RAF 550 Squadron and North Killingholme Association - Childhood Memories of 550 Squadron

The Fire Section crew had to stand-by alongside the runway with the Crash Tender at the ready as the planes returned, often badly shot up and occasionally still carrying bombs and maybe even on fire if a Lanc had crash-landed. Sometimes they had to pull badly injured crew from the planes. Because of these experiences, Dad would never ever fly after the war.

In 1944-45, Dad "evacuated" my Mum, my sister Maureen and me (as well as one of Mum's young friends called Margie who was about 17/18 at the time) away from the buzz-bombs that had just started to fall on London and took us back with him up to Lincolnshire. We lived in the nearby village of Ulceby while my Dad lived on the 'drome. But it did mean that we saw him quite often when he was off duty. Which was a lot better than most families had it during the war.

When we first arrived we lodged at a lovely old villa called "Fairview" in Coronation Row, Ulceby. Later we lodged with the Oliver family in terraced cottages further down hill from the village centre, just beyond Skitter Bec.

I was around 8 years old and can remember visiting the 'drome and going into their billets and playing with their (fortunately unloaded!) LE 303 rifles which were racked inside the billet. I even jambed Irishman Paddy Rogan's rifle with matchsticks, which they thought funny at the time but really wasn't too clever when they had a snap kit inspection shortly afterwards!

One time I took one of my new Lincolnshire mates with me and we made our own way through a hedge onto the North Killingholme site (not great security in those days) and went up to the first crew we saw and asked them if they knew where my Dad was! Anyway, they took us inside a Lanc and gave us a good tour around. I got to sit in all the positions and they even lelt me hold the stick and waggle the guns a bit. Can you imagine that happening today? Naturally the Lancaster has always been my favourite 'plane ever since

I can also remember my Mum and Dad going to dances and to the pictures at the 'drome ... and my Mum even being smuggled back to the billet afterwards where they cooked bacon over the pot-bellied stove. Again, can you imagine that happening today?

Mum and Dad are both dead now, but I have them on video (when in their 70's) recalling that this was certainly one of the happiest periods of their life. Over the years I recall them in fits of laughter as they recounted their various anecdotes of the Killingholme 'drome days.

As a cockney kid who had never been outside London before, it was certainly a time of excitement and wonderment for me as well. I learned to love the country and earned my first wages going muck-spreading and potato-picking. We even got time off school to go. Mum and Margie got jobs cutting sugar beet.

The opening of RAF North Killingholme was probably the biggest event that had ever hit the nearby villages, which hadn't changed much for donkey's years before that. The sudden arrival of airmen from all over Britain as well as from far off countries such as Canada and New Zealand must have caused quite some disruption at the time ... and not only in the pubs. The local girls were probably not too displeased either.

In Ulceby, there was no gas or electricity or running water. We drank water from the well and washed in water from the pump. Bath-time was once a week in a galvanised tub in front of the fire in the kitchen. I was last in, so I got the dirtiest water, but I didn't mind as long as my sister hadn't tinkled in the bath.

"Stinky Joe" came round once a week to empty the contents of the bins from the outside privies into a huge receptacle mounted on his truck that sloshed around as he drove on with a smell never-to-be-forgotten. A never-ending source of fascination to us kids.

And virtually everyone kept a pig, so bacon was reasonably plentiful despite the rationing. Often I had to take a can to the farm down the lane and get a quart of milk strait from the cow shed.

One of the crew of Lancaster "E for Easy" was named Ken. He was a mate of my Dad's and used to go out with my Mum's friend, Margie, who had evacuated from London with us.

From the gate of the house in Ulceby, we used to watch the "kites" overhead as they went out on their "ops". One night my Dad came up to our bedroom and told us that "Uncle Ken's" 'plane had not returned and for us to say a prayer for him. Which we did every night for a long, long time afterwards. It was confirmed after the war ended that he had been killed while some other members of the crew ended up as POW's.

I never knew Ken's full name ("Uncle" was a courtesy title not a family relationship). And over the two years 1944/45, there were several different Lancs at Killingholme which used the "E for Easy" ID (as, I believe, they re-used the BQ-E identifier when 'planes were lost, decommisioned, transferred etc). It appears that two or three of the BQ-E's that failed to return included a crew member named Ken. So I am not certain which of them it was.

The one that fits best with the information and dates that I do have is probably PA991 BQ-E which which FTR'ed 29th Aug 1944 while on an Op to raid the German flying-bomb launching and storage sites in the Pas de Calais area and apparently got a direct hit from a flak battery near Dunkirk. Please see the message by Gary Kelly on http://www.550sqn.theraf.co.uk/moreenqpage22.htm which includes considerable detail on this particular Lanc and crew.

So I can't be at all sure, but if it was indeed that BQ-E and it was that Ken, then that night they went out to raid the very flying-bomb sites which had caused us to be evacuated from London to Lincolnshire.

After 550 Squadron was disbanded in late 1945, Dad was posted to the Fire Sections at Alipore and Chakulia in India before returning home to be de-mobbed in June 1946. He went back to his "civvy street" trade as a plumber ... which he was for the rest of his working life. He died in 1991.

Does anyone remember the North Killingholme Fire Section crew, Cpl/Sgt Stan Reardon, or Ken from "E for Easy" who had a girlfriend from London called Margie? Come to that, does anyone remember a little Cockney kid who obviously made himself a pest at the time?