John Lauder

John Lauder, originally from just outside Forth, like most of the men who fought in WW2, grew up listening to stories of derring-do from the Great War.

"I was fascinated by flying machines," he admits. "I loved stories about Biggles and the Red Baron and I always fancied flying myself."

John was the eldest in a family of five and, when he left school at 14, his careers advice mentioned nothing about flying. Like most young lads in the area, his working life was to be spent at the local colliery.

"I had a paper round in the village and delivered the manager's newspapers," John explains. "I expected him to offer me a job at the pithead, but he thought I was worthy of an apprenticeship, so I started training as an electrical engineer."

When the war started, men in certain occupations were exempt from the call up because they were essential to the everyday running of the country. Bakers, farmers, steel workers and railwaymen were all exempt - as was John as a coal worker.

The only service John would consider joining was the Royal Air Force and luckily it was the only service that would accept men from reserved occupations.

"Just before my 18th birthday in February 1943, I nipped into the RAF recruitment centre while I was on an errand in Glasgow and offered them my services," says John. "I passed the preliminary physical examination and went home flushed with excitement. I was a bit worried because I needed their signatures as I wasn't 18. My dad said he'd done the same himself at my age in the First World War so he signed them straight away."

Four weeks later John spent three days in Edinburgh being interviewed and sitting tests.

"I was accepted as a flight engineer, possibly because of my engineering background," says John. "I learned later that they were desperate for flight engineers because the four-engine bomber was coming onto the scene and they needed an engineer to assist the pilot. I'd always wanted to be a pilot but being a flight engineer was better than nothing."

In August 1943 John was called up and was told to report to the Aircrew Receiving Centre at Lords Cricket Ground in London.

"That was a big thing in itself for a country boy like me," laughs John. "We were allocated billets in flats that the RAF had taken over in St John's Wood. We were there for three weeks drilling and gathering our equipment together and then one night we were put on a train to Newcastle where we went through our initial training.

"In six weeks we learned a bit of everything - navigation, signalling, airmanship, drilling and swimming lessons and then moved on to the School of Technical Training in St Athan in Wales. The course lasted six months and covered subjects such as hydraulics and fuel systems."

So far John's training had been quite general but in the last six weeks the students began "type training" - instruction in specific aircraft.

"We had a choice, although it wasn't guaranteed we'd get it," explains John. "The main ones were the Lancaster, Halifax or the Stirling. I'm not sure why, but I decided on a Halifax. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been a different outcome if I'd chosen a Lancaster - it became the aircraft of the war because it could carry the biggest bomb load with the furthest range. I probably chose the Halifax because it had an air-cooled radial engine and as a boy I'd been keen on motorbikes which also had air-cooled engines."

John passed out on the Halifax and was presented with the engineer's flying wing and sergeant's tapes - and he hadn't even flown yet!

Next stop for John was a Heavy Conversion Unit where he met up with other airmen for training on four-engine bombers. It was during this training that he was matched up with a Canadian crew and posted to a Canadian squadron.

"The Canadian government wanted a bomber group of their own and they had pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, wireless operators and gunners but they'd forgotten about the flight engineers," says John. "The RAF offered some of theirs to make up the crews and I was posted to Squadron 420.

"Our mascot was a Snowy Owl and we were known as the Snowy Owls," he continues. "The Canadian squadrons all had their fancy names such as the Bisons, the Porcupines and even the Lions. I discovered later that the Lion Squadron was sponsored by MGM and the men were issued with you got free cinema tickets!"

The Snowy Owls were stationed in Tholthorpe, 12 miles north of York and John carried out his first operation over enemy territory on August 12, 1944.

"I'll always remember that date," he says. "As country boy, I knew that as the start of the shooting season!

"It was exciting," he continues. "I didn't feel fear, more trepidation and adrenaline. At 19 years old you think you're invincible but I was a member of a crew and what got me through was not letting the other crew members down. I just did what I had to do and kept active.

Squadron 420

"Our first mission was uneventful. It was to an ammunition dump in France but by that time D-Day had passed and the allies were advancing. Most of our missions were for army support - communications, railways, ammunition dumps and later if any flying bomb sites were detected we'd go and bomb them. We also did a few night missions to the Ruhr valley - Essen, Dusburg, Dusseldorf, Cologne - sometimes cities but mostly synthetic oil fields. The Germans relied on oil to fuel their tanks and aircraft so it was reckoned that destroying these fields would shorten the war.

"One week we flew five missions," adds John. "They really kept us at it and it was exhausting but the more flights we did the more experience we gained and we became more wary."

When he was young John suffered from travel sickness but the RAF soon fixed that.

"We had our moments," he says. "The standard procedure of evasive action of we were attacked by a fighter was to corkscrew towards the attack to put him off his aim. That would have caused havoc with my sensitive stomach but we were all too busy to be airsick! Our plane was damaged occasionally by flak and our gunner was injured but on the whole we were very lucky."

On one mission John's Halifax was forced to return to base almost as soon as it was in the air.

"There was a problem with the hydraulics so we had to turn back," explains John. "I logged the problem but we couldn't go back out until they made sure we were telling the truth. While we were hanging about a distress call came in from another crew and, because we were fresh, they sent us out to look for them. We found them quite quickly and all seven crew members were picked up by the Navy. Up until that point we'd been under suspicion of cowardice but I dread to think what would have happened to them if we hadn't been quick off the mark.

"Before every bombing mission we were given an escape kit," he continues. "It was a sealed box containing a silk map of the area, local currency, a letter explaining we were British airmen, water purification tablets, a fishing line, a compass, Benzedrine tablets to help keep us awake and two photos of us in civilian clothes so that the local Resistance could make us passports. Luckily we never needed to break ours open."

John and his crew completed 32 operations in five months.

"My last operation was on December 24, 1944," he says, referring to his log book. "The target was an airfield in Dusseldorf. We flew in gaggle formation with intense flak over the target and we were holed in four places then diverted to Langham. The flight lasted five hours and 25 minutes. Just a few hours after landing we were back up over the same target again.

"After 32 missions like that on they reckoned you were due a rest from flying," says John. "We became surplus to requirements so some men became instructors, some took ground posts and administration posts and they kept sending me on different courses, then home on leave."

John was home on leave when VE Day was announced on the radio.

"I spent the day with my then fiancée Mary," he says. "We met in a hotel in Scarborough - she was on holiday with her parents and I was there with some RAF friends. It was strange because it turned out she was from Lanark, just a few miles from my home.

"On VE Day we took part in an informal parade which made it's way through Lanark to a huge bonfire. Someone had lit it before the proper time and there was a bit of a panic to get there in time!

"It was a good celebration but the war in Asia was still raging and I knew I still had a bit to do."

On VJ Day John was posted to a station in England testing an aeroplane that would snatch a glider off the ground without landing.

"A glider is normally towed by a tug plane," explains John. "They thought that if they landed a glider in Burma, for instance, and filled it with troops they could snatch it back up without the aircraft landing. When we were testing the aircraft I was operating the machinery that would lift the glider but nothing ever came of it.

"After that I was posted to India then Burma but the war was over by then and I spent two years in Rangoon as an air traffic officer. The RAF was still moving equipment and troops around the Far East so there was a lot going on.

"I was in the RAF for four years and when I was demobbed I tried to get into civil aviation but there was no chance because there were so many of us with the same qualifications and the same idea. I not only missed the flying and but also the comradeship so I joined the police and that's what I did until I retired.

"I enjoyed my time in the RAF," he adds. "We didn't dwell on the fact that there were civilians being killed by our bombs - we were just retaliating for the bombs that were being dropped on Britain.

"The rest of the crew were great guys and we did keep in touch but I'm the last one left."