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A two -part Spectrum documentary in which Commander Roger Gibb recalls his career in the Royal Navy and as the last living commander of the great airships.
Spectrum 355: Commander Roger Gibb talks about growing up in an English family in Jamaica and the 1907 earthquake in Kingston. In 1914, aged seventeen, he volunteered to join the war. He reads his poem recalling his feelings after taking this decision. At Gallipoli in 1915 he recalls his job directing soldiers to the right and to the left on the deck of the ship, during the final evacuation.
Spectrum 356: Roger Gibb talks about his training in England and his career in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) during World War I. He recalls his training flying using balloons, in order to learn how to work the gas. He gives a lot of details about his training, then recalls making his first solo flight.
He discusses flying blimps as a pilot. Two men could get on board, the pilot and another man who would operate the machine gun in case a submarine would surface. Blimps could move at sixty knots. He remembers throwing bombs from the blimp’s basket onto the sea, and the serious consequences for the flying machine.
He moved on to rigid airships just after he got his certificate and talks about the differences between rigid and non-rigid ships. He explains that the rigid ships were mainly used for reconnaissance and patrolling above sea for warships, submarines, and mine fields.
He recalls one of his most memorable flights, where they had to navigate through a heavy mist and eventually managed to find the landing ground thanks to the army band playing out of tune to guide them with sound.