Ron & Rosina Chesswas

Pair's romance set in wartime Britain
WWII: The Inland husband and wife reflect on the difficulties and the spirit of those years.

BY JOE VARGO
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
MURRIETA

To say that Ron and Rosina Chesswas met under difficult circumstances would be an understatement.

The Murrieta couple, former British subjects, fell in love when their country was locked in a life-or-death struggle against Nazi Germany.

Both served in the Royal Air Force and saw friends killed in action. They later married, raised a family in New Zealand, moved to America, became citizens and retired to Murrieta five years ago. The couple, both 79, recently reflected on their youth and the years during World War II they put their lives on hold to defend freedom.

The darkest days came in 1940 when Great Britain, outmanned and outgunned, stood alone against Hitler's Luftwaffe.

What got them through the most difficult time, they said, was a spirit that wouldn't let them or their country give up. They were bombed and displaced, and knew they might die at any moment, but they weren't going to surrender.

"You had just to make do," said "Rosie" Chesswas, a retired legal secretary. "Everybody was ready to do their job. Even during the worst days, there was no panic. There was a feeling that we were going to get through it."

Ron Chesswas flew 30 combat missions in a Halifax bomber, receiving the Distinguished Flying Cross and surviving several close brushes with disaster. Most of the crews in his squadron didn't complete their tour of duty, he said.

They died in the skies over Occupied Europe, drowned when their planes crashed in the English Channel or were captured when they parachuted out of crippled aircraft. He said he never expected to survive.

"You developed a sense of fatalism," he said. "You come to accept the thought of your own death."

A teen-ager in uniform

Rosina Swanson (her maiden name) was 17 when war broke out in 1939. She witnessed the German "blitz" on London in September and October of the following year, when German aircraft pounded the city for 57 straight nights. Bombs killed thousands of Londoners and displaced many more. But the city's spirit never waned.

She recalled one particularly hellish night when bombs fell near her family's home. She said she climbed to the top of a four-story building to see London burning.

"I could see the planes overhead, the guns, the flames and anti-aircraft," she said. "I was very frightened yet fascinated."

Food became scarce. RosieChesswas said she got used to living on powdered potatoes, powdered eggs and Spam.

Londoners congregated in pubs, where they often spoke of the destruction rained down on their homes. They kept up their morale by singing songs like "Roll Out the Barrel" and "White Cliffs of Dover."

Londoners didn't let the bombs keep them from enjoying simple pleasures, she said. More than once, she was on the dance floor doing the fox trot or the jitterbug when the air raids began. She said the dancers didn't miss a step.

"You could hear the shrapnel striking the building," she said.

In 1941, Rosina Swanson joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, a branch of the Royal Air Force. Assigned to the communications section of Fighter Command in Norwich, she helped send messages from headquarters to squadrons of Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, which rose to meet the incoming German bombers. She earned 18 shillings, about $4.50, each week.

The aerodrome where she served came under attack. She was running toward a bomb shelter when a direct hit struck the building. Twelve women died; another 10 were badly hurt. Their colleagues kept their grief in check. She went back to work later that day.

Bombing the enemy

Ron Chesswas volunteered for the Royal Air Force. He couldn't swim, so the Navy was out. He didn't like to march, so that meant no Army life. Instead, he ended up assigned to No. 78 Bomber Squadron, stationed in Yorkshire, an agricultural area known for its wheat and corn.

He served as a radio operator aboard a Halifax, a four-engine bomber known as a "sturdy workhorse." British air raids took place at night, amid an atmosphere charged with tension, he said. The crews knew that German fighters and anti-aircraft awaited them once they approached their targets.

Chesswas flew against Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hanover, Frankfurt and Stuttgart. Waves of Halifax bombers usually flew at 18,000 feet, dropping high explosive and incendiary bombs. In August 1943, Chesswas volunteered to take part in a low-level raid against the German missile and rocket complex at Peenemunde on the Baltic Sea. Hitler promised to destroy Britain and its Allies with a series a "vengeance weapons" under development at the site.

Peenemunde erupted that night as the bombers -- some flying as low as 6,000 feet -- found their mark.

"I never worried about killing people on the ground," he said. "You just block it out. You don't have a conscience. It was war."

After the raid, Chesswas was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of Great Britain's highest military honors.

A fateful meeting

The couple met while waiting in line for a movie. They still recall the film's title: "New Moon," a musical with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. She thought he looked "gorgeous" in his blue uniform; he was taken because she was serving with the Royal Air Force.

They started dating, and Rosina gave him a good-luck charm, a tiny plastic white horse that Ron carried with him on every mission.

They married in 1944.

A year later, World War II ended, but the young couple could not find a home. Much of Britain lay in ruins. The wait for an apartment took years. They moved to the unspoiled beauty of New Zealand to raise their two daughters.




Published 12/25/2001

- Courtesy of Graham Chesswas, Huddersfield