The WW2 Diary of Lancaster Pilot Bruce Johnston

DIARY NOTES

Location
RAF Bomber Command, 115 Squadron at Witchford, near Ely

Airgraph - Letter written on a special form that was then photographed, sent overseas, developed, printed and placed in an envelope for delivery

Matteson, Ria - Johnston’s cousin in Canada

Blueform - A blue coloured combination airmail letter and envelope, developed during the war specifically for use to or from military personnel based overseas

Parade - Inspection

Kite - Airplane

Ground crew - Men who maintained and serviced the airplanes

Pictures of crew alone - This is the photo that appears on the bottom of this page

Rear fin - Airplane’s tail section

Ops - Operational missions

Sgts billet - Lodgings for the sergeants, including the rest of Johnston’s crew

Johnny - Peardon, Johnston’s mid- upper gunner

Ely - Small town 20 kms north of Cambridge

WAAF - Women’s Auxiliary Air Force

July 4, 1944 (Tuesday)

Got an airgraph from Ria Matteson and a blueform from Mom today – which was sure nice. We had the dress rehearsal for the big parade today – took most of the morning! Then got log books up to date.

After lunch we went over the kite and had our pictures taken in front of it. We had the ground crew in too (they’re a good bunch). We had one taken of the crew alone by the rear fin also.

Ops for tonight were scrubbed about 6 p.m., but around 8 p.m. news came through to stand by for 1 a.m. briefing and as that’s only four hours away I’m going to bed.

I was up to the Sgt’s billet and strangely enough they’re all there and aware of what’s going on except Johnny (who is in Ely with some WAAF). However they’re putting a warning out in town (unobtrusively of course) and so I suppose he’ll find out about it OK.

Bruce Johnston's crew
Back row: Dave Taylor, Bruce Johnston, Murray Henderson
Front row: Ted Hughes, Bob Livingstone, John Peardon, Frank Marsden

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