Battle of Britain

Original poster for the film (author's collection)

Regular readers may remember that in the October 2016 edition of this blog, we looked at "Real to Reel" an exhibition covering a century of war films that was held at the Imperial War Museum, London and selected my own ten personal favourite examples of the genre.

One of those I selected was Battle of Britain a film released in 1969, appropriately enough on Battle of Britain Day, 15 September. This film used to get regular airings on television but seems to be less frequently seen nowadays and remains one of my personal favourites. It was one of the last of the great British war movies and was directed by Guy Hamilton, himself a Royal Navy war veteran and director of four of the iconic James Bond films.

On 15 September 2017, as part of the Charlton & Woolwich Free Film Festival I'm delighted to be hosting a special open air screening of this classic British war movie at the wonderful atmospheric surroundings of the Royal Garrison Church of St George, Woolwich. For those that don't know the area, this church was the victim of a direct hit by a V-1 Flying Bomb on 13 July 1944. Despite being largely destroyed, the church remains as consecrated ground and is the home of the Royal Regiment of Artillery's VC Memorial, as well as the memorial to Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was murdered by terrorists in Woolwich in May 2013. The church is now managed by the Woolwich Garrison Church Trust, who are responsible for the management of the building and who have made great strides in preserving the building for the future.

Plaque outside the Garrison Church explaining it's wartime past (author's photo)

Going back to Battle of Britain the film is an extremely faithful re-telling of events running from the Fall of France in June 1940, culminating in events on Battle of Britain Day, 15 September 1940. The film had a budget of $13,000,000 (equivalent to $91,000,000 today) and therefore represented a considerable financial risk to the producers Harry Saltzman and S Benjamin Fisz. Shooting of the film took place in the spring and summer of 1968, with much of the filming taking place on location. Many of the airfield scenes were filmed at Duxford, Debden, Hawkinge and North Weald - all genuine Battle of Britain airfields. One of my abiding memories as a nine year old boy growing up in Southeast London at this time was seeing large formations of Second World War aircraft appearing in the skies overhead, including what looked like Heinkels and Messerschmitts. I found this very exciting but looking back, I suspect that my parents, grandparents and others of their generation may perhaps have been less enthusiastic as it would have no doubt rekindled some less than happy memories, especially to my Mother and Grandmother, both of whom lived in London throughout the Blitz.

Group Captain Hamish Mahaddie (Bomber Command Museum of Canada)

To recreate as authentic a group of aircraft as possible, Group Captain Hamish Mahaddie, a former Bomber Command Pathfinders officer, was hired to source suitable aircraft, both British and German. He managed to locate over hundred Spitfires in the UK, of which twenty seven were made available for the film, although twelve were in flying condition. Two of these were authentic Mark I and II variants, with the others all later marks, which had to be suitable modified to look the part for the period. The Hurricanes, although far more numerous than the Spitfire during the real Battle of Britain, were far fewer in surviving numbers by 1968, with only six being made available for the film, half of which were flyable. On the German side, there were no surviving flyable Heinkels, Dorniers, Junkers and Messerschmitts in 1968 but a ready solution was found in Spain, whose air force were still flying Spanish built CASA 2.111 twin engine bombers, virtually identical to the Heinkel III. Mahaddie obtained the services of no fewer than thirty two of these authentic looking aircraft, along with twenty seven Hispano 'Buchon' fighters, Spanish built versions of the Me 109, so in 1968 as in 1940, the RAF found itself outnumbered. Together, these aircraft represented what was described in 1968 as the thirty fifth largest air force in the world. The Ju 87 Stukas were represented in the film by large scale flying models and the aircraft destroyed on the ground and in flying scenes, were also models. The other flying scenes were all shot 'for real' as this was many years before the advent of CGI technology and the film in my opinion is much the better for being shot in this way. Even today, the flying scenes remain amongst the best ever put on film.

Other locations used for filming were St Katherine's Dock, Aldwych Tube Station, Peckham Rye and Dragon Road in Camberwell, which were all used for the sequences of the London Blitz. Sir Hugh Dowding's office at RAF Bentley Priory was used once again as such in the film but the 11 Group Bunker at RAF Uxbridge was recreated at Shepperton Studios as an almost exact replica of the real thing. Huelva in Spain doubled up for Dunkirk at the start of the film, whilst some other airfield shots were filmed at Tablada in Spain. 

Apart from Hamish Mahaddie, the other technical advisors for the film included Tom Gleave, Bob Stanford-Tuck and Ginger Lacey, all real life Battle of Britain pilots for the RAF. Squadron Leader Boleslaw Drobinski advised on the Polish scenes and General Adolf Galland was the main technical advisor for the German scenes. Galland was anxious to ensure that the German pilots were not portrayed as 'Cartoon Nazis' and was involved in a furious argument on set when he objected to a scene in which German pilots were shown giving the Nazi salute and threatened to walk off the film if the scene was included. Galland was adamant that German pilots didn't use this salute and insisted that even he had never used it in normal circumstances, even when meeting Hermann Goring. After much debate, the scene was left in the film, although other scenes do show the German pilots using the conventional military salute. Galland was also instrumental in the decision to show the German actors actually speaking German, with English subtitles being used, rather than speaking heavily accented English, as has usually been the case in other war films prior to this time.

Robert Shaw as he appeared in the film (author's collection)

The cast for the film represented a veritable 'Who's Who' for the period and included Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir Ralph Richardson, Sir Michael Redgrave, Trevor Howard, Christopher Plummer, Robert Shaw, Kenneth More, Michael Caine, Susannah York and Kurt Jurgens, as well as appearances by younger actors who were to subsequently become well known in their own right such as Edward Fox and Ian McShane.

Most of the senior figures of the Battle are portrayed as themselves, so we see in the film portrayals of Hermann Goring, Albert Kesselring and Erhardt Milch on the German side and Sir Hugh Dowding, Keith Park, Trafford Leigh-Mallory on the British. Further down the chain of command, for reasons of brevity in the film, characters are merged to greater or lesser degrees, so the character played by Robert Shaw, known somewhat enigmatically in the film as 'Skipper' is largely based on the South African 'Sailor' Malan, who had acquired his nickname due to his having served in the Merchant Navy in a previous career. It was a nickname adopted by all who knew him and happily used by Malan as well, perhaps because his real Christian name was Adolf!

The character played by Christopher Plummer, Squadron Leader Harvey is loosely based on Squadron Leader Foxley, not a Canadian as in the film but someone whose real-life experiences closely matched those of Plummer's character in the movie. Edward Fox's character in the film, a Sergeant Pilot known simply as 'Archie' is heavily based on Sergeant Ray Holmes and as with Foxley, a character whose exploits in real life closely matched those of his film alter-ego. Similarly, on the German side, the character Major Falke is based on Adolf Galland, who really did inform Hermann Goring that he could use a squadron of Spitfires to help win the Battle for the Luftwaffe.

General Adolf Galland (Bundesarchiv)

There were other issues that arose during the production of the film, most notably concerning the musical score. The original composer for the score was Sir William Walton, who was recommended to the producers by Sir Laurence Olivier, who had collaborated with Walton on three of his own film productions, Henry V, Richard III and Hamlet and who was also a close personal friend of the composer. Walton wrote a classical orchestral score for the film, which all of those involved with the production felt was perfect for the film, if perhaps a little on the short side. The executives at United Artists thought differently and felt that the score was old-fashioned and ordered that it be scrapped. This caused Olivier to threaten to walk off the set and he stated that if he were to leave the production, he would not allow his name to be shown in the credits to the film and any of it's publicity. This would have been a major blow as Olivier was still a major player in the film world, even in 1968 and as a result of this, a compromise was reached. A new score was commissioned from the British composer Ron Goodwin, who had previously scored films such as Murder at The Gallop, 633 Squadron, Where Eagles Dare and Operation Crossbow amongst many others. However, a sequence from Walton's score, entitled Battle in the Air was retained and used towards the end of the film to accompany the climactic air battle which is played out with almost no dialogue and no other extraneous sound effects.

At the time of it's release, the film had indifferent reviews and this was perhaps thought to be a result of the generally pervading anti-war feeling at the time resulting from the Vietnam War, although the film did perform well in the United Kingdom. Over the years though, the film's reputation has recovered and it is today regarded as probably the definitive film covering the subject.

If you've never seen this film before, or if like me, it is one of your favourites, come and join us on Friday 15 September when you will get the opportunity to watch this film at a truly unique venue. The film is being screened at 19:45 but before that at 18:15, I will be guiding a free walk starting from the church, lasting around an hour, during which we will discover something of the area's wartime past. There will be a licenced bar available on the night and also hopefully snacks as well - full details of the timings and other events during the Charlton & Woolwich Free Film Festival can be found on the event's website.

Who were The Few?

The Battle of Britain Memorial on London's Embankment (author's photo)

As we approach the 74th anniversary of Battle of Britain Day, it seems a good time to re-visit some of the myths surrounding The Few. Obviously, they were an extremely brave group of men, to whom we owe nothing less than the freedom that we take for granted today but to the average person, there are many misconceptions about these young men, their backgrounds, where they came from and what brought them to join the RAF in the first place.

The common conception of the Battle of Britain pilots portrayed in many movies about this era is that of the stereotypical upper class or upper middle class Englishmen, ex public schoolboys, who had a certain amount of independent means in order to allow themselves to support the financial burden of being an office in the RAF. This had been largely true in the very early years of the RAF when many of the pilot recruits had come from a public school background. 

However, Sir Hugh Trenchard, widely seen as the 'Father of the RAF' soon saw to it that it was essential for the infant service to set up it's own independent training establishments, such as Cranwell in Lincolnshire for officer training and Halton in Buckinghamshire for the training of ground crew. He also recognized the importance of widening the net for officer intake and an early step towards achieving this came when the best three apprentices each year from Halton were offered places at Cranwell. The next step came in late 1921 when outstanding candidates from the ranks were also offered the chance to learn how to fly, serving for five years as 'Sergeant Pilots' before returning to their trades.

At this point in time, the RAF had shrunk from being by far the largest air force in the World in 1918, to having it's very future threatened during the cash-strapped years of the 1920s and although the RAF was probably the most egalitarian of the three services, it's tiny size ensured that flyers from the ranks remained very much in the minority. 

This situation began to change in 1934 in response to events taking place in Germany, where the Nazi takeover in 1933 ensured that their armed forces began to expand rapidly and measures were put in place to increase the numbers of pilots and aircrew coming into the RAF. In addition to this increase in personnel, the infrastructure was also expanded; forty five new air stations were planned in 1935 in order to accommodate the increased number of home based squadrons, the number for these being set at one hundred and twenty three. In 1937, more money was spent on the RAF than on the British Army - the first time this had occurred and manpower was scheduled to be increased to 118,000 with 45,000 reserves by 1939 - a fivefold increase from the 1934 figure. Moreover, the number of Auxiliary squadrons was to be increased from eight to twenty and alternative reserve force, the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) was established.

The Auxiliary Air Force (AAF) had been established in 1924 and if any branch of the RAF fitted the common public 'upper crust' perception of the RAF's flyers, then the Auxiliaries fitted it perfectly. The first four squadrons were 600 (City of London), 601 (County of London), 602 (City of Glasgow) and 603 (City of Edinburgh). Applicants were required to have already learned to fly from within their own financial resources, not a cheap hobby in the 1920s and 30s, which meant that these first squadrons were somewhat socially exclusive; this was despite Trenchard's wish that these squadrons be open to all comers. Indeed, 601 Squadron was known as the 'Millionaires Squadron' due to the large number of it's members who were pulled from the ranks of White's Club, that most exclusive of the London Gentlemens' Clubs. By the time of the Battle of Britain, the Auxiliaries had expanded to fourteen fighter squadrons and this expansion, combined with the high number of casualties incurred, ensured that the social exclusivity of these squadrons was steadily diluted as the war progressed.

The RAFVR, founded in 1936 was in complete contrast to the Auxiliaries, being a far more democratic organization. It gave young men who were interested in flying and in aircraft generally, the chance to escape their routine civilian jobs, at least at weekends and for annual training, and gave them the opportunity to learn to fly at the Air Force's expense. Men aged between 18-25 joined as 'airmen under training' and they were commissioned as officers strictly on merit. The initial aim of the RAFVR was to train 800 new airmen per year. Volunteers were paid a £25 per year 'bounty' and in addition to their weekends, had to attend an annual fifteen day flying course. By the spring of 1939, there were 2,500 RAFVR pilots in training, 310 of whom were fighter pilots. They were to play an essential role in the Battle of Britain and in the wartime RAF in general. 

So much for the organizations which gave us the men but what of the men themselves? Who were they and where were they from?

'Sailor' Malan' (author's collection)

The excellent film, 'Battle of Britain' first released in 1969, remains the tour de force of movies covering this facet of the war. Unlike many other films, it does not fall into the trap of showing all of the RAF's fighter pilots as being toffs, neither does it show them as being all British. There are many references to the Poles, Czechs, Free French, Canadians as well as many others and the pilots are shown as a true representation of all social classes - from Michael Caine's undoubtedly (and perhaps unlikely) upper class Squadron Leader, through Christopher Plummer's regular Canadian airman, Robert Shaw's 'Skipper' character, said to be based on the South African 'Sailor' Malan and Ian McShane's Sergeant Pilot amongst others. The incident in which the Polish 303 Squadron, ostensibly on a training exercise tore into a German formation and by default got themselves declared operational, is also based on a true incident and the film in general is an excellent account of the Battle.

 In the real life Battle of Britain, the men came from all manner of the social strata and from all parts of the world; there was the aforementioned 'Sailor' Malan from South Africa, covered in this blog in October 2010 and who seemed to have a real charisma about him. Stephen Bungay's excellent book, The Most Dangerous Enemy, quotes a fitter from Malan's 74 Squadron who said simply "I think Malan was the most wonderful man I ever met. Certainly in all my long service with the RAF, I never met another like him." Malan had had an interesting background, being originally a Merchant Seaman, before deciding to join the RAF in 1935, where he passed out as 'above average.'

More typical of the public schoolboy entrant to the RAF was Peter Townsend. He was the son of a civil servant of the British Empire and was born in Burma but grew up in Devon. A product of Haileybury School, he joined the RAF in 1935 and like many young officers of the period, felt that he had joined the best and most exclusive flying club in the world. He saw the German threat coming at the time of the Munich Crisis of 1938 and then realizing that war was inevitable, changed his attitude not only towards the Germans but towards the RAF, seeing it as being rather more than a flying club but rather than a serious weapon with which this country could defend itself. Townsend served throughout the War and remained in the RAF post-war, when sadly for him, he became better known for his on/off romance with Princess Margaret than for his exploits in the Battle of Britain.

A product of the Auxiliary Air Force was Sir Max Aitken, son of Lord Beaverbrook and who joined 601 Squadron in 1935. Born in Canada, he was educated at Westminster School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. Aitken was a talented sportsmen and more importantly as far as the AAF was concerned, a keen flyer. Aitken became CO of 601 Squadron in June 1940 and was uncompromising in his view of his Luftwaffe counterparts and was seen in the excellent ITV documentary series The World at War in which he stated "I hated them (the Germans). They were trying to do something to us. They were trying to enslave us." Aitken retired from the RAF in 1946 to become involved in his father's newspaper business, eventually taking over the Express Group of newspapers upon Lord Beaverbrook's death in 1964.

Amongst the many excellent flyers produced by the RAFVR was Bob Doe. He was a quiet young man from Reigate in Surrey and had been an office boy at the News of the World newspaper and like many of his counterparts, had joined the Volunteer Reserve because he wanted an escape from his boring job and had had a fascination with aeroplanes from a young age. Doe had good co-ordination, possibly as a result of being an amateur violinist and was a decent shot, the result of hours of practice in his garden with an air rifle. He narrowly passed his Wings examination but in November 1939 was posted to 234 Squadron at Leconfield in the East Riding of Yorkshire. One of the flight commanders at 234 Squadron was Pat Hughes, an Australian for whom Bob Doe gained a great deal of respect and who took Bob under his wing. From a hesitant start, which was as much to do with his shyness as much as anything else, Doe became an excellent pilot, ending the Battle of Britain with 14 'kills' to his name. Bob remained in the RAF post war, retiring in 1966 as a Wing Commander.

Pat Hughes was one of the many Commonwealth pilot who came to Britain under the short service commission scheme in the late 1930s. Hughes arrived in the UK in 1937 and qualified as a pilot in early 1939 and was posted to 64 Squadron at Church Fenton before moving to the newly formed 234 Squadron in November 1939. Pat had gained 14 'kills' plus 3 shared by 7th September 1940, the first day of the Blitz on London, when he was killed in a collision with a Dornier 17 over the village of Sundridge, Kent. Hughes was awarded a posthumous DFC in October and this was presented to his widow (after only five weeks of marriage) Kay Hughes.

Lord Dowding (centre) - Al Deere (in beret) next to him, Max Aitken fourth from left. (Crown Copyright)

The largest Commonwealth contingent, with 127 flyers in the Battle of Britain, was New Zealand. Amongst them was Alan Deere, who was another to take advantage of the short service commission scheme and who arrived in the UK in December 1937. After passing his examinations, Deere was posted to 54 Squadron at Hornchurch in 1938, at first operating Gloster Gladiator biplanes but converting to Spitfires in early 1940. Also on 54 Squadron was Colin Gray, another New Zealander who would become the top scoring pilot for that country during the war with 27 'kiils' plus two further shared. Deere himself some tough combat through the fall of France and covering the Dunkirk evacuation and of course, the Battle of Britain. Alan Deere served throughout the Battle and in Europe for the majority of the war, ending it with 22 'kills'. Deere remained in the RAF post war and retired in 1967 as an Air Commodore.

The largest overseas contingent had nothing to do with the British Empire or Commonwealth but was in many ways a windfall from the German occupation of mainland Europe. When Poland was conquered in September 1939, some 8,500 Polish airmen managed to escape, firstly to France and later to the UK. The Polish Air Force had been in the process of converting to modern aircraft but this had come too late to save them against the rampaging Luftwaffe. The Poles were good flyers but obviously, there was a massive language barrier to be overcome before the majority of them could fly as part of the RAF. Some individuals were posted into RAF squadrons, where they were immediately taken under the wings of the RAF men, who treated them almost as lucky mascots. One pilot, Ludwik Martel, who flew with 54 and 603 squadrons, twice refused transfers to a Polish unit and was quoted by Stephen Bungay as saying "My most cherished memories date from 1940 to 1941, when I was in an English squadron."

Unlike their British counterparts, the Poles had seen what the Nazis could do once they had conquered a land and fought the Luftwaffe with an implacable hatred and with a passionate desire to avenge their own country's defeat. 303 Squadron, based at Northolt, was the highest scoring squadron in Fighter Command with 126 accredited 'kills' and at first, there was some skepticism as to whether all of these claims were genuine. As a result, the Station Commander at Northolt, Group Captain Vincent, flew with 303 on one sortie and came back rather shaken but was certain after this experience that "what they claimed, they did indeed get!"

The Czechs were fighting with the same motivation as the Poles, but were somewhat more disciplined in their approach and once the language barrier was overcome, fitted into the RAF very comfortably.

Many of the Belgian contingent had already flown Hawker Hurricanes, with which the Belgian Air Force was re-equipping but as this force had been largely destroyed on the ground by the Luftwaffe, had not had the chance to use them in anger. Those that escaped to the UK were quickly integrated into the RAF and posted to squadrons which already flew the Hurricane.

Billy Fiske (Crown copyright)

One other overseas contingent should also be mentioned; it is uncertain exactly how many Americans fought in the Battle of Britain as some of them pretended to be Canadians in order to get around their government's strict neutrality laws. Some made it to France, planning to join that country's Air Force, just in time for France to fall and came to England instead. It was not yet an American war but there were around ten or eleven who fought in the Battle of Britain. One of them was Billy Fiske, a film producer, stockbroker and Olympic bobsleigh champion, who had married into English society when he wed the former wife of the Earl of Warwick. He joined 601, the so-called Millionaires Squadron so that he could fly with friends who were already members and thus became the first American to die in the War. On 16th August, Fiske's Hurricane was hit in the fuel tank by return fire from a Stuka dive bomber. Despite suffering severe burns, Fiske elected to bring his crippled aircraft back to Tangmere and although he was extricated from the burning Hurricane by medical teams moments before the aircraft's fuel tank exploded, Billy Fiske died from his wounds and from surgical shock in hospital the next day. He was 27 years of age.

This was Fighter Command - predominantly British but with significant numbers of oversea airmen making it a diverse, international force with men of vastly different backgrounds and upbringings as well as arguably, differing motivations. 

Whatever their nationality and whatever their motivation, we still owe these men an enormous debt of gratitude.

Remember them on Battle of Britain Day.

"Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many, to so few." Winston S Churchill

Printed Sources:

Battle of Britain - Patrick Bishop, Quercus 2010

The Most Dangerous Enemy - Stephen Bungay, Aurum Books 2001

The Narrow Margin - Derek Wood with Derek Dempster, Tri Service Press 1990

Nine Lives - Air Commodore Alan C Deere, Crecy 2012

Spitfire: Portrait of a Legend - Leo McKinstry, John Murray 2008

The Battle of Barking Creek

56 Squadron RAF (MOD)

Warfare is by definition, a pretty grim business but one of it's most tragic aspects is the so called 'Friendly Fire' engagement. These 'Blue on Blue' incidents, as they have become known amongst the post-war NATO allies, are probably as old as warfare itself and have been caused by a myriad of factors, including bad weather conditions, poor tactics resulting in friendly forces being fired upon, technical breakdowns of equipment leading to an unlucky misdirection of fire, or simply poor training or inexperience leading to mis-identification of friendly forces.

It was the latter reason that was probably the cause of an engagement at the very beginning of the Second World War that became known in RAF circles as The Battle of Barking Creek, even though the action took place in the skies above rural Essex rather than above Barking. 

Just three days after the declaration of war, on the morning of 6th September 1939, a single aircraft returning from patrol over the English Channel was plotted as 'hostile' by the 11 Group controllers at Uxbridge and the Hurricanes of 56 Squadron based at RAF North Weald, were scrambled to intercept the raider. None of the pilots involved had ever seen combat and almost certainly none of them had ever seen an enemy aircraft at this early stage of the war. This inexperience wasn't just confined to the pilots; the controllers too were learning the hard way and the system, later to be such a superb instrument of war during the Battle of Britain, needed some serious tweaking. 

The Hurricanes of 56 Squadron became split in their hunt for the so-called intruder and in turn, these sections too were plotted as 'hostile' and soon the Ops Room table in Uxbridge became cluttered with 'hostile' plots. As a result of these multiple plots, further squadrons were scrambled and soon further squadrons were scrambled to investigate - 151 from North Weald, also with Hurricanes, as well as the Spitfires of 54, 65 and 74 Squadrons from Hornchurch. One of the pilots of 54 Squadron was the New Zealander Al Deere, later to become one of the RAF's 'aces' and in his excellent autobiography entitled 'Nine Lives', Deere described vividly the confusion that was beginning to unfold;

"I had trouble starting my aircraft and was late getting off and in the hour I was airborne, I spent the whole time trying to join up with my squadron which was receiving so many vectors that it was impossible to follow them."

When Deere did eventually find his squadron, they were over Chatham and soon came under fire from the anti-aircraft guns defending the area. However, it was not only the gunners on the ground that were having difficulty in aircraft recognition. Based on the information they had been receiving from their controllers, everybody in the skies over Essex on this day were expecting to see enemy aircraft at any moment. This potential disaster had been escalating for about an hour when it was to culminate with truly tragic consequences.

'Sailor' Malan (IWM)

The Spitfires of 74 Squadron's 'A' Flight, led by Adolph 'Sailor' Malan caught sight of one of these suspect plots and Malan ordered "Tally Ho" over the radio, which was the universal signal to attack. Almost as soon as he gave the order, he realised that he had made a mistake - the 'hostile' aircraft were in fact two of the Hurricanes of  56 Squadron. At the subsequent court martial and to the end of his life, Malan insisted that he countermanded the order by shouting "Friendly aircraft - break away" but two of his pilots, Paddy Byrne and John Freeborn didn't hear the order. Neither did they spot the RAF roundels on the Hurricanes and immediately opened fire. In the ensuing melee, both of the Hurricanes were shot down and although one pilot baled out safely, the other, 26 year old Pilot Office Montague Hulton-Harrop had the unfortunate distinction of being the first RAF pilot to be shot down and killed over England during the Second World War, albeit by his own side.

John Freeborn in 1944 (IWM)

Byrne and Freeborn were taken under arrest as soon as they landed back at Hornchurch and quickly brought before a court martial. Fortunately, both men were acquitted, for it became clear that in the confused atmosphere prevailing on the day, it was impossible to apportion blame. However, this whole affair led to considerable ill-feeling in some quarters; Malan had appeared for the prosecution at the court martial and had accused Freeborn of being irresponsible and of ignoring orders. Freeborn, on the other hand believed that Malan was covering his own back and indeed during the proceedings, Freeborn's counsel, Sir Patrick Hastings, accused Malan of being "a bare faced liar." Remarkably, once the dust of the court martial settled, the two men continued to serve together in 74 Squadron, although not surprisingly relations between the two never recovered and despite Freeborn receiving a DFC and bar, he was not recommended for either award by Malan; neither did he receive command of 74 Squadron when the South African was rested in March 1941, despite being the next most experienced man in the squadron and an obvious choice as his successor. 

Despite being exonerated at the court martial, perhaps Freeborn's generally outspoken nature counted against him in his subsequent RAF career. He also had a run in with Douglas Bader, describing him later in life as "a self-opinionated fool" and left the service in 1946 having decided that the post-war RAF was being run by "nincompoops" and led a successful business life before passing away in 2010.

'Sailor' Malan had a brilliantly successful career in the RAF, finishing the war with 27 kills and being generally seen as a tough but eminently fair man to serve with and under. Post war, Malan retired from the RAF and returned to his native South Africa, becoming one of the early members of the anti-apartheid movement, before passing away in 1963 at the relatively young age of 53 from Parkinson's Disease.

On the balance of probabilities, Malan probably did countermand his order to open fire but the decision to arrest and court martial the two 74 Squadron pilots was plainly the wrong one. The whole affair was as described by Alan Deere "a truly amazing shambles" brought about by inexperience, a general lack of preparedness and what is known as the 'fog of war.'

Pilot Office ML Hulton-Harrop (seated front left) (North Weald Airfield Museum)

As always with a tragedy of this nature, the death of a blameless young pilot brought about some meaningful changes in Fighter Command's procedures, which when honed and put to the test in the Battle of Britain less than one year later, would prove to be a winning system. The Battle of Barking Creek ensured that the RAF  fitted a workable IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) signal system into all of it's aircraft which showed up to ground controllers whether an aircraft was hostile or not. It also compelled the RAF into strengthening it's training procedures of controllers, plotters and radar operators to ensure that the fighter pilots scrambled to intercept the 'suspect' plots would not receive either too much information - a myriad of vectors, as happened at Barking Creek, or too little, which left fighters flying aimlessly around in search of a target. Aircraft recognition, both on the ground and in the air, was also worked on and whilst this problem was never completely ironed out, it had greatly improved by the time of the Battle of Britain. 

As mentioned at the beginning of this piece, the action took place over rural Essex, nowhere near Barking Creek but as this unattractive feature of east London was the butt of several music hall gags of the time, it was probably inevitable that this misunderstanding would be christened thus by the rank and file members of the RAF, who as always showed humour in adversity.

The one victim of the Battle of Barking Creek was Montagu Hulton-Harrop, who is buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's, North Weald Bassett, a stone's throw from his old RAF Station at North Weald. His death in a tragic misunderstanding, perhaps indirectly played a part in the RAF's ultimate victory in the Battle of Britain.

Published Sources:

Flying for Freedom: North Weald Airfield in the Second World War - Arthur Moreton, privately published 2008

Nine Lives - Alan C Deere, Crecy Publishing 2012

Spitfire: Portrait of a Legend - Leo McKinstry, John Murray 2007

The Most Dangerous Enemy - Stephen Bungay, Aurum Press 2000

The Aces

Edward 'Cobber' Kain DFC

The term 'Ace' in it's aerial context first came into usage during the earliest days of air combat, during the First World War when the French pilot Adolphe Pegaud was given the term 'l'as' (French for Ace) by the French press after he had shot down five German aircraft. Since then, the term has remained in use for any pilot who has achieved five or more victories. During the Great War, every side had it's Aces - Baron von Richthofen being the highest scoring with eighty victories, and arguably becoming the most well known fighter Ace of all time in the process before he was shot down and killed in 1918. On the Allied side, aces such as Frenchman Rene Fonck, the Canadian Billy Bishop and the British Ace Mick Mannock all became household names.

By the time of the Second World War, attitudes in the RAF towards Aces had changed somewhat. Whilst the Luftwaffe deliberately set out to create warrior-heroes in accordance with the knightly ethos encouraged by Dr Goebbels and his Nazi cronies, the RAF despite it's class consciousness then prevalent throughout the British armed forces, refused to officially recognise aces. Eventually, during the Battle of Britain, the RAF was reluctantly forced to co-operate with the media interest generated by the new generation of Aces amongst 'The Few.'

In this short piece, we shall concentrate on the RAF aces if for no other reason than one of space and even here we can only scratch the surface. The first RAF pilot in the Second World War to achieve five 'kills' was actually a New Zealander, Edward James Kain, known as 'Cobber' who scored his first victory as early as the 8th November 1939 over France and by March 1940 had acheived his fifth victory. During the Battle for France in May 1940, Kain achieved a further five victories and by 5th June 1940, he was the RAF's highest scoring fighter pilot with sixteen confirmed kills. The next day, he was informed that his squadron would be returning to England and on the 7th June, he left the airfield at Echemines to fly to Le Mans to collect personal belongings prior to flying across the Channel. As Kain took off, he undertook some low-level aerobatics to bid farewell to his squadron colleagues, misjudged a flick roll and ploughed his Hurricane into the ground. So it was that the RAF's first Ace met his end, not at the hands of the enemy but due to a flying accident.

Josef Frantisek DFM*

The Battle of Britain produced a glut of Aces, all of whom were seized upon by the British press. Some like Tuck, Malan (studied here in October 2010 http://blitzwalkers.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/different-adolph.html), Bader and Lacey quickly became household names and are still remembered to this day. Once again though, the first RAF pilot to achieve Ace status during the Battle of Britain was not British but on this occasion was a Czech flying as part of the Polish contingent of the RAF, Josef Frantisek. Frantisek had escaped to Poland during the German invasion of his homeland in 1938. When Poland was in turn attacked, Frantisek's squadron had been ordered to Romania and internment and extracating himself from the camp in which he was being held, Frantisek managed to reach France via North Africa in October 1939. Once in France, he elected to remain with the Poles and consumed by a fierce and understandable hatred for the Nazis, began what was in effect a private war against the Third Reich. 

Upon the fall of France, Frantisek reached England and became part of 303 (Polish) Squadron flying Hurricanes based at RAF Northolt. It has to be said that Frantisek was an extremely ill-disciplined pilot and the British squadron commander of 303 began to make arrangements to transfer him to a Czech squadron. Frantisek preferred to stay with his Polish colleagues and because of the desperate shortage of pilots, it was agreed to accommodate him as a 'guest' pilot flying a spare Hurricane. Once 303 Squadron took off, Frantisek would break formation and act alone pouncing on any unsuspecting Luftwaffe aircraft. Using these tactics, by early October 1940 Frantisek had accounted for seventeen German aircraft, in addition to those he shot down whilst attached to the French Armee de l'Air, which he claimed as a further eleven. However, like Kain, Frantisek's demise would come not at the hands of the Luftwaffe but as a result of a flying accident. On 8th October 1940, Frantisek's Hurricane crashed in Ewell, Surrey whilst on approach to land in circumstances that have never been fully explained. Some accounts state that he misjudged an aerobatic maneouvre whilst trying to impress his girlfriend, whilst others state that he simply made a critical error as a result of fatigue following what for him, had already been a long war.

Another New Zealand Ace was Brian Carbury and in common with one other pilot, the Pole Anton Glowacki, he became an Ace in one day, shooting down five German aircraft on 31st August 1940 on his way to a final score of fifteen and a half kills by the end of the year. Carbury was to survive the war but was to be dismissed from the RAF in disgrace in October 1941, having been found guilty at a Court-Marshal of having passed a large number of false cheques, at that time an offence punishable by prison sentence. So ended the career of another ace, albeit in bizarre circumstances.

Bob Stanford-Tuck DSO DFC**

Just to prove that some of the RAF's Aces were British, let us take a look at two of Fighter Command's home-grown talents. Robert Stanford-Tuck was born in 1916 of Jewish parents in Catford, southeast London and after a brief career as an Officer Cadet in the Merchant Navy, joined the RAF in 1935. After completing his flying training, in which he was graded 'above average', Tuck was posted to 65 Squadron at Tangmere, at first flying Gloster Gladiator biplanes but a squadron which was lucky enough to be one of the first to convert to Spitfires in December 1938. Tuck was chosen from his squadron to go to RAF Duxford and receive one-on-one tuition from Jeffrey Quill, senior Test Pilot of Vickers (Supermarine) in order that he could acquaint his squadron colleagues with the then revolutionary new fighter. As one of the RAF's first fighter pilots to fly the Spitfire, he was posted in May 1940 to 92 Squadron at Croydon, later moving to Hornchurch, again flying Spitifires and flying his first combat patrol on 23rd May over Dunkirk, Tuck shot down three Bf109s and the following day became an Ace, when he downed two German bombers. In the ensuing combat during the Battle for France, his score rapidly mounted and he was awarded the DFC on 11th June. During the Battle of Britain, Tuck like all of his colleagues in Fighter Command, was in the thick of the action and it was during this period that "Tuck's Luck" - he had survived an early 'prang' whilst training - came to the fore once again. He was forced to bail out of his Spitfire on 18th August over Tunbridge Wells but survived this safely and a few days later, on the 25th had to nurse his crippled Spitfire back to Hornchurch following return fire from a Dornier Do17 bomber. On another occasion, he personally had been hit and upon removing the bullet in his thigh, the Squadron MO told tuck "A few inches higher and they'd have had to transfer you to the WAAFs!" Tuck's luck would never really desert him. 

In September 1940, Tuck was promoted to command 257 Sqaudron, then flying Hurricanes based at Martlesham Heath. At this time, 257 was a 'hard luck' squadron, formed only a short time previously and suffering from an influx of inexperienced pilots and frankly, not having been previously well led. Tuck turned this squadron around, weeded out one or two individuals who were not up to the task and by September 15th 1940, 257 formed part of the fighter force that routed the German daylight raiders and on that day incidentally, Tuck's two victories brought his own personal score to sixteen. In July 1941, Tuck was further promoted and given command of the Duxford Wing. By this time, Fighter Command was taking part in large fighter sweeps across occupied France known as "Rhubarbs" as part of the new policy instigated by the new head of the Command, Sholto Douglas known as "Leaning towards the Enemy." 

During this period, many fine men were killed or captured including fellow Aces 'Paddy' Finucane, Eric Lock and Douglas Bader and on 28th February 1942, Tuck's luck was to briefly desert him when he was shot down over Boulogne. Even then his luck did not abandon him completely; his Spitfire having been hit and gliding towards a forced landing, Tuck fired a final cannon burst at the anti-aircraft gun that had hit his Spitfire, killing all of the gun's crew. He feared a lynching, but as he was surrounded by angry Germans, their anger turned to laughter when they spotted that one of his final shots had split the barrel of the German gun like a banana being peeled! Tuck's time in captivity was an incredible odyssey in itself and would take too long to describe in detail here. Suffice to say that after several escape attempts, he managed to do so successfully on 1st February 1945 and having reached Russian lines, was denied access to the British authorities until he again escaped, this time from his 'liberators' and reached the British Embassy in Moscow, who arranged his repatriation in March 1945. Tuck's final tally of victories was twenty nine kills, two shared kills and six "probables."

'Johnnie' Johnson CB CBE DSO** DFC*

Even this impressive tally was not the highest achieved by a Fighter Command pilot. James Edgar "Johnnie" Johnson was born in Loughborough in 1915 and joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in September 1939. An old rugby injury which had broken his collar bone and which had not been re-set correctly precluded his active participation in the Battle of Britain. However, following a successful operation to correct this, Johnson returned to operational flying with 616 Squadron at Tangmere flying under Wing Commander Douglas Bader. Johnson learned much of his early trade under Bader and on 26th June 1941, he was to score his first victory when he shot down a Bf109 over Gravelines. Johnson took part in the sweep on 9th August 1941 when Bader was shot down and captured and despite the loss of his Wing Leader, Johnson added to his personal score. Later promoted to command 610 Squadron at RAF Coltishall, Norfolk which continued on sweeps over occupied France, Johnson continued to add to his score, despite still flying the Spitfire Mk V, which was being outclassed by the new German Fw190s then coming into service. Promoted again in early 1943, this time to Wing Commander, Johnson was given command of 144 (Canadian) Wing at Kenley, which was equipped with the new Spitfire Mk IX, which was able to once again re-establish British mastery over the Luftwaffe's fighters. Johnson's score soon mounted and by August 1943, he claimed his twenty first victory. By this time, apart from fighter sweeps, the Wing was regularly escorting USAAF bombers on their daylight missions to targets in occupied France. In September 1943, Johnson was rested from Ops but was restored to flying duties in March 1944 in time for the run-up to Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy. Back with the Canadians of 144 Wing, Johnson again scored regularly and by 23rd August 1944, Johnson equalled and then overtook 'Sailor' Malan's tally of thirty two victories. As Johnson modestly pointed out himself "Malan had fought with great distinction when the odds were against him. He had matched his handful of Spitfires against greatly superior numbers of Luftwaffe fighters and bombers." As Johnson also pointed out, his combat was mostly fought on the offensive, with either a squadron, a wing, or sometimes two wings behind him. Johnson's last victory of the war came on 27th September 1944 over Nijmegen, when his squadron bounced a formation of Bf109s. Johnson survived the war to finish with thirty four individual victories as well as seven shared victories, which was the highest achieved by any of the Western Allies. Postwar, he served in the Korean War flying F-86 Sabre jet fighters on exchange with the USAF and remained in the RAF until 1966, retiring with the rank of Air Vice Marshal.

There are many more aces to discuss and hopefully we shall return to the subject again in a future edition but whether one of the Aces, or one of the vast majority of non-scoring pilots, whatever nationality, the fighter pilot was, and remains a breed apart.

Published Sources:

Fly For Your Life: The Story of Bob Stanford-Tuck - Larry Forester, Cerberus 2002

The Most Dangerous Enemy - Stephen Bungay, Aurum Press 2000

The Narrow Margin - Derek Wood with Derek Dempster, Tri-Service Press 1990

Wing Leader - 'Johnnie' Johnson - Chatto & Windus Limited 1956

 

A Perfect Lady

On 6th March 1936 a small patchwork painted fighter aeroplane took off from Eastleigh Aerodrome in Hampshire for its first short test flight. At the controls that day was test pilot Joseph ‘Mutt’ Summers. When he landed the pretty little fighter after just fifteen minutes flying, he taxied it over towards the hangar, climbed out of the cockpit and said to those assembled “I don’t want anything touched.” This comment has subsequently become misinterpreted over the years, because as good as this fighter later proved to be, what Summers really meant was that the first flight had been a success and that there were no faults apparent which needed correcting before his next flight.

This little fighter numbered K5054 was the prototype Supermarine Spitfire and following this first tentative test flight, many months of further testing were to follow before the design was put into production in 1938, ultimately becoming the RAF’s standard fighter aircraft during the Second World War.

Much of this gruelling programme of test flying was done by Jeffrey Quill, another of Supermarine’s test pilots. Quill recalled in his book ‘Spitfire – A Test Pilot’s Story’

“’Here’, I thought to myself, ‘is a real lady.’”

The Spitfire was designed by RJ Mitchell, Chief Designer at Supermarine, in response to the Air Ministry specification F36/34, later modified to F10/35 which was written around the prototype. The original Air Ministry specification also covered the Hawker Hurricane, designed by Sydney Camm but whilst the Hurricane was of a traditional wooden framed, fabric covered design, the Spitfire was something altogether different, being of a then radical all metal design. This led to problems - the Hurricane was much simpler to produce and easier to repair and indeed, during the Battle of Britain, there were far more Hurricanes in Fighter Command’s service than there were Spitfires but the design of the Spitfire meant that it could be developed almost infinitely, with larger engines, bigger armaments and many other refinements added over the years of production. Indeed, the Spitfire was the only Allied fighter of the War to be in production from the first day of the war to the last, with the last of the 20,351 aircraft to be built not rolling off the production line until February 1948. This last Spitfire, the Mark 24 was a very different creature to the prototype, being capable of a top speed of 452 mph as opposed to the 348 of the prototype and being armed with four 20mm Hispano cannons instead of eight Browning .303” machine guns and powered by a Rolls Royce Griffon engine rather than the original Merlin. The Mark 24 was also twice the weight of the prototype, which truly demonstrates the genius and potential of the original design.

However, we are jumping ahead in time too quickly and should return to the events of 1936. Mitchell’s design was a logical development of his work on the various Supermarine floatplane entrants for the Schneider Trophy during the late 1920s and early 30s, culminating in the brilliant S6B of 1931 which also broke the World air speed record in reaching 407.5 mph. These aircraft were powered by various marks of Rolls Royce ‘R’ engines, which would ultimately be developed into the famous Merlin engine.

When Mitchell started work on the fighter that was to become the Spitfire, it was originally titled somewhat unimaginatively, ‘The Supermarine Fighter’ and was at one stage destined to become the ‘Shrew’ before the name ‘Spitfire’ was given to the new fighter. The name was reputedly given by Sir Robert McLean, the Chairman of Vickers Supermarine and when told about it, Mitchell, never an emotional man simply replied that it was “Just the sort of bloody silly name they would give it!”

By this stage, Mitchell was a very sick man who was dying from cancer. When this happened in June 1937, his erstwhile Chief Draughtsman, Joe Smith was promoted and under his guidance, the Spitfire was seen into production, development and evolution that would last throughout the War and beyond.

The Spitfire had an immediate impact and effect upon all who flew it. Pilots found it a wonderful aircraft to fly with no obvious vices and it is interesting to compare the views of three of the RAF’s Battle of Britain ‘aces’ with regard to their experiences with the fighter. Firstly, ‘Sailor’ Malan:

“The Spitfire had style and was obviously a killer….Moreover, she was a perfect lady. She had no vices. She was beautifully responsive. You could dive until your eyes were popping out of your head, she would still answer to a touch.”

Like Jeffrey Quill and ‘Sailor’ Malan, Bob Stanford-Tuck also saw the Spitfire as undoubtedly female and recalling his first flight, wrote:

"If it comes to war, this is the girl for me!"

Bob Doe was a little more unemotional, but his love for the aircraft was still evident when he spoke to Stephen Bungay:

“It became a part of you, it was an absolute joy.”

So we can see then, that the Spitfire very quickly won over all those who came into contact with her – certainly on the British side and there were also some Germans who wanted her as well. Adolf Galland famously fell foul of Hermann Goring when he replied to the Reichsmarschall’s question as to what he could provide to help Galland and his pilots win the Battle of Britain. He simply answered “I should like an outfit of Spitfires for my squadron.”

Although this statement was somewhat misunderstood when it became public – Galland was simply requesting that a more agile German fighter be available – his comments showed the deep respect with which the Luftwaffe held the Spitfire – and the men that flew them.

In 1941 with the Battle of Britain safely won, RAF Fighter Command, under a new commander, William Sholto Douglas, could afford the luxury of a more aggressive policy than had been possible during the Battle, using their new Spitfire Mark Vs on fighter sweeps over occupied France known as ‘Rhubarbs.’ In hindsight, the wisdom of these sweeps has been questioned as many aircraft were lost, as were their pilots, many of whom had previously survived the Battle of Britain. This was a curious reversal of fortune for the RAF, who now found themselves in the same situation as the Luftwaffe in 1940 – being shot down over enemy territory and with every chance that the surviving pilots would fall into captivity. It was also during these fighter sweeps that a new adversary emerged for the Spitfire, in the form of the FW190 which outclassed the Spitfire V in almost every way. It was now that the Spitfire’s almost infinite capability for development became apparent with the appearance of the Mark IX with the new two-stage supercharged Merlin 61 engine which transformed the fighter's performance and made it capable of taking on the best of Luftwaffe’s fighters once again. The Mark IX had the advantage of being almost indistinguishable from the earlier Mark V to the Germans, thus making every Spitfire they saw a potential Mark IX and deserving of appropriate respect.

So it continued for the Spitfire – as well as the classic interceptor fighter role, they were used as ground attack aircraft, ‘tropicalised’ for use in the desert and the Far East, high altitude interceptors, carrier borne as the Seafire and for photo reconnaissance purposes (PR) at high altitude. It was PR Spitfires that discovered the "Bismarck", provided the first photographs of the German ’Freya’ and ‘Wurzburg’ radars at Bruneval, uncovered the V-1 launch sites in France and Holland and found the vital evidence of the German V-2s at Peenemunde. It seemed that there was almost nothing that the Spitfire couldn’t do and that they would continue forever.

However, it was not to be – the advent of the jet engine saw to that and with the war nine years over, it was on 1st April 1954 that the last operational Spitfire flight was undertaken by a PR Mark 19 (the RAF had changed from Roman to Arabic numerals in 1948) from RAF Seletar in Singapore and the last non-operational flight was flown by another PR Mark 19 of the Temperature and Humidity Flight based at RAF Woodvale, near Southport on 9th June 1957.

Thanks to the work of the RAF’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and many private preservationists, we can still see and hear the Spitfire flying today at air shows and flypasts and are able to witness for ourselves the perfect lady in her true element.

Published Sources:

Fly For Your Life: The Story of Bob Stanford Tuck - Larry Forester, Cerberus Publishing 2002
The Most Dangerous Enemy - Stephen Bungay, Aurum Books 2000
Spitfire: A Test Pilot's Story - Jeffrey Quill OBE, AFC, FRAeS, Arrow Books 1983