by Adam Claasen
Chapter 3: Channel Battles
[1] ‘Operation “Sea-Lion”’ (Translations of 12 Top-Secret directives for the invasion of Britain, signed by Hitler, Keitel and Jodl in July, August, September and October, 1940. Translated by Air Ministry, AHB6, February 1947. Translation VII/21), Australian War Memorial [hereafter AWM], Canberra, 54 423/4/103.
[2] W. Hubatsch, Hitlers Weisungen für die Kriegführung 1939–1945: Dokumente des Oberkommandoes der Wehrmacht, Bernard and Graefe, München, 1983, pp.61–65.
[3] D. Irving, Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe: The Life of Luftwaffe Field Marshal Erhard Milch, Focal Point, London, 1991, p.67.
[4] Deighton, p.150.
[5] Bishop, Fighter Boys, pp.233–34.
[6] Orange, Park, p.28.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid., p.30.
[9] Ibid., p.96.
[10] Pilot Officer Donald Gordon Cobden, Combat Report, 21 May 1940, NA, AIR 50/32.
[11] F. Mason, Battle Over Britain: A history of the German air assaults on Great Britain, 1917–18 and July–December 1940, and of the Development of Britain’s Air Defences between the World Wars, Aston, Bourne End, 1990, p.122.
[12] Bungay, p.198.
[13] Deere, pp.90–91.
[14] Ibid., pp.95–96.
[15] Flight Officer Robert Lindsay Glyde, Combat Report, 11 July 1940, NA, AIR 50/37/510.
[16] Flight Lieutenant Stuart Crosby Walch, Combat Report, 11 July 1940, NA, AIR 50/91/38.
[17] Newton, A Few of the Few, p.35.
[18] K. Wynn, A Clasp for the Few: A Biographical Account of New Zealand Pilots and Aircrew who Flew Operationally with RAF Fighter Command During the Battle of Britain, 10th July to 31 October 1940, Wynn, Auckland, 1981, pp.1–3. For all New Zealand losses in the Battle of Britain, see E. Martyn, For Your Tomorrow: A record of New Zealanders who have died while serving with the RNZAF and Allied Air Services since 1915, vol. one: Fates 1915–1942, Volplane, Christchurch, 1998; and For Your Tomorrow: A record of New Zealanders who have died while serving with the RNZAF and Allied Air Services since 1915, vol. three: Biographies and Appendices, Volplane, Christchurch, 2008.
[19] Kenneth Wynn, interview with author, 22 December 2010.
[20] Orange, Dowding, pp.103–4.
[21] Hugh Dowding, correspondence, 25 June, 1938, NA, AIR 2/2964.
[22] A. Brew, The Turret Fighters: Defiant and Roc, Crowood, Ramsbury, Wiltshire, 2002, pp.65–67.
[23] John Rushton Gard’ner, interview with author, 9 January 2011.
[24] Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, p.162.
[25] Acting Flight Lieutenant Stuart Crosby Walsh, Combat Report, 20 July 1940, NA, AIR 50/91/44; Newton, A Few of the Few, p.24.
[26] Olive and Newton, pp.100–102; Pilot Officer Charles Gordon Chaloner Olive, Combat Report, 20 July 1940, NA, AIR 50/25/36.
[27] Olive and Newton, p.103.
[28] Ibid., p.86.
[29] Ibid.
[30] Hillary, p.26.
[31] Ibid., p.35.
[32] Ibid., p.137.
[33] Burns, p.58.
[34] Clouston, pp.146–47.
[35] James Alfred Paterson, correspondence, 29 August 1940, RAFM, AC 1998/15/10.
[36] Spurdle, pp.50–51; C. Yeoman and J. Freeborn, Tiger Cub. A 74 Squadron Fighter Pilot in World War II: The Story of John Freeborn DFC, Pen and Sword, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, 2009, p.105.
[37] Yeoman and Freeborn, p.105.
[38] Spurdle, p.54.
[39] Burns, pp.60–61.
Chapter 4: Life and Death
[1] Colin Gray, Logbook, 24 July 1940, Larry Hill Collection.
[2] Deere, p.97.
[3] Flight Lieutenant Alan Christopher Deere, Combat Report, 24 July 1940, NA, AIR 50/21/104.
[4] Gray, pp.40–41; Colin Gray, Logbook, 24 July 1940, Larry Hill Collection.
[5] Deere, p.99.
[6] Pilot Officer Colin Gray, Combat Report, 25 July 1940, NA, AIR 50/21/105.
[7] Deere p.99.
[8] Gray, pp.20–21.
[9] Ibid., pp.35, 38.
[10] Deere, p.98.
[11] Ibid., p.99.
[12] Bishop, Fighter Boys, p.309.
[13] Keith Ashley Lawrence, interview with author, 10 December 2010.
[14] Time Magazine, August 8, 1940.
[15] G. Page, Shot Down in Flames: A World War II Fighter Pilot’s Remarkable Tale of Survival, Grub Street, London, 1999, p.69.
[16] Keith Ashley Lawrence, interview with author, 10 December 2010.
[17] James Paterson, photograph, n.d., RAFM, AC 1998/15; M. Lambert, Day after Day: New Zealanders in Fighter Command, HarperCollins, Auckland, 2011, p.159.
[18] John Rushton Gard’ner, interview with author, 9 January 2011.
[19] Bishop, Fighter Boys, p.327.
[20] Kinder, p.36.
[21] Bishop, Fighter Boys, p.330.
[22] James Paterson, correspondence, 29 August 1940, RAFM, AC 1998/15/10.
[23] A. Bartley, Smoke Trails in the Sky: From the Journals of a Fighter Pilot, William Kimber, London, 1984, p.58.
[24] Kinder, p.34.
[25] Yeoman and Freeborn, p.103.
[26] Ibid., p.102.
[27] Ibid., p.107.
[28] Gray, p.44.
[29] Deere, p.105.
[30] Bungay, pp.194–95.
[31] Olive and Newton, p.105.
[32] Ibid.
[33] Ibid., p.106.
[34] Ibid., pp.106–7.
[35] Newton, A Few of the Few, pp.79–80.
[36] Olive and Newton, p.107.
[37] Ibid., p.108.
[38] Kinder, p.43.
[39] James Chilton Francis Hayter, audio recording, 14 October 2004, Air Force Museum of New Zealand [hereafter AFMNZ], Wigram, Christchurch.
[40] R. Smith, Al Deere, Wartime Fighter Pilot, Peacetime Commander, the Authorised Biography, Grub Street, London, 2003, p.26.
[41] Ibid., p.44.
[42] Newton, A Few of the Few, p.81.
[43] Pilot Officer John Curchin, Combat Report, 8 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/171/17.
[44] Shores and Williams, pp.183–84.
[45] R. Beamont, My Part of the Sky: A Fighter Pilot’s First-hand Experiences, 1939–45, Patrick Stephens, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, 1989, p.52; Newton, A Few of the Few, pp.86–87.
[46] Beamont, p.52.
[47] J. Herrington, Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series Three, Air, vol.3, Air War Against Germany and Italy, 1939–1943, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1954, p.36.
[48] Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, pp.275–76.
[49] Squadron Leader Hector Douglas McGregor, Combat Report, 11 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/83/94.
[50] Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, p.86; K. Wynn, Men of the Battle of Britain, CCB Associates, Selsdon, Surrey, 1999, p.94.
Chapter 5: Eagle Attack
[1] Hubatsch, pp.17–19.
[2] Bungay, p.55.
[3] Ibid., p.59.
[4] Orange, Dowding, pp.105–9, 116–21.
[5] Bungay, p.61.
[6] Ibid., p.68.
[7] Ibid., pp.68–69.
[8] RAF Narrative (First Draft) Copy No.25, ‘The Air Defence of Great Britain, Volume II, The Battle of Britain’. Air Historical Branch (1) Air Ministry [hereafter AHB Narrative], p.113, AFMNZ.
[9] Olive and Newton, pp.119–20; J. Quill, Spitfire: A Test Pilot’s Story, University of Washington, Seattle, 1983, pp.168–69; Pilot Officer Charles Gordon Chaloner Olive, Combat Report, 12 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/25/108.
[10] Pilot Officer Brendan Eamonn Fergus Finucane, Combat Report, 12 August, 1940, NA, AIR 50/25/87.
[11] Olive and Newton, p.121.
[12] R. Hough and D. Richards, The Battle of Britain: The Greatest Air Battle of World War II, Norton, London, 2005, p.146.
[13] Squadron Leader Hector Douglas McGregor, Combat Report, 12 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/83/94.
[14] Pilot Officer Wycliff Stuart Williams, Combat Report, 12 Augu
st 1940, NA, AIR 50/501/391; Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, pp.438–39.
[15] Fight Lieutenant John Albert Axel Gibson, Combat Report, 12 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/142/21.
[16] Hough and Richards, p.153.
[17] James Chilton Francis Hayter, audio recording, 14 October 2004, AFMZN.
[18] Pilot Officer Howard Clive Mayers, Combat Report, 8 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/165/35.
[19] Pilot Officer Howard Clive Mayers, Combat Report, 13 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/165/35.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Newton, A Few of the Few, pp.94, 97; Beamont, p.53.
[22] Deighton, p.207.
[23] Pilot Officer Colin Falkland Gray, Combat Report, 18 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/21/37.
[24] Gray, p.50.
[25] Bishop, Fighter Boys, p.277.
[26] A. Claasen, Hitler’s Northern War: The Luftwaffe’s Ill-fated Campaign, 1940–1945, University of Kansas, Lawrence, 2001, p.166.
[27] B. Norman, Luftwaffe over the North: Episodes in an Air War, 1939–1943, Leo Cooper, London, 1997, pp.66–67.
[28] Deighton, p.212.
[29] Flying Officer Desmond Frederick Bert Sheen, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/30/211.
[30] Norman, pp.66–67.
[31] Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, pp.391–392; Newton, A Few of the Few, p.104.
[32] Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, pp.220, 263.
[33] Franks, pp.150–151; Pilot Officer John Noble Mackenzie, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/18/163.
Chapter 6: Shot Down
[1] T. Clayton and P. Craig, Finest Hour, Coronet, London, 2001, pp.229–32.
[2] N.W. Faircloth, New Zealanders in the Battle of Britain, War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1950, p.10; Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, pp.169–70; Shores and Williams, pp.281–82.
[3] Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, p.255.
[4] Ibid., p.257.
[5] Ibid., p.383.
[6] Beamont, p.54.
[7] Flight Lieutenant Derek Harland Ward, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/37/494.
[8] Flying Officer Kenneth William Tait, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/37/490; Kenneth William Tait, Logbook, 15 August 1940, AFMNZ.
[9] There is some discrepancy over where Hight crashed. Wynn records that it was on ‘Walsford Road, Meyrick Park, Bournemouth’, A Clasp for the Few, p.204. J. Willis, Churchill’s Few: The Battle of Britain Remembered, p.107, states that it was at the end of the Middle Wallop runway. See also M. Pudney, ‘Last Moments of a Kiwi Fighter Pilot’, New Zealand Memories, vol.3, pp.434–36. Most likely the New Zealander was killed in Bournemouth where he is remembered with a road named after him.
[10] Pilot Officer George Maurice Lawrence Baird and Sergeant Douglas Burton were part of 248 Squadron and their Blenheim was shot down on a reconnaissance mission near Norway. Both men were captured and remained prisoners of war until 1945.
[11] C. Burgess, ‘Bush’ Parker: An Australian Battle of Britain Pilot in Colditz, Loftus, Australia: Australian Military History, 2007, pp.12–15.
[12] J.E.R. Wood, Detour: The Story of Oflag IVC, Falcon, London, 1946, pp.49–50.
[13] J. Champ and C. Burgess, The Diggers of Colditz, Kangaroo Press, 1997, p.126.
[14] Burgess, p.45; W. Morison, Flak and Ferrets: One way to Colditz, Sentinel, London, 1995, pp.162, 168.
[15] Burgess, pp.52–53.
[16] Newton, A Few of the Few, pp.73, 106–7.
[17] Flight Lieutenant John Francis Pain, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/18/32.
[18] John Francis Pain, Logbook, 15 August 1940, RAFM, B3329; Newspaper Clipping, Brisbane Courier Mail, n.d., RAFM, B3329.
[19] Deere, p.113.
[20] Adapted from Deighton, pp.119–20.
[21] Pilot Officer Irving Stanley Smith, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/63/458; Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, pp.353–54.
[22] Flight Lieutenant Alan Christopher Deere, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/21/104; Deere, p.113.
[23] Flight Lieutenant Alan Christopher Deere, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/21/104.
[24] Faircloth, p.12.
[25] Adapted from Bungay, pp.177–78.
[26] Burgess, p.25.
[27] Olive and Newton, p.102.
[28] London Gazette, no.34935, p.5289, 30 August 1940.
[29] M. Parker, The Battle of Britain, July–October 1940: An Oral History of Britain’s Finest Hour, Headline, London, 2001, p.215.
[30] Bungay, p.374.
[31] Parker, pp.256–57.
[32] Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, p.257.
[33] Deighton, p.215.
[34] Faircloth, p.12.
[35] John Mackenzie, ‘The Battle of Britain’, p.3, AFMNZ, Battle of Britain Box.
[36] Deere, p.126.
Chapter 7: Sector Airfields
[1] T.C.G. James, The Battle of Britain, Frank Cass, London, 2000, p.135.
[2] Hough and Richards, p.222; Operations Record Book, Station H.Q., RAF Tangmere, 16 August 1940, NA, AIR 28/815.
[3] Hough and Richards, p.222.
[4] Deere, pp.126–27.
[5] T. Woods, Three Wings: The Cliff Emeny Story, Zenith, New Plymouth, 2004, pp.23–25.
[6] Brew, p.70.
[7] Pilot Officer Harold Goodall, Combat Report, 24 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/104/857.
[8] Pilot Officer Colin Falkland Gray, Combat Report, 24 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/21/105.
[9] Pilot Officer Charles Gordon Chaloner Olive, Combat Report, 24 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/25/108.
[10] Hough and Richards, p.227.
[11] F. Ziegler, The Story of 609 Squadron: Under the White Rose, Crecy, Manchester, 1993, pp.131–32.
[12] Pilot Officer Keith Ashley Lawrence, Combat Report, 24 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/89/326.
[13] In spite of his British birth certificate, John Hewson was included in Newton’s work on the Battle of Britain because Hewson’s father, an Englishman, had emigrated to Australia. He married an Australian woman who bore him two children in Australia as well as their English-born son John. Newton, A Few of the Few, p.78.
[14] Pilot Officer Harold Goodall, Combat Report, 26 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/104/859.
[15] Pilot Officer Charles Gordon Chaloner Olive, Combat Report, 26 August 1940, AIR 50/25/108.
[16] Pilot Officer Harold Leslie North, Combat Report, 26 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/19/42; cf. Mason, p.244.
[17] H. Bolitho, Combat Report: The Story of a Fighter Pilot, Batsford, London, 1943, pp.102–3.
[18] Pilot Officer Patrick Wilmot Horton, Combat Report, 26 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/89/348.
[19] P. Bishop, Battle of Britain, A Day by Day Chronicle, 10 July 1940 to 31 October 1940, Quercus, London, 2009, p.244.
[20] New Zealand Herald, 9 September 1952; P. Addison and J. Crang, The Burning Blue: A New History of the Battle of Britain, Pimlico, London, 2000, p.64.
[21] Woods, pp.30–31.
[22] Deere, p.133.
[23] Pilot Officer William Henry Hodgson, Combat Report, 28 August 1940, AIR 50/36/71; Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, p.212.
[24] Bungay, p.252; Bishop, Fighter Boys, p.304.
[25] Pilot Officer William Henry Hodgson, Combat Report, 30 & 31 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/36/69.
[26] Shores and Williams, p.331.
[27] Bishop, Battle of Britain, Day by Day, p.267.
[28] Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, p.392. Wynn suggests that this action by Tracey occurred on 28 August, but it does appear more likely that it was 30 August since Biggin Hill was not bombed on the earlier date.
[29] Parker, p.249; Newton, A Few of the Few, p.158.
Chapter 8: Hard Pressed
[1] Hillary, p.142; R. Smith, Hornchurch Scramble: The Definitive Account of the RAF Fighter Airfield, Its Pilots, Groundcrew and Staff, vol 1: 1915 to the End of the Battle of Britain, Grubb Street, London, 2000, p.119.
[2] Smith, Hornchurch, p.143.
[3] Ibid, p.117.
[4]
Flying Officer Brian John George Carbury, Combat Report, 31 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/167/464.
[5] Hillary, p.144.
[6] Ibid, pp.144–45.
[7] D. Ross, Stapme, The Biography of Squadron Leader B.G. Stapleton, DFC, DFC (Dutch), Grub Street, London, 2002, p.52; The other ‘ace in a day’ was Polish pilot Antoni Glowacki who had achieved this milestone flying a Hurricane with 501 Squadron on 24 August 1940. Glowacki in the post-war era joined the RNZAF and emigrated to New Zealand in 1958.
[8] London Gazette: no.34978, pp.6192–3, 25 October 1940.
[9] Hillary, p.174.
[10] Pilot Officer Richard Hope Hillary, Combat Report, 31 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/167/486.
[11] Newton, A Few of the Few, p.141.
[12] Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, pp.31–32, 81–82.
[13] Parker, pp.259–60.
[14] Ibid., p.253; Bishop, Battle of Britain: Day by Day, p.273.
[15] T. Holmes, Hurricane Aces, 1939–40, Osprey, London, 1998, p.86.
[16] Hough and Richards, p.238.
[17] Deere, pp.130–31.
[18] Charles Stewart, Logbook, 24 August 1940, AFMNZ; Wynn, A Clasp for the Few, p.373.
[19] Irving Smith, www.151squadron.ord.uk retrieved 28 January 2010.
[20] Bungay, p.293.
[21] Ibid., p.298.
[22] Keith Park, Logbook, AFMNZ, 2009/140.
[23] Gray, pp.62–63.
[24] Deere, p.135.
[25] Hough and Richards, pp.237–38.
[26] Parker, p.262.
[27] Deere, p.108.
[28] Ibid., pp.132–33, 140.
[29] Ibid., p.149.
[30] Shores and Williams, p.217.
[31] Deere, p.149.
[32] Willis, p.30.
[33] Flight Lieutenant Patrick Hughes, Combat Report, 4 September 1940, NA, AIR 50/89/349; Shores and Williams, p.343.
[34] Newton, A Few of the Few, pp.156–57. Other possible claimants included Stapleton and Flight Lieutenant John Terrence Webster, of 41 Squadron, see J. Leasor and K. Burt, The One that Got Away, Readers Book Club, London, 1958, p.15.
[35] Leasor and Burt, pp.208–9.
[36] Pilot Officer Keith Ashley Lawrence, Combat Report, 7 September 1940, NA, AIR 50/89/293; J. Foreman, Fighter Command: War Diaries, vol.2, September 1940 to December 1941, Air Research, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, 1998, p.16.
[37] Willis, p.136.
[38] Ibid., p.135.
[39] Ibid., p.86.
[40] Bishop, Fighter Boys, p.339.