Description
Mr. Campbell describes re-equipping his Blenheim for low level attack, after which his crew is assigned the task of blowing up Rommel's ammunition dumps in Derna, Libya. The mission is successful.
William Campbell
William Campbell was born on March 14, 1920 in Almont, Ontario. His father was a First World War veteran, and his brother had enlisted when World War Two broke out. Mr. Campbell enlisted in the Haldeman Rifles, but after not being called up he switched to the Air Force. After training in Canada, he went to England and joined a Blenheim crew. Mr. Campbell was deployed to Middle East Command, where he took part in successful bombing raids against Rommel's fuel and ammunition stores. He was then sent to the Far East to participate in the bombing runs to Burma and China. Mr. Campbell was fortunate to survive a crash landing after an engine failure. While still stationed in India he also instructed American pilots in low-level bombing techniques.
Transcript
We did a lot of stuff in Egypt and nearby; well probably the most noteworthy thing was they made us a fighter for a while and they put some machine guns in the wings and I forget if they put one on the nose or not. And they sent us out, what’s his name, Rommel, had a big ammunition dumps in Durna so he could shell Tobrook at will and so they told us we were one aircraft, that’s all that could be spared and so we went out to get the bomb dump in Durna which we did. Blew it up and that was that.