing in that wonderful home had changed from when he was a boy. Even the blackout blinds remained in place, beautifully rolled up to the curtain tops and held by a thin chord wrapped round a hook in the wooden window frames, in every room, in every window.

VII

On the September 19, 1982, I had the privilege to meet Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur ‘Bomber' Harris at a Reception at the Cheltenham Royal Air Force Association, after attending the unveiling of a plaque by Sir Arthur Harris, marking his birthplace in 3 Queens Parade Cheltenham. As a young serving flight lieutenant, I remember, later, chatting for several minutes with him over a coffee, and in particular, Sir Arthur Harris's interest in the loss of my two uncles.

Both of us in uniform, an extraordinary moment then, priceless now, for I also remember his quiet fortitude and gentleness and at the same time his bearing as the Commander who had carried the greatest weight upon his shoulders. I remember at the time thinking that it had always been right to carry through the government's policy and I remember, too, Sir Arthur's slight shrug of the shoulders when I touched upon the rough treatment Bomber Command received as soon as operations ceased. I remember his wry smile too, and I am even more proud today that my two uncles had served under his command.

This memory wrankles today not through embarrassment, but with anger at writers who pronounce themselves as historians, and write of a man they have never met, never served within military command, yet pontificate as judge and jury. Social Media eagerly seduces them, along with the plethora of ‘tin pot’ documentaries that eagerly give vent to air time time, reinforced by very inaccurate and, at times, downright plain embarrassing re-enactments.

Maximum Effort

Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris C-in-C RAF Bomber Command during the Strategic Air Offensive

VIII

That remains an incredible occasion etched upon my mind, and as Peter Cunliffe makes clear in this record, Bomber Harris was carrying out the policy laid down by government. He did not have his own agenda. He did though have one aim - to prosecute the war with all the vigour and determination expected of any military commander, a fact of which Churchill was well aware, and which was not, in the prime minister's own assessment both during and after the war, always present in his generals and admirals.

In air force matters the prime minister was able to rely fully upon such men as Bomber Harris, Marshal of the RAF, Viscount Charles Portal and Marshal of the RAF Sir Arthur Tedder, a fact that later turned sour and which has taken 70 years to put right. But at least it has been put right!

Indeed, it is one of those rare moments when I find myself in very strong contention with that great man who led us through six years of war, only to then snub so many people, people that he had five years earlier praised as “The Few”, but because it would upset Stalin - another vicious dictator as bad as the one they, with the absolutely crucial role of President F D Roosevelt, had managed to defeat - and refuse the famous RAF Polish airmen of 303 Squadron to take part in the Victory Parade in Whitehall. That was but the start. Politicians, no matter how great they are, no matter what they achieve for the nation, or for the people they serve, are very seldom worthy of the high honours so often placed upon them.


IX

Another fascinating foundation stone of this work is the author’s equal attention to reporting the facts, when available, as seen through the eyes of those who served in the Luftwaffe.

We cannot look at conflict without seeing both sides. Gaining this perspective is crucial to a work of this nature and import. It draws us together. And I have not a shadow of doubt that the vast majority of people serving as an enemy of each other in those awful times and on that terrifying night, would also now say to their offspring - `work together, listen to each other. Stand side by side, argue and fight your cause, but do so across the table, without guns, without bombs, without having to kill or be killed.'

Strong words I know. But this is the whole point of Peter Cunliffe's work.

X

What also comes through in this work is the powerful and united choral voice of the countless eye witness accounts that leave the reader enthralled, perplexed, shocked, uplifted, downhearted, then raised again and always with the sure knowledge that this is just one operation of many - reflected time and again, night after night, day after day, in the vigorous prosecution of the war and the Allies' determination to defeat the Axis Powers, and in particular, their nucleus - Nazism and Fascism.

XI

About a decade ago a documentary was made about young grandchildren of surviving bomber command veterans learning to fly a Lancaster bomber. The documentary is powerful and moving; the book from which the documentary was made, even more so. I mention it because I encourage young people to read A Shaky Do. So much can be learned from such reading. Nothing changes in the horror of war. Only the age changes of those who survive. This is an absolute must for any student of military history, any student of the Second World War, any student of the history of RAF Bomber Command.

At Cranwell, Sandhurst and Dartmouth, there are many works for future officers to draw upon as they undergo intensive training that will see them granted the Queen's Commission (one day, once again, the King’s Commission). A Shaky Do is one of the works within the libraries of those three great military institutions.

Endnotes

[i] I grew up with the anglicized spelling Pilsen

6 October 2022
All Rights Reserved

LIVERPOOL

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022

Air Vice Marshal Nigel Colman OBE RAF AOC Joint Helicopter Command 78 Squadron RAF Benson ~ in the banner image with the author, Peter Wilson Cunliffe, in 2008 in the rank of Wing Commander RAF

This Book Review was first published as a Liverpool Dispatch on 14 April 2013

Flight Sergeant Dawson was the pilot and skipper of Avro Lancaster W4317 QR-R 61 Squadron Royal Air Force

Front Cover of the 2015 Second Edition and available on Kindle

When this flew by my apartment a little further down from this point, it was level with my lounge windows. One of those stop-dead-in-your-tracks moments! Not to mention the incredible sound of those four beautiful engines…