Blighty Thank God

Extra Episode - SEX, SPIES & LIES My father’s suspicions about the aircraft crash that killed the grandfather of award-winning historical author Jessie Childs, echoed her family history. She contacted me to discuss the remarkable career of international diplomat Stephen Childs, who died on the fateful flight out of Iran on January 18th, 1943 and featured in Episode 1 of ‘ Blighty Thank God ’....

After a relatively peaceful war, the Italian port of Bari suffered a terrible bombing raid in December, 1943 that led to a poison gas release killing many in mysterious circumstances that the Allies tried to cover up. My father’s diary describes the aftermath and the dangers of visiting the local 'vino shop' for a drink in the lead up to Christmas, 1943 and the New Year. Diary entries re...

The ‘Blighty Thank God’ podcast and website could not have been produced without expert help from webman Geoff Paddock of GP Media and podcast producer Sam Pauly of SummitUp . Sam interviews me - Neil Chapman - about the podcast and web resources based on my late father’s diary for 1943 and how finding the 'lost' diary turned into a 6-year research project. Immeasurable thanks to Crockfo...

The revelation, after he died, that my father was involved in secret missions to drop supplies to civilian resistance fighters during the war came as a surprise to our family. It took many decades to finally unravel the full story behind what he did, the risks he took and the full extent of 267 Squadron’s secret operations that played a role in thwarting Hitler’s vengeance weapons. Diary entries r...

Researching 2 Bisley aircraft that my father helped recover after both force landed (Listen to ‘A New Goolie Chit ’ episode), I discovered numerous other, similar incidents, some with fatal consequences. I also discovered how much pilots despised the aircraft, dubbing it the ‘Grisly Bisley’. Shockingly the plane’s failings were well known to senior RAF leaders and while the Middle East was somewha...

Flt Sgt Jimmy Eden was a friend of my father’s, killed outright doing the same job as him - ferrying fighter planes to the North African front. A nine-word entry in his diary on the anniversary of Jimmy’s death set me on a journey to discover what happened to him and to meet the daughter who never knew her father. Diary entries read by granddaughter Bethan. Many thanks to Maureen and her family fo...

My father mentioned a plane crash that killed 2 of his colleagues - the first of two fatal crashes within two weeks of each other that left 33 airmen dead.  I discovered that the two Hudson planes that crashed at Khartoum, Sudan in June, 1943, were  part of a new service operated by civilian airline British Overseas Air Corporation for the RAF. Were the crashes horrible coincidences or was somethi...

A ‘gold racket’ my father casually mentions in his diary wasn’t the only surprise on the Takoradi Route, along which he was a ferry pilot moving planes between West and North Africa 1941-42. Leo the Lion was also a surprise awaiting first time visitors to the remote airfield of El Fasher in Sudan. My father also faced a court martial -as an escort helping two friends out who found themselves in tr...

Few vaccines were available to protect Allied troops sent overseas during WW2. After West Africa, where he likely caught malaria, my father was posted to the Middle East where he encountered lice-borne typhus and then rabies, just two of a long list of deadly diseases in the region. Eminent virologist Professor Geoffrey Smith helped me understand what protection - or lack of it - was available to...

In Baghdad’s sweltering heat of the summer of 1943, my father helped run the city’s airport for the RAF - managing the arrival and departure of VIPs. Two he mentions were playwright/singer Noel Coward  and Lord Louis Mountbatten. Not everything went smoothly with their visits. Guest interviewee, author and professor Sky Gilbert, talks about Noel Coward in 1943. Grateful thanks to the Noel Coward F...

Throughout 1943 my father had problems with his dentures, having lost his teeth in a plane crash in Sudan that happened within weeks of him being posted to West Africa in November-December, 1941 as a ferry pilot. Even though he was lucky to be alive, the RAF saw fit to give him an  endorsement in his pilot’s log book despite flying his plane as he had been trained. Diary entries read by grandson R...

My father and other RAF airmen were issued with a ‘Goolie Chit’ to help protect them against natives who might harm them if they crashed their plane. Armed with a new one, he was tasked with rescuing 2 downed Bisley aircraft, a notoriously dreadful aircraft (Listen to ‘The Grisly Bisley’ episode). Reaching them - one on a remote island, the other over mountains -  in an outdated ‘Val’ plane severe...

'Blighty Thank God' tells the stories uncovered in the 'lost' diary of WW2 RAF pilot, Flt. Sgt. Ron Chapman, who served in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.  It is hosted by his son, former journalist Neil Chapman, who researched the diary using various historical sources. I'd welcome any messages, especially if you enjoyed the episode stories. To find maps, photographs a...

January, 1943 my father had recently arrived at RAF Habbaniya, Iraq as a member of the Communications Flight based there. But settling in wasn’t easy. It’s here that he started his diary, which very quickly highlights death is ever present - on this occasion his Squadron Leader George Milnes (RNZAF) goes missing with some high profile passengers on board his plane. Diary entries read by grandson D...