Call Sign SilkSheen

[Dave Parry]

Hi all, I am just starting to sort out all the pic’s I took at East Kirby not them boring plane type pictures, (sorry Neil didn’t mean it) no, the real interesting ones like our Syd here on the table with the good old amber nectar, Syd is one of a few names carved in the table at the local Pub ‘The Red Lion’ and was one of the Lancaster crew member based at East Kirkby during the Second World War. I am sure our inside man Den, code name (Sprouter) can enlighten us a bit more as to what happened to Syd Smith, did he survive the war, I’d like to think so.

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Also I spent some time in the Control Tower on the Monday of this event, due to being rained off. Listening to the recordings of the bomber crews coming home after the night raid, and the atmosphere that seems to resonate in the room makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck, I can tell you.

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[Denis Brown]

Syd Smith did survive the war. He paid several visits here with other members of his crew in the 70's & 80's initially before the museum was established. He was a flight engineer and like all the veterans I have met here, a modest man who simply did what he had to do. The crew did a full tour . There is a picture of the crew in the pub and he is on the far right towering over the others he was 6ft and must have had difficulty getting comfortable in the cramped surroundings for those long ops. On one visit he gave me his oxygen mask which is proudly kept on display in my house (which is aptly named Silksheen. This was the wartime call sign for East Kirkby
One thing he told me after handing the oxygen mask over to me was that he suffered badly from airsickness and that he had to clean the mask after every flight. He thought it was funny. He managed to get through the war with this problem and shared this only with his crew.

I feel very priviliged to have met lots of aircrew who came back to revisit the airfield before the museum was here lots of them from New Zealand ,Australia and Canada.

[Denis Brown]

Syd Smith on far right

[chris willis]

A lovely story Dennis, the picture almost looks ghostly.

[Vince Raia]

Another very interesting thread on here, and well done Dave for starting it, and many thanks to Dennis for providing his very Knowledgeable insight into the history of the airdrome. I'll never forget the day we had a special Privilege (courtesy of the LMA) of being allowed to climb inside "Just Jane" and climb being the word here! No good when your a biggish chap like me, it was quite cramped, and getting over the spar was another feat! But what a great memorable day that was, and many thanks to Den and the LMA for arranging it.

I did take a couple of photos but my mate Henry got some super shots with his smaller camera, have to ask him to upload them.