World War II: One Man's Story

This is an update of a Story Map I published in 2014

Much has been written about the 1939-45 War in Europe, and names stand out - Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Patton, Montgomery and others.

However, most of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians involved had a story to tell. For many of them, it was their first time away from home, and some found themselves taken to other parts of the World and pushed into the most intense experiences of their lives.

My father, James Douglas Skinner (JDS), was one of these. Born in 1920 into a large family in the North Lincolnshire town of Scunthorpe, UK, he worked as a clerk at the local steel works before joining the Royal Air Force in 1941 for pilot training.

This is his story, and it is representative of many others:

The first part of the story is based on James Douglas Skinner’s (JDS) memories (as recounted to his family over the years), and the autobiography ‘Wings over Georgia’ by Jack Currie.

JDS (‘Big Jim’) was one of the group of new recruits, the ‘Stratford Seven’, referred to in the book. Currie described him as having 'the style of a country squire's favorite son'.

The voyage was perilous. After refueling at Milford Haven, HMS Wolfe made the crossing with just two other ships, arriving in Halifax, NS on the 19th January 1942. For JDS, this was his first time outside the United Kingdom.

From Halifax they went by train to Moncton in Canada, where they were allocated to the Arnold Scheme in the USA.

The Arnold Scheme took it’s name from US General ‘Hap’ Arnold, and was based in the Southeast USA. The aim was to train British pilots alongside US Army Air Corps pilots. It ran in association with the more-comprehensive British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, which was aimed at training aircrew in countries away from the Theatre of War.

Information is sketchy for JDS’s time in Canada, and for his return to the UK. This part of the story is based on discussions over the years with family members, and JDS's log book:

In November 1942 JDS was back in the UK completing an Advanced Flying Unit course, again in Ansons, at RAF Wigtown in Scotland.

In February 1943 he joined 29 Operational Training Unit.

This part of the story is based on an account written by JDS in 2001:

JDS: We crewed-up at RAF Woolfox Lodge OTU (Operational Training Unit), flying Vickers Wellingtons. The crew was:

• Flight Sergeant J. Ingram: ‘Jock’ - Pilot
• Sergeant JD Skinner: ‘Big Jim’ - Navigator
• Flying Officer R. Ryder: ‘Reggie’ - Bomb-aimer
• Sergeant S. Leigh: ‘Sammy’ - Engineer
• Sergeant J.L. Wood: ‘Butch’ - Wireless operator
• Flight Sergeant J. Patching: ‘Patch’ (Australian) - Mid Upper Gunner

'Crewing-up’ has been described as an anarchic experience, but it was critical, and it seemed to work well. It was a form of courtship, with a complete new intake, all specialties, and a mixture of backgrounds and nationalities, taken into a large space (often a hangar), and told to get on with it. Often two people would link up, then go around looking for the rest, and it would be a question of luck as to whether the resulting crew functioned well together. More often than not it did.

JDS: We flew 65 hours in Wellingtons, before being sent to RAF Wigsley for conversion to Manchesters and Lancasters. There we flew for 43 hours, before being posted as Lancaster crew, still without a permanent rear gunner, to 61 Squadron at RAF Syerston (5 Group, Bomber Command), on June 24th 1943.

JDS: The night of our arrival we (that is the pilot, navigator, bomb aimer, engineer and wireless operator) were put on operations with crews from our sister squadron ‘106’ as experience. We were briefed immediately and flew that night, operating on Gelsenkirchen.

This was our first operation. Jock, Reggie, Butch and I returned safely. Unfortunately Sammy Leigh, our engineer, did not return. His aircraft was lost, so we were without an engineer before we started. We were given a replacement, Sergeant Sharp, and a rear gunner, Sergeant Roy Westcott.

The Lancaster in which JDS flew that night, ED720, was shot down in France on 9th July 1943; killing the crew.

On July 6th we went on a night ‘bullseye’ (an affiliation exercise with searchlights and fighters) with our own Squadron, ‘61’, in Lancaster ‘G’. This was a four hour trip, photographing the King George V dock in London.

Photograph of Avro Lancaster ‘G’, misidentified as 61 Squadron’s W4763 QR.

In fact it is 460 Squadron’s W4783 AR, which flew 96 combat missions, and is now preserved at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Correspondence with the son of Sergeant Roy Westcott, the tail gunner, confirms that Ingram gave his life for his crew. Typically the tail gunner had the hardest task getting out of the aircraft. Westcott barely got out in time, broke his ankle on landing, and was captured. After a spell in hospital he spent much of the rest of the war in Stalag IVb. 

If JDS had landed in the Netherlands, there is a chance that the locals would have helped him to get back to the UK. Understandably, the German population was less accommodating, and some parachuting aircrew were lynched.

JDS: The policeman lodged me in the town gaol, where I found Reggie Ryder and Jack Patching. Reggie told me what had happened. Apparently the hatch did not jettison. It got stuck and Reggie had to kick it out. His foot was trapped out in the slipstream, but he got rid of the hatch, losing his boot in the process. He pulled his foot back, but found that he was tied up in his helmet and communication cord wires. As he tried to free himself, the engineer, seeing the hatch clear, went out. I saw the engineer go, and I left, but in doing so my parachute caught in Reggie’s wires, pulled off my chest, but freed his helmet. I lost my parachute, but kept it on my harness, and Reggie was free to get out himself.

We sorted this out. I don’t know what happened to the others, but the three of us, Reggie Ryder, Jack Patching and myself, finished up in gaol.

JDS: The army then took over and marched us to the railway station where we entrained for Dulag Luft, at Oberursel, near Frankfurt-am-Main. We changed trains in Cologne, but there was a raid on, so they tucked us away out of danger (mainly from the inhabitants), and carried on the next day to Dulag Luft. There I spent two weeks in solitary confinement, in a cell with heating and lights always on, extracted periodically for intense interrogation.

Eventually I was out of solitary, rejoined Jack Patching, and found my face still rather bruised and scraped from the parachute opening.

This is the end of JDS's account.

Dulag Luft was the main site for processing RAF and USAAF aircrew into the prison camp system.

JDS’s experiences were fairly typical. The interrogators would use bogus Red Cross forms and other tricks to try and extract information, implying that they had answers already and were just looking for confirmation.

Life in the POW system was captured by R. Anderson and D. Westmacott, in a series of cartoons (example left). These were published after the war in a limited-edition book for ex-pows called 'Handle with Care'.

JDS was able to write a postcard to his brother Jack (via his wife).

'Dear Jack, I suppose this was quite a shock to you - it was to me. We were shot down and had to bale out. It's not bad here - the Red Cross see that the food is decent. I shall have time to swat-up on your job now - get to know about architectural drawing and bookkeeping. Give my love to Lil and the bairns and remember me to anybody I know. Look after yourself until the job's over. I can see great things in store for the family. Don't worry about me - I'm alright here. Look after yourself. I'll write Frank next postcard, Cheerio - Jim'.

From here JDS was transferred into the Prisoner of War system, and moved to Stalug Luft VI at Heydekrug in East Prussia (now Šilutė in Lithuania).

Life in the Prison Camps was difficult, but Stalag Luft VI seems to have been one of the better-run ones. Nevertheless, it was crowded, with approximately 2,000 British NCOs spread across 4 structures, each room housing about 60 men. Another compound housed a similar number of American prisoners, and a third housed Russians, who were treated much more harshly.

The prisoners supplemented their meagre rations with red cross parcels, and passed the time with exercise, self-education (They ran what they called the ‘Barbed Wire University’), and a camp theater, which burned down towards the end of their stay)

In July of 1944, with the Russian Army approaching Heydekrug, the prisoners were marched away from the camp, loaded onto cattle trucks and moved West. 

This experience was described in 'Wally's War', a blog about ex-POW, and an acquaintance of JDS, Wally Layne:  http://wallyswar.wordpress.com/ 

"They were carried in boxcars that were 20.5 feet long and 8.5 feet wide and were labelled “40 hommes et 8 chevaux ” which meant they could carry 40 men or 8 horses although the Germans routinely ignored this suggestion and packed the prisoners in standing room only".

Caught between the Allied and Russian Armies, options were running out for the Germans. On the 9th April they announced that some of the 12,000 British POWs were to be marched North (The reasons were not clear, but one explanation seems to be that they were to be used as ‘human shields’ in a final stand against the Allies).

As happened on many similar marches, the prisoners started out by loading themselves up with as many personal possessions as they could carry, only to leave most of them by the side of the road as exhaustion set in.

This cartoon from 'Handle With Care' (left) references the march.

Ultimately the three had to relinquish the staff car, and were fed into the somewhat-chaotic organisation for returning liberated POWs to the UK. They were sent to Belgium, and after at least one drunken night in Brussels JDS was flown across the English Channel.

JDS landed back in the UK on VE Day, May 8th, 1945.

The family gathered at Scunthorpe Railway Station to welcome him back. Unfortunately he had been routed along a different line to Brigg, 8 miles away, and had to persuade a taxi driver to take him the rest of the way (technically forbidden under the still-active wartime rules).

He arrived back to an empty house!

After a short period in a convalescent hospital, and with a promotion to Warrant Officer, JDS saw out the rest of his military service in Taunton, Somerset, arranging for the demobilization of other ex-prisoners of war, before being ‘demobbed’ himself.

After the war JDS settled back to life in Scunthorpe, married, and raised 3 sons (including me). Not wanting to return to the steel industry, he decided to become a schoolteacher. After qualifying, he taught at Foxhills School in Scunthorpe for about 30 years, also serving as a town councillor for a short time. The nickname of ‘Big Jim’, used by the ‘Stratford Seven’ stayed with him throughout his life.

He was a proud member of the Caterpillar Club (for persons saving their lives by parachute), and wore the Caterpillar pin in his lapel.

He did not travel outside the United Kingdom again until he was in his seventies when he and my mother started visiting me in the USA. In 1998 he revisited Americus, Georgia, although very little of Souther Field was recognizable to him. He also relived some memories in the WWII section of the nearby Andersonville Prisoner of War Museum.

He died at the age of 81 in 2002.

In 2017 I inherited JDS's signet ring. Given to him by his mother, probably at his 21st birthday in 1941, he managed to keep it throughout his internment by hiding it in bars of soap. He wore it all his life.

With thanks to David Layne, author of the 'Wally's War' blog about his father Walter Layne, and to Kelvin Westcott for the information on his father, Sgt. Roy Westcott.

All images by Andy Skinner unless listed:

• HMS Wolfe: www.navalhistory.net
• Lancaster W4763/83: Wikipedia/Skintman
• Cattle Truck: 'Wally's War'
• 

Andy Skinner, Esri, 2014 and 2020