by Ray Ollis
Shakespeare’s Henry V, referring to the construction of knight’s armour and other preparations prior to battle. Ollis directly aligns the bomber crews with the knights who fought the French for Calais. The build-up to D-Day was phenomenally complex.
Speer; ‘I shall never forget the date May 12 [1944]… On that day the technological war was decided. Until then we had managed to produce approximately as many weapons as the armed forces needed, in spite of their considerable losses. But with the attack of 935 daylight bombers of the American Eighth Air Force upon several fuel plants in central and eastern Germany, a new era in the air war began. It meant the end of German armaments production.’
Ryan only says that the window-dropping force (617 and 218 Squadrons) ‘confused’ the German radar stations because the window ‘snowed the screens’; although partly correct, this is ultimately misleading. 101 Nights was published three years before The Longest Day, and here Ollis explains that the Window-dropping force (operations Glimmer and Taxable) pretended to be an invasion fleet. Operation ABC had five B-17s from 214 Squadron (of 100 Group) and 24 101 ABC Squadron Lancasters flying in a great rectangle (roughly from Eastborne to le Traport), their radio emissions pretending to be part of a huge bomber stream; the ABC aircraft were intended to draw the German fighters. Due to engine failures, P/O M.J. Steele’s ABC Lancaster L-Love was ditched 25 miles off Beachy Head at 0050 hrs; the crew were quickly retrieved.
Aircrew often preferred older aircraft because they had always returned. See Franks, Ton-up Lancs (2005).
There were four airborne deception operations in the evening and early morning. Operations Glimmer (performed by 218 Squadron between Eastbourne and Boulogne) and Taxable (performed by 617 and 50 Squadrons between the middle of the Channel opposite Littlehampton and the Cap d’Antifer) consisted of pushing out bundles of Window at precise intervals as the aircraft flew at a precise low level and slow speed, producing radar signals which simulated an invasion fleet. Similarly, Operations Titanic I, II, III and IV (performed by 149, 138, 90, 199 and 803 Squadrons) simulated an airborne invasion near Caen and the Cap d’Antifer, dropping hundreds of dummy paratroops (armed with sound and light-producing devices) through a huge cloud of Window. Mandrel was twelve ships producing emissions from the Channel to jam the German early warning radars from picking up the actual invasion fleet. ‘All the German night fighters that operated were put up against the patrol of ABC aircraft … on their arrival in the area, the fighters found that they were being subjected to serious jamming on the R/T communications channel; then the fighter control plotting became confused due to the presence of German fighters in among the jammers. The fighters returned towards their control points, but appear to have received instructions to go on hunting in the [non-existent] bomber stream as there was sporadic fighter activity in that area between 0105 hr and 0355 hr. The result of all this confusion was that the Airborne Forces met no opposition in the air and landed with negligible casualties—a remarkable achievement when it is remembered that a casualty rate of at least 25% was expected’ (Brookes); also see Price.
101 had no respite after D-Day; there were just too many important ops, some supporting the invasion, some to V1 launching sites. From here onwards Ray seems to be describing his own operational experiences.
This may be how Glenn Miller died; heading for Paris on a foggy 15 December 1944 his C-64 transport aircraft flew into an area allocated for jettisoning bombs, and was hit by bombs dropped by recalled Lancasters. If a pilot needed to jettison his load, ultimately he was going to drop it where-ever he could.
Middlebrook and Everitt state that the RAF lost 53 Bomber Command aircraft from the night of 5 June to the morning of the 9th, not including Fighter Command (Air Defence of Great Britain), Coastal Command, nor the Second Tactical Air Force losses; the USAAF 8th and 9th Air Forces were also involved in D-Day. There are many books detailing the land and airborne forces on D-Day; but at the time Ollis was writing, the air and naval aspects of D-Day were all but forgotten; to some extent it remains so today. See Delve, D-Day. The Air Battle (1994).
PART TWO
One
A deliberately chosen name. Matthew the Evangelist died a martyr. Thomas A’Beckett (1118–1170) was Henry II’s ‘turbulent priest’. The Chilterns are the chalk flatlands spread over much of southern and eastern England, including Lincolnshire; it seems that Ollis is describing Chiltern as a chalky, flaky man whose natural goal is martyrdom because he angers people enough they want to kill him.
During WW2 the RAF dropped unnecessary formality. On operational stations saluting was unnecessary given the stress and strain of operations. But saluting and proper RAF conduct was rigorously enforced at training stations, and some newly arrived aircrew found this lack of discipline initially confusing, with awkward or embarrassing results. See also Cusack.
The only person dressed up in full pomp and regalia at the Lord Mayor’s Show in a local village or town, would be the Mayor and a few dignitaries; everyone else would be dressed more casually.
Actual battle conditions could not be simulated, and the rapid pace of the night war meant that what was current six months ago would not be current by the time the new crew arrived at an operational squadron, Training Command was not highly regarded by operational crews.
In the lead-up to the invasion of Europe, the RAF began flying short, daylight missions.
‘Screened from operations’. Johnnie had reached the end of his tour. A second tour of operations was 20 ops, after which aircrew could no longer be ordered to fly on operations. The exception was the Pathfinder Force, whose first tour was 45 operations, and 15 optional. Many crews opted to continue after completing the ‘magic 60’, some flying over 100 ops.
Invoking the battle cry ‘England, Bomber Harris and Christmas turkey at home!’, light-heartedly reprises Shakespeare’s famous war cry, ‘Cry ‘God for England, Harry and Saint George!’ (Henry V).
A deviation of aim of only a few degrees would result in the bombs being wasted; bombs often fell outside the target area, even miles from the aiming-point. When a crew bombed a few seconds early, their bombs would not reach the target. Bombing planners learned to place the aiming-point slightly ahead of the bomber stream, so most of this ‘creep-back’ would land on target.
The fighting was bitter but by 10 July the British held Caen.
At almost 270 kilometres long, the Dortmund-Ems Canal was used to transport war material from the Ruhr. Although its banks were easily repairable it was at its most vulnerable along a raised aqueduct near the Munster lock. Ollis is probably referring to the raid of 23/24 September 1944, although he did not fly that day.
Introduced in January 1943 for Pathfinder aircraft, H2S produced a self-contained radar topographical image. Although the Germans could neither jam or alter the image, it was helpful to the navigator but unreliable as a target locator. 101 aircraft could not carry ABC as well as H2S.
The Englishman who ‘provoked the War of American Independence’ was General Thomas Gage.
An excellent point. Similarly, many in the RAF’s upper reaches opposed the appointment of Don Bennett as head of the Pathfinder Force. Bennett had a significant civilian aviation background and made mighty contributions to the RAF; see Alan Branson’s Master Airman (1985).
Two
Most aircrew did not want to be seen to over-exaggerate their achievements; ‘shooting a line’ attracted much derision. Farlow’s answer of ‘a bit of a fiddle between Crete and Cairo’, was meant to be a self-effacing ‘bit of a mix-up’, but the Squadron Commander thinks Farlow means that he ‘fiddled’ or ‘wangled’ the medal. Cusack uses the term ‘fiddly’ to mean a one-pound note, the sum for which a favour would be done.
Ollis flew to Emmerich on 7 October 1944, noting ‘Reich by day!’. Middlebrook and Everitt report a successful raid on elements of the German army in the town; more than six times the number of civilians as soldiers were killed.
Aircraft today have electroni
c fly-by-wire—the equivalent of power-steering—but a Lanc had to be physically hauled about the sky. Flying in the slipstreams of other aircraft would be tiring as Chiltern would have to fight to keep the sometimes bucking aircraft on an even keel within the bomber stream. Note that Chiltern accepts that he is placing the aircraft—and the lives of his crew—in the way of a potentially lethal fighter attack.
A dialect pronunciation; he and his family pronounce his name ‘Smiff’, not ‘Smith’.
Given that Ollis had suffered burns in combat, he may well be describing his own hands.
In the Halifax, the wireless operator and the navigator both sat below and in front of the pilot and flight engineer’s seats, with the bomb aimer’s position further forward. In the Lancaster the bomb aimer either lay or stood below them, above the escape hatch ‘just twenty-two inches wide’. Behind a curtain, the navigator’s desk was immediately behind the pilot (facing port), the astrodome above him. The radio operator sat behind the navigator. ‘From the older types of British night bomber, Halifax and Stirling, about twenty-five per cent [escaped]. From Lancasters, fifteen per cent. … The Lancaster hatch was in various ways more awkward and harder to squeeze through [and] probably cost the lives of several thousand boys’ (Dyson).
On the night of 5/6 October, Ollis navigated for a crew lead by F/L Haycraft. On the Siegfried Line, the roads and railways around Saarbrücken were bombed to assist the Third Army. Despite the thousands of houses ruined, only 344 people died.
Three
Cusack was also over-age when he enlisted in the RAAF; many Free French pilots who flew with the RAF were also above the maximum allowable age.
Snow’s Australian variation of ‘get your finger out’ or ‘pull your finger out’ emphasises the unpleasant implication that the person being addressed has their finger up their bottom instead of doing their job. This was such a common term that Tee Emm published ‘This Month’s Prunery: The Most Highly Derogatory Order of the Irremovable Finger’ (OIF), delivering a pithy piece on an aviator’s foolishness. ‘Get your finger out’ also gave rise to superb terms like ‘finger trouble’ or ‘digititis’, meaning that someone wasn’t very competent.
‘The great Australian adjective’ used to be ‘bloody’. These days, ‘bloody’ is barely a swear word. When many people were far more strict in their beliefs, ‘bloody’ was not merely naughty, but crude, crass and ugly. ‘Fuck’ and ‘piss’ were shocking to many; the ‘c’ word was utterly beyond the pale. Even so, in the 1940s a greater percentage of Australians swore more fluently than the British.
Ray told Margaret Ollis that ‘Specials never deserted or baled out; they were part and parcel of the thing. It did upset them that they weren’t treated as important; it was the crew who made them feel better, and more included.’ His disclaimer, ‘I know of no true instance … where a German “Special” baled out over his homeland’ seems designed to make one wonder if such an incident did occur. In fact, 101’s Operations Record Book reveals that Special Operator F. Urch did bale out over Hannover during evasive action, on 18 October 1943, leaving Sergeant D. Langford and the rest of his crew of A for Apple behind. Some aircrew did bale out during operations, preferring to face the enemy or the sea rather than another operation or the stigma of ‘going LMF’. Also, when an aircraft had been fatally hit, aircrew would occasionally be caught by the aircraft as it plunged. In Laughter-Silvered Wings (1984), J. Douglas Harvey recounts the tale of a mid-upper gunner baling out during a German raid on London; ‘as soon as the gunner got back to base he went LMF and refused to fly again. When he had landed in London … he had been set upon by irate Londoners who assumed he was German …’ See also Renaut and Calmel.
Four
The Battle of Arnhem (17 to 26 September 1944) was a critical part of Operation Market Garden, mostly involving British troops.
During the Battle of Britain, the Messerchmitt Bf 109 was faster and more manoeuvrable than the Hawker Hurricane, and difficult for the Supermarine Spitfire to beat—but it could only stay a short time over England. In later years the Bf 109 lagged behind improved marks of Spitfire. The FW 190 arrived in mid-1941. Designed by the superbly-named Kurt Tank, the Focke-Wulf FW 190A flew at over 410 mph and was armed with four 20 mm cannon. Pilots of the Spitfire V received a rude awakening. The North American P-51 Mustang came into its own in early 1944, when fitted with the new Rolls-Royce Merlin 61. The Mustang also carried new disposable drop-tanks. The P-51 then escorted bombers as far as Berlin. At the time Ollis flew, the umbrella of fighters protecting the RAF daylight bombers were hundreds strong. 101 Nights describes what is the Battle of Germany.
The huge shock-waves from the bursting bombs were from the 4,000 pound (or 8,000 pound, or 12,000 pound) ‘cookies’ which, when seen in daylight, appeared to expand like gigantic bubbles.
Operation Hurricane. The two back-to-back raids on Duisberg took place on 14 and 15 October 1944. After arriving back at Ludford just after 5 am after their second Duisberg op, the crews were woken to prepare for a 5.30 take-off for Wilhelmshaven, their ‘third op in 40 hours’ as Ollis notes. Calmel on the first Duisburg raid: ‘In the sea of clouds … they found a single gap and below this was the target … the bombing was impeccable. The gap was quickly filled with thick black smoke from the explosions of 4,500 tons of bombs.’ On the second raid, Duisburg was visible as ‘a red gleam … 130 miles away … Gigantic fires reddened the sky … Nearly the whole city was ablaze. Visibility was excellent, and the flak, obliterated by the hail of bombs that morning, was practically non-existent … The spectacle was grandiose, but it was no longer human.’ Ollis’s log-book; ‘Four journalists were to have flown these dual trips to Duisburg. Only one survived’. William Troughton’s report on these raids made the front page of the Daily Express. Journalists habitually clamoured to fly on raids, and many were lost. Ed Murrow was the only journalist to survive out of the four who accompanied 101’s neighbouring Squadrons 50 and 460 on the 2/3 December 1943 raid on Berlin.
By this time the weight of bombs dropped by the USAAF and RAF well exceeded the weight dropped by the Germans on England; ‘the greater the tonnage of bombs dropped, the better the effect’ seemed to be the mantra. The inability of the Allies to hit precisely the right target lead to a blunting of civilised sensibilities; Harris enthusiastically pointed to large areas of cities laid waste, assuming that an area in ruins could no longer produce aircraft, tanks, trucks etc. This was disproved when Albert Speer was interviewed for the Nuremberg trials.
Tarmac—even if the runway was concrete, as it was here, the runway was always referred to as ‘tarmac’.
Five
RAF heroes. In the October 2011 issue of Britain at War, James Cutler revealed that on the night of 19 September 1944, Guy Gibson had been shot down by 61 Squadron Lancaster mid-upper gunner Bernard McCormack, who thought Gibson’s Mosquito was a Ju 88 night fighter. Gibson’s book, Enemy Coast Ahead, tells of his experiences up until the end of the Dams Raid on 16/17 May 1943. Edgar James ‘Cobber’ Kain DFC (1918–1940) was a New Zealand Hurricane fighter ace with 17 credited victories in the Battle of France, won the war’s first DFC, and died while ‘beating up’ the airfield prior to flying home. Douglas Bader was a British Hurricane fighter ace with 20 credited victories. Shot down and captured over France; between escape attempts the rest of Bader’s war was spent tormenting his German guards at Colditz. Paddy Finucane was a Spitfire fighter ace with 26 credited victories; the youngest wing commander, he was killed in action on 15 July 1942—his death is as Ollis describes.
The raid on St Vith, Boxing Day, 1944.
PART THREE
One
Escape kits were developed by Clayton Hutton. ‘[Butch Harris] fingered the supple leather approvingly and asked me what was the idea of the strip of webbing running round the boot at ankle level. By way of answer I extracted a tiny knife blade from the cloth loop at the top of one of the boots and with it I cut through the webbing. “There you are, sir,” I said
, as I separated the two sections. “The perfect escape boot. Two compasses and a powerful saw in the lace, the bottom part easily detachable to make an ordinary walking shoe; the top half, lined with fur, can be used with the top half of the other boot to provide a warm winter waistcoat”’ (Hutton).
Hawker Typhoons were equipped with rockets in late 1943. Ollis’s comment is not strictly accurate, but the Tiffy’s eight 60 lb rocket projectiles were deadly for German armour and shipping.
Tee Emm, June 1943: ‘Drugs of the benzedrine, ephedrine and pervitin type, if taken in small doses of 5 to 10 milligrammes, stave off sleepiness and increase the sense of well-being, but after a time they decrease the desire to work, and by postponing the desire to sleep they will in the end kill the ability to do so. They should therefore only be used under the medical officer’s supervision in an occasional temporary emergency in which the possible dangers from sleepiness are greater than those from work fatigue’. First appearing in inhalers for asthmatics, benzedrine was also used to treat narcolepsy but, because of the easy availability of the drug for aircrew and soldiers, was used ‘recreationally’ during WW2. ‘Wakey-wakey’ pills were given to aircrew to take before an operation; in the event of an op being scrubbed, those who had taken the pills before take-off were kept awake for the rest of the night. Side-effects—critical for aircrew—included an increasing inability to make sound decisions, which also included a ‘willingness to take risks’ and therefore an increase in aircraft losses. It is now illegal for commercial pilots to take benzedrine or any other amphetamine.
Johnny Evans: ‘… the escaper’s greatest enemy is hunger … When a man is starving, he very soon becomes reckless and insensitive. He takes unnecessary risks. He approaches farm buildings and the dogs give him away. He hunts for food in the fields … Once a man’s belly is empty he makes a hundred and one mistakes …’ (Hutton).