With the end of the Second World War now
70 years ago, the numbers of surviving veterans of that era are inexorably dwindling. It is therefore encouraging to know that there are several schemes to collect and preserve their reminiscences before it is too late: one such initiative is the Memory Project, an on-line collection of recordings of the verbal recollections of Canadian veterans. Amongst these is former Pilot Officer Robert Ellis Knowlton, who served as a photo-recce pilot on Spitfires with 208 Sqn in Italy during the closing stages of the war. Ellis’ recording is accessible via the Memory Project Website, which also provides a transcript and several photographs to accompany the recording. Space does not permit the full transcript to be reproduced here, but the following extract should give a flavour of what is available via the Memory Project:
“We flew in pairs. One guy would a
ctually shoot the mission looking at the ground and the other guy would look after him, he’d be watching the air and looking out for enemy fighters or even friendly aircraft because at times the skies were pretty full. … Spitfires had a very short range: we only carried 85 gallons of fuel, so a lot of the missions were about an hour or so. And they’d go on from dawn until dusk. If you were on the first light of dawn, you’d be woken by somebody and you’d have a cup of tea and then you’d go off in your plane and take off into semi-darkness, so it would be about dawn by the time you arrived over the target. And this would continue until dark.”
- Pilot Officer Robert Ellis Knowlton
The Memory Project is a noble initiative, which will ensure that the voices of Ellis Knowlton and his contemporaries remain accessible to future generations.
Malcolm Ward
Newsletter Editor
Click on this link to access the Memory Project Website
(will open in a new window):
