Bill Chatters - mid-upper gunner
Bill Chatters (his family called him Will) was the son of Alfred and Ada nee Rozee, who lived with Ada's younger sister Lillian at 18 Aintree Avenue, Barkingside which is an area of Ilford, Essex. Bill had a sister, Beatrice.
Bill started his gunnery training at No.10 AGS Walney Island, Barrow in Furness on 15 April 1944, his course finishing on 3 June. His assessment was "a confident and keen worker, a good all-round member of air crew". Their training was on Avro Ansons as well as gun turrets mounted on the ground powered by car engines.
The principle of deflection, allowing for the movement of the target as the bullet moves towards it, was taught in theory as well as practice firing shotgun cartridges at clays.
Air to air firing was done from the turret of an Anson at a drogue which was towed behind another aircraft. The bullet were tipped with different colours so that individual assessments could be kept of pupils.
During my research I was fortunate to find a relative of Bill's on his mother's side, the Rozee family. He, Alan, had a copy of Bill's logbook, which is shown below.
This logbook was a key breakthrough in my research because it gave me information of the crew's whereabouts and a timescale.