by Alec Brew
By the end of the year Barwell had a total score of six victories and was awarded the DFC. He had become one of a very select band of pilots, who became ‘aces’ without firing their guns. At night he scored another victory, as well as a probable, which he thought was ‘very probable’. The following July he was posted as a flight commander to a new Defiant squadron, No. 125 (Newfoundland) Squadron. He was still with No. 125 Squadron when they converted to Beaufighters, bringing to an end his long association with Defiants, for the time being.
Eric Barwell had reached the rank of wing commader at the end of the War. He became a member of the Boulton Paul Association in 1991, one of their projects being the restoration of a Defiant, N3378. That Eric Barwell survived his ordeal was clearly because he had chosen a very good day to ditch in the Channel.
42. Personnel of No. 125 (Newfoundland) Squadron, with Flight Commander Eric Barwell (hatless) by the Defiant’s prop blade.
CHAPTER 11
Down in the North Sea
The Whitley was one of the unsung heroes of Bomber Command, a mainstay of the assault on Europe during the first years of the War. Flight Sergeant Jack Owen flew thirty-three operations on Whitleys, all within a year, his entire operational career. In one he force-landed in the North Sea and was rescued, in another he crashed in northern France, and perished with his aircraft.
John Owen, more usually ‘Jack’, as was the custom at the time, was born in Wolverhampton, the son of John and Louie Owen, of Deansfield Road. He had a brother, Freddie, and a sister, Nora. He was a friendly, cheerful and intelligent lad, though he had quite a bad stutter. He went to Wolverhampton Grammar School and was a regular at the Central Boy’s Club in Mander Street. After leaving school he went to work in the offices of the Great Western Railway at their Stafford Road Works.
In June 1940 he went along to the RAF’s recruiting office with his friends Billy Adams and Jack Whitehouse. Jack himself was accepted for pilot training, Billy joined as ground crew, but Jack Whitehouse failed the medical.
Jack Owen was inducted into the RAF at Cardington, familiar to most RAF recruits in the War. He then did his initial training at No. 3 ITU at Torquay, D Flight, No. 4 Squadron. While there he asked his sister Nora to knit him a scarf, specifying dark wool, and 2 feet 6 inches long. It could be cold in the open cockpit of a RAF training aircraft.
He did his elementary flying training at No. 11 Service Flying Training School at RAF Shawbury, Shropshire, flying Miles Magisters. It was during this time that he had his first forced landing. On his first solo cross-country flight he encountered fog, and became totally lost. In a triumph of prudence over pressing on regardless, he put the Magister down in a small field, and went to look for a telephone. A more experienced pilot was sent out to fly the Magister back to base.
After his elementary training, in March 1941, he was sent on Course 23 at the RAF College Cranwell. He then moved to No. 10 Operational Training Unit at Abingdon for his advanced flying training. At the time No. 10 OTU’s strength was about eighteen Avro Ansons and forty-eight, Armstrong Whitworth Whitleys. The Armstrong Whitworth Whitley was to be the aircraft he flew for all of his operational career.
The Whitley was the pioneer of the RAF’s new generation of all-metal monoplane bombers, originally equipped with hand-operated gun turrets and powered by 795 hp Armstrong-Siddeley Tiger engines. Progressive improvements meant the version that Jack Owen was to fly into war was the Mark V, powered by 1145 hp Rolls-Merlin Xs, which gave it a maximum speed of 230 mph, and a cruising speed of 210 mph. In practice, however, the Whitley was usually flown on operations at speeds much slower than this. At the maximum operational height, it could usually manage about 12,000 feet, the Whitley would normally be doing a pedestrian 120 mph.
There was a normal crew of five, including two pilots. Later RAF bombers were to have a single pilot and a flight engineer. The other crew members were the navigator, or observer as they were known, a tail gunner in his Frazer-Nash FN 4 turret with four .303-inch Browning machine-guns, and a wireless-operator. The aircraft was also fitted with a power-operated Frazer-Nash FN 16 nose turret mounting one .303-inch machine-gun. The nose turret was usually operated by the wireless operator, but was of little use, as night-fighter attacks almost always came from behind or beneath. Bomb-aiming duties were carried out either by the second pilot or by the navigator, depending on the crew. The navigator’s table was behind the pilot in the cockpit, and to reach the bomb-aiming position in the nose he had to make his way to the first pilot’s right and then down into the nose compartment.
On 25 August 1941, Jack Owen, now a sergeant pilot, was posted to No. 10 Squadron at RAF Leeming in Yorkshire. No. 10 Squadron, ‘Shiny Ten’, had been formed in the First World War but disbanded in 1919. It was reformed in 1928 as a heavy-bomber squadron, firstly with Handley Page Hyderbads, then Hinaidis, Vickers Virginias and Handley Page Heyfords. In March 1937 it had become the first Whitley squadron. It had re-equipped with the Whitley Mk. V in May 1940 and had moved to Leeming, in the Vale of York, in July 1940.
It was the policy of No. 10 Squadron to maintain four-man crews on their Whitleys, the second pilot’s position on each operation being taken by new pilots, to break them in gently. Only the day after his posting, on the night of 26/27 August, Jack Owen was detailed to fly as second pilot on Sergeant Farmery’s aircraft on a bombing raid on Cologne.
On 29/30 August he was again detailed as second pilot, this time on Squadron Leader Webster’s aircraft, on a raid against Frankfurt. His third operation was on the night of 7/8 September, as second pilot on Sergeant Petersen’s Whitley, bombing shipping in Boulogne harbour. No. 10 Squadron did not lose any aircraft on these operations.
His fourth and last operation as a second pilot in No. 10 Squadron was to be on the night of 20/21 September, flying with Sergeant Rochford. It was almost his last operation. In the briefing room the red tape across the map stretched all the way to Berlin on a route that took them from Leeming to Robin Hood’s Bay, across the North Sea to landfall at Hörnum, flying to the target via Bagenkop, and returning along the same route.
Sergeant Rochford’s aircraft was Z6802, coded ‘ZA-P’, and would be one of eight No. 10 Squadron Whitleys on the operation. Pilot Officer Openshaw was the observer, Sergeant Cleere was in the rear turret and Sergeant Howells was the wireless operator.
43. A total of 94 aircrew of No.10 squadron in front of one of their Whitleys in 1941. Over the next month twenty-eight of these men were dead or missing.
44. Jack Owen (left) with his crew, in front of their No. 10 Squadron Whitley.
P for Peter took off at 18.37 hrs, and crossed the North Sea without trouble, but they could not identify their landfall because of cloud and haze. North-west of Berlin an extensive searchlight belt was seen, but at 23.10 hrs Sergeant Howells received an ‘Abandon Operation’ signal, and they turned north to the alternative target at Wismar Bay.
They bombed the port from 14,000 feet at 00.47 hrs, and several explosions were seen in the target area. Five fires were started, which were still visible 30 miles away on the return flight. Heavy anti-aircraft fire was experienced after the bombs were dropped, and the Whitley was hit twice while flying over the Wismar Seaplane Base. Whether it was Jack Owen or Pilot Officer Openshaw in the Perspex walled bomb-aimer’s position, he would have probably scrambled gratefully back up to the apparently greater security of the cockpit, with more metal around them, and the wing beneath.
Flying back over the North Sea, it became apparent that they were losing fuel, and that they would probably not be able to reach the Yorkshire coastline. They were all well aware that only just over a week before on the night of 11/12 September two of No. 10 Squadron’s Whitleys, returning from a raid on Warnemünde had been forced to ditch in the North Sea. Pilot Officer Hacking’s crew had ditched 2 miles off Flamborough Head out of fuel, but had been picked up an hour later by HMS Wolsey. Pilot Officer Purvis’ crew had been forced to ditch 80 miles off the east coast and al
l five men had perished. Rochford and his crew hoped that they would not be faced with the same risk, and would at least reach land. They almost made it, but the engines ran out of fuel only 10 miles off Withernsea.
Howells called ‘Bandlor’, the call-sign for Leeming and transmitted their situation and position as Rochford and Jack brought the aircraft down to a forced landing on the sea. Even without power the Whitley was an easy aircraft to land, with a relatively low landing speed, and the ditching was very successful. They deployed the rubber dinghy and clambered aboard, as P for Peter slid beneath the waves.
They bobbed about on the waves for two hours, hoping the searchers would be able to find them. Then a High Speed Launch out of Grimsby arrived and picked them up. On arrival in Grimsby they were taken to the best hotel in town for breakfast. They had not been given a change of clothes, and as they walked into the hotel Jack looked round apprehensively at the sea water that was dripping all over the hotel’s nice floors. After breakfast transport arrived from Leeming to take them back to report. Some time later they were indignant when they received a bill from the hotel for the breakfast!
A few days later yet another No. 10 Squadron Whitley, Z6941, piloted by Pilot Officer Godfrey, ditched in the sea. After a raid on Stuttgart they became lost on their return and ditched in the Bristol Channel, 22 miles south-west of Milford Haven, not surprisingly out of fuel. They were picked up four and a half hours later by a launch out of Pembroke Dock.
Such frequency of losses was a feature of life at every Bomber Command squadron. During 1941 alone No. 10 Squadron lost a total of thirty-six Whitleys, plus three Halifaxes when re-equipment began in December. Of the Squadron’s ninety-four Officers and aircrew, including Jack Owen, photographed in front of a Whitley in September 1941, (see page 94) twenty-eight had died or become prisoners of war over the next month, and the Whitley behind them had also been lost!
During October Jack Owen became a first pilot and was crewed up with three other sergeants. Jenkins was his observer; Howells, previously in Sergeant Rochford’s crew, was the wireless operator; and Culverwell was the rear gunner. On 28 October they were briefed for their first operation together, and Sergeant Pickett was detailed as their second pilot.
The target was shipping in Le Havre and their aircraft was Whitley Z9119, ZA-C. They took off at 17.51 hrs, and found the port successfully, though there was considerable cloud and haze. They bombed from 9500 feet and hits were seen on No. 7 Dock. They landed back at Leeming at 00.12 hrs.
Their next mission was on 28 October to Cherbourg, with Sergeant Martin as second pilot. It had to be scrubbed before take-off as the intercom was found to be unserviceable. Their third was on 31 October against shipping in Dunkirk harbour, with Pilot Officer Drake as second pilot. They made landfall at Cap Griz Nes but could not find the target because of the poor visibility, even after a 27-minute search. They jettisoned their bombs in the sea and flew home.
Jack Owen’s last operation with No. 10 Squadron, on the night of 7/8 November, was almost his last in every sense. In Whitley Z6979, ZA-Z, they were one of four aircraft that took off to bomb Essen. Sergeant Wiseman was the second pilot, and they took off from Leeming at 19.23 hrs. They experienced severe icing, which affected the gyro and the auto-pilot, and despite the de-icing boots with which the Whitley was equipped, their speed fell to only 90 mph. They were forced to jettison some bombs, and abandoned the operation, returning to Leeming, where they gratefully landed at 00.59 hrs. The other three aircraft managed to avoid the icing and claimed to have bombed Essen.
Later in November Jack Owen was posted to No. 138 (Special Duties) Squadron at RAF Newmarket. No. 138 Squadron had been formed from No. 1419 Flight, which had moved to Newmarket in May 1941. Since the fall of France No. 1419 Flight had been operating in support of the resistance movements that had sprung up in all the occupied countries, dropping supplies, and taking in and bringing out agents. In November 1941 the CO Wing Commander E Knowles was posted and was replaced by Wing Commander WJ Farley, who had made the first pick-up from France, landing a Lysander at night to bring out an agent. The Squadron’s strength at the time was two Lysanders, one Maryland and seven Whitleys, which were used for dropping containers of supplies, and for parachuting agents, usually know as ‘Joes’.
On 16 December the Squadron moved to Stradishall, by which time it had three Lysanders, twelve Whitleys and three Halifaxes. Then on 14 March 1942 it moved to RAF Tempsford, shortly to be followed by the other Special Duties Squadron, No 161. RAF Tempsford was in Bedfordshire, 9 miles north-east of Bedford, and was to remain their base for the rest of the War. It was heavily camouflaged, both literally and by a smokescreen of silence about the activities that went on there.
RAF Tempsford was to operate in a manner quite different to other RAF stations, and was to remain a very shadowy operation. Aircraft were dispatched singly, with the crews being briefed individually, so that they often did not even know which other crews were operating on the same night. The take-off times of aircraft would also sometimes be quite different depending on where in Europe they were going, and the hours of darkness that prevailed.
The barn at Gibraltar Farm, which was next to the airfield, but conveniently remote from the other buildings, was used for the packing and storage of containers, and for preparing the ‘Joes’, or SOE (special operations executive) agents. The preparation and filling of containers became something of a factory operation, with over 100,000 being dropped into France alone during the War, though in 1942 there were only 207 dropped. The early containers were metal cylinders about 6 feet long, which could carry up to 2 cwt. They were attached to the normal bomb racks of the aircraft. No. 138 Squadron’s contribution in its 2494 sorties from RAF Tempsford was nearly 1000 agents parachuted into France and nearly 30,000 containers dropped. During this time seventy aircraft were to be lost.
Jack Owen was detailed to operate as a second pilot for some time, doing so on at least thirteen occasions. Although it is not detailed in the Squadron’s Operations Record Book, it is likely that he largely occupied the second pilot’s seat with the same crew, as SD Squadron crews operated more as an individual unit than in normal bomber squadrons, planning their own missions, and always operating singly. Operations were flown at low altitude with the crew usually map-reading their way across the Continent, most usually in France. Their object would usually be to find a pre-arranged remote field, where a ‘reception committee’ would hopefully be waiting to flash a light, giving the correct code letter, with a series of four lights laid out in an ‘L’ shape showing the wind direction. Despite the fact that they stooged about the Continent only on moonlit nights, at low altitude, the Special Duties Squadron aircraft were surprisingly unmolested by the German defences.
Nevertheless, there were losses, usually due to other causes. On 29 January 1941 Sergeant Gold’s Whitley came down in the sea, all seven crew on board being killed. The Whitleys often took extra men as dispatchers, dropping the large packages that were often carried in addition to the containers in the bomb-bay. These were dropped through the hole in the Whitley’s floor, which was used by the parachutists, and had originally been intended for a ventral gun turret. These extra dispatchers were usually drawn from the ground crew, who were not slow to volunteer. On 10 March a Whitley, Z9125, with a complete Czech crew crashed on take-off from Stradishall.
Jack Owen was finally given command of his own crew at the end of March, on the same day as Pilot Officer Kingsford-Smith, the nephew of Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, whose flying career is described in Chapter 7.
Jack’s first operation as first pilot was on the night of 24/25 March 1942 in Whitley Z9282, on an operation code-named Periwig. They crossed the French Coast at Le Crotoy, at the mouth of the Somme River, a favourite landfall, at 21.28 hrs. River mouths were easy to pinpoint. This was vital, as they could then establish their drift and the wind speed, before setting course for the next turning point inland. They usually approached the coast at about 800
0 feet which was high enough for them to get a good wide view, to establish their position against the map, and also avoid any light flak in the area. Landfalls were also chosen to avoid heavy flak concentrations like those around Caen and Le Havre.
On this operation they flew east from Le Crotoy to Douai, and then turned towards the target, which was pin-pointed at 22.59 hrs. No lights were seen, so they circled the area three times at 700 feet. For a moment Jack saw a light, which went out immediately, and so they abandoned the operation and returned to Tempsford.
During the next moon period the Squadron lost its CO. Wing Commander Farley flew as a last-minute substitute in an otherwise mostly Polish crew on an operation to Czechoslovakia on 20/21 April. The Halifax crashed into a hill at Kreuth in Bavaria, killing all on board, including a number of agents who were about to be dropped.
Jack’s next mission was on the night of 24/25 April, on an operation that had four code-names, Lamb, Mule, Sable and Retriever. Jack was again flying Whitley Z9282, and took off at 21.30 hrs. They made landfall at Le Crotoy at 22.25 hrs and then set course for a wood north of Valenciennes, which was reached at 00.14 hrs. After rivers, canals, or lakes, woods were the best ways to pin-point positions inland, especially large woods. Owen then turned on course for the drop zone, which should have been reached in 13 minutes. They could not pin-point their position and a search was made until 01.45 hrs, when the operation was abandoned. They brought back the containers, which were jettisoned over Tempsford, and a landing was made still carrying their ‘passengers’.
Jack’s third operation as captain was equally frustrating. Operation Manfriday on 27/28 April involved flying to Arras, again in the same Whitley, and then changing course for the drop zone. Despite a search for some time at only 1000 feet, no lights were seen. Once again he had to bring the containers home, landing at 03.50 hrs.