Library Reference Number: 249
Five Operational Tours With The RAF - A Delayed Account
Whilst at Oxford James Blackburn joined the University Air Squadron, and was commissioned into the Royal Air Force Reserve of Officers in 1936. By the end of hostilities in 1945 he was allegedly the only RAF officer to complete 5 tours of operations during World War Two.
While I was a member of 160 Squadron SEAC, Wg Cdr Blackburn became known to me as commanding officer of my sister Squadron No.159 engaged in similar special duty operations. Wg Cdr Blackburn was so successful in pioneering work consisting of vastly extending the operational range of the American B24 Liberator, that he was awarded the American DFC by the U.S. Air Force. By implementing Wg Cdr Blackburn’s methods we found we were able reach enemy targets over 1,500 miles from our base in Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
In addition to serving with No.57 and No.70 RAF Squadrons early in his career, Wg Cdr Blackburn had later commanded five other squadrons. When hostilities ended James Blackburn became very reluctant to discuss his private or service life, never married and lived mainly overseas eventually settling in Antigua.
One year before he died in 1993, James Blackburn wrote to his former navigator Gordon Drain who passed the letter to Robert Quirk (Winnipeg) who has done so much to research aircrew involvement in South East Asia. It appeared that James Blackburn reflecting on his past life eventually had a change of mind in attempting to keep it private when he eventually wrote to his former 159 Squadron navigator Gordon Drain in the following terms.
“I have no intention of attending the next reunion, but if you go, you might pass it around that I would now be interested in sharing my experiences, should there be any one capable of writing them up in an interesting and factual manner.” Blackburn followed this by writing “I have never either written or spoken to anyone else like this, but as I said, I am getting a little more relaxed in my advancing years and I have no objection now to your disclosing anything I have said to anyone who might be interested.”
The following is a fuller extract from Wg Cdr Blackburn’s letter to former 159 Squadron navigator Gordon Drain, and subsequently forwarded to Robert Quirk - Jack Burgess, Scottish Saltire Aircrew Association.
“Ever since Sampson located my whereabouts, I have received several letters from ex-members of 159 Squadron. I however did not want to get involved and decided not to answer them. However in your case my conscience has pricked me, particularly as we flew so many ops together – according to my log-book my last eight with 159. I then managed to sneak in another three with 358 SD Squadron in order to bring my career total to 200 after I went to Group.
I still have the silver travelling clock with which you NCOs presented me, and it is sitting on my desk in front of my eyes. I also still have the list of 102 signatures of which yours appears on the front page. So you see I have many nostalgic memories of 159, the third and last after 104 and 148 Squadrons which I commanded during the War.
I was only 28 at the time and I find your glowing tribute to my leadership a little embarrassing. I was only doing what I had to do, putting my heart and soul into it and, to tell the truth, enjoying every minute of it.
My whole RAF career was an unusual one to say the least, starting off in 1938 as a direct entry – and possibly the only one left – into the Reserve of Air Force Officers (RAFO), and flying the entire War without ever having taken a ‘Wings’ exam, thus not entitled to them.
Then after some 80 ops, of which some 20 with 57 Squadron in Blenheims and Wellingtons over Europe, and the rest with 70 and 104 in the Middle East, I opted to return to UK by sea, was torpedoed in Mid-Atlantic, rescued by the Germans and spent a couple of months in a POW camp in Morocco before finally being rescued by Patton when the Americans invaded North Africa.” [Blackburn actually escaped from the POW camp with three other officers and made their way to the American held lines in Morocco].
[Note: Records show that Blackburn was one of the 2,732 passengers on the British troopship RMS ‘Laconia’ which was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat U-156 off the coast of West Africa on 12 September 1942. A U.S. Army B24 aircraft attacked the U-boat killing dozens of Laconia’s survivors forcing the U-boat to crash dive leaving passengers of the British troopship struggling in the sea. Blackburn must have been rescued by the German U-boat crew members before the American B24 aircraft attacked].
“Then back to the Middle East to take over command of 148 Halifax SD Squadron – the only one – and when eventually due for a rest, posted to MAAF [MEAF] HQ as Wg Cdr SD; managed to lose some top-secret files, was Court Marshalled, reduced back to Sqn Ldr with zero seniority and then requested posting to India, where I took over 159 Squadron.
Who’d have thought that your respected Wing Co was probably the most junior Sqn Ldr in the RAF? I was even offered promotion to Group Captain to take over the Wing, but turned it down because I wanted to stay and go on flying with 159. The Squadron was at its peak, but there was still so much I wanted for the men. As you know, I got rid of the civilian Contractor who was bleeding them white, and out of my own pocket helped the O/Rs [other ranks] to finance their own Mess and NAAFI. This got me a severe reprimand from HQ Delhi for interfering with an old-established system.
The war in the Far East would soon be over and you may remember when my good friend Gp Capt Len Cheshire VC passed through on his way to act as RAF observer on the first American plane to drop the atomic bomb. [Leonard Cheshire’s visit to India predated the dropping of the first atom bomb on Hiroshima by many months. He flew as an observer, not on the actual B-29 which dropped the bomb, but on a second B-29 which monitored the explosion and its aftermath].
He [Leonard Cheshire] insisted that to attack a target and guarantee to destroy it with a couple of planes, was to dive and attack from a low altitude. To demonstrate this, we went up together to the practice range where he put the Lib – a plane he had never flown before – into a fairly steep dive and it took all our combined strengths to pull it out before it hit the ground.
But it was not to be. Two new SD Squadrons, 357 and 358, were being formed, and Group needed a W/Cdr SD to take over and coordinate their activities, and although I had been sacked from the self-same job at MAAF [Meaf] some 8 months previously, I was it. And I had to sit doing nothing – my No.2 did it all – and watch 159 slowly going down the drain – Sorry!
The only good thing that happened was when I had to attend a parade to be presented with the American DFC, and a party of some 20 odd came over to represent 159, and I took them all out to lunch at Firpos! [Calcutta].
This is but the bare bones and does not give any idea of all the various exciting and often dangerous experiences in which I was involved. [Then followed a few examples of those experiences]
My first op on Blenheims in 57 Sq in 1939 in France, when I was very nearly shot out of the sky and the plane was so badly holed it had to be destroyed.
My first op on Wellingtons at night over Germany, when I went as 2nd pilot to a Captain of 75 NZ Sq who were responsible for converting us from Blenheims. The whole of Western Europe was blanketed under cloud and of course in those days no radio and total black-out, and the navigator got so badly confused. When we finally got down with only a trace of fuel left, he was convinced that we had landed on the other side. What an introduction to night bombing!
Never again did I fly as 2nd pilot until I was taking over 159 in June 1944. The Squadron Commander whom I was relieving warned me not to go, he never went himself, it was much too dangerous; I suppose he felt that if I was shot down or something he would not be able to quit and go home. There were only 3 out of some 18 planes available and ours was the only one to reach the target, and I think it was only because I was on board and the pilot did not have the nerve to find some excuse to turn around and go home. Morale at rock bottom!
My first crash when training on Blenheims at Andover and trying to land one solo at night in bad weather. This was when the Commander of the OTU noticed I wasn’t wearing Wings and ordered me to put them up, as he said I couldn’t join a squadron in France without them.
Pioneering the Gib route to the Middle East in a Wellington, when the landing strip from sea-to-sea was rough gravel and barely 800 yards long. My OK didn’t do any good as out of the next six aircraft to use it, all from 57 Sq only one made it; the other 5 either crashed on landing or on take-off. The 6 that went via Malta were all destroyed on the ground.
Crashing again under mysterious circumstances bang in the middle of Saudi Arabia.
Having a plane bombed and blown up in my face when sending it off at night in Egypt.
Within minutes of being captured by Germans in Benghazi.
Doing ops on 3 engines over Albania and coming back on 2. Etc.etc.etc.
Many people have tried to persuade me to get it all down on paper before it is too late, but I have always considered my private life as being strictly my own and no-one else’s. I have spent the last 42 years living afloat – again often involved in the most extraordinary adventures – and now that I have finally decided to settle down and live in Antigua, I have been giving it a lot of thought and slowly coming to the conclusion that it might be rather fun.
The difficulty however is that I cannot write and have a rotten memory for names; it would mean finding someone to do the ghosting and also presumably do a certain amount of researching through RAF records. For instance, I lost everything, log-book and all, during the sinking of the Laconia – of which there is a very good book – and have no record of the early days.
I have no intention of attending the next reunion [159 Squadron], but if you go, you might pass it around that I would now be interested in sharing my experiences, should there be anyone capable of writing them up in an interesting and factual manner. It might even make quite a good book. I am not prepared to pay anyone to do this, but would be glad to welcome him into my home for however long it would take.
I have tried hard to remember your features and failed; perhaps if you could send me a photo of yourself at the time, it might jog my memory.
Thank you again for your two letters and your kind words; we are now much of an age so please don’t stand on ceremony. Yours, - Jimmy.
PS – I apologise for this rather long and rambling letter, but your two letters started a train of thought which has been buried for years. I have never either written or spoken to anyone else like this, but as I said, I am getting a little more relaxed in my advancing years and I have no objection now to your disclosing anything I have said to anyone who might be interested. – J.B.