by Gill Griffin
YEAR 1942 AIRCRAFT Pilot or 1st Pilot 2nd Pilot, Pupil or Pass. DUTY (Including Results and Remarks) Flying Time Passenger
MONTH DATE Type No. Dual Solo
May 1st Spitfire BM142 Self Escort cover to Marquise 1–25
3rd Spitfire BM142 Self Circus 145 to Desvres 1–20
4th Spitfire BM142 Self Rodeo to Le Havre –45
5th Spitfire BM142 Self Rodeo to Le Havre 1–15
Spitfire BM141 Self Rodeo to St Omer 1–25
GRAND TOTAL TO DATE 403 hours 50 minutes 3–30 8–25
55–25 336–30 7–40
1 May: I attacked 4 Focke Wulf FW 190s, with my No.2, Yellow 4, in a short sharp dog fight; between us we managed to get in some good bursts of fire and claimed 1 probably destroyed and one damaged. As was usually the case, the enemy pilots dived away at high speed; we could not follow due to our escort duties.
5 May: For the first four days after May 5th there was a lull in operational activity, for me a very welcome break. After my narrow escapes towards the end of April, I was convinced that in my next operation my luck would run out and I would be the next for the chop. A pencilled note (not in my handwriting) on a strip of paper torn from a logbook:
Dawn readiness tomorrow
Flt. Sgt Thorne Leader
Sgts. Meyer
Strudwick
Loud
Sanderson
Any ‘B’ Flight Sergeant of 602
Transport from the sergeants’ mess at 05.10 A.M.
Sergeant Lou Meyer was a young Dutchman who had made his way to England after the fall of France. I think this was the Sergeant John Strudwick who died 11th May 1945 in a mid-air collision between two Tiger Moths, while acting as a flying instructor at 7 EFTS Elmdon. Bill Loud, a butcher in civvy street, lived up to his calling and achieved great success against the Luftwaffe, ending the war as a Wing Commander. Sergeant Sanderson, an Australian, also survived the war to return to Australia.
Early May, a note written by Paddy Finucane.
Summary for:- May 1st to the 5th 1 Spitfire 6–10
Unit:- 602 Squadron
Date:- 10/5/42
Signature:- H.L. Thorne
P.H.Major F/Lt E.A. Bocock F/Lt For S/Ldr
For O/C A Flight For O/C 602 squadron
Pencilled note:
Personal score 2 (or 3) Destroyed
4 (or 3) Probably destroyed
2 damaged
After April 25th, although I was not held responsible for the loss of Group Captain Corner, I felt then, and ever since, that I was in some way responsible, or there must have been something I could have done. My only consolation is that, despite being attacked myself, I rejoined and remained with him until after he had bailed out.
On the morning of May 10th we arrived at dispersal and were immediately ordered to the briefing room to be told of another deep penetration up to the Belgian border. Returning to dispersal, Johnny Niven said, ‘I have put you to fly Red 3, is that OK?’ My reply was somewhat sharp. ‘If that’s where you have put me, that is where I will fly.’ I suppose that my tension was fairly obvious, for a few minutes later I was called by the Squadron Medical Officer, Dr. Hands. He said, ‘You have had a rough time in the past few weeks. It is time you went on a rest from operations; you are excused duty immediately. Return to your billet, collect your kit and report to the orderly room where you will be given travel warrants and a posting notice.’ Three other pilots who had also been on ops for nearly a year received similar instructions. I remember only two of their names, Sergeants Jimmie Garden of ‘B’ Flight and Gwilym Willis, like me in ‘A’ Flight, both of whom had been with me through training. Sergeant Willis went to the CO and said that he was all right and would like to remain with the Squadron. Permission was granted for him to do so; the very next day he was shot down and killed. A few days later the remainder of the squadron were taken out of 11 Group and posted to a station in the north of England for a well deserved rest.
At this point in my logbook a loose form had been stuck in between the pages; basically, it was as follows:
SUMMARY OF FLYING AND ASSESSMENT FOR YEAR COMMENCING JULY 1st. 1941
ASSESSMENT of ABILITY
(To be assessed as:- Exceptional, Above the Average, Average or Below the Average)
(i) AS A F PILOT Good Average
ii) AS PILOT-NAVIGATOR/NAVIGATOR Good Average
ANY POINTS IN FLYING OR AIRMANSHIP WHICH SHOULD BE WATCHED
Nil
DATE 10/5/42 SIGNATURE E.R. Bocock F/Lt For S/Ldr
OFFICER COMMANDING 602 (City of Glasgow) Sqdn A.A.F.
Normally a rest posting would be as an OTU or training school instructor; in exceptional cases it might be a short spell of non-flying duties. I was incredibly lucky in being posted to the AFDU, the Air Fighting Development Unit at Duxford, near Cambridge. I expected that my ‘rest’ would last for the usual six months but things did not turn out that way and I was never to return to Squadron membership.
Officer Commissioning certificate.
4
RAF DUXFORD AFDU (AIR
FIGHTING DEVELOPMENT UNIT)
As I mentioned, a rest from operations usually lasted six months and for most chaps a spell in Training Command. The lucky ones went to OTUs (Operational Training Units) but most became instructors at EFTS (Elementary Training Schools, or SFTS (Service Flying Training Schools). The Empire training scheme was by then in full swing so many of the chaps went to Canada or South Africa and their positions became permanent. My old instructor, F/Lt Hall, was one of those posted to South Africa.
I was exceptionally lucky in being posted to the AFDU at Duxford. I arrived there on May 10th, still a Flight Sergeant and reported to the adjutant, Flt. Lt. Simms, always known as ‘Simmy’, to be told that my arrival there had to be a mistake as only Officer pilots were posted to the AFDU. I produced my posting papers and was passed on to the unit commanding officer, Wing Commander Campbell-Orde, who again informed me that there had to be a mistake. I said that, towards the end of April, I had had commission interviews, first with Group Captain F.V. Beamish, the Kenley station commander, followed by another with Air Vice Marshal Leigh Mallory, the officer in charge of fighter command. I suggested that my commission must have been approved but the information had not arrived at Kenley before I left. ‘Simmy’ was instructed to phone Air Ministry for confirmation and my suggestion proved to have been correct.
My commission was confirmed, Gazetted May 1st 1942. My rank now: Pilot Officer. At that time promotion from Flight Sergeant to Pilot Officer was something of a mixed blessing as it led to an actual reduction of income. As an NCO I was attached to the Sergeants’ Mess and all food and accommodation was free but as an officer I received an initial uniform allowance of, I believe, £50, which was only enough to cover bare necessities; further purchases had to come out of my pocket. In addition, I moved into the Officers’ Mess and had to pay mess bills so I was definitely worse off. This situation was put right by an immediate further promotion to Flying Officer for all of us who were promoted from Flight Sergeant or Warrant Officer rank.
YEAR 1942 AIRCRAFT Pilot or 1st Pilot 2nd Pilot, Pupil or Pass. DUTY (Including Results and Remarks) Flying Time Passenger
MONTH DATE Type No. Dual Solo
May 12th Spitfire (AF)R Self Fighter Affiliation, Co-operation with Sterlings at Marham –20
Spitfire R Self Co-op with Sterlings 1–10
Spitfire R Self Return to Duxford –20
13th Spitfire AD178 Self Air test at 18,000ft 1–00
14th Spitfire R Self Target for cine gun –25
Spitfire Y Self Cine gun practice –25
15th Stinson Reliant ? F/Lt Clive Self Circuits and bumps –25
Stinson Reliant ? Self Sgt Kulczyk A short flip around Duxford –20
Spitfire R Self Cine gun, improved type –25
Defiant ? Self Sgt Reeve Cine gun tests for rear gunner –20
Spitfire R Self To Waddington –40
Spitfire R Self Co-op with Lancasters –40
Spitfire Y Self Return to Duxford –40
Spitfire W Self To Seyerston –30
Spitfire Y Self Co-op with Lancasters –25
Fairey Fulmar ? Lieutenant ? Self & Flt Sgt Brazendale Return to Duxford –25
18th Stinson Reliant ? P/O Poole Self To White Waltham –50
26th Spitfire AB169 Self Air and engine test 1–00
27th Spitfire AA983 Self Inertia weight trial –45
Spitfire AB169 Self Inertia weight trial –55
Spitfire AA983 Self No weight and no IFF trial –30
Spitfire AB169 Self Inertia weights, formation trial –45
Spitfire T Self To Langham –35
28th Spitfire T Self Return to Duxford –30
29th Spitfire T Self To Waddington –30
Spitfire T Self Co-op with Lancaster –45
Spitfire X Self Co-op with Manchester –40
30th Spitfire V Self To Scampton –10
Spitfire V Self Co-op with Lancaster –20
Spitfire V Self To Waddington –10
31st Airspeed Oxford ? F/Lt Murray Self Circuits and bumps –55
Oxford ? P/O Walker Self & F/Lt Murray To Duxford –45
Oxford ? Self F/Lt Murray & P/O Walker To Waddington –45
Grand Total: 421 hours 10 mins 3–30 8–25
56–45 352–30 5–35
14 May: It was usual in non-operational units, such as this and training schools, to refer to aircraft permanently on strength by letters rather than the registration numbers. Strictly speaking this only applied, in AFDU, to the machines used for fighter affiliation, transport or ferrying, as all other aircraft would normally have flown fully armed, ready to go into action if called upon. This will be apparent as these notes go on and later Marks of Spitfire, Mustangs, Hurricanes, etc. appear. In 1945 the situation was clarified when AFDU was given full Squadron status and became AFDS.
15 May: The first flight that day was my ‘conversion course’ on to a different single-engined aircraft, just a quick explanation of the controls, one landing demonstration by F/Lt Denis Clive, one circuit and landing for me without breaking anything and I was passed as qualified. Later, it was a look through the pilot’s notes and perhaps a few words about any peculiarities and off I went. How different to today’s requirements for Health and Safety!
The second flight was my first solo, with a passenger, on type. Tadeux ‘Teddy’ Kulczyk was a Polish junior officer, one of many Poles who had escaped from the Germans or the Russians when Poland was occupied. After his arrival in this country he, although a fully qualified pilot, was given retraining on Spitfires and joined AFDU while he awaited the formation of Polish fighter squadrons. During this period he met and married a very pretty English girl, Monica, from Somerset.
He and Monica had a room at the Duxford vicarage and, after I was given a ‘sleeping out’ pass and Estelle was permitted to join me, we came to know the Kulczyks very well and became good friends. Many years later we spent weekends with them at Sampford Peverell in Somerset. After the war ended Teddy returned briefly to Poland but, finding things difficult under Russian Communist dictatorship, he made a second escape and returned to England and joined Monica on the family farm in Somerset.
In the winter of 1942/43 Wing Commander Donald Finlay, an athlete of note, a pre-war member of the British Olympic team, was our commanding officer. A fanatic about physical fitness, he turned us out in the mornings for PT on the tarmac and sometimes, on cold and frosty mornings, for a 6-mile country run. This was not exactly popular with most of the pilots and on one such occasion, Teddy went sick but, sadly for him, appeared from behind a haystack armed with a 12 bore shotgun and carrying one or two dead rabbits. Donald carried on, pretending not to notice, but a week later Teddy was posted to one of the newly formed Polish Squadrons, I believe at Northolt.
My trip in the Defiant was with a very trusting rear gunner as this was my first solo flight in a ‘Daffy’. It felt big, underpowered and heavy, but was easy to fly, handled rather like a Hurricane. It was intended for use as a night fighter but was not particularly successful. It was used in the Battle of Britain and for one day caught the Germans by surprise and had some success. It was short-lived; the Luftwaffe boys quickly realised that it had only rearward-firing guns in a powered gun turret. The next time it was used, the Squadron suffered horrific losses. It was, as far as I know, never used in daylight again.
I am a bit puzzled by this entry in my logbook about the Fairey Fulmar, a two-seater, pilot and observer/gunner; if we really were carried in a Fulmar one of the rear passengers would have been obliged to sit on the other’s lap! I am inclined to think that my logbook, in this instance, was at fault and the aircraft was actually a Fairey Battle. The Fulmar was a Fleet Air Arm aircraft, a smaller and faster version of the Fairey Battle and used throughout the war as a fighter, whereas the Battle was a light bomber with a crew of three. At a casual glance they looked similar although, as I say, the Fulmar was much smaller.
I assume that Spitfire Y became unserviceable during our stay at Seyerston and Sgt Brazendale, our ground staff NCO, and I were ferried home by a pilot of our sister unit, NAFDU (Naval Air Fighting Development Unit).
18 May: P/O Poole had completed his spell at AFDU and shortly after the flight returned to his squadron. Three months later he was shot down and killed in the Dieppe raid, leaving behind his lovely young wife expecting their first baby, another of the war’s tragedies.
27 May: These were my first flights as an experimental test pilot. Inertia weights were fixed to the control surfaces, elevators, ailerons and rudder, to make movement lighter or easier for the pilots. IFF was a small transmitter in the tail unit, the initials standing for ‘Identification, Friend or Foe’ that had to be switched on by the pilot immediately after take-off on every flight. As a check by the controller he, the pilot, would be asked to confirm ‘my cock is crowing’. I never quite understood why this reply caused so much amusement. I believe that a similar device is still used today called a ‘Transponder’, which enables controllers worldwide to identify and locate every aircraft in the air in their sector.
29 May: The Avro Manchester was a twin-engine bomber to augment the heavy bomber force and replace the obsolete Whitley. It proved to be a failure, under-powered and unable to reach its planned operating ceiling with a full bomb load. It was redesigned with four of those magnificent Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and became the most successful bomber of the war – the Lancaster.
30 May: This was the night of the first 1000-bomber raid, the target, Cologne. Every unit in Bomber Command, including many OTUs, was involved. Likewise, to make up the number, even trainee aircrew members were roped in.
In our flight affiliation part of AFDU our Flight Commander, F/Lt (later Squadron Leader) Jock Murray, an intrepid pilot who had already completed two tours of bombing operations, volunteered to go, if an aircraft could be found for him. The Wing Commander at Waddington said they would see what could be done but it might be difficult to find a spare crew, particularly air gunners. Jock said, ‘No problem, my three fighter pilots would love to join in and could be given a quick lesson in operating the gun turrets!’
A little later Jock was informed that the only possibility was a Halifax bomber that was undergoing routine servicing at nearby Scampton and, if the work could be finished in time, he could have it. To our great relief it was not ready in time for take-off, otherwise we might have been the only Spitfire pilots to have been on that raid. However, as willing(?) volunteers we were invited to attend the briefing and join the returned crews for their bacon and egg breakfast.
31 May: The AFDU operated a sub flight of three Spitfires to carry out co-operation/fighter affiliation, with Bomber Command units. They were usually flown by those pilots who were on short breaks at AFDU from operational duties, usually under the command of an experienced Squadron leader initially, during my stay F/Lt Murray DFC,DFM, soon to
be promoted to S/Ldr. We were often detached for a week or more and took our own ground crews for servicing the Spitfires. These chaps were ferried, together with their tools and equipment with us, in a twin-engine aircraft, at this time a twin-engine Airspeed Oxford. As I had to take my turn flying the ferrying aircraft and had never flown a multi-engine machine, I had to be given a conversion ‘course’. My conversion flight on to twins took a little longer than the previous one. Jock gave me a quick run through ‘vital actions’ before take-off, then demonstrated starting up procedure. This was interesting and took me back to the early days of motorcars, using a starting handle. To start each Oxford engine a starting handle was inserted in a hole in the side of each cowling then turned vigorously until the required revs were reached. The pilot then ‘threw’ in the starter and switched on the ignition; hopefully the engine started. If not, the whole procedure was re-run. Jock then took me through a take-off and landing and just told me what to do in case of one engine failure. That was it; he handed over to me for a couple of circuits and, being satisfied that I could do it without breaking anything, said, ‘OK, you are passed out proficient on twins.’ That was my only instruction on flying multi-engine machines. Later I flew the old Avro Anson, the powerful Douglas Boston, Percival Q6 and even handled a Lancaster. I reckon today’s instructors would have a fit. As can be seen from my flight later that day, my colleagues had every confidence in my ability by allowing me to fly them, first to Duxford, then on to Waddington.
Summary for:- May 1942
Unit:- AFDU Duxford 1 Spitfire 14–35
2 Stinson Reliant –25 –20
3 Defiant –20
4 Fulmar –30
6 Oxford =n55 –45 –45