An interview/narrative of Douglas Hudson's experiences during World War II. Chief Warrant Officer Hudson served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Interview took place on November 7, 2005.

Interviewee: Hudson, Doug

Rank: Chief Warrant Officer.

ABSTRACT: Chief Warrant Officer Douglas Hudson (Tape 1, Side 1) 00:00 introduction. Born in Winnipeg and raised on Farm. Nov 21st 1921. Talks about family history and family life (01:00-03:25). Flew with a friend before war. Discusses why he joined RCAF (04:25). Went to join the Navy, but by a quirk of fate joined the RCAF. Recruits ahead of the building mustering in new recruits. Backlog of recruits. Talks about education at Brandon College and then posted to Winnipeg No. 3 wireless school (07:15). Had no experience with radios beforehand. Posted to Paulson Manitoba for gunnery course (09:13). Never fired a gun in combat. Discusses H2S, belly gun on Halifax's and Jazz guns on night-fighters (10:00). Sent to Lachine Quebec and then took a ship across (11:30) Posted to RAF Millon. Discusses Square searches over Irish sea (13:45). Discusses O.T.U. in Ossington in Wellingtons (15:15). Was very comfortable with his training and worked hard at it (16:15). Commanding Officers first statement at Millon was "I have no use for Canadians" (17:12). Instructors there had no operational experience up until that point. Discusses his Operational Training Unit (O.T.U.) in Ossington. RAF (18:13). Discusses Crewing-up procedure (20:00). Flew on Mk 2 and 7 Halifaxes in O.T.U. (23:10). Flew Mk3's which were much more reliable than 2's. Mk2s would lose power at inopportune times. Discusses logbook (24:40). First raid was to Bochom. Had 9 Diversions all together (29:50) Discusses hung-up bomb on board (30:40) Discusses fuel related issues (31:40). Felt he always had enough fuel. (Tape 1, Side 2) (00:00-01:45) Discussing incident on takeoff with snow on the ground. Discusses an operational day (01:45). Discusses how they didn't think anything of it at the time, but later recalled reservations about bombing civilians. Dresden, Hamburg (03:40). Discusses the feelings of crews towards Harris (05:48) Consecutive bombing missions (07:00). Discusses sleep patterns (09:30). Lack of Moral Fiber (09:45-10:30). Discusses how lack of sleep affected performance. Difficulty of being located in Yorkshire (11:20) Discusses the Gee Box and Fishpond (13:28). He operated Fishpond and window on the Halifax's. Using 'window' (15:15). Discusses Tinseling (15:40). Discusses inter-crew friendships (19:32). (end at 20:47) (Tape 2, Side 1) Conversation continued on after initially turning off the tape, so it was agreed on by interviewer and interviewee to continue the recording. Discusses missions in more detail (00:00). Anecdote about volunteering with another crew (03:30-07:39). Encounter with icing (07:35). Discusses the learning curve with operational flying (09:25). Discusses being coned by searchlights and the evasive manoeuvres as a result (12:30). Evasive action almost tore the aircraft apart. Coned on multiple occasions. Talking about the disastrous raid on Nuremberg (13:50). Discusses relationship with ground crew (16:40). They didn't let the aircrew take pictures with ground crew. They were not well informed on casualty rates while on operation (17:10). He didn't know anything about the casualty figures until well after the war. End of Interview. (Tape 2, Side 1) (19:09)

Interviewer: Chapman, Matthew

In Collection:

• Canadian Military Oral Histories

Contributor

• Chapman, Matthew
• Hudson, Doug

Subject

• World War (1914-1918)
• Canada. Royal Canadian Air Force
• Military history
• World War (1939-1945)

Language

• eng

Date created

• November 7, 2005

Relation

• Part of the Military Oral History Class collection of interviews.
• Title of paper: "RCAF Bomber Crews". Link:  http://rusiviccda.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Oral-History-and-the-Recollections-of-RCAF-Bomber-Crews.pdf

Resource type

• Sound

Rights statement

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Extent

• 3 sound recordings (MP3)

Geographic Coverage

• Nova Scotia--Halifax

Coordinates

• 44.6464, -63.57291

Additional physical characteristics

• Original sound recording on audio cassette also available.

Physical Repository

• University of Victoria (B.C.). Library

Collection

• Canadian Military Oral History Collection

Provider

• University of Victoria (B.C.). Library

Genre

• interviews
• sound recordings
• oral histories (literary genre)
• reminiscences

Archival item identifier

• HD_522

Fonds title

• Military oral history collection

Fonds identifier

• SC141

Is referenced by

• Special Collections Finding Aid: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/military-oral-history-collection

Date digitized

• July 19, 2012

Technical note

• Digital sound recording in .wav format at 16 bits and 44 kHz. In .mp3 format at 56 kbps and 24 kHz. Interview recorded in digital format for UVic Special Collections in 2012. Migration metadata by KD and MT.

Rights

• This interview has been posted with the understanding that it may be used for research purposes only. Should the interviewee or their heirs have any objections to this interview being accessible on the Internet, it will be removed promptly. Contact UVic Special Collections for permission if using for other than research purposes: speccoll@uvic.ca

DOI

•  https://doi.org/10.58066/sq3k-fs59

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