Mudcat Café message #2334826

I came to Britain from Guyana (then British Guiana) in 1941 to join the Royal Air Force. Just one year before, no 'man of colour' would have been allowed to join; but crises change attitudes and a restricted number from the colonies were allowed to join the club. In 1943, I was actually commissioned, thus becoming one of the very few black Officers in the RAF. I flew on operations in a Lancaster bomber over Germany and was shot down after a successful bombing raid on the German town of Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr, our plane crashing in a field in Holland. I managed to bail out by parachute along with other members of the crew. Two did not make it.

I was to learn many years later that one of the engines of the Lancaster had gone through the roof of the home of a Dutch farmer killing his wife outright. The incident so disturbed a young boy of the village that he resolved, when he grew up, to trace the entire history of that fatal flight that had traumatised his village. He would discover the name of the Squadron where the bomber had been based in England and all the details of the mission.

After a long and arduous investigation, the young Dutchman spectacularly fulfilled his boyhood promise by successfully contacting first the Air Ministry and then RAF 103 Squadron for details of the mission on the night in question - from the number of bombers from its base at Elsham Wolds in Lincolnshire, that had joined in the massive onslaught on the Ruhr, down to the actual plane that had crashed into his village, and the names of the members of its crew.

"On the night of Friday 25 June 1943, the RAF had again planned an attack on the Ruhr area. For that attack, 474 bombers had been detailed of which 214 were Lancasters, 134 Halifaxes, 73 Stirlings, 40 Wellingtons and 12 Mosquitoes. Bomber Command was going to suffer heavy losses during that night, which also became one of the darkest pages of the air war over the Netherlands".

"24 Lancasters from 103 Squadron were detailed for the attack on Gelsenkirchen. One of the Lancasters was W4827 piloted by the Canadian F.O Al Langille. The crew consisted, apart from Langille , of navigator, P.O Cy Grant from British Guiana, radio-telegraphist, P.O. Don Towers (England), bombardier' P.O Charles Reynolds (England), flight engineer Sgt. Ronald Hollywood (England), and gunners Geoffrey Wallis (England), and the Canadian P.O Joseph Addison."

The writer had also contacted each surviving member of the crew, including myself, and compared our versions of events in order to produce an authentic document of our final mission. I have a copy of that document. The author is alive and can be contacted. Unfortunately, today there is one only one survivor of the crew besides myself.

"quote"... The most striking part of this chapter of my life story is that we find the making and resolution of a personal tragedy in Holland, the formation of a lasting bond between Canadian and West Indian and English and Dutch, forged in the skies over Germany, and a relevant and compelling comment on racial attitudes of the time and how it affected and continues to affect my entire life "unquote"

The Officers' POW Camp where I had been incarcerated for the duration of my captivity had been evacuated with the approach of the Russian army in early 1945. After days of trudging through snow piled roads we eventually ended up in a lice- ridden, sprawling POW camp at Lukenwalde - a vast complex with prisoners from all the allied forces. The war raged around and the German guards were beginning to vacate their posts. Soon we would have to forage for food. Then came the news that thekrieg ist fertig. But the days went by with no sign of repatriating British personnel.

After many days of angst, Americans prisoners were evacuated, probably because of the efforts of American forces who were nearby on the Western front. The drivers of the trucks who formed the evacuation squad were African-American soldiers and their arrival added a new dimension to the whole scenario involving me as a black man caught up in a racist war. I recalled that shortly after my capture a photo of me taken after a period of solitary confinement -a common experience for new arrivals at a camp- appeared in a German newspaper (the Volkischer Beobachter, July 1943) with the words Mitglied der Royal Air Force von unbestimmbarer RasseI - a member of the Royal Air Force of unknown race!

With the arrival of the American truck drivers I seized my opportunity to escape the POW camp. I arranged a rendezvous outside the perimeter of the camp at dawn the following day and after a harrowing day-long drive trying to find a bridge to cross over to the American front on the other side of the river Elbe, and in time to beat the curfew, we succeeded on the stroke of 6pm. A few days later I was driven to Brussels in time for VE Day celebrations.

The most striking part of this chapter of my life story is that in the midst of a 'Boy's Own' adventure, we find the making and resolution of a personal tragedy in Holland, the formation of a lasting bond between Canadian and West Indian and English and Dutch, forged in the skies over Germany, and a relevant and compelling comment on racial attitudes of the time and how it affected and continues to affect my entire life.

A fuller version of my RAF career, including my POW experiences appears in my still unpublished book Blackness and the Dreaming Soul. The book is about one man's search for identity and meaning - reflections on the spiral of self- discovery. Written without bitterness, it traces the journey of a black man trapped within a white culture that has marginalised his sense of being and belonging. It is a journey that has led the author to transcend the current Western view of reality based on the prevailing scientific model of empirical materialism and our divorce from Nature.

The book reflects the stages of a journey of self- discovery. It is, however, not an autobiography but more a book of linked essays each of which builds on the previous one, setting out the various stages of the author's development, discussing the issues he has encountered along the way, and bringing his inner journey gradually into focus. In this context, there is an in-depth piece on Carnival- not as mere digression but rather as an exposition of identity, celebration and confrontation- all essential ingredients in the lives of West Indians. The chapter on Columbus envisages him as an icon of Western enterprise, which values profit above the regard for other peoples; that on Genetics and the rush towards Genetic engineering, examines a more recent journey while still uncovering the same issues of privilege and control. Science and empirical proof, religion and spirituality, issues that are almost never discussed within a holistic framework are reassessed in this light and shown to be vital for understanding our world.

Our culture is essentially in a state of denial on important issues, particularly with regard to the terminal dualism of the prevailing paradigm that maintains that science and spirituality are irreconcilable. Even if we see the need for the integration of science and spirituality, we cannot at the same time be in denial of other cultures and their contribution to human knowledge and spirituality. The worldview of these cultures was one of non-duality, typically embodied in the Hindu Vendanta, Chinese Taoism, African Modimo, and in the harmonious relationship of numerous indigenous peoples with nature.

To recover the ancient worldview, the author believes we will have to acknowledge the institutional racism that exists in our culture as well as our history of ruthless exploitation inflicted on the rest of mankind - slavery, Genocide, rape and our present rush toward world domination and globalisation.

While holding on to the concept of discrete chapters, the author adopts an approach of gradual focus, which it is hoped, will not be seen as a series of redundancies but rather, an occasional gentle reminder of the story as it unfolds. Rather than explore any area too deeply, the book aims to persuade the reader to explore further and provides a balanced range of references to allow this to happen. So as to reach the widest range of people, the language employed is simple, especially where complex theories are concerned. However, in the hope of engaging a more erudite readership, difficult subjects have not been avoided, as it is this group of readers who most readily offer their views for written scrutiny thus disseminating them most widely: it is the written form that has been until very recently retained as history thus having most influence on shaping our worldview.

He sang the news in calypso for the BBC TV Tonight programme in the late 50's; was a co-founder of DRUM, the first black arts centre in London in the 70's and the Director of Concord Multi-cultural Festivals in the 80's. He is also the author of Ring of Steel (Macmillan 2000) on the evolution of the Trinidad Steelpan.
His war memoir has been archived at the Imperial War Museum.
http://www.cygrant.fsnet.co.uk
His war memoir, "A Member of the R.A.F of Indeterminate Race" will be published by Woodfield Publishing in September 2006.

Moving Here: Cy Grant from Guyana