AS excitement mounts over this year's University Boat Race on Sunday, the Ely-based Diamond44 group are eagerly looking ahead to next year - the sixtieth anniversary of the only Oxford and Cambridge clash away from the Thames. A war-time race was rowed on the Great Ouse below Queen Adelaide bridge in 1944 and there are plans to rerun the event next February. Among the spectators 59 years ago was an airman who had just returned to Witchford airfield from a bombing raid over Germany. SGT GEOFF PAYNE, a rear gunner in a Lancaster, now living in Cumbernauld, tells his story.
WITH some of my crew, we arrived at Ely station on a bleak afternoon in mid-February, 1944. It was overcast and very cold.
Wearing full kit and carrying kit bags, we struggled to the utility bus which awaited our arrival. After a short journey, we were deposited at the guard room where the Witchford Social Club is sited today.
Reporting in, we were given the usual 'chitty', pointed in the direction of the bedding store and allocated our billets. As Witchford was a wartime aerodrome and very well dispersed, it was a camel trek between the administrative areas and living quarters. But, at last we reached our billet, about 50 yards behind the Shoulder of Mutton and opposite the station sports ground. We were lucky to have a Nissen hut to ourselves, just six NCOs, as our skipper was an officer.
The following morning we signed in and I was informed by the Gunnery Leader that I would be operating that night with a strange crew as a gunner had reported sick. This was my introduction to the 115 Squadron - an unfamiliar crew and seven or eight hours over a very heavily defended Europe to attack Augsburg.
But the operation went according to plan with just a few hairy moments from searchlights and flak. We arrived back at base at 5.15am ready for bed.
As I had a free day, I woke early, had a quick lunch in the mess and decided to go into Ely to check it out. There were rumours circulating that the Oxford and Cambridge boat race was being contested on the river that afternoon but I didn't take that much notice because a lot of 'duff gen' circulated in the RAF.
Transport being unavailable at that time, shank's pony was the only alternative. Wandering through the town past the market and down the hill towards the river, it became obvious that something was on as a large number of people seemed to be going in the same direction.
Closer to the river, people could be heard shouting and I arrived on the bank to see the back end of the boats moving down river to my left. My first and last boat race was over.
Walking back up the hill towards the Market Place, I came across a small cafe at the top on the left hand side and this became a regular port of call for our crew.
A quiet week followed with training flights and air tests before another big operation to Stuttgart, followed by Frankfurt, where we lost our mid-upper gunner to a German night fighter.
Four days later, it was Frankfurt again. As we left the target, the heating attachment on my flying suit became disconnected and, due to the severe cold, I sustained frost bite in both hands, ending up in the RAF Hospital at Ely.
This signalled the end of my involvement with my crew and RAF Witchford. After three weeks in hospital, I was posted to 514 Squadron at Waterbeach to recuperate. After a while, I was declared fit to fly again, finishing my tour of operations at Waterbeach with another crew.
Published in the Ely Standard of March 3rd, 2003
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