I have this old friend (Ray Jones) who I met 10 years ago whilst doing research on Merlin powered Aussie Raceboats ( he raced and maintained them for himself and others).
I visit him around once a month and he tells me what he is up to (still in his shed playing with Merlins and Meteor tank engines) and his old war stories. Today I visited him and we talked for ages. I just have to tell his story.
He served for all of the war with the RAAF as an engineer gunner. Starting at Richmond RAAF base assembling Hudsons as they were delivered. He then served in Borneo in Hudsons (29 missions). He was in the last Hudson that got out before the Japanese took over the airfield and executed 800 people on the strip (he is still bitter about the debarcle leading up to the invasion).
He then served in Darwin doing sub patrols (29 missions) in Wirraways (a funny story about this later).
He was caught in the Darwin raid and saved the life of a downed American Airman on the strip. The airman crash landed his P40. He couldnt get out of the cockpit. My friend and another rushed over under fire and pulled the airman out of the cockpit. The pilots left arm was almost blown off only held on by a sliver of skin. My friend tucked his hand into his pocket and dragged him back to the trench. As this was all going on a Zero straffed the airfield destroying the P40. The airman was transfered to the hospital only to be killed there by another bomb
In between raids Ray went back to the P40 and removed the ID plate off the P40's Allison.
After almost 50 years he donated the ID plate to the EAA collection. At last years Darwin raid memorials (he is the last living witness) he identified an Allison that had been dug up as being the same motor off the downed airmans P40 he saved.
He has kept a detailed diary of this raid showing a huge cover up with the actual toll on life and equipment. He claims more was lost on this raid than pearl harbour weeks before. Again he is very bitter.
After Darwin he transfered to Bomber Command in England and completed 61 bombing raids over Germany. He has 1 and half confirmed ME 262 kills.
Today he was telling me about one of the kills where the tail gunner couldnt aim and his guns (upper mid turret) couldnt point down far enough at it. He asked the pilot to pitch (screw) the Lancaster to the left giving him the angle needed to hit it. He got the Jet and they carried on with the raid.
I asked him once what was going through his mind during these bombing raids. His answer of "nothing I just put a newspaper over my head a tried to get some sleep" surprised me.
After the war he went to Germany to help with the repatriation. Today he was telling me that those times just after the war in Germany were like the wild west.
The Russian soldiers were a real problem especially the ones that had run off. It was common for them to attack allied supply convoys to steal food and goods for the black market. Their (my friends) convoys were always covered by spitfires who would straff anything that came near (just remember the war is now over).
One story he told was when he was on patrol in a jeep with an American soldier when they spotted another Aussie mate. The Aussie mate was asked for the time by a Russian. As he told him the time another Russian hit him on the head and stole his watch when he lay on the ground. Both men started to run off. Witnessing this my friend asked the American to open fire on them which he refused to do.
My friend pulled out his revolver and shot at them. He missed but in an amazing twist of fate his bullet hit the brick wall dislodging a chunk of brick hitting one of the fleeing Russians knocking him down.
They went and picked him up. My friend wanted to shoot him there and then but the American stopped him and said he should be returned to his superiors. They did that. They explained what happened and the Russian officer shot him (the thief) on the spot. Sobering stuff.
Now for the funny part of this story. As mentioned before my friend did patrols over Jarva looking for subs in a Wirraway. If they found nothing they would dump their bombs and head for home. Along the way for fun they would shoot at Crocodiles (no kidding). On one of these shooting trips the pilot had a malfunction on the forward firing guns. My friend said something about rolling off. I dont know what this term means but to cut a long story short something stuffed up on the synchronising. Ray was shooting at the crocs from the rear position and accidentally shot off the front of the tail.
When they returned to base all the ground crew came out to watch them land. When they turned the engine off they found that the armour piercing rounds had shot holes through the prop.
The people on the ground said the plane was making these weird whistling sounds as it came in.
Both pilot and gunner had a lot of explaining to do. Ray said they "got a big kick in the tushy". The commander saw through their sugar story.
Looking at the colour pic of Ray in uniform on the wall as a baby faced 19 year old you forget that these guys were just kids in a lot of ways doing what kids do with high performance toys.
Today he was also talking about the surviving Lancasters when I said would he like to go back to England to see the Memorial flights one in the air (I offered to go over with him). His response again surprised me. He said he would like to go back to the pub near his base to have a beer. He was stationed at a base starting with a B. Something like Bolingham. He even named the pub. He said after every raid they would go over there and get smashed. Of the 30 members that came over with him only 5 survived the war.
Im really keen to get him back over to England to see the Lanc flying (and have a beer in the pub)
. Does anyone know how this could be made possible?
I hope I havent bored you with this. I dont want his story to fade into obscurity. Maybe you have some old veterans story to tell.
Dave
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