RAF 12 Dilemma
RAF Handley Page Halifax Mk V DK165 MP-E : 76 Squadron RAF Linton-on-Ouse
Royal Air Force
Volume 1 2021
Featured protem on Remembrance Sunday, 13 November 2022
in Memory of four uncles who volunteered for war service and failed to return
First World War
Pt Harry Marshall, British Army (1918)
Pt Frederick Marshall, British Army (1918)
Second World War
Sergeant-Pilot Kenneth Ernest Webb RAF VR (1943)
Flight Sergeant Flight Engineer Harry Alfred Marshall RAF VR (1945)
Dedicated to the Crews of Handley-Page Halifax Mk V DK165 MP-E
and
Pathfinder Avro Lancaster PB 402 LQ-M
and
and all the Crews
of all air forces worldwide
regardless of which side they fought in World War II
Author Note
This composition was written much later than the poem entitled
Air Raid on the Skoda Works Plzen ~ 16-17 1943
which was first published by Spiderwize in Idle Thoughts: An Anthology of poetry and Prose in September 2009. It appears at the end of this much later composition.
Both pieces were written without an incline that on 4 August 2018, as a guest of the German People, I would stand where now rests fragments of the cockpit of DK165.
Some fragments from Ken Webb’s cockpit were also presented to me on that incredible day. This is entirely due to both the German People and Herr Erik Wieman and his Archaeological Team IG Heimat Forschung. I am indebted to Herr Erik Wieman and his Team.
CHAPTER ONE
Dilemma
IT IS Day
Let us never forget, but let this always be a thriving thoroughfare for families, cyclists, joggers, and for all of us who simply want to enjoy the peace and calm of Nature, and to rejoice that no longer do the townspeople of Lachen-Speyerdorf hear the dread approach of Bomber Command. We now stand as one, united, the bridges rebuilt, as indeed I know full well from my own family archive that Ken Webb and his crew would have expected of us. Ken Webb Jnr.
The Consecretion … The Bridges rebuilt … our faith restored … our determination that we will never let this happen again between our peoples. Samstag, August 4. 2018 ~ Pastor Herrn Michael Paul, Pfarrgemeinde Heilig Geist Neustadt, Diözese, Speyer
CHAPTER TWO
76 Squadron RAF Linton-on-Ouse Yorkshire
16-17 April 1943
Part I
Okay Crew, standby for take off ...
Come in rear gunner
Receiving loud and clear skipper
Mid Upper?
Receiving skipper
Bomb Aimer?
Loud and Clear Skipper
Wireless Operator?
All's well, skipper
Navigator?
Loud and clear Skipper
Flight Engineer?
Ready to go Skipper
Okay all - hold on
Okay Flight Engineer let's proceed at pace
Green Light Skip ...
Thanks W/O
Let her roll nice an' easy ... ...
She's feeling good Skip
Ease her up ...
Revs please, Engineer!
Give me full throttle
Two hands please ...
... ... thank you Engineer, nice one!!
Okay we're clearing ... ...
... ... ... A N D lifting gear ...
Up, up and away!
Okay all - a long flight, so settle down.
Navigator, I'm sweeping shallow to port
and climbing to Angels Eight.
Set me a course please.
Okay Skipper,
Set course sou-sou-west 185 degrees
and climbing to Angels Sixteen
... I repeat, angels sixteen ...
ETOT 4.5 hours Skip.
Thank you Navigator.
Weather's good,
we'll be flying above a storm
over Birmingham
Engineer, trim back please
on One and Four
She's feeling good ...
Crew, we'll do some gentle weaving
for practice
and be prepared for corkscrewing
on the way back ...
So don't complain if you've had too much beakfast ...!
How's it in the astro W/O?
We've got a "little one"
on your starboard Skip - A Spit
Ah, I see her ...
A lovely sight !
---
Each dipped their wings,
the Spitfire then slowly
peeling off to starboard ...
and the crew
took to the skies
... their Final Mission ...
---
and all would be well
with the world
even without them
but because of them
Part II
... and in the next century
seventy five years on
again, a Saturday,
they were remembered
in a quiet leafy glade
deep in the Forest
their families standing at one
with Germany;
and where the cockpit had lain
where now the Memorial stands,
three oak trees still stand
in a triangular fashion
an older one already established
when it witnessed their arrival
its companions, slightly younger,
but remaining in place
and as the years became decades
so the scars on the bark healed...
yes ... triangular
three points of a compass
and on a quiet day
dividers saw light again
and rejoined the next of kin
and they were brought
full circle in glorious refrain ...
And when you visit in years to come
and the leaves above you rustle gently,
have no fear
it is but a whisper
of grateful lives remembered
just a fleeting veil as on your face
Kenneth .T. Webb
Flight Lieutenant
In Memory of,
and with grateful thanks
Sergeant-Pilot Kenneth .E. Webb
and
all the Crew of
Handley Page Halifax Mk V DK165 MP-E
and to three families in Germany
Die Familien von
Frau Kraus
und
Frau Watta
und
Frau Rita Schneeweiß
16-17 April 2020
9 October 2021
All Rights Reserved
© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2022
Also Copyright
© Kenneth .T. Webb in Memory of Kenneth .E. Webb and the Webb Crew
The Memorial - Der Gedenkstein Zeremonie - Deutsche Version
The Memorial Ceremony - English Version
Image Courtesy of the Family of Sergeant Pilot Kenneth Ernest Webb 1315766 RAF VR Pilot and Skipper of DK165 MP-E and to whom all rights are reserved
Image Courtesy of the Family of Flight Stanley Braybrook 653562 RAF VR Flight Engineer of DK165 MP-E and to whom all rights are reserved
Image Courtesy of the Family of Sergeant Pilot Kenneth Rees George Williams 1315633 RAF VR Navigator of DK165 MP-E and to whom all rights are reserved
On Saturday 4 August 2018, the Navigators' Dividers - found beneath the ground where the cockpit came to rest and where now stands the Memorial (Der Gedenkstein) - were formally returned to the ownership of Sergeant Navigator Williams's next of kin and Nephew, Mr Huw Williams, in a very moving Ceremony, and for which the thanks of all the families of the Crew are extended to the Archaeologists and Researchers Herr Erik Wieman and Herr Peter Berkel and Herr Wieman’s Team - I G Heimat Forschung Rheinland-Pfalz.
My Grandmother, Isabel Alice Webb, often spoke with great affection of Kenneth Williams (known by his family as Rees) because of the friendship between the two Kens, and it is only now that I realise that their service numbers indicate that there is only a 133 differential between them - in other words, more or less the same Volunteer Reserve Intake in 1941.
Image Courtesy of the Family of Sergeant Allen Ross R115601 RCAF Wireless Operator-Air Gunner of DK165 MP-E and to whom all rights are reserved
Image Courtesy of the Family of Sergeant Jack Kay 1079407 RAF VR Bomb Aimer of DK165 MP-E and all rights to this image are reserved to the author as this image was displayed on the mantelpiece by Mr & Mrs H A Webb from 1943 until 1966 and then passed to the author's father.
Image Courtesy of the Family of Sergeant Leslie Bernard "Mitch" Mitchell 553053 RAF VR Mid-Upper Gunner of DK165 MP-E and to whom all rights are reserved
Mercifully, Mitch survived, coming down in the tail section after the fuselage had broken in two. Les was a Prisoner of War, and let it be noted, not quiescent - making several dangerous attempts to escape. On repatriation in 1945, Les visited the families of his Crew in order to bring them precious news of their sons', brothers' and husband's (Jack Kay) last hours.
Image Courtesy of the Family of Flight Sergeant Geoffrey Brown 751279 RAF VR "Tail-End Charlie" Rear Gunner - the eyes and ears of DK165 MP-E and all rights to this image are reserved to the author as this image was displayed on the mantelpiece by Mr & Mrs H A Webb from 1943 until 1966 and then passed to the author's father
Geoff had been crewed with my uncle and the navigator Ken Williams since January 1943, flying the Whitley bomber from RAF St Eval conducting anti-submarine sweeps with Coastal Command. Geoff was ‘tail-end-charlie’, and the eyes of the Halifax Crew.
The original Adjutant Manifest
Archival Note by Flight Lieutenant Kenneth .T. Webb RAF VR dated 30 June, 2018 and is the exclusive property of the author and is not to be reproduced except with the author's express (written) approval.
Herr Erik Wieman (on right) and Herr Peter Berkel
Erik is the Lead Archaologist and of IG Heimat Forschung, Lachen Speyerdorf, Deutschland.
Without this tireless work by Erik and the Team both on this crash site and the other crash sites they are uncovering, as I type, I recall their recovery of a Short Stirling RAF Bomber, a Boeing B17 Flying Fortress and a Douglas Dakota troop carrier, and both I and my family will be forever indebted to Erik and his Team.
All of this first came to light in December 2015.
Until then, my family had assumed that we would never know what really happened and had I been told even earlier that year, that in 2018 I would stand on the actual point at which the cockpit came to rest, that I would learn of Herr Manfred Watta (who sadly died in 2018), the eye-witness to the aircraft's final descent, and of Frau Hedi Kraus and her extraordinary bravery between 1943-1947, I would have suggested that the teller had a vivid imagination.
Let me put it this way.
The work by Erik and IG Heimat Forschung continues for families long after die Zeremonie and Memorial.
We have a new perspective. We have our family archival records; and as we sift through documents and photographs, letters and artefacts, we come face to face with every member of the Crew of DK 165, and this is the same for every family, and for every crash site.
Erik and the entire team of IG Heimatforschung,
I will forever be in your debt.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
Indeed all of us.
Kenneth .T. Webb Jr
The original first edition published in 2009
when I genuinely thought that such horror was a thing of the past
Then came Aleppo
Then came Mariupol
In both cities and countries, our former Ally, Russia has descended into totalitarianism and given us this 21st Century’s mirror image of the 20th Century’s Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy.
CHAPTER THREE
‘Air Raid on the Skoda Works Plzen’ 16-17 April 1943
76 Squadron
Royal Air Force
Linton-on-Ouse
Yorkshire
A Tribute to the Webb Crew
Sergeant-Pilot Kenneth Ernest Webb RAF VR Skipper (21)
Sgt Stanley Braybrook 21 (Flight Engineer)
Sgt Kenneth Rees Williams 21 (Navigator)
Flt Sgt Allen Ross 20 (Wireless Op & Air Gunner)
Sgt Jack ‘Jackie’ Kay 27 (Bomb Aimer)
Sgt Leslie Mitchell (Mid-upper Gunner)
Flt Sgt Geoffrey Brown 24 (Air Gunner)
I
The instruments are dimmed
the chocks are swept aside
ground crew give that one last
cheer, goodbye and
a thumbs-up too!
We sweep the rudders
and turn on a sixpenny bit
C for Charlie straightens up
and taxis out before us
It’s our turn next
with G for George astern us
The flare arcs high in the sky…
She’s up and away
Linton on Ouse receding below
and on a bearing for York Minster
the rendezvous
then turning starboard
to head over Grimsby,
my heart pounds slightly
but I'm at peace with the world
It’s a horrid tragic thing I do
I have to do it nonetheless
My conscience is clear
but I am deeply saddened
for there is no joy in this,
only fear
II
I wonder what Dad’s doing?
How the petrol is affecting his
chauffeuring?
Oh for Arthur’s guidance and cheeky laugh
Oh for Mum’s hum from the kitchen
and Mum’s laugh
Oh for Des – every older brother’s nightmare…
I adore him to bits
Let’s do the checks
Okay boys – check-in, please
Tail gunner?
Mid Upper?
Nose gunner
Bomb aimer?
The twin towers of Lincoln
Cathedral…
Will they pass me below?
If they do, we’ve succeeded!
We’re coming back home…
My heart misses a beat
Will I see them again?
It is dark
but up here we can see the hint of light
blackness shimmering…
transformation from land to sea
Okay
Test your guns
We’re over the sea
Watch for night fighters
III
This is a long one
It’s calm as we cross France
But Pilsen?
Skoda?
One thousand it’s rumoured…
That’s four thousand engines
A harbinger of death to those below
Not all enemy either
But will we get back?
For they’ll surely be up
Waiting for us
I've not done this before
None of us has…
To bomb Berlin is bad enough
But Pilsen?
That takes the biscuit
That silly piece of paper in 1938
would not have seen me flying here
If people kept their word
“Peace in our time”
That’s a joke!
Five years ago – that’s all
And here I am – all of us
flying deepest yet
into Occupied Europe
Yes.
Chamberlain meant well
But thank G-D for Churchill
IV
What must it be like down there?
Just what are those peoples going through?
Do they really all believe in a maniac?
Are they really so deluded?
Or are there Germans like Mum and Dad
who despise the web they're caught up in?
V
She’s constant and trimmed
A slight yaw from the crosswind
buffeting too…
VI
We’re over Berdendorf Skipper
Five minutes from the border
Ken's voice is always calm
A damned good navigator too
Indeed, I've got the pick of the bunch
My Crew
Mum and Dad did us proud
when we called in
Ha-ha! Made Mum's day
Dad's grinning from ear to ear
Chuckling...
You're going to be in trouble Ken
You've got muddy boots!
A sense of calm despite the flak
But we’re holding well
No night fighters yet
We’ve caught them out
But they’ll be up and waiting;
at least without our payload
I can get some extra speed
But will it be enough?
I don't know
We’re crossing now Skipper
We’re eight minutes to target
I can see it ahead
It’s already lit up
C for Charlie is going in
We’re in her slipstream
The command comes through
from the lead plane;
we all release on his Bomb Aimer’s say so!
The flak is very heavy now…
Colossal in fact…hell!
A row of staccato taps right down amidships
But we’re still holding!
Bombs Gone!
An upsurge, a violent uplift
From the sudden weightlessness of
The bombload gone
Stan calmly applies his hand
To the throttles with me
Giving her that extra boost
We’ve got her skipper
I pull the column deep into my gut
Engines are responding well
The altimeter rising
We’ve got to get her above this ack-ack
It’s murderous
A sea of searchlights
probing the sky like tentacles
Can I fly down the beam again?
If I get caught?
I'd be tempting Providence
Hell on earth this is!
I wonder what Dad’s doing?
Wish I could hear his voice now
So calming
Got to get the lads back safely
Ease the controls
Like Dad showed me his gear changes
in Miss Bellhouse's Convertible
I wonder if Dad's driven General Lord Ismay again?
They had a right old chat last time
And I like Ismay
He congratulated me on my Matriculation
I'd love to be a fly on the wall in his briefings
with Churchill!
Whoomph!!!! Whoomph!!!!
Violent yaw to starboard
Port engine outer screaming
Stan trim her!
Bank to left … left … left … left… … …
Come on girl…
Come on beauty you can do it
Sliding round
A Black shadow passes below us
Hell Skipper
That was close
Ken Williams calmly calls up from his perch
A Halifax – too dark to make out
Starts to fall, almost grace-like...
Never mind
Concentrate
Hold her steady
Steady
Steady
Got her Skipper
Outer Port is feathering
Thank you, Engineer
Trim her
You did well there
VII
Phew! Thank G-D for that!
She’s flying well but controls are stiff
We inch her round
coaxing like I’d coax a lady…
with great respect and gentleness…
and we have our usual quiet banter
but very respectful
you don’t joke about things
when doing this manoeuvre
it’s like we all speak from the heart…
Like we all hope we’ll do this for real one day
Like we’ll all see our children
Even though "Grandad Jack"
Gets ribbed mercilessly
But then he’s all of twenty-seven!
What does he expect? Ha-ha!
In peacetime
I'm going to fly an airline!
Bette [1] likes the idea of that
I pull her leg I know,
but Arthur doesn’t mind
We all get on well, Pat [2] too
Got to stay positive
Thank G-D Des got me that engagement ring
VIII
Over Germany now
This is nasty
It’s vile
You can feel the evil reaching up
and clutching you
venomous, satanic
Keep calm
Hold her steady
The flak is terrifying…even worse
Crew check-in please… …
Watch out for night-fighters chaps!
IX
An explosion
Hold it
A violent lurch that thwacks
Through the controls
hitting me in the gut
Flick the switch on my mask
The smell of leather
The smell of fire and cordite too
… the smell of fear
a slight wobbling in my stomach
Keep calm Webb
I tell myself…
Mitch go back and check… …
The twin towers of Lincoln just
too far away now…
X
Saint Matthew’s Church
on a Sunday morning
Cheltenham last Autumn
The Choir and harmless fun in the pew
Mum, Dad and Des over there
…and of the Holy Spirit…
Mum bows her head towards East
Amen
The Great Organ
Mendelssohn played,
defiant to a crooked cross
and played again in 1986
Vanessa my niece
at Prestbury Church
XI
The next explosion blew
the ship apart
But I'm safe now
No more pain
It was swift, sudden
merciless, decisive
and I glimpsed them too
The Host of Heaven
That’s when I knew we’d win
but others would carry the baton,
not me, not us…
to the finishing line
XII
That’s my nephew
Gosh he’s fifty
chatting away in the Albert Dock!
Takes after his Dad I bet
Another chatterbox
Drove Mum mad ha-ha!
But look at that
the young people with him!
German, Polish, Italian
South African, American
Russian – all of ‘em
laughing, joking, working together
Well, I’ll be damned!
Our lives weren’t wasted after all
And in the end,
he got his Wings too
even if he did turn out of wind
on a solo!!
Only my nephew could do a silly thing like that!
Endnotes
[1] Bette Webb – the Portrait Cover of Idle Thoughts
[2] Pat Freeman, Bette's younger sister, lately Lady Mayoress of Cheltenham
Photos:
1 Alabama
2 me
3 Life is Good
4 Braybrook S
5 Fuselage in trees (main image)
6 Bette Webb
13 November 2022
All Rights Reserved
LIVERPOOL
Written 2009 when not all present information was available.
© 2022 Kenneth Thomas Webb
Ken Webb is a writer and proofreader. His website, kennwebb.com, showcases his work as a writer, blogger and podcaster, resting on his successive careers as a police officer, progressing to a junior lawyer in succession and trusts as a Fellow of the Institute of Legal Executives, a retired officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, and latterly, for three years, the owner and editor of two lifestyle magazines in Liverpool.
He also just handed over a successful two year chairmanship in Gloucestershire with Cheltenham Regency Probus.
Pandemic aside, he spends his time equally between his city, Liverpool, and the county of his birth, Gloucestershire.
In this fast-paced present age, proof-reading is essential. And this skill also occasionally leads to copy-editing writers’ manuscripts for submission to publishers and also student and post graduate dissertations.