‘Are you all right?’ yelled Archie.
‘Couldn’t be better!’
Archie grinned. What a good idea this had been. He took them higher – although not too high: six thousand feet should be plenty, as he wanted Tess to be able to see the countryside clearly below.
In the calm evening light, England lay spread out before them. A patchwork of green and gold. Ridges of hills clearly defined by light and shade. Snaking rivers silvery and gleaming. Dense woods. Such a shame, Archie thought, that they could only do this because of the war. And what a shame that his Spitfire, so beautiful, so sleek, such a joy to fly, should be designed not for pleasure, but for shooting other planes out of the sky. For killing people.
‘I can see the house!’ shouted Tess. They’d been airborne for about twenty minutes.
Archie brought the plane lower and circled, looking for the right field. There was a long grass paddock running alongside the house. It looked flat enough.
‘Do a fly-past, won’t you?’ said Tess in his ear.
‘If you want – hold on.’
Pushing the stick forward and opening the throttle, Archie dived towards the house, then pulled back as they whistled past. Tess screamed with delight.
‘Hang on tight!’ shouted Archie. As they turned and swept past again, he rolled the plane.
‘Oh, my gosh!’ yelled Tess, then began laughing.
Moments later, they were coming in to land. The field was perfect – quite long enough – and Archie was thinking how glad he was that he’d forgotten about the party earlier and not organized a car.
‘Thank you!’ gushed Tess as they came to a halt. ‘I think that was the most wonderful thing I’ve ever done. I can’t believe I’ve just been in a Spitfire! Diana will be so impressed.’
Archie kissed her cheek. ‘Rather fun, wasn’t it? England looks pretty good from up there, don’t you think?’
‘Beautiful. Thank you, Archie.’ She gave him another kiss and took his hand as they headed inside.
Diana Thorpe’s mother and father had some concerns about the sense and safety of two people flying in a single-seater plane with no parachute or harness, but were polite and kind to Archie all the same, and they and their guests had all enjoyed his fly-past. To make it home before it was completely dark, Archie and Tess had to leave just before ten o’clock, but Diana’s parents didn’t seem in the least bit offended.
‘That’s all right, young man,’ Mr Thorpe told him. ‘Jolly good of you to come at all. After all, there is a war on.’ They shook hands, Archie and Tess thanked him and his wife profusely, then they turned to walk back to the Spitfire, standing in the field with its nose pointing imperiously towards the sky.
‘Do be careful, though, won’t you?’ Mrs Thorpe called after them.
The rest of the party had come out to watch. Once they were back in the cockpit, Archie prayed the engine would start, but, having primed it, the propeller turned and it fired almost immediately. Soon they were airborne once more. Archie couldn’t resist one last sweep past the house, waggling his wings in salute. Tess laughed happily and tightened her arms around his waist.
‘I love you, Archie Jackson!’ she shouted.
What a perfect evening, thought Archie as they landed back at the airfield safely and taxied over to the hangar. He knew that even if he lived to a hundred, he would remember every part of it. What a strange thing war was.
The following morning, it was raining. It was impossible to believe the previous day had been so warm, clear and sunny. To make matters worse, at breakfast the adjutant told Archie the station commander wanted to see him immediately afterwards. ‘Brace yourself,’ said the adj.
Archie felt a knot tighten in his stomach. He must have been spotted the previous evening.
He was right. Wing Commander Deakin was furious and gave full vent to his anger: What the hell did he think he’d been playing at? Did he have any idea how expensive those planes were? What if something had gone wrong? And to take a young girl out just because he was trying to impress her! Really, it was unforgivable. ‘I need people like you,’ Deakin yelled, ‘experience doesn’t grow on trees, you know. It takes time, not to say money. If anything had happened to you just because of some silly prank – well, I’d be furious. I am furious.’
Archie could say nothing. The Wingco was right, of course, but he’d long ago stopped worrying about such things. Compared with flying low-level and beating up two German airfields, this was small fry.
‘You should be court-martialled for this, you know,’ Deakin continued.
Archie nodded meekly.
The station commander sighed, rubbed his forehead vigorously, then pulled out a cigarette and lit it. Through a cloud of smoke, he reached into a drawer and pulled out a letter.
‘Here,’ he said, handing it to Archie. ‘This has just come through.’
Archie took it silently, slowly tore open the envelope and read the perfunctory note. He’d been promoted from flight lieutenant to squadron leader.
‘Congratulations,’ said Deakin.
Archie stood there, stupefied, for a moment, then said, ‘Thank you, sir.’
‘You’re going to need to act a bit more responsibly from now on. And by the way, you’re grounded.’ The Wingco rapped his fingers on the desk. ‘If this had been peacetime, you would have been court-martialled, you know. Now leave me alone.’
My God, thought Archie. Squadron leader. ‘Am I being posted, sir?’
‘Yes.’ Deakin sighed. ‘You’re getting your own squadron, Archie. I know you’re still only twenty, but, for the most part, I think you do act a bit more mature than that. You’ve a lot of experience. Use it, and use it wisely. Now get out of here. I’ll see you in the Mess later, where I’m insisting you buy everyone a round of drinks.’
And sing a song, thought Archie.
‘Yes, sir,’ he said. He saluted and went out, whistling ‘Let’s Be Buddies’ to himself.
Historical Note
The Battle of Britain occurred much as has been described in the book, and many of the characters, situations and places mentioned are real. Ted and Tess’s father, Air Commodore Guy Tyler, is made up, but the two jobs he held during the summer of 1940, and the burdens he carried and dilemmas he faced, are based very closely on those of Tommy Elmhirst, later an Air Marshal, who, in partnership with Air Vice-Marshal Arthur Coningham, helped turn round the fortunes of the Desert Air Force in North Africa in 1942, and later pioneered the first Allied tactical air force. The US Air Force and the RAF still use the principles laid down by Coningham and Elmhirst during the war.
The official dates of the Battle of Britain are 10 July to 31 October 1940, but I’ve always believed that it really began with the air battle over Dunkirk. This was when Fighter Command was first properly blooded and when, it turned out, Britain faced its greatest peril. After that, the threat facing Britain was not as great as her war leaders feared at the time. British intelligence overestimated German strength, not least because for most of the battle they thought German squadrons – or Staffeln, as they were known – had the same numbers of aircraft and pilots as British squadrons. In fact, they were about half the size and by the beginning of September 1940, when Park and Dowding were so worried about pilot losses, the Luftwaffe – and especially the fighter units – were in dire straits.
Dowding and Park were worried about pilot strength dropping to below fifteen per squadron; at that time German squadrons often had just two or three aircraft available. This meant the experienced pilots tended to fly and fly and fly. British pilots would rarely fly more than three combat sorties a day and often no more than two; by September, it was not uncommon for German fighter pilots to be flying seven times a day. The three hundred and fifty Luftwaffe fighters massed on the afternoon of 15 September represented just about every single aircraft the Germans could lay their hands on – single-seater 109s and twin-engine 110s. In contrast, the RAF had over seven hundred Spitfires and Hurricanes at that st
age. In fact, Fighter Command ended the Battle of Britain with more aircraft and pilots than when it started. Still, as the British discovered, it was better to overestimate your enemy’s strength than to underestimate it.
Most pilots were very young, aged between nineteen and twenty-five for the most part. The rotation of squadrons and the categorization suggested by Park on 7 September were adopted, and the meeting on the morning of that fateful day took place as described. Traditionally, Hitler’s decision to turn his bombers on London is seen as a fatal mistake, because diverting them away from attacking the airfields gave Fighter Command a crucial lifeline. In fact, as Guy Tyler points out in the book (as did the real-life Tommy Elmhirst), the German attacks on the airfields had not proved terribly successful. A lot of damage had been caused at places like Kenley and Biggin Hill, but wide, open grass airfields were easily repaired and the reserve operations rooms, set up for just such a purpose, were quickly activated. The Germans failed to appreciate that they needed a vast amount of bombs to render a grass airfield unserviceable. One Battle of Britain veteran once told me about how he had been flying from North Weald on 3 September 1940 and had seen the airfield come under attack and disappear under a cloud of smoke. He had wondered how they were ever going to be able to land, and yet they all did, without a scratch. ‘We just dodged the potholes,’ he told me.
I have been lucky enough to sit inside an Me 109, a Hurricane and even to fly in a Spitfire. I’ve also had the privilege of interviewing a number of veterans from both sides. Most of these conversations were recorded and have been transcribed and are now up on my website: www.griffonmerlin.com. Please do feel free to read them. Those with Geoffrey Wellum, Tom Neil, Roland ‘Bee’ Beamont, Pete Brothers and Hans-Ekkehard Bob are, I think, particularly fascinating. In fact, the story of getting to the party in the Spitfire at the end of the book was based very much on a conversation with the late Bee Beamont. He was a great pilot: he fought with 74 Squadron in France and throughout the Battle of Britain, then later test-flew the Hawker Typhoon and went on to command 629 Squadron. It was Bee Beamont who later realized it was possible to catch up to a V2 rocket and, by knocking it with the wing of his Typhoon, turn it to fly straight into the ground rather than falling on London, its target. Here’s a link to that story: http://www.griffonmerlin.com/ww2_interviews/wing-commander-roland-bee-beamont/
It’s pretty near the beginning of the interview.
The squadron numbers I have used were never made operational by the RAF. 629 Squadron is based largely on 609 West Riding Squadron; 337 is based on a combination of 32 Squadron and 92 Squadron, as is 599 Squadron. To get a sense of how often pilots were flying, I used the logbooks of David Crook, who flew with 609 Squadron, and also Pete Brothers, who flew Hurricanes with 32 Squadron for much of the battle. Sadly, David Crook did not make it through the war, while Pete Brothers passed away in 2009. Both were great heroes.
James Holland
Glossary
Ack-ack Anti-aircraft fire, also known as flak
Adj Adjutant
Angels Code for height in thousands of feet, e.g. angels ten is ten thousand feet
AOC Air Officer Commanding
ATA Air Transport Auxiliary
AVM Air Vice-Marshal
Bandits Enemy aircraft
Beat up Fly over very fast and very low
Big jobs Bombers
Bind/binding Grousing, giving someone a hard time, a nuisance
CAS Chief of the Air Staff
CO Commanding Officer
CRU Civilian Repair Unit
DCT Director Control Tower
DFC Distinguished Flying Cross
Drink Slang for sea
EFTS Elementary Flying Training School
Erk Slang for ground crew
Fitter Ground crew responsible for engines and related controls
FTS Flying Training School
Glycol Radiator coolant, effectively antifreeze
Huff-Duff HF/DF – high frequency direction finding
IFF Identification Friend or Foe
IO Intelligence Officer
Irvin Sheepskin leather jacket issued to pilots
Kite Slang for aircraft
Little jobs Fighters
Mae West Life jacket
MO Medical Officer
OTU Operational Training Unit
RASC Royal Army Service Corps
RDF Radio Direction Finding (radar)
Rigger Ground crew responsible for airframe
R/T Radio Telegraphy – i.e. radio
Shoot a line Show off, exaggerate
Sigint Signal Intelligence
Skipper Captain, slang for the CO
Snappers Enemy fighters
Sortie A single flight, so twelve aircraft flying together would be twelve sorties
Stick Slang for control column
Stooge Fly around without any action
Tit Slang for gun button
U/s Useless, broken
Vic Inverted ‘V’ formation of three aircraft
X raid A false alarm
Visit www.dutycallsbooks.com for more information.
Acknowledgements
I owe some thanks: to the incomparable Shannon Park and all at Puffin, to Daphne Tagg, and to Nick Wharmby and Rick Hillum for their flying expertise, and to Steve Boultbee Brooks and Matt Jones for taking me up in their Spit. I also owe thanks to Patti and Robin Bell, who own Drumnacarf in Perthshire, on which Archie’s home is very firmly based, and to their son, Pete, a great pal, for inviting me there a number of times over the years. And last but definitely not least, thank you to Rachel, Ned and Daisy.
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