Page 7 - Derek Elliott Till

Derek’s full training locations is not known by the webmasters, but here are some extracts from
Derek’s flight engineer, Derek Holland. His profile can be seen also on this website.

This is Derek Till, the crew’s pilot’s comments on this period:

‘On July 4 our six member crew completed the course on Wellingtons at 30 OTU, Hixon. We
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were then posted to1661 HCU at Lindholme, but did no flying there. We left on July 20 and
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arrived at 1662 HCU, Blyton on Aug 4 , presumably after 2 weeks leave. This is where Derek
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Holland our flight engineer joined us. Our first flight in a Halifax V was on Aug 9 . Derek was
obviously very competent and soon became a well-liked member of the family.
I well remember my first night solo in a Halifax with just a flight engineer, I think it was Derek,
perhaps it's in his log book. We had almost attained take-off speed when we realized that we had
no air-speed indicator, no altimeter and lacked other instruments on the panel. It was too late to
abort, so we climbed out and did a very careful circuit, with the flight engineer setting the revs and
boost that would be typical of normal conditions, and estimating our height with no lights to guide
us. We landed at a higher speed than usual fortunately the runway was long and the brakes good!
The ground staff found that the two cubes conveying info from the pitot head had been reversed
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by a careless mechanic. From Aug 31 to Sept 9 we were at 1 LFS, (No. 1 Lancaster Finishing
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School) Hemswell. We did our last training flight the morning of the 12 , were bused to 576
Squadron, Elsham Wolds in the afternoon, and I had scarcely unpacked my kit when I was called
to join an experienced crew as ‘second pilot or second dickie’ (for experience) to bomb Frankfurt
that same night!. We then did two long training flights, with loads. Our planned op to Calais on the
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24 was aborted because we burst a tire while taxying for take-off. Then we bombed Calais on the
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27 , our first op.’
RAF Elsham Wolds (13 Base) was the Base station and Administrative centre controlling two other
RAF stations; RAF Kirmington (166 Squadron), now Humberside Airport, and RAF North
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Killingholme (550 Squadron). 576 Squadron was formed on the 25 November 1943 from ҅C’ Flight
of 103 Squadron and four crews from 101 Squadron from RAF Ludford Magna near Louth, the
remaining crews coming from No. 1 Group's Heavy Conversion Units. The crew’s first Main Force
operation took place on the morning of the 27 September to the French port of Calais as part of a
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contingent of 15 Lancasters from 576 Squadron. This operation, requested by the British army,
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was to assist in the capture of this port by the Canadian 7 and 8 Infantry Brigades.
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576 Squadron moved to RAF Fiskerton (4 miles east of Lincoln) on the 31 October. Fiskerton had
been a No. 5 Group station but Bomber Command Headquarters decided to allocate this airfield
along with four other airfields at Scampton, Dunholme Lodge, Hemswell and its satellite airfield at
Ingham to No. 1 Group. RAF Scampton would be the Base station for Fiskerton, Dunholme Lodge
(2 miles south east of Scampton), Ingam (1 mile north of Scampton) and Hemswell (8 miles east
of Gainsbourgh). Scampton was renumbered 15 Base and became the main administrative centre
controlling these airfields. Fiskerton’s No. 5 Group resident unit. 49 Squadron having moved to
RAF Fulbeck (6 miles east of Newark on Trent).The unit’s operating from these airfields were,
RAF Hemswell: 150 and later, 170 Squadrons. RAF Scampton 153 Squadron and No 1687
Bomber Defence Training Flight (1687 BDTF) which used RAF Ingham, a grass airfield for training
air gunners on detachment from No. 1 Groups Heavy Conversion Units. RAF Dunholme Lodge
initially had 170 Squadron operating from the airfield, but safety concerns over the airfields close
proximity to Scampton resulted in 170 Squadron moving to Hemswell at the end of November.
Dunholme therefore being under the control of the General Aircraft Company which stored and
modified assault gliders, principally the Hemilcar glider in preparation for the allied airborne
crossing of the River Rhine in March 1945 (Operation Varsity).