Episode 70 – Les Munro Part One

Guest: Squadron Leader Les Munro DSO, DFC Host: Dave Homewood Interviewers: Dave Homewood and Richard Carstens Duration: 1 hour, 3 minutes, 25 seconds Topic: In this episode, part one of two, we hear an extremely interesting interview with Squadron Leader Les Munro DSO, DFC, RNZAF. He was one of the original members of the Royal Air Force’s most famous unit, No. 617 Squadron – The Dambusters. In this first instalment we hear about his younger life, and his entry into the Royal New Zealand Air Force. He covers his training in New Zealand and in Canada, and then his posting to England where he completed further training with an Operational Training Unit on Wellingtons followed by a short stint on the Avro Manchester. Then Les was posted to No. 97 Squadron RAF flying Avro Lancasters on operations over Europe. Following 21 ops he and most of his crew volunteered to join a newly forming ‘special squadron’ at RAF Scampton, which would later be renamed No. 617 Squadron. Les details the training on this squadron leading right up to his take off for the famous Dams raid (which will be covered in the next episode). The interviewers are Dave Homewood and Richard Carstens, and this interview was recorded in April 2010. By the way the music clip is The Dambusters March by Eric Coates