Page 15 - James Edward Raw Rees

RAYMOND ERNEST JOSEPH HOGG

(Known as ‘ERNIE’)

My first cousin, Ernie Hogg by David Harold Fitton.

These stories were told to me in dribs and drabs when I holidayed at Ernie and Audrey’s
farm at Ōhau in the Mackenzie Basin on New Zealand’s South Island.

When New Zealand declared war on Nazi Germany Ernie would have been among the first to join
up in the Royal NZ Airforce. He already had a pilot’s licence having belonged to the Palmerston
North Aero Club for a few years. Mum, Dad, Bill and myself (I was about 11 years old) journeyed
up to Ohau a farming community near Levin where Ernie worked on his father’s dairy farm (Uncle
Ern & his wife Aunty Ida my dad’s sister) to say goodbye as Ernie was on a final leave.

Ernie went straight to England and trained on Whitley twin-engine bombers and took part in Air
Chief Marshal Harris (Bomber Harris) 1000 bomber raid on Cologne in Germany.

His next aircraft was the Wellington Bomber, a twin-engine aircraft with radial engines and the
complete airframe of aluminium Geodesic design and fabric covered. This bomber was designed
by Barnes Wallis who designed the Bouncing Bomb of The Dam Busters Raid.

The “boys” called these bombers “Wimpies” because of their flexibility when airborne. Ernie had a
stint training aircrew in these machines. He took a crew of young airmen up one morning training
& landed safely. His counterpart took up a crew for the afternoon flight and when accomplishing a
tight turn, a wing came off and killed them all. It was the same aircraft Ernie’s crew had been flying
previously that morning.

Ernie’s next aircraft was the mighty Lancaster powered by four 1200 HP Rolls Royce
Merlin engines. The crew consisted of the Pilot, Flight Engineer, Bomb Aimer,
Navigator, Radio Operator, Mid Upper Gunner and Rear Gunner, a crew of seven.

Now Ernie was thirty-two years old when he joined up and his young crew members called him
Grandpop. They did thirty-two bombing missions over Germany in the Lancaster.

Rolls Royce asked for volunteer pilots to take an instruction course on engine handling on
missions and it was designed to save petrol and wear and tear on the engines. Ernie would come

home from a mission with an extra 150-200 gallons of petrol than the other crews.
At the end of thirty-two missions his Lancaster was fitted with new engines for the next crew to
take over. Rolls Royce stripped down these engines and informed Ernie they would have done
another thirty-two missions.

German heavy industry such as Krupps (Guns, Tanks etc.) was situated in the Ruhr Valley
and was heavily defended with anti-aircraft guns and fighter protection. (I must add that the
British bombed by night and the Americans by day).