Peter and Dorothy Willis-Culpitt on their Wedding Day

The following is an extract from a letter from William Willis-Culpitt, the elder brother of Peter. My parents, Peter's father and mother are both dead. Peter's widow Dorothy, or Dolly as we knew her, married again after some time. I am still in touch with her. Peter was just over eighteen months younger. We were both born in Wandsworth, London, but moved to Ilford, Essex as the time approached for us to start school. We both attended Loxford Primary and Pre-Secondary schools. We both got scholarships to the local grammar school, Ilford County High. In our early years there, the school was on its original site in Balfour Road, but we moved to a new school at Barkingside to the North of Ilford. When we moved there, the school was effectively on the edge of the country but it is now built up. I think we enjoyed our schooling. Academically, we were probably about the same standard but out of class our interests tended to diverge. I cannot remember much about Peter’s friends. Both of us brought friends home or visited them but because of our different group interests there was not much mixing. In the '30's the opportunities for higher education were very limited, so it was accepted that a job was the first priority and further education carried on in the evening.

Naturally I was the first to leave and worked for a time at Ilford Limited, the film factory in Brentwood, Essex. Peter when he left, got an apprenticeship at Red Hand Compositions (a branch of Pinchin Johnson Paints) which specialised in marine anti-fouling preparations. It was intended that he would work his way through various departments and would probably have moved up to managerial status had not the war intervened. From conversations with him, he found the processes interesting, particularly the testing and quality control aspects. He had a good logical brain and nowadays might have found an interest in computing. He played a very good game of chess and could beat me regularly. He could give my father, a very good player, quite a tough game.

As so often happens, he met the young lady he was eventually to marry, at his place of work. Peter was short for his age, being only just over five feet tall, Dolly was also, as the Americans say, vertically challenged, and the two of them matched perfectly, finding their lack of inches a trifle hilarious, if occasionally inconvenient when buying clothes. Dolly had two sisters of similar height, all three of them very attractive. If they had been able to sing they could have gone straight into show business.

At his call-up, Peter opted for aircrew in the RAF and it was then that his height was to bring about a disappointment. He romped through all of the tests, but at the medical they thought that he was too short for pilot. When he protested they took him outside on to the tarmac and tried on a few aircraft but even with the seats cranked up and all other adjustments made to his advantage he could not manage.

He was trained eventually as a Navigator at Port Elizabeth in South Africa, returning to this country for OTU and conversion courses. Night bombing techniques having moved on with the use of Pathfinder groups, and the electronic aids OBOE, GEE and H2S reducing navigational effort. Specialist Bomb Aimers were now needed and newly trained navigators were moved into that slot. I have often wondered what they did during the time they were not over the target. Their training made them useful for several back-up jobs I suppose, but it is not the best way to cross enemy territory sitting on your back side with nothing to do.

My father, who handled all legal matters and general correspondence had several letters from Sergeant Price's mother, initially during the 'No news' period, and then after he was on the prisoner of war list. I note that in his de-briefing on his return to this country he had reported that the other members of the crew were unable to get out. I found a letter from Price which I had not seen before which revealed that they were shot down by a night fighter. The aircraft went into a spin and there was difficulty in opening escape hatches.