Thursday 7th May 2020
On Friday Warrant Officer Jack Watson will mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day quietly, remembering his comrades and the ‘band of brothers’ who saw him through 77 operations flying with Bomber Command during the Second World War. In 1945 Jack had just been deployed away from frontline flying and not knowing many personnel on station, jumped on his bike to celebrate at a nearby village.
Jack has shared his story with the RAF Benevolent Fund and you can learn more about it in the guest article below.
For 15 months I flew with the same crew, as part of the Pathfinder Force, and we became very close. The mid upper gunner, wireless operator and I were never out of each other’s company, we even used to go on leave together. For 15 months we had lived the strangest life, without a break. One night we were over Germany and the next we were all going to the pub in the village!
For me, my war ended when I was posted away from frontline flying. All the excitement and adrenalin of flying was taken away from us and we were split up without warning. I never got over that – it was like a bereavement to me.
We never had time to get together to talk over what we had gone through together as before we knew it we had all been posted away. We never found out why we had been split up so quickly as we had never failed to complete an operation and our skipper got a glowing report over his control as master bomber on our last operation at the way he had controlled the raid.
Looking back, it seems a strange way to treat a crew that had been awarded one Distinguished Service Order, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Distinguished Flying Medals and a Belgian Croix de Guerre to our mid upper gunner and all were awarded the Pathfinder Badge.
When I heard the news of VE Day, I was serving on an Operational Training Unit. I had only recently arrived so I didn’t know many people. I grabbed my bike and cycled to a village pub where I had a few drinks until the pub closed at 2pm. I sat under a tree and waited for it to open for the evening.
Then I joined a farmer and his family, who invited me back to his farmhouse when the pub closed. There was a big long table and I had never seen so much food in my life – there was cheese, butter, you name it!
I didn’t feel that feeling of euphoria or elation like others, because something had been taken away from me.
Explore more VE Day resources.
Show your pride in the Royal Air Force this VE Day by making a donation to help support the RAF Benevolent Fund’s work.
See also: Military charities
