While Others Slept

Affectionately nicknamed ‘Timber’ by his RAF comrades, Eric Woods was a dedicated member of RAF Bomber Command from its inception. He completed a full tour comprising 32 harrowing missions over enemy territory as a navigator/bomb aimer aboard a twin-engine Armstrong Whitworth Whitley during 1940/41.  Initially assigned to 144 Squadron based at RAF Hemswell in Lincolnshire, he remarkably survived a crash landing and, after receiving hospital treatment, finished his tour with 161 Squadron, also based at Hemswell. Eric’s memories of his aerial adventures are refreshingly humble, offering a captivating insight into the perilous reality of flying in a slow and vulnerable aircraft during the war's early years.  Despite experiencing two crash landings and sustaining injuries that would trouble him for life, he showed remarkable resilience. In the middle years of the war, he transitioned to training new navigation recruits at a specialized unit in Wigtown, Scotland. Later, he served as the navigator of a Albemarle, Dakota & York aircraft, flying VIPs to overseas locations with 511 Squadron based at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire until hostilities ended. After the war, Eric brought his expertise to BOAC, where he spent the next 18 years traveling the world—journeys he intends to share in his forthcoming book, Climb to and Maintain.