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Auction: 15002 - Orders, Decorations, Campaign Medals and Militaria
Lot: 323

A Second War 'Coastal Command' Campaign Group of Four to Halifax Pilot, Flight Lieutenant B.C. Jamieson, 518 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Who Flew Nearly 2,000 Hours as a Pilot, 744 On Halifaxes, Of Which 685 Were Operational
1939-1945 Star; Atlantic Star; Defence and War Medals, generally good very fine or better, in card box of issue, addressed to 'F/Lt. B.C. Jamieson, 150 Algernon Road, Ladywell, London, SE 13', with enclosure, and the following related documents:
- Royal Canadian Air Force Pilots Flying Log Book (4.11.1941-30.1.1946)
- Royal Air Force Pilots Flying Log Book (22.2.1946-19.4.1946)
- Two Wartime Diaries, first typed, covering the period (27.3.1939-19.11.1939), second handwritten, covering the period (29.9.1941-5.1.1943)
- One Of The Many, The Autobiography, Flight Lieutenant B.C. Jamieson, RAF, 1940-46, Halifax Pilot No. 518 Sqn., printed and bound
- A number of photographs from various stages of recipient's service, with a quantity of permits and applications from his time training in Canada, and other ephemera (lot)

Flight Lieutenant Bernard Charles Jamieson (1920-2003), born Camberwell, London; left school aged 15, and was employed as an apprentice in the printing industry; with the outbreak of the Second War he volunteered for service as an Air Gunner - however he failed the medical on the grounds of being too tall; he sat the RAF education tests for a Pilot, and marginally failed, but was encouraged to study maths for two months and re-apply; this he successfully did and was posted for initial training at No.31 E.F.T.S., De Winton, Alberta, Canada, November 1941; he carried out further training at No. 15 S.F.T.S., Claresholm, Alberta, and C.N.S. Rivers, Manitoba; commissioned Pilot Officer, April 1942; having advanced to Flying Officer and carried out instructional duties on Ansons with Coastal Command pilots at Charlottetown, he returned to the UK in January 1944; he carried out conversion courses on Sterlings and Halifaxes; posted Flight Lieutenant for operational flying to 518 (Coastal Command) Squadron (Halifaxes), Tiree, Hebrides, Scotland, October 1944; the Squadron was tasked with flying meteorological flights and U-Boat observations; these often included flying 10 hour sorties over the North Atlantic at low altitude and in poor weather conditions.

Jamieson recalls one such flight in his autobiography, 'these flights were made whatever the weather, and were never cancelled. It was always possible to get off, and if the conditions were so bad that it was impossible to return to base, then the aircraft was diverted to another airfield, if necessary a hundred or more miles away...

On one trip we could fly through the whole of the weather systems which would take a week to pass over the United Kingdom... The sea level readings were made at heights governed by the weather and sea conditions prevailing. On a smooth flying day with a gentle sea, twenty feet was possible, while at night with violent conditions and mountainous seas, about two hundred feet was a more realistic height....

During my time with 518 we lost a number of crews, who had failed to return from met. flights, almost certainly due to falling foul of exceptionally bad weather conditions, perhaps while doing a sea level run. However, some massive failure of airframe or engines could not be ruled out, such as total engine failure.... We gained our cruising height of 1,000 feet and set course on the final leg [17.5.1945]. When the engine revs were set at economical cruising, no matter how I trimmed the plane and coaxed it, the airspeed would not reach the normal figure, and we were losing at least 10 knots on our speed. I glanced round at the engineer who shook his head in disgust... the flying conditions were bumpy, and the sea below was rough, with heavy whitecaps... The sea level runs were particularly uncomfortable. With the first leg finished, and at a position about 800 miles out, I descended to fly the last sea level before the long climb to 20,000 feet. I opened the throttles to climb away when with a loud bang the starboard inner engine gave up the ghost. On these occasions a certain amount of speedy reaction is needed. There was! Having very smartly executed the necessary steps to avoid going into the sea one wing first, I started the painfully slow climb back to 1,000 feet, at the same time turning gradually on to a reciprocal course for home.

If that aircraft was sluggish on four engines, on three it was positively lifeless. It wallowed around as if unwilling to continue, but looking at the nasty sea below, I was equally unwilling for it to stop. I had considerably increased the engine revolutions on the good engines in order to maintain a reasonable air speed; in the teeth of the strong wind and with our reduced air speed, we now faced a long haul of six or more hours back to the safety of Tiree...

We had been staggering along for about an hour when the engineer, instead of using the intercom, leaned forward and lifted up the edge of my helmet and said "I didn't want to worry the others yet, but I think that the other starboard engine is failing - the temperatures and pressures are looking bad."

I made up my mind - if that engine failed there was no way that two engines would keep this weary old plane in the air - and I told the wireless operator to send a distress signal. After a short interval back came the heartening news that a Warwick air/sea rescue aircraft was being despatched to meet us and escort us back to base.'

The rescue aircraft arrived after another two hours of the listless Halifax crawling along on three engines. It accompanied the Halifax back to Scotland, but upon starting his descent Jamieson discovered that his aircraft had a complete hydraulic failure. He had to execute a landing without flaps, and perhaps more importantly brakes!

Jamieson moved with the Squadron as Flight Commander to RAF Aldergrove, near Belfast, Northern Ireland, September 1945; the Squadron disbanded in August 1946, and he was discharged from the service having flown almost 2,000 hours; he resided in York in later life, and wrote his autobiography in 1980.

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