Hello, welcome to the History Hit World Wars Podcast, a podcast dedicated to that turbulent period in history between 1914 and 1945.

My name is James Rogers, a war historian, writer, and broadcaster who is fascinated by the lessons that we can learn from history.

And in this podcast, first recorded for Dan Snow's history here,

Dan talks with Peter Devitt from the REF Museum.

Now they discuss the inspirational stories of

individual African Caribbean personnel who volunteered for the REF and risked their lives

to fight fascism during the Second World War.

Dan and Peter reveal the histories of airmen like flight lieutenant Cy Grant in 102 Squadron

who was shot down and sent to the great escape camp.

Or Errol Walton Barrow, a flight navigator in a tightly knit crew with

88 squadron bomber command, but who would go on to become the Prime Minister of Barbados.

This is a fascinating podcast and one that exposes an

often overlooked and in fact all too often neglected history of REF pilots from

the Caribbean who fought and made a vital contribution to the defense of Britain. Pete, thank you very much for coming the podcast. My pleasure.

It's a timely time to talk to you about this subject because we've got the anniversary of the

Windrush, we've also got the earliest here, we had the huge public outcry and the treatment of some of the Windrush veterans.

What's not often talked about with the Windrush is how many of those people had served in the

REF during the second year?

Absolutely right. You're looking during the second year. Absolutely right.

You're looking at the 492 passengers

that came from the West Indies, about a third

are ex-REF veterans either going back into the service

...