Crew Friendly Aircraft

Heroes Remember

Crew Friendly Aircraft

Transcript

The Halifax, it was the most crew-friendly aircraft of the works On take offs, the navigator and the wireless operator came out of down below the others, we would go back to the rest position on either side of the aircraft just like it was a little couch or a little bed... lie down, plug in the intercom and lie there and wait until you got the take-off. Because it’s too dangerous and same thing with landing, when you go to land we’d go back into our rest position. You could walk the whole length of the fuselage from the rear gunner right through to the nose, other than walking down the stairs under the bomb aimer. The main escape hatch was right at my feet. In a pinch all I had to do was reach down, pull the thing, lift it up, turn it and drop the thing through and there’s a great big hole. The other guys could go out where we climbed into the aircraft. So there are two major exits. The Lanc bomber was far different. The bomb aimer and the engineer with the big bomb bay that the Lanc had, that’s what made it so popular, had a big blockbuster bomb; four-thousand pounds or something. So it took up a great deal of the bomb bay, sorry, the bomb bay took up a great deal of the fuselage, up into the fuselage. So the main spars, there was two of them, went right through the aircraft. With the Hali, it was below, below the floor. But in the Lanc it was halfway up into the aircraft to make room for that big bomb bay. So you had to climb over this big spar on two occasions. So the bomb aimer was trapped, or at least the navigator was trapped in one, and the engineer was trapped in the other between these two main spars. So that if anything happened you had a hell of a time getting out of there. As I say, in the Hali you could just walk right through. So that’s why I say it’s crew friendly and I just loved it. The pilots liked the Lanc because it was newer and had more powerful motors and all this sort of thing. But the Halifax was the best as far as I’m concerned. In the Halifax, the bomb aimers sat beside the pilot but would you believe I had to go downstairs to my position which... so the bomb aimer would have to stand up and let me get by his chair or seat which was in... came out of the wall on the opposite side of the pilot. You go downstairs and the wireless operator sat underneath the pilot and the navigator position was forward of the wireless operator and the table was sideways. So my seat came out of the wall and then I would sit opposite my table with the wireless operator on my left. Further to my right was the bombing station so when the bomb aimer had to get up to come down to drop the bombs, I would have to stand up to let him go by, okay? So that’s how that aircraft was. So the pilot was way up there and I was down here! But we had intercom and so on so that I would give him a new course through the intercom. The only time I looked out, there was no point in me looking out at night, you can’t see! Unless you take a sextant to shoot the stars and then I’d have to get up and go back behind the bomb aimer. There’s an astrodome... see the glass bubble on the top of the plane. I don’t know whether it’s on this picture over here. Anyways, you would shoot the stars there, take your readings and then go back down and plot them, you see. But that’s the only time that you would find it necessary to go and look out. You’re too busy doing your job trying to plot your course, find out where you were and so on.

Description

Mr. Wickens describes the ergonomics of Halifax bombers and the working positions of her crew.

Donald Wickens

Mr. Wickens was born in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan. Despite the scarcity of jobs during the depression, he took employment with the Bank of Montreal, where he worked for two years prior to enlisting. Although not initially eager to do so, Mr. Wickens decided to join his friends who had preceded him into the service. Unlike many of his friends, however, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force with the intention of becoming a navigator, and completed his training in Portage La Prairie. Once overseas, Mr. Wickens became a member of 434 Blue-Nose squadron and took part in 37 bombing and mine laying missions over Northern Europe. He and the rest of his aircrew were decorated after surviving two air attacks in which their aircraft was disabled. After leaving the service, Mr. Wickens returned to the Bank of Montreal. He currently resides in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

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