What inspired me to get into film?

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Like most families, who lost someone during WW2 we occasionally watched a war film on Sunday afternoons, films such as the Dambusters, and I sometimes wondered if my Uncle Jim, had done anything like that. But it never crossed my mind that I would think about making a film.

Ever since I was a child, my Dad had told me about my uncle Jim, his third eldest brother (Dad was one of seven boys). Uncle Jim had been a pilot during World War 2 and been killed. That was about all we knew, we didn’t even know where or when be’d been shot down. He has no known grave.

Jim was listed as missing for years and my grandmother was devastated. She kept hoping that he had lost his memory and one day would remember who he was and come home. The family never even held a funeral for him, as they kept hoping he would come home.

About 6 years ago there was only one brother left and his health was failing fast. It occurred to me that perhaps I could find out what happened to Jim and tell his last surviving brother what had happened to him.

I started searching the internet and found some basic information, the name and type of plane he’d flown and the date that he went missing. I sent off for his service records from RAF Cranwell and waited.

After what seemed like an interminable 3 months, I finally got the records and learnt that Jim had joined up in 1940, flown Spitfires and Hurricanes in his training and then been transferred to Bomber Command, when he learnt to fly Wellingtons and night flying.

Two Crews

I also learnt that he had flown with 2 crews, both of which had all died, the first crew, the week before Jim and his second crew, so sad. To discover that other young men had died with him was something that hadn’t occurred to me before and I suddenly felt responsible for them all – if I found one, I found them all!

I joined a forum called wwtalk.com and started a thread with the information I already had and asking for further information that people might have. Gradually I began to piece together what might have happened. I paid a German researcher to obtain files from the Bundesarchiv and other people helped digitise files in Australia.

Commonwealth connections

I discovered that the pilot was an Australian, who’d joined the New Zealand airforce and the observer was also an antipodean and came from New Zealand. The 1st wireless operator/gunner was a Scot from Dunfermline whom I eventually traced to Chipping Norton. After hours of research, as well as being interviewed live on BBC Radio Plymouth, I discovered the 2nd wireless operator / gunner was a relative of folk singer Seth Lakeman and also D-Day veteran Ken Lakeman. The rear gunner proved the most elusive. I couldn’t find any information about his family on the internet, no births, no deaths, nothing and began to look like either a) he’d been adopted and changed his name, or b) was using a false name.

Man of mystery

As it turned out I was very close. Out of the blue, I received a message on ww2talk.com from a guy who was distantly related to the rear gunner and he told me that the whole family had changed their name in the 1930s. This was a break through (or so I thought at the time). I found information about possible family members, dates etc, but things still weren’t matching up properly.

Then, on a genealogy forum I saw a post by someone looking for a young pilot. This airman had been lost on the same day as my rear gunner, but the name was slightly wrong. I messaged her and after many email messages it became clear that we were indeed talking about the same person. I’d finally found my rear gunner. Because he’d signed up underage he’d lied about his name and his date of birth. Not by much, just changing the year of birth and transposing letters in his name, but it was enough for the RAF to tell the family years later that he didn’t exist.

Future plans

The longer I researched what happened, the more awed and inspired I became by these young men, the volunteers (yes they were volunteers) of Bomber Command, how young they were and the conditions they had to endure, night after terrifying night. Disgusted by the treatment Bomber Command had endured at the hands of post war propaganda, revisionist historians and subsequent governments. I wanted to do something rectify that situation and to honour their sacrifice.

I decided I wanted to make a film about my uncle’s WW2 RAF career. Not nothing anything about filming making, I started to investigate. Crewing on several small indie film gave me valuable ‘on set’ experience, I did several film courses and read about scriptwriting. My first feature script is currently in it’s second draft…. In the interim I made a short film called What did you do in the war Grandad, which was accepted into a short film festival in Santa Monica 2016.

To learn more about my film work visit www.iconiccreative.co.uk, call 0775 341 3005 or email info@iconiccreative.co.uk