Blighty Thank God
The project is a tribute to the thousands of reluctant WW2 warriors from many nations.
Episodes
14 episodes
Blighty Thank God - Trailer
'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 resear...
1 Death in Winter
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 ...
2 Piled into Hills at Wadi Halfa
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 ...
3 A New 'Goolie Chit'
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 d...
4 The 'Grisly Bisley'
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 w...
5 When Jim 'Got His'
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 discov...
6 BOAC Crashes
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, 1...
7 Leo and the Gold Smugglers
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 t...
8 Dodging Deadly Diseases
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...
9 A Brief Encounter with VIPs
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 e...
10 Secret Missions
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 wha...
11 Chemical Bombing at Bari
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 desc...
