No Place for Chivalry
Page 16
Initiating many successful interceptions around The Wash, one of the first operational GCI sites is this AMES type 8 intermediate transportable ground controlled interception (GCI) installation at Orby near Skegness. (After The Battle)
Flying searchlights. Douglas Boston III ‘Turbinlite’, Z2184 of 1453 Flight (later 532 Squadron), the personal mount of Fg Off Jack Cheney. (Cheney collection)
The parabolic mirror and light ignition apparatus of a Helmore Turbinlite, mounted in the nose of a Douglas Boston III. (Simon Parry)
Taking Satan for a ride. A Heinkel He111 with a large calibre bomb attached to the external portside rack. This may have been the object Wg Cdr Irving Smith reported as a torpedo during his interceptions on June 24/25 1942.
Spitfire Vb RF-H of 303 (Polish) Squadron at Kirton in Lindsey airfield, Lincolnshire, involved in the destruction of two Junkers Ju88s near Spilsby on July 2/3 1942. (Cheney collection)
Flt Sgt Popek, 303 Squadron, one of the four Polish pilots who shot down two Ju88s near Spilsby on July 3 1942. (Wilhelm Ratuszynski)
Pilots of 303 (Polish) Squadron at RAF Kirton in Lindsey. Sgt Rockitnicki is second from left and Fg Off Kolecki is leaning on the elevator. Both were involved in the combat of July 3 1942. Sqn Ldr Zumbach is fourth from right. (Wilhelm Ratuszynski)
Dornier Do217E-4, F8+CN, wk nr 4279 of II/KG40, clearly showing a ‘two-tone’ black night camouflage. This aeroplane was shot down at Fleet Fen, near Spalding, on July 23/24 1942. (Bundesarchiv)
Flt Lt E L ‘Peter’ McMillan (right) with Wg Cdr Paul Davoud of 409 Squadron, admiring a prop blade from the Dornier McMillan intercepted over Fleet Fen on July 23/24 1942. (Gp Capt E L McMillan via Bill Norman)
Beaufighter Mk VI with ‘arrowhead’ AI Mk IV radar antennae on nose and wing leading edges, as flown by Flt Lt McMillan of 409 Squadron on the night of July 23/24 1942. (IWM)
All that remained of a Dornier Do217 after it was caught by a night fighter and crashed at Salthouse Heath on the north Norfolk coast on July 30/31 1942. (Peter Brooks collection)
New Zealander Flt Lt Harvey Sweetman, 486 Squadron, left: Group Captain Basil Embry, RAF Wittering station commander, centre: Sqn Ldr Bob Roberts, OC 486, right, in front of a Hurricane II at RAF Wittering, July 1942. (Paul Sortehaug)
Aircrew of A Flight 532 (Turbinlite) Squadron, on being re-numbered in September 1942. OC Sqn Ldr Stewart is seated fifth from right. Fg Off Jack Cheney is seated second left, with his radar operator, Flt Sgt James Mycock second left on back row. (Cheney collection)
Group Captain Basil Embry, station commander RAF Wittering 1942. (Cheney collection)
Sqn Ldr Stewart takes command of 532 Squadron while on detachment to RAF Hibaldstow in September 1942. (Cheney collection)
Heinkel He111 H5, werke nummer 3769, showing the effects of battle damage from .303 machine guns. (Don Hannah)
Dornier Do217E-4, U5+ZN of KG2, with crew relaxing in the summer sun at Gilze-Rijen airfield in 1942. (Bundesarchiv)
151 Squadron’s South African night fighter ace Flt Lt Henry Bodien DFC in 1943. (Mick Kelsey)
Mosquito NFII, DD750, clearly showing off all its AI antennae and factory-fresh in its early night fighter all-black paint scheme. DD750 flew operationally with 25 Squadron but was destroyed in a flying accident near Keighley, Yorks, on March 22 1943. (Roy Bonser collection)
25 Squadron with Mosquito NFII, RAF Church Fenton, June 16 1943. Front, from left: Davies, Snell, Wg Cdr Maude (OC), Gp Capt Stannard (Stn Cdr), Flt Lt Joe Singleton, Cooke. Middle, from left: WO Ben Bent, Gibbs, Cummings, Hogarth, Haigh, Cairns, Norris, Grey, Gallagher, Guthrie, ?, ?. Back, from left: Franklin, Cooke, Underdown, Sewell, ?, ?, Skinner, ?, Wilson, Charman. (Joe Singleton)
Mosquito bite! The devastating power of the four .303 machine guns and four 30mm cannon of a Mosquito night fighter is being demonstrated in the butts.
The revolving aerial of a ‘final’ AMES Mk 7 GCI radar installation. The partly subterranean ‘Happidrome’ operations bunker in the background is believed to be that of RAF Langtoft. (J Baxter)
‘Helga’ prepares for a raid. Heinkel He177A-3 of I/KG100 based at Châteaudun at the time of Operation Steinbock. This Luftwaffe four-engine heavy bomber, specifically designed for the long-range role, used coupled pairs of engines. It was the type shot down by a Mosquito of 307 Squadron off Skegness on March 19/20 1944. (Luftwaffepics.com)
Flt Lt Joseph Singleton DFC, (centre) and his Nav/RO Fg Off Geoff Haslam, both with heads bandaged, in Coltishall officers’ mess after a night patrol in which they destroyed three Junkers Ju88s in fifteen minutes on March 20 1944, fifty miles out from The Wash. (via Wg Cdr J Singleton)
Dornier Do217E-4 with dappled camouflage pattern on upper surfaces and black on lower surfaces. Individual aircraft and staffel letters ‘HN’ are visible on the fin leading edge but unit codes have been painted out. (Bundesarchiv)
A Mosquito ‘office’. Interior view of an NFII cockpit with pilot’s control column on the left and the AI Mk VIII radar display unit in front of the navigator’s seat on the right. (via Wg Cdr J Singleton)
Sqn Ldr A I (Alex) McRitchie (left) learned his trade as a night fighter pilot with 151 Squadron. Posted to 464 Squadron, he is seen here with navigator Flt Lt R W Sampson before taking part in the famous Mosquito raid on Amiens prison. (Hawker Siddeley Aviation/BAe)
A V-1 flying bomb attached to the port wing root of a Heinkel He111 for air-launching trials.
Heinkel He111H-22, 5K+GA of Stab/KG3 with a V1 attached for air launching. In operational service, V-1 flying bombs were carried on a release shackle attached to the reinforced main spar at the starboard wing root. (via Heinz Nowarra)
The ill-conceived Turbinlite Mosquito, W4087, test flown at RAF Wittering on February 5 1943. (Simon Parry)
CHAPTER 6
Night Hawks
From November 1940 onwards, the RAF felt the benefit of a series of changes that turned its night fighting force into a potent, cohesive organisation. Principal among these was, first, the arrival of the Bristol Beaufighter IF with AI Mk IV and second, the employment of Ground Controlled Interception techniques.
GCI stations providing radar cover over the approaches to the Midlands (and of course beyond) were located in an arc round The Wash at Orby, in Digby sector near Skegness, Langtoft, in Wittering sector south of Spalding, and Neatishead in Coltishall sector near Norwich. From spring 1941 almost all night fighter actions over this region were controlled by one or other of these three GCI stations, acting as the long range eyes of the fighters and guiding them to within the shorter three or four mile range of their airborne sets. Although the date on which it opened is unclear, Orby was one of only six mobile GCI units operational in the UK at the beginning of 1941 and as seen in the last chapter, it was certainly handling interceptions in early March. In its initial form it was composed of mobile antennae units mounted on trailers and lorries parked in a grass field, connected by a veritable knitting-pattern of cables to control room trailers that owed their origin more to caravans and tents than anything else. The height finding capability of those early mobile-aerial units was limited due to the same antenna being used both to transmit and receive signals and even with a programme of continual modifications, it was accurate only to within about 1,000-foot units of altitude until the advent of more accurate centimetric equipment. However, this was still good enough to bring night fighters to within striking distance of their targets. With a range of detection initially in the order of fifty miles up to 25,000 feet altitude, this range decreased as the altitude of a target got lower. As technology improved, detection ranges increased in excess of one hundred miles.
Langtoft soon joined Orby on stream and as will be seen below, was in full operation by May 1941. Research by The Blitz Then and Now team established that:
On April 7 1941 the first of a limited batch of twelve ‘intermediate transportable’ stations with rotating aerials was opened at Langtoft. The whole station could be transported using six
lorries and six trailers. However, once at site the gantry and aerial had to be erected on ground foundations. . . which employed ten men for three days. These, like the mobile GCIs were termed Air Ministry Experimental Stations (AMES) Type 8.
During 1942 Langtoft GCI was re-equipped with what was called AMES Type 7 permanent equipment and brick buildings which, with a series of more modern radars and underground bunkers, continued to perform that role until 1958.
Langtoft GCI’s visible component, the above-ground aerial array known as a ‘revolving mattress’, stood thirty-five feet high and was split into two segments, an upper and lower, revolving six to eight times a minute. With this split-aerial arrangement, height was now deduced from the time difference between a signal sent out from the upper segment being received by the lower segment and this substantially improved its accuracy in that respect. Signals indicating aircraft positions were relayed to an adjacent control huts (later, concrete bunkers) and traces projected onto a circular plan position indicator cathode screen, while indications of target height were displayed as synchronised traces on a separate cathode display tube. Initially only one interception at a time could be controlled but as the system developed, more than one fighter could be handled by a number of controllers at the same station. Each would interpret a display, allocate targets to fighters and because they could distinguish friend from foe by emissions from the former’s ‘identification friend or foe’ (IFF) signal, pass interception instructions to their fighter to bring it into AI range of about two to four miles. After that it was up to the RO’s (later re-designated navigator) with their airborne interception sets to guide a pilot to within a few hundred yards, at which point it was then all up to the pilot and his ‘eyeball Mark 1’ to finish the job. By the way, while an IFF signal meant ‘friendly’, the absence of an IFF signal did not automatically mean ‘enemy’ since the transmitter could have been switched off or faulty – so targets still had to be positively identified by an attacking fighter before firing.
It is clear that human teamwork, too, was a vital component throughout the whole of the chain. According to former 25 Squadron night fighter pilot, Wing Commander Joseph Singleton DSO DFC AFC, the process of relaying the target altitudes through the control chain was somewhat fraught with error. It was therefore not at all uncommon he said, “for one or more component in the chain, including the pilot, to add a thousand feet or two to the reported height, just to be on the safe side in an effort to get above a bandit.”
Additionally, in the New Year of 1941, this ground organisation was supported by night fighter operational training units, for example 54 OTU at RAF Church Fenton, turning out a steady flow of new crews. There were also gradual improvements to the quality and reliability of AI equipment itself, coupled with increasing experience of its use and finally, considerable improvements were made to VHF radio-telephony that directly linked GCI stations to the fighters. Without such fast and reliable communication, GCI would not have been as effective.
In his book Radar Days E G Bowen wrote:
In the first two months of 1941 the weather was unusually bad over Europe and this restricted enemy activity. In March the enemy resumed heavy night raids on Britain and during that single month the night fighters scored twenty-two kills. In April the number destroyed was fifty-two with a further eighty-eight probables. In May 1941 a total of 102 confirmed kills were made by night fighters over British soil… and 172 damaged. These were losses the German Air Force could not sustain.
Night fighter units active over this particular region in that period were 25 Squadron, with Beaufighters; 151 Squadron (Hurricanes and Defiants), both based at Wittering and its Collyweston satellite and 29 Squadron, having completed its re-equipment with the Beaufighter, based at RAF Digby located between Sleaford and Lincoln. Coleby Grange began its association with night fighters as Digby’s second satellite airfield with the Canadians of 409 Squadron operating Defiant and Beaufighter aircraft there from mid-1941.
The first Beaufighter to be delivered to 25 Squadron at RAF North Weald on September 2 1940 was R2056, a cannon-only version, followed by three more during the month and the four were declared operational in October when the squadron moved to RAF Debden. It will be seen later that 25 Squadron used some Beaufighter IFs armed with four 20mm cannon only and some armed with four 20mm cannon and six .303 machine guns. This was because the first fifty Mk IFs rolled out from Bristol’s Filton factory were built with cannon only and some of these were among the first issued to the squadron.
Another move in late November 1940 brought the squadron to RAF Wittering but it was not until during January 1941 that its re-equipment with the new fighter was complete. Thus, at the beginning of 1941, 25 Squadron had the tools with which to make its presence felt by the enemy. However, just as with 29 Squadron in Chapter 4, some months would elapse before the training, necessary with both a new aeroplane and a new version of AI, would pay off in operational success.
Flt Lt J ‘Inky’ Inkster and Sgt Charles Johnson were the first to cross swords with an enemy bomber in an unsuccessful engagement on January 16 and this was followed by another inconclusive engagement on January 27 off the north Norfolk coast. Initially controlled by Orby GCI, the Beaufighter went out of its range and had to revert to Wittering sector, relaying CHL information. Sector put them onto a bandit but although Johnson found an AI contact and Inkster managed to get in close enough to loose off a short burst of cannon and m/g fire, they lost visual and AI sight of the target.
Spells of bad weather throughout February and March brought Wittering squadrons little trade but from the beginning of April things began to look up, although sadly it was an accident that cast a shadow first. Sgt Harold Maxwell and his RO Flt Sgt D Roberts died when X7541 stalled on approach and crashed in Burghley Park just short of the airfield.
First enemy blood went to the team of Sgt S Bennett (pilot) and Sgt Frank Curtis (RO) in Beaufighter R2122 on the night of April 9/10. Intruder unit NJG2 was active that night in support of major attacks on Birmingham and Tyneside and at 20.00 hours on the 9th a Junkers Ju88 C-2 flown by Gefr Franz Brotz took off from Gilze-Rijen airfield in Holland, heading for airfields around The Wash. Patrolling a line east of Wittering, Bennett saw a shower of incendiary bombs being dropped in the distance. As he was still under the control of RAF Wittering he asked for and received permission to go and investigate. Almost immediately Curtis picked up a contact on the AI set and his instructions allowed Bennett to come in behind the bandit and spot it, silhouetted against some cloud, crossing in front and slightly below, but in his enthusiasm he overshot the first pass and lost sight of the bomber. Frank Curtis, though, held it on his set and brought Bennett back behind the target. This time he made no mistake. At 200 yards range two bursts of cannon fire devastated the cockpit, killing Brotz and badly wounding flight engineer Uffz Erich Gorlt. Radio operator Uffz Willi Lindner was slightly wounded but he and Gorlt managed to bale out to become POWs. The Junkers, R4+CM wk nr 0776, went down in flames, crashing with its pilot near Langham in Rutland about ten miles west of RAF Wittering.
Opinion differs as to who actually delivered the coup de grâce to Obergefreiter Wilhelm Beetz, Gefreiter Johann Mittag and Gefreiter Rudolf Cronika, the crew of another NJG2 Junkers Ju88. This C-2 intruder variant, wk nr 0345, coded R4+BM, was shot down on April 17 1941, to crash and bury itself on Hurn’s Farm, French Drove, Gedney Hill, about eight miles south of Spalding. According to a local newspaper report, the enemy aircraft was heard circling the area for some time before the crash. It was a moonlit night and a number of people had what was said to be a clear view of a dogfight between a fighter and an enemy aircraft which crashed in flames and burned out. Set ablaze in the attack, the Ju88 was later found to have dived vertically at great speed into the ground, where it was almost entirely buried in the soft fen clay. Some seat armour and one MG15 was recovered, together with what remained of the bodies of the crew. The site of the crash was quickly turned into a quagmire of wa
tery clay but the crater was eventually filled in and returned to farmland.
It has even been suggested that this Junkers may have been shot down by one of its own kind and no RAF combat report has yet come to light to refute that idea. Local people, however, recounted a story about a “black Hurricane” seen swooping very low over the crater next day, only narrowly avoiding collision with a nearby farm shed. Was this the victor taking a look at his vanquished perhaps, or maybe just a curious 151 Squadron pilot out on an air test?
There lay the Junkers for thirty-seven years – and this writer had occasionally found scraps of Perspex and aluminium where the ploughed field met the roadside grass verge – until October 1978 when Wealden Aviation Archaeology Group excavated the site. In a corner of that lonely field a crater some twenty feet across and twenty feet deep was opened up by an excavator. From this hole was recovered a large quantity of mangled wreckage together with both engines, propellers, undercarriage, ammunition, maps and numerous components which once gave life to an aeroplane. One of the most interesting finds was the survival dinghy, preserved in excellent condition and complete even to an intact bottle of medicinal brandy. These artefacts can now be seen in a refurbished and preserved condition at a museum on the former Tangmere airfield near Chichester.
There were clear signs now that the Luftwaffe was stepping up its operations across the whole of the country and – little did they know it – the night fighter squadrons would be severely tested during the next two weeks. 25 Squadron had been fully operational with the Beaufighter for only three months and the new GCI stations had been operational for just two of those months. However, the Luftwaffe had been relatively inactive during that period, so although the crews practiced hard, there had been few opportunities to carry out interceptions against an elusive, aggressive enemy. May 1941 was going to be the month in which 25 Squadron would feel great pressure and frustration in equal measure.