My flight in a Lincoln Bomber - Tony Cunnane's Life and Times

My Boss on Ground Radio Flight at Hemswell was a very friendly squadron leader. He knew, of course, that I was at Hemswell awaiting a summons to Hornchurch and he told me there could be a delay of several months waiting for that summons. He added that he would fix it for me to have a familiarisation trip in one of the station’s aircraft so I would have something to talk about at Hornchurch. That was very thoughtful of him and I was grateful.

Not being aircrew and so having no flying log book, I didn’t record either the aircraft registration or the names of the crew. Security was very strict in Bomber Command and I had a guilty feeling that I might even have betrayed a military secret by mentioning I had been flying in a Lincoln!!

The Lincoln was unpressurised; all the crew wore their oxygen masks throughout. Unfortunately no-one had supplied me with an oxygen mask which is probably why I made special mention in my diary that I “didn’t use oxygen!” Come to think of it, I don't think they had provided me with a parachute either and, even if there was one stowed away somewhere, no-one had mentioned it – or told me how to use it.

I was able to move around the aircraft at will but to be truthful it was all rather boring, very noisy and exceedingly cold. I wandered around watching each of the crew members at work and had a look down the bomb-aimer’s window in the nose, but we were flying high above the clouds and the ground was invisible. Eventually I settled down in the galley where it was quite warm. None of the crew took any notice of me. It was a very long 5 hours! (When I became a pilot some years later and took passengers along for a ride, I always made sure they were properly equipped, briefed, entertained, and finally debriefed.)

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