Presentation Date: November 16, 2000
Denis Pontefract and Paul FitzGerald RAF/USAAF
Denis Pontefract talks about his experiences during the war as tail gunner in a B-24 in the RAF. Most of his time was spent between assignments with a bunch of fun stories. Paul Fitzgerald relays some of his WWII experiences as well as some post war 'Col Fitz' escapades. Denis Pontefract talks about his experiences during the war as tail gunner in a B-24 in the RAF. Most of his time was spent between assignments with a bunch of fun stories. Paul Fitzgerald relays some of his WWII experiences as well as some post war 'Col Fitz' escapades.
Around the World with the RAF
In July, 1939, high school graduate Denis Pontefract was in Paris, experiencing a peacetime he couldn't dream would be shattered by the whistle and wrenching blasts of bombs. Two months later though, the German blitzkrieg swept across Poland and then France, while Denis attended college. He also served in a "reserved" occupation as an apprentice engineer, making spare parts - gears and chains - for Spitfire fighters and Lancaster bombers.
In 1941, German bombers hit Manchester, and all that changed for Pontefract. An incendiary bomb landed in the bedroom above his room. "It was a magnesium bomb that did a lot of smoke damage," he says. "But we did put it out and save the house - - we threw the mattress out of the bedroom window."
Another bomb really put Denis out. A Luftwaffe 500kg bomb landed about 15 feet outside his girlfriend's bedroom. "Luckily it was a dud," he says, be he thought "I've got to do something about this."
The Pontefract family had a military history - -Denis' grandfather had been in the Yorkshire volunteers, Denis' father had signed on with the Royal Navy at the age of 15, and later served eight years in the Merchant Service.
Denis decided it was time to enlist in the military, and joined the Voluntary Reserve, which landed him in the pilot/navigator ranks and back home for six months. As an Air cadet (Newquay in Cornwall), he learned about aircraft engines and visited aerodromes and saw plenty of American combat planes. His first flight was in an Airspeed Oxford, on a navigational trip from Carlisle to the Isle of Man.
Denis shared one of his favorite stories of Air Marshall Arthur "Bomber" Harris, architect of Britain's night bombing campaign over Germany. Pontefract says the RAF officer was stopped by a Washington D.C. traffic cop who questioned the way Harris was driving and the cop said, "Sir, the way you're driving you could kill somebody." Harris reportedly replied, "You know, I kill 10,000 people every night."
Basic training came next. "We had one of those drill instructors with the stick. He's a real bastard, you know." Next up was Burnaston-on-Trent, where 40 Tiger Moths provided basic flight training. "I was supposed to solo after 20 hours, and we went out there and there were 6 inches of snow on the ground, and they said 'I'm sorry, guys. The pilot rolls are full now. You go on back to London'."
So, not washed out, but unable to solo, Denis was moved to the training list for navigators and bombardiers. It was by now, 1943 and the tide of war had turned with key Allied victories around the globe. Itching to get into action, Denis volunteered to be an Air Gunner, which sent him packing to Scotland and training in Avro Anson's with Polish pilots.
Denis says a language barrier and what he viewed as the Poles' contempt for rules and regulations made the training a challenge. There was only one mid-air collision but many close calls on the simulated attacks.
Nevertheless he got his gunner's wings, was sent to Scotland, and embarked on the Queen Elizabeth for a trip to North America. In mid Atlantic, she passed the Queen Mary, which still raises puzzlement for Pontefract. "How the hell the German submarines couldn't sink those two massive ships is an absolute mystery to me."
We had 12 to a cabin and arrived in New York City, passing the Queen Mary en route. We traveled by train to Moncton, New Brunswick where some of us were posted to the Bahamas to fly on Sunderland Flying Boats. The rest of us had a week's journey by Canadian Pacific Railway to Vancouver B.C. via Banff.
"At Boundary Bay, our pilots flew B-25 Mitchells and I took two weeks leave at Christmas. I had the U. S. Navy fly me from Portland to Alameda Naval Air Station. I walked through the tube and found myself in a taxi dance hall (the Rose Ballroom) with tickets at 10 cents a dance. A couple of sailors tried to pour a bottle of bourbon into me in the men's room, but luckily the M.P.s drove me back."
Denis's Boundary Bay experience transitioned him from .303 machine guns to .50 caliber guns, in B-25s and then B-24s. Denis became a tail gunner in B-24s, which he describes as one cold experience.
"It's freezing on the ground, and we're flying up to 25,000 feet. Your temperature was about minus-70. We used to wear our regular uniform and then some fur uniforms and sometimes we got the American electrical, heated flying suits. And then gloves - - silk gloves, wool gloves and leather gloves. By the time you got all this stuff on and take the jeep to the plane, you could hardly walk."
After ocean passage to England, Denis headed to India on another ship. On board, he was shown a six-inch gun, with the notion that if the ship ran into an enemy submarine, "gunner" Pontefract could sink the sub with the cannon. "It's amazing some of the things you're asked to do," Denis remarks. "I slept for three weeks in that gun turret, and the people downstairs were all in hammocks and throwing up over each other. I think I got the better deal."
By this time it was 1945, and Pontefract was posted to 326 Squadron at Salboni in Bengal, where he rode on about a dozen missions in B-24s. Then, he went on leave with two Canadian friends, a four day journey by rail and army trucks from Rawalpindi to Srinagar in Kashmir, at an elevation of 12,500 feet. Pontefract says, "It's the only time I saw three people airsick on a truck. And this road is ghoulish, with rocks falling down. We had to clear the road a couple of times before we got there."
"We contacted a C-46 pilot from Texas and he flew us back to Calcutta after stopping for chow in Delhi. Taking off at 12,500 feet is unusual. You take off and go down."
While he was on leave, his crew had flown down to the Cocos Islands. They were all killed while they were dropping supplies to camps in Sumatra.
This was the first week after Japan's surrender, and Denis's crew was among four others who were lost on humanitarian missions. Only Denis and another air gunner who lives in Nova Scotia survive from his original aircrew.
Returning to England, Pontefract immigrated to Canada and then to the United States. Today, Denis jokes,"I spent four years in the service and most of it on leave," concluding that his RAF postings in six countries in four years' time was an education many would envy.