‘For one who dared, I was scared, up there in the sky….hoped I would not die’
Frank Tolley served in the RAF during the Second World War. He was a bomb aimer on a Lancaster. He flew bombing missions over Germany, including over Dresden. One day, 50 years after the end of the war, his grandson asked him a question…
Frank Tolley: “What did you think about killing people? It does stay on your mind about, without any shadow of doubt and cold bloodedly you did it. You were aiming and you knew you, you would, you would be killing people. I, I remember on the first raid that we did, the pilot, the rear gunner and I had to go with an experienced crew, and I just hoped I'd get everything right, but you did seem to have a good sight on the target if it's a night raid on, on the dockyard. And as I released the bombs, I said to myself, ‘you're breaking the Sixth Commandment, you're breaking the Sixth Commandment.’”
To help his grandson understand his wartime service, Frank wrote a poem for him.
Frank Tolley: “Now we return to base, will a fighter give chase? Will there be more fire? We all hope, maybe pray we will again see Lincoln Cathedral when night becomes day. No thought or prayer for those we’ve killed until much later.”
Frank now tells his story to visitors at IWM North.
Frank Tolley: “They are the adults of the next generation and they to whom I was talking, some of you may be in professions, may be in medical people or in law or in industry, even in Parliament or in local government, so it's, it's up to you to do your best to compromise as best and as fairly as it can possibly be, rather than be resorting to fighting and feuding. We all need each other somewhere along the line, near and far, and we all depend upon each other, so why on earth we have to have wars, I do not know.”
Frank Tolley volunteered to join a Bomber Command flight crew after seeing the destruction German air raids had caused in Coventry. Several of the men he volunteered with - including his best friend - died within six months.
The vast majority of aircrew were in their late teens or early twenties like Frank - more than half of those who served during the war were killed on operations. The risks were high and the responsibility was heavy.
Frank was a bomb aimer - it was his job to direct the pilot as they approached a target and released their bombs. In early 1945, flying missions over Germany, he saw Dresden as ‘one mass of flame’ when he flew overhead.
Frank knew the people on the ground would die as a result of his actions - and realised that just a fraction of a second delay in releasing the bombs could make all the difference between destroying a bridge or hitting buildings either side of a river.
But on some occasions, his duties involved feeding rather than bombing. His crew participated in Operation Manna, which saw Allied aircrews drop food to civilians in Holland during the closing months of the war
'People out in their thousands waving up to us, we were waving down to them….It was absolutely superb…. To have done that after all that bombing, to be able to save lives….they reckon we saved thousands then.'
It took Frank decades to come to terms with his wartime experiences and he considers himself lucky to have survived.
He volunteers at IWM North, where he speaks to visitors and school groups about his experiences of conflict. He tells the children he meets of the importance of trying to avoid fighting – and to look for ways to compromise.
