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Following April’s article Per Ardua ad Astra, two readers have been in touch. Mary Johnstone contacted me via email regarding her father, Hubert John Lewis who served with the RAF

Hubert was born in 1923 and was 16 at the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. He was employed as an Apprentice Metallurgical Chemist and was living with his parents, Philip and Beatrice Lewis at 24 Elwy Crescent, Swansea.

(Left) Herbert John Lewis

(Right) With his crew and ground crew

with kind permission Mary Johnstone

Joining the RAF in 1942, 19 year old Hubert undertook his training at RAF Juby, in the Isle of Man. He joined the No 5 Bombing and Gunnery School where training was undertaken on the Handley Page Hereford aircraft.

On completion of training, Air Gunner Sergeant Lewis was a Pilot Officer for a period of 6 months, which followed automatic promotion to Flying Officer. Hubert served with the 102 Squadron, based at RAF Pocklington, Yorkshire, which had recently opened in 1941 and formed part of Bomber Command.

Hubert’s crew, which became the most cosmopolitan Halifax crew consisted of Pilot, South African Ian Watson; Australian Wireless Operator; New Zealander Navigator and Bomb Aimer; Engineer, Canadian, Ricky Watts; Mid-Upper Gunner, Englishman Eddie Williams; and Hubert was the Tail-End Charlie.

For an extra bit of training Hubert did some clay pigeon shooting! The aircraft they flew was the Handley Page Halifax ; this was a four-engine heavy bomber which came into service during 1940. This aircraft became the plane of choice for the Bomber Command and was used for routine strategic bombing missions over Germany; it was able to drop a 4,000-pound bomb. During 1940-1945, the Halifax’s undertook a total of 82,773 operations and dropped 224,207 tons of bombs.

The role of the Tail-End Charlie was the loneliest, coldest and most perilous one; it would be a common occurrence for a plane to come back home from a mission, bullet riddled and with the poor rear gunner either slumped dead in his turret or the turret totally missing. The life expectancy of a rear gunner was thought to be about two weeks. 55,573 men with the average age of 22 were killed in Bomber Command, with 8,325 aircraft lost. The reality of these figures doesn’t bear thinking about. 20,275 men with no known grave are remembered on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey.

Luck was on Hubert’s side, as he flew in 28 missions. After the war, in 1946 he married Vivien Charles and was employed with The Steel Company of Wales, Port Talbot. Hubert died in 2016 and is sadly missed.

Copyright – The Bay Magazine – May 2018