Feeling Naked

Heroes Remember

Feeling Naked

Transcript

Interviewer: Now, that's an interesting thing right there, and I guess this is as good a time as any to raise the whole question, if you wanted gunners and yet you were told no, they had to make, take the guns out. ...Yeah. Interviewer: How did that make you guys feel? Well, a, a bit naked, because we, we don't have, we don't have this protection, we don't have fighter protection, we've got bugger-all and we were kind of, you sneak in and you sneak out and it depends upon cunning and we felt, when we saw the waist turrets, we saw the ball turret going, front guns, that went, oh they left, they left... I'm sorry we did have one gunner, in the rear, that was it, and, and that was all, and in that air craft, you had, you had the nose, you had two waists, you had mid-upper, you had ball, and you had the rear. Now all we got is the rear, so we, we didn't, but we thought, "Well, that, that's it, you know. We're..." And the, the CO, he said, "This is something new," and so on, "that you people are doing, that we've had some heavy losses." So, we thought, that's encouraging, you know. Anyway, it worked out, at least we, you accept it, you know, in the service, they say you don't eat for two days. You, you accept it, you know, that's part of, that's part of it. You bitch like hell, but you, you kind of accept it.

Description

The Liberator that Mr. Fitzmaurice was flying in had been stripped of all it guns except one. Mr. Fitzmaurice talks about how vulnerable this made them feel.

Anthony Fitzmaurice

Mr. Fitzmaurice was born on a farm in Mount Carmel, Ontario. He grew up in London, Ontario, where he attended school. After graduating from college in 1943 he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and received his training in Mitchells and then Liberators in Calgary, Alberta. After training he flew from Dorval, Quebec, to Algiers. Mr. Fitzmaurice flew in a Liberator with 357 squadron flying guerillas in to Burma, China and Thailand. He returned to Canada on the Aquitania in March of 1946.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 02:05
Person Interviewed:: Anthony Fitzmaurice
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Location/Theatre:: Southeast Asia
Battle/Campaign:: Burma
Branch:: Air Force
Units/Ship:: 357 Squadron
Occupation:: Wireless Navigator

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Date modified:: 2019-04-03