KENNETH AIRD (grave 91)

I was born in Bangor, Northern Ireland before I moved with my parents, Dr Ivie and Ella Aird, to Bondi Junction, New South Wales in Australia. I was married to Marcia Clarice Aird.

The Vickers Wellington was the brainchild of Barnes Wallis whose invention of the bouncing bomb would later forge an eternal bond to RAF Scampton. The Wellington was designed using a revolutionary geodetic lattice construction, this lattice work was covered in fabric and produced a very light, yet incredibly strong airframe.

The Wellington first flew on 15th June 1936 and continued in production throughout the war, earning the distinction of being the only British bomber to do so.

In total, 11,461 Wellingtons were made, earning it the further distinction of the most produced British bomber, with the last one rolling off the production line in October 1945. The last flight of the Wellington in RAF service happened in 1953.

I was an air gunner on this aircraft.

RAF Air Gunner Training.

When the curtain was drawn back in the briefing room to reveal our target and the scale of the operation, it was a truly an awe inspiring moment. This was to be the first of Air Marshal Harris’s thousand bomber raids. To achieve this many aircraft in a single raid, every available aircraft needed to be used, even trainee crews were brought into the action.

Cologne was selected as the first German city to see the effects of 1000 heavy bombers. In the words of Air Marshal Harris:

“The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a dozen other places they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.”

Our Wellington Mk III X3448 took off from RAF Snaith in Yorkshire at 23:15hrs, bound for Cologne. But something went wrong and we needed to return early, so just 3 hours later, we were back over the skies of Lincolnshire. At 02:15hrs our aircraft crashed close to Mottram’s Farm near Faldingworth, killing all 6 crew instantly. It was never discovered why we crashed, but it was thought that the sudden failure of one of the engines could have caused the loss of control of the aircraft.

The raid itself destroyed 600 acres of Cologne and caused 5000 casualties. Despite the loss of 39 aircraft or 4% of the bomber force, the raid was considered a success, vindicating Harris’ faith in strategic bombing. Winston Churchill said of the raid:

“This proof of the growing power of the British bomber force is also the herald of what Germany will receive, city by city, from now on.”