The tailgunner’s tale: Bomber crew veteran makes it to 100 – Stuff

When he joined the Royal Air Force at the height of World War II, Air Gunner Edward (Eddie) Leaf was given a life expectancy of about six weeks.

This week he celebrated his 100th birthday.

Leaf is now one of the very few remaining New Zealanders who served with and survived in the RAFs Bomber Command during the great conflict.

But while he managed to effectively evade the Messerschmitts bullets and ordnance of the German ground artillery during his 19 operations over Europe, he has been unable to avoid the machinations of the Covid pandemic.

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Rather than partaking in a planned celebration at Hamilton Gardens attended by high-ranking Air Force officers, Leaf had to spend his big day at home at the Oceania Awatere Care Centre currently locked down in a bid to get an outbreak of Omicron firmly under control.

Nonetheless, the staff at the centre treated him to a memorable if much smaller scale function.

Leaf served as a rear gunner with the Royal Air Force, flying in a variety of bombers, including the Vickers Wellington, Short Stirling, Handley Page Halifax and Avro Lancaster.

Rear gunners were physically separated from the other six crew members. They were confined to their turret for the whole flight, which could be many hours, typically at night, in freezing temperatures.

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Eddie Leaf, pictured at his birthday celebration at Oceania Awatere Village.

Their main duty was to advise the pilot of enemy aircraft movements, to allow him to take evasive action and defend the aircraft against enemy fighters.

RAF Bomber Command aircrews suffered a horrendous casualty rate. Of a total of 125,000 aircrew, 57,205 lost their lives.

Crews came from across the globe from the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and all corners of the Commonwealth, as well as from occupied nations such as Poland, France and Czechoslovakia. Most who flew were very young, the great majority still in their late teens.

About 6000 young New Zealanders served in RAF Bomber Command in WWII. Of these, around 2000 did not return almost one in three.

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Eddie Leaf's wartime bomber crew from 90 Squadron in the summer of 1943: From left are Roy "Mitch" Mitchell (mid-upper gunner), Harry Sharman (wireless operator), Eddie Leaf (rear gunner), Charles Corley (pilot), Bob Ludham (flight engineer), Arthur "Berry" Beresford (bomb aimer) and Cyril Paul (navigator). Leaf is the last of the crew still alive.

Leaf was born in Leeds in the United Kingdom but grew up in Detroit in the United States where his father was a toolmaker for Ford Motor Company during the Depression. In 1932 his family returned to England where he got a job as an apprentice fitter and turner at a printery in Dagenham before joining the RAF in 1941.

In an interview with Dave Homewood for the Wings Over New Zealand podcast series in 2019, Leaf said it was initially a choice between submarines and bombers for his military career. A role in the military police also beckoned for a while.

I put myself in [to be a] pilot, but as soon as I took the first exams it was good night nurse ... There were certain mathematics involved in passing for a pilot and it was all beyond me.

If you didnt have an education the airforce just wasnt interested.

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An RAF Lancaster bomber, used in World War II. Eddie Leaf spent a lot of flying time in the rear of the aircraft, doing his best to avoid being shot down.

So tailgunner it was. Leaf was very aware of the mortal danger he put himself in with every mission It was the first time in my life I felt frightened.

There were seven men assigned to crew bombers, and we became fast friends, very dependent on each other.

I was told by the doctors I had exceptional night vision. We were once attacked by a night-fighter, a Messerschmitt 110 ... I was the only one who saw it.

There was one instance when a Stirling bomber he was crewing was hit by flak and a hole the size of his fist was punched through the fuselage near the position Leaf had been sitting. Luckily at that moment he had been on his feet, firing the turret machine guns at the enemy.

I survived [the war]. Thats the main thing.

After the war ended, Leaf served as an instructor in India and Egypt, before emigrating to New Zealand in 1949 as a Ten Pound Pom.

He moved to Thames, where he worked for engineering firm A&G Price and met and later married Deborah, a nurse who still lives with him at Awatere.

He later joined the Gallagher Engineering team in Hamilton and eventually set up his own business installing and servicing water supplies to homes and schools throughout the Waikato.

Although his official function has been delayed until at least late April, staff at the retirement centre treated Leaf to a smaller birthday function he was nonetheless thrilled with.

I was not able to be able to be there in person with my dad on his big day, but I was able to Facetime him, Leafs daughter Christine Teesdale said.

He told me he felt like a movie star. Im really appreciative of what the staff at Awatere have done for him in these trying times.

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The tailgunner's tale: Bomber crew veteran makes it to 100 - Stuff