Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys: Saving Britain 1940–1945
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11 Armitage: interview with author.
12 Gundry: Pilot Officer Kenneth Gundry, letters to parents, RAF Museum, Hendon.
13 ‘The attack was led’: Ziegler, The Story of 609 Squadron, p. 122.
14 ‘John Dundas…wrote’: ibid., p. 120.
15 ‘the base’s historian’: Rocky Stockman, The History of RAF Manston, RAF Station Manston, pp. 35-44.
16 ‘None of us had ever’: Group Captain Robert Deacon Elliot, Unofficial History of 72 Squadron, RAF Museum, Hendon.
17 Sheen: IWM, no. 12137.
18 Bowring: IWM, no. 12173.
19 Fiske: see David Alan Johnson, The Battle of Britain, Combined Publishing, Pennsylvania, 1998, p. 120.
20 ‘Deere wrote later’: Deere, Nine Lives, p. 142.
21 Marjery Wace: IWM, no. 2259.
14. Attrition
1 Foxley-Norris: IWM, no. 10136.
2 ‘Al Deere…noticed’: Deere, Nine Lives, p. 136.
3 Gillam: IWM, no. 10049.
4 Appleford: interview with author.
5 Usmar: IWM, no. 10588.
6 ‘Shown up clearly’: quoted in Francis K. Mason, Battle over Britain, Aston Publications, 1990, p. 256.
7 ‘the flick’: Armitage, unpublished memoir.
8 Kingcome: IWM, no. 10152.
9 Beamont: IWM, no. 10128.
10 Deere: IWM, no. 10478.
11 Beamont: IWM, no. 10128.
12 Gillam: IWM, no. 10049.
13 Cox: IWM, no. 11510.
14 ‘Bob Doe noticed’: Doe: Fighter Pilot, p. 36.
15 ‘Malan felt’: Walker, Sailor Malan, p. 104.
16 Holden: IWM, no. 11198.
17 ‘Gleave, speaking later’: Gleave made his remarks in a paper delivered at a symposium on the Battle of Britain sponsored by the Royal Air Force Historical Society and the Royal Air Force Staff College, Bracknell, on 25 June 1990. It was subsequently published in The Battle Re-Thought, edited by Air Commander Henry Probert and Sebastian Cox, Airlife, Shrewsbury, 1991, p. 50.
18 ‘He talked to me’: Dundas, Flying Start, pp. 41-2.
19 ‘Walker, who had been posted’: William Walker, private account.
20 Gillam: IWM, no. 10049.
21 Benson: letters of Pilot Officer Noel Benson in RAF Museum, Hendon. See also correspondence relating to the death of Pilot Officer Noel Benson in RAF Museum, Hendon.
22 Brothers: interview with author.
23 Joan Lovell Hughes: interview with author.
24 Lamberty: letter to Alexander McKee in RAF Museum, Hendon.
25 ‘601 Squadron’s historian recorded’: Moulson, The Flying Sword, p. 89.
26 Bird-Wilson: IWM, no. 10093.
27 Kingcome: IWM, no. 10152.
28 Winskill: IWM, no. 11537.
29 ‘The amazing thing’: Elliot, Unofficial History of 72 Squadron.
30 ‘Armitage, wounded in the left leg’: Armitage, unpublished memoir.
31 Unwin: IWM, no. 11544.
32 ‘The RAF bureaucracy listed personal effects’: IWM, Department of Documents, ref. 97/43/1.
33 ‘described in a poem’: Anthony Richardson, ‘Because of These’, in Verses of the Royal Air Force, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1942.
34 ‘no point in brooding about death’: Page, Shot Down in Flames, p. 69.
35 ‘Peter’s towel’: Ziegler, The Story of 609 Squadron, p. 103, quoting David Crook, Fighter Pilot.
36 ‘left with the paperwork’: Armitage, unpublished memoir.
37 ‘Dr Benson’s grief’: correspondence relating to the death of Pilot Officer Noel Benson in RAF Museum, Hendon.
38 Wronsky: letter to McKee in RAF Museum, Hendon.
39 ‘Townsend gave way to his emotions’: Townsend, Time and Chance, p. 111.
40 ‘Deere’s…confidence…began to falter’: IWM, no. 10478.
41 ‘he told Archie Winskill’: IWM, no. 11537.
15. Brotherhood
1 ‘Kingcome remarked’: Kingcome, A Willingness to Die, p. 183.
2 Beamont: IWM, no. 10128.
3 Foxley-Norris: interview with author.
4 ‘Bartley remembered’: Bartley, Smoke Trails in the Sky, p. 58.
5 Dunning-White: interview with author.
6 ‘an unsentimental book’: Wing Commander Atholl Forbes DFC and Squadron Leader Hubert Allen DFC (eds.), Ten Fighter Boys, Collins, London, 1942, p. 79.
7 Hutchinson: interview with Sophia Coudenhove.
8 Leng: IWM, no. 12217.
9 Page: interview with author.
10 Usmar: IWM, no. 10588.
11 ‘John Coghlan, a flying officer,’: Clayton, What If the Heavens Fall, pp. 3-5.
12 Bowring: IWM, no. 12173.
13 Cox: IWM, no. 11510.
14 Wellum: Geoffrey Wellum, First Light, Viking, London, 2002.
15 David: interview with author.
16 Foxley-Norris: interview with author.
17 ‘To the ground crews he could be’: see testimony of George Reid, in Dilip Sarkar, Bader’s Tangmere Spitfires, Patrick Stephens, London, 1966, p. 51.
18 David: interview with author.
19 Beamont: IWM, no. 10128.
20 ‘Orde describes him as’: Orde, Pilots of Fighter Command, p. 19.
21 ‘To Eric Clayton he was’: Clayton, What If the Heavens Fall, p. 5.
22 ‘practical joking and ragging traditions’: 73 Squadron unofficial diary, IWM, Department of Documents, Box 102.
23 Beamont: IWM, no. 10128.
24 Brothers: interview with author.
25 ‘in Brian Kingcome’s description’: Kingcome, A Willingness to Die, p. 177.
26 ‘Tony Bartley recorded’: Bartley, Smoke Trails in the Sky.
27 Holland: letters to Bunty Nash, RAF Museum, Hendon.
28 Page: IWM, no. 11103.
29 Winskill: IWM, no. 11537.
30 Smith: IWM, no. 11754.
31 ‘records a dinner held’: 73 Squadron unofficial diary.
32 ‘MacGeagh: Public Record Office, ref. AIR 71.
33 Haw: IWM, no. 12028.
34 ‘Vigors…considered himself an Irishman’: Vigors, unpublished autobiography.
35 Dunning-White: interview with author.
36 Hutchinson: interview with Sophia Coudenhove.
37 ‘Kingcome remembered’: Kingcome, A Willingness to Die, pp. 86-7.
38 ‘Armitage reported’: Armitage, unpublished memoir.
39 Matthews: IWM, no. 10451.
40 Barclay: RAF Museum, Hendon, Aviation Records Department, ref. B2173.
41 ‘It was the longest’: Doug Stokes: Paddy Finucane, Fighter Ace, Kimber, London, p. 43.
42 ‘Malan told’: Walker, Sailor Malan, p. 99.
43 Bennions: IWM, no. 10296.
44 Constable Maxwell: Constable Maxwell diary.
45 Appleford: interview with author.
46 Devitt: IWM, no. 10667.
47 Donaldson: IWM, no. 12172.
48 ‘One of George Unwin’s sergeant pilots’: interview with author.
49 ‘Brothers came across’: interview with author.
50 Bird-Wilson: IWM, no. 10093.
51 Down: IWM, no. 11449.
52 Bird-Wilson: IWM, no. 10093.
53 Donaldson: IWM, no. 12172.
54 Gillam: IWM. no. 10049.
55 Brothers: interview with author.
56 Yvonne Agazarian: interview with author.
57 Bartley: IWM, no. 11086.
58 Drake: interview with author.
59 ‘Finucane wrote’: IWM, Department of Documents, ref. 97/43/1.
60 ‘Fenwick went to the aid’: Fenwick, Dear Mother.
61 Wissler diary: all entries from IWM, Department of Documents, ref. 97/43/1.
62 ‘Edith “got ever so apprehensive”’: interview with author.
63 ‘he wrote’: letter in possession of Edith Kup, née Heap.
16. ‘The Day Had Been a Year’
1 ‘switched on the electric sight’: let
ter of Flying Officer R. G. A. Barclay, RAF Museum, Hendon.
2 ‘Fink remembered’: letter to McKee in RAF Museum, Hendon.
3 ‘Weitkus’: letter to McKee in RAF Museum, Hendon.
4 ‘wrote Richard Barclay’: diary of Flying Officer R. G. A. Barclay in RAF Museum, Hendon.
5 ‘A signal was intercepted’: RAF Battle of Britain Campaign Diary.
6 ‘a taste of what Londoners were going through’: Vigors, unpublished autobiography.
7 Channon: Chips: the Diaries of Sir Henry Channon, edited by Robert Rhodes James, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1993, p. 265.
8 ‘Barclay was woken at 4.30’: Barclay, diary.
9 Holmes: IWM, no. 2807.
10 ‘sat bolt upright’: see Forbes and Allen, Ten Fighter Boys, p. 77.
11 Cox: IWM, no. 1150.
12 ‘getting a hell of a plastering’: see Forbes and Allen, Ten Fighter Boys, p. 85.
13 ‘spreadeagled arms and legs’: quoted in Dr Alfred Price, Battle of Britain Day, Greenhill Books, 1999, p. 86.
14 ‘The day had been’: see Forbes and Allen, Ten Fighter Boys, p. 78.
17. Autumn Sunset
1 Barclay: Barclay, diary.
2 Edge: Flight Lieutenant G. Edge, unpublished account, RAF Museum, Hendon.
3 ‘Goering assured the crews’: quoted in Mason, Battle over Britain, p. 368.
4 Schöpfel: interview with author.
5 ‘The insouciant spirit’: Bartley, Smoke Trails in the Sky, p. 46.
6 ‘Bartley wrote to his mother’: ibid.
7 Bennions: IWM, no. 10296.
8 ‘Page caught a glimpse of himself: Page, Shot Down in Flames, p. 81.
9 ‘he met the other patients’: ibid., p. 98.
10 ‘The barmaid at the Red Lion’: Doe, Nine Lives, p. 56.
11 Berry: IWM, no. 11475.
12 ‘Barclay noted’: Barclay, diary.
13 ‘waited in dread’: Vigors, unpublished autobiography.
14 Mottram: letters to Bunty Nash in RAF Museum, Hendon.
18. Rhubarbs and Circuses
1 ‘It seemed to Al Deere’: Deere, Nine Lives, p. 172.
2 ‘Kent reached Biggin Hill’: Kent, One of the Few, p. 88.
3 Finucane letters: IWM, Archive Department, 97/43/1.
4 ‘Douglas had been informed’: Terraine, The Right of the Line, p. 283.
5 ‘judged John Terraine’: ibid., p. 285.
6 ‘Deere confessed’: Deere, Nine Lives, p. 211.
7 ‘A graphic account’: Public Record Office, PRO AIR, ref. 149/357.
8 ‘Dundas, a perceptive and humane observer’: Dundas, Flying Start, pp. 66-7, 70 and 79.
9 Armitage: IWM, no. 10049.
10 ‘Aikman described’: The Times, 18 July 1942.
11 ‘His sister, Yvonne’: interview with author.
12 Gillam: IWM, no. 10049.
13 ‘Deere was “always confident”’: Deere, Nine Lives, p. 149.
14 Brothers: interview with author.
15 Gillam: IWM, no. 10049.
Epilogue: The Last Note
1 ‘Roll of Honour’: the roll carries the names of 718 aircrew of Bomber Command and 280 of Coastal Command as well as those of Fighter Command who died during the period.
2 ‘Malan…decided’: Walker, Sailor Malan.
3 ‘Kingcome wrote of Barthropp’: Kingcome, A Willingness to Die, p. 176.
4 ‘Kingcome’s attitude’: ibid., p. xi.
5 Edith Heap: interview with author.
6 Kreipe: quoted in Terraine, The Right of the Line, p. 219.
7 ‘wrote Townsend’: Townsend, Time and Chance, p. 110.
8 Bennions: IWM, no. 10296.
9 Yvonne Agazarian: interview with author.
Index
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1 Squadron 87, 99, 126-32, 136, 137-41, 142, 149, 150, 153, 156, 158, 160, 162, 163, 166-7, 170, 171-2, 173, 176, 178, 179, 264, 280, 322
3 Squadron 150, 152, 162, 169
10 Group 111, 316
11 Group 112, 152, 181-2, 293-4, 316, 362
11 Squadron 50
12 Group 102, 112, 294-5, 316
13 Group 112
17 Squadron 84, 154-5, 176-7, 178-9, 193, 224, 228, 250-1, 289, 296, 304, 322, 325, 344, 346, 365
19 Squadron 64, 71, 81, 85, 87, 90, 188-9, 191, 221, 244-6, 290, 294, 367
23 Squadron 62, 225
32 Squadron 2, 3, 6, 62, 90, 117, 153-4, 172, 186, 240-1, 291, 309, 386
41 Squadron 72, 116, 220, 285, 321, 335, 365, 369, 405
43 Squadron 50, 65, 87, 94, 99, 115, 280, 312
46 Squadron 124
54 Squadron 67, 72, 88, 110, 182-6, 189, 191, 235-6, 237, 238, 261-2, 265, 279, 282, 290, 386
56 Squadron 15, 105, 106, 107, 169, 246, 270, 311, 321, 329, 335, 337
65 Squadron 61, 65, 88, 109, 190, 191, 195, 261, 281
66 Squadron 285, 318, 319, 325, 365, 370
72 Squadron 64, 66, 93, 230, 231, 278, 305, 307-8, 323, 363
73 Squadron 128, 130, 134, 135, 150, 153, 157, 161, 162-3, 175, 176, 217, 320, 326, 330, 365
74 Squadron 88, 106, 108, 115, 183, 190, 221, 225, 238, 250, 317, 320, 326
79 Squadron 63, 88, 115, 150, 153, 235, 237, 307, 308
85 Squadron 19, 128, 143, 146, 156, 158, 169, 172, 174, 176-7, 217, 312, 314, 342
87 Squadron 128, 143, 147, 158, 164, 173-4, 208, 217, 289, 290, 324, 330
92 Squadron 187-8, 189,217, 242, 304, 329, 360, 363, 369, 377, 383-4, 386-8
111 Squadron 72, 81, 83, 87, 279-80, 322, 380
141 Squadron 249
145 Squadron 118, 206
151 Squadron 273, 330, 336
152 Squadron 91, 264, 267, 331
213 Squadron 267, 369
222 Squadron 190, 195, 197-201, 212, 224, 226, 305, 320, 369
229 Squadron 72, 178, 193, 229-30, 325, 364
234 Squadron 290
238 Squadron 86, 397
242 Squadron 176
249 Squadron 334-5, 349-50, 355, 368, 370, 377, 381-2, 389
253 Squadron 168-9, 264, 286, 334, 363, 377
257 Squadron 274, 338, 365, 381
263 Squadron 123-4
264 Squadron 248-9, 334
266 Squadron 271-3, 277, 309, 311, 334
303 Squadron 334, 364, 369, 387
310 Squadron 288, 342
501 Squadron 159, 176, 288, 291, 308; 309, 337, 363
504 Squadron 172, 218, 219, 365
600 Squadron 95, 108, 354
601 Squadron 35-6, 88, 117, 187, 280-1, 308, 309, 318
602 Squadron 113, 115, 369
603 Squadron 113, 119, 235, 300, 312, 363, 380
605 Squadron 100, 304
607 Squadron 128, 143, 144, 146, 148, 152, 162, 169, 369
609 Squadron 75, 99, 222-4, 261, 267, 275, 311, 365, 386
610 Squadron 3, 195, 236-7, 307, 308
611 Squadron 397
615 Squadron 128, 143, 144-5, 147, 162, 172
616 Squadron 69, 77, 102, 194, 290, 297-9, 395
action see combat
Aeberhardt, Raymond 244
aerial bombardment 38-9
aerial gunnery 91-3, 132-3
see also armament; shooting
Agazarian, Noel 79, 267, 286, 339, 396
Agazarian, Yvonne 339, 396, 405
Aikman, F. 396
air fighting 21, 187, 189
see also combat; dogfights; shooting
aircraft
design 41-4
identification 109-11
see also specific types
airman pilots 34
Aitken, Max 117, 401
Albonico, Rennie 128, 141, 162, 174
Allard, Sammy 171
Allen, Hubert 57, 318
Allen, Johnny 183-4, 261-2
Allgood, H. 377
Annette (Br
others’ girlfriend) 102
Appleford, Robin 285, 325, 336, 339, 341, 401
Arenfeldt, Helen 175
armament 221, 242-4, 246
Spitfire 244-5
see also aerial gunnery; shooting
Armée de l’Air 148-9
Armitage, Dennis 271, 272, 273, 287
266 Squadron 311
shot down 395-6
Wilkinson 334
wounded 309
armour plating 132
Ash, Robert 300, 334
Ashton, Dennis 272
Auxiliary Air Force (AAF) 35-7, 75
Ayre, Desmond 222
Bader, Douglas 190
222 Squadron 198, 200
Big Wing tactic 295, 357
captured 395
character 323
Galland 257
leadership 202, 323, 394
post war career 402
Baker, Ronald 270
Balbo, Italo 49
Baldwin 39
Baldwin, J.E.A. 70
Balfour, H.H. 145
baling out 207, 334, 394
Ball, Albert 13-16, 23, 233
Ball, G.E. 188
Banham, Arthur 64, 65
Barclay, Richard 361, 366
249 Squadron 334-5, 349-50, 355, 368, 381-2