Whether or not Wg Cdr Porteous had rubbed someone at AHQ the wrong way by his persistent lobbying for action, on 1 January 1943 he was posted to No 74 Operational Training Unit and Sqn Ldr Donald Weston-Burt assumed command of No 6 Squadron. No 74 OTU was a training unit for tactical desert reconnaissance based at Aqir, north-east of Jerusalem in Palestine, but this pill was sweetened by the well-deserved award of a DSO for ‘courage, determination and devotion to duty during his tenure in command of No 6 Squadron’.
Edku airfield itself was located on a narrow strip of land 2 miles wide, bordered to the south by Lake Edku and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Much of December was taken up with practising air combat manoeuvres, aerobatics, cloud-flying and formation exercises, and it was from Edku that on 3 January, then on the 8th and again on the 10th, Fg Off Clark flew operational convoy patrols. These were usually around the Alexandria coastal area, for example picking up an inbound convoy off the coast north-east of Hammam and covering it until safely in Alexandria harbour. For a change, on some days he flew practice ‘scrambles’ and interceptions against Boston light bombers – but saw nothing by way of combat action.
Back on the ground there was plenty of time for recreation, such as hockey, rugby and football matches against neighbouring army and air force units, plus gramophone recitals and dances – one of the latter said to be ‘for the entertainment of Sisters and VAs from an Australian hospital and WRNS from Alexandria’ – and trying to avoid an outbreak of jaundice running through the squadron. As if this was not enough, there was continual trouble with thieving by the ‘natives’ who nicked anything that was not tied down or guarded – even from inside pilots’ tents!
There now began a programme of training to accustom pilots to a ‘fighter squadron’ way of life. This included pre-dawn sorties on alternate days by alternate flights and night flying practice on a similar basis on favourable nights. Howard still found time to write home frequently, but there was little he was allowed to say about the squadron activities.
Next day (19 January), Howard led a practice scramble with Sgt F. Harris and the squadron mounted convoy patrols of two or three aircraft during most days. After three or four weeks of this routine convoy work, things were beginning to hot up again out in the desert. Although in retreat, the Germans were proving hard to prise out of the area around Tunis and even resupply operations were being mounted by the enemy to try to kick-start a new offensive. On 21 January Sqn Ldr Weston-Burt flew to Cairo for a conference on the subject of equipping the squadron for a projected move to a different sector. On 23 January Fg Off Howard Clark returned from leading another section scramble with Plt Off F. Robey, this time an attempt to intercept a hostile aircraft, but they returned without finding any target. Always keen to get to grips with the enemy, he wrote in his next letter: ‘I am still flying the same Hurris, I wish we could get Spits out here; there are not many out here and they are really needed more out here than in England.’ Upon landing, however, he found that the squadron had received orders to come to a mobile state in preparation for a move to Sidi Bu Amud, near the main coastal road some 35 miles west of Tobruk. Were they going to rejoin the shooting war?
The ground echelon set off on the morning of 28 January. After delays due to a severe dust storm, the squadron’s twenty-one aircraft – all Hurricane IICs by now – staged via Buqbuq and Mersa Matruh to arrive at Sidi Bu Amud airfield on 2 February 1943. Here, once again, the squadron settled down to convoy escort duty.
The squadron Operational Record Book (ORB) writer clearly felt the need to wax lyrical and on 1 February, upon arrival at Sidi Bu Amud, he was moved to write:
At this season of the year the desert puts on its best garment and the landscape is very pleasing to the eye, with a profusion of wild flowers in the wadis. This squadron knows this part of the desert from previous campaigns and in the dry heat of summer with the Khamseen [or Khamsin: a dry, hot, dusty wind off the Sahara] blowing it can be one of the least desirable places on Earth. To visit here in spring is a refreshing experience for everyone.
On the matter of ‘living in the desert’, life for Howard and his colleagues was decidedly rough and ready – with the emphasis on rough. It could hardly be anything else, when one considers the terrain, the distances involved and the need for mobility at short notice. Sleeping in small two-man tents, dug into the ground or with sand piled up around them to give the impression of protection from bomb blast and flying splinters, everything else was done out in the open: messing, briefing, ablutions and suchlike. Food was scarce and usually tinned. Drinking water was like gold; water for washing and shaving was extremely limited. Howard grew a moustache and when he sent a picture home the opinion was that he looked a bit like Clark Gable! To combat the absence of fresh food, vitamin C tablets were issued and if personnel visited any liberated town or official unit, they were ordered to take their own meagre rations with them. In Tripoli, for example, due to extreme food shortage in the city, troops were ordered not to have meals in cafes or hotels, although they were told ‘this does not apply to tea or coffee or like beverages …’
In the heat and dust, clothes became dirty, smelly and ragged. Off-duty time was generally boring with occasional football or cricket, until the heat made it unbearable, or sleeping, reading, writing letters if so inclined – although paper was scarce, too – and trying to keep out of the sun, the dust and the ever- present flies. High winds or sudden sand storms lasting days filled every aperture – human and machine – with sand and dust. Very occasionally it rained, turning everything to mud, seeping into tents and turning slit trenches into swamps until it soaked away or dried up when the sun returned. As they moved through the desert, there were constant reminders from HQ medical staff about the presence of malaria, typhus and dysentery, and the dangers of flies and of not disposing of refuse properly. Apart from these discomforts, the Luftwaffe sought out landing grounds on nightly bombing raids in order to make things even more uncomfortable. After this, a swim in the sea was sheer bliss.
Home sweet home! Howard’s tent in the desert. (Clark Collection)
On 4 February the Eighth Army, having secured Libya, rolled into Tunisia, but that wily fox Rommel was not finished yet. Using the former French fortified Mareth Line as his base, and now with relatively short lines of supply, Rommel attacked the Americans in the west and the British in the east.
Fg Off Clark was airborne on patrol on 5 February, when convoy ‘Tow’ was picked up off Ras Beddad and escorted into Tobruk harbour, and again on 11 February when convoy ‘Funnel’ was contacted 8 miles north of Ras Beddad and handed on 15 miles north of Sidi Bu Amud. Although enemy subs shelled various convoys, No 6’s air patrols still made no contact with the enemy. At dawn on 15 February, in an effort to find some action, the CO launched a squadron sweep with ten Hurricanes, but despite spotting two Italian Savoia 79s late in the operation about 100 miles north of Salum, which were chased towards Crete, they could not be brought to close action. The CO and Plt Off Freeland managed to get within 700 yards and fired a few squirts at the enemy before the Hurricanes had to break off due to low fuel levels. They both landed at base with just 10 gallons of petrol remaining. These interception ‘sweeps’ were a slight relief from the more mundane convoy patrols and Howard flew his last of this latter type on 18 February when he was part of the continuous air cover flown over convoy ‘Roman’ between 13.00 and 19.00.
Strange as it may seem, things began to look more promising when a signal arrived declaring the squadron non-operational with effect from 20 February. Orders were to fly twelve Hurricane IICs back to LG 237 (or Kilo 40) Jebal Hamzi, an airfield on the Cairo to Alex road 20 miles west of Cairo. Officialdom seemed to be having a field day again, shuffling Hurricane IICs and IIDs around like a pack of cards. The big news this time was that it was all to happen on 21 February and twelve Hurricane IIDs were to be collected in exchange for the IICs. A further nine IIDs would be collected from LG 237 in due course, giving the squadron a
total of twenty-one IID aircraft. At 08.00 that day the overjoyed pilots began flying their IICs back to Cairo and morale rose skywards with anticipation. Fg Off Howard Clark was one of those involved and he duly set off in HL610. However, after thirty minutes in the air the engine failed and he had to force-land in the desert. He was unhurt but the Hurricane suffered Cat B damage to its airscrew, radiator, engine and port wing tip:
I had a high speed supercharger blow up on me in the air the other day and I had to do a forced landing with the wheels up in rather rough country, but I was quite OK, although the aeroplane was knocked about a bit.
He was picked up and returned to Sidi Bu Amud, from whence he took another IIC and set off again, this time successfully. The pilots picked up the IIDs but while they were airborne the weather deteriorated and they were told that back at Bu Amud it had developed into a fierce sandstorm, so some turned back to Heliopolis, while others put down at Alexandria for the night. Howard wrote:
I took my aeroplane down to Alex the other day and got stuck there owing to bad weather, so instead of staying one night I had to stay three, which was quite fun. It is getting a long way back there now, even flying. We are on the move again.
In fact, the sandstorm persisted for two whole days, but by 08.00 on 24 February all twenty-one IIDs had been successfully flown to Sidi Bu Amud.
In the meantime everyone was keen to return the squadron to the fray and were packing furiously so that the ground party and transport could depart on the long journey forward as soon as possible. Having drawn rations from stores in Tobruk for seven days and arranged for three more days’ reserve rations to be available at Benina/Benghazi, the ground convoy departed Sidi Bu Amud at 08.00 on the 24th – destined for Castel Benito airfield. Pilots and aircraft ground crew remained at Bu Amud and, while they awaited the arrival of the support convoy like the return of old friends, the Hurricane IIDs were serviced and air tested. Later, armoury personnel checked over and harmonised the 40mm weapons ready for action. On the 27th they tested the Browning guns on knocked-out tanks that littered the former ‘Cauldron’ battlefield area around Bir Hacheim, then on 3 March pilots tested the ‘S’ guns against more derelict tanks and assorted vehicles strewn around the old battlefields of Knightsbridge and Acroma.
By 5 March 1943, the ground convoy had completed its long, hot, dusty trek to Castel Benito aerodrome near Tripoli. All Hurricanes were flown in a couple of days earlier and the squadron stayed at the base for a few more days until the rear echelon of ground crew caught up; then it was off again to a new operational airfield located at Sorman, where No 6 Squadron took up residence on 7 March. This former Italian Air Force base was a relatively attractive, palm-fringed aerodrome with two hangars, built on a hard-surfaced salt lake. It was located on the coast, halfway between Tripoli and Zuara, not far from Tunisia’s eastern border with Libya. The AOC, AVM Harry Broadhurst, sent a signal to the CO advising him that: ‘the Air Ministry desired to discover the effectiveness of the “tank-buster” in modern warfare and it was to be expected that as many targets as possible would be found for the Squadron.’
Under the control of No 244 Wing, operations from Sorman commenced on 9 March with Sqn Ldr Weston-Burt and six pilots flying over the Tunisian border to take up a standby position at an advanced landing ground called An Naffatiyah, located near the main coastal highway halfway between Ben Gardane and Medenine. This turned out to be a disappointment and the detachment returned to Sorman later the same day. Something was in the offing, though, for a telephone call came through from no less a person than AVM Harry Broadhurst ordering Sqn Ldr Weston-Burt to have twelve aircraft at readiness on Hazbub satellite airfield at first light on 10 March. The CO was also briefed about the target to be attacked. Hazbub was also in Tunisia, south of Medenine and some 20 miles north of Tataouine. Howard’s view of these parts was: ‘we are in rather nice country now, absolutely wizard after the desert. I have been swimming again and the sea is getting warmer every time we go and bathe.’ When dawn broke next morning the CO and eleven pilots, including Fg Off Howard Clark, were at readiness on Hazbub as ordered. The background to this new deployment is as follows.
Rommel’s Afrika Korps was being squeezed into Tunisia and, in mid- February 1943, was sheltering behind the Mareth Line defences near the border with Tripolitania (Libya). Rommel was receiving supplies and reinforcements through the ports and airfields around Tunis but was in danger of being rolled back to the sea. On 19 February he tried to break out through American lines around the Kasserine Pass in an effort to capture a large Allied supply depot at Tebessa. The attack was initially successful but the advance ground to a halt due to increasing resistance and severe weather. When the bad weather cleared, Hurri-bombers wrought havoc on German vehicles and the Afrika Korps was pushed back to its original position. General von Arnhim then began an offensive in the northern Tunis sector on 26 February, aiming for Beja. This attack was also contained and eventually ground to a halt.
Howard Clark and No 6 Squadron’s ‘Flying Tin-Openers’ badge. (Clark Collection)
The Eighth Army prepared for an attack on the Mareth Line but on 6 March Rommel tried to disrupt these preparations by launching a thrust against Medenine. This battle took place before No 6 Squadron had reached Sorman. Good intelligence information forewarned Montgomery, however, and his forces withstood the German attack. By good use of artillery, they destroyed a large quantity of German tanks for very little loss on the British side. The German forces were now hemmed in.
Rommel turned his attention to the southern sector around Ksar Ghilane. Here Gen Jacques Leclerc’s Free French force, having crossed the Sahara with great difficulty, was now positioned to support Montgomery’s flank for the push against the Mareth Line. Attacked on 10 March by a strong Panzer Group, Leclerc’s force called in air support and the Hurricane IIDs of No 6 Squadron were on readiness at Hazbub to respond.
At 10.05 on the 10th, Sqn Ldr Weston-Burt led a formation of six IIDs to a target of tanks and mixed armoured and soft-skinned vehicles threatening Free French positions east of Zamlet el Hadid. He led the Hurricanes down and for nearly an hour they made run after run against the enemy until, out of ammunition and low on fuel, they returned to Hazbub, landing at 12.55 without having sustained any casualties.
Airborne at 11.50, Flt Lts Anthony Bluett and A.E. Morrison-Bell led two more flights, each of seven IIDs, to overlap with the CO’s returning flight and to keep up pressure on the enemy. Fg Off Howard Clark was part of this second wave, flying in HW251, and the attack was without doubt an ordeal of fire. He came through it unscathed, as did all his compatriots, who together had played havoc with the enemy’s armour. The enemy retreated and it may well have been the first time that an armoured force was turned back in its tracks solely by air action. The tally for the day was: six tanks, five half-tracks, thirteen armoured cars, ten lorries, a gun and a wireless van, of which Howard Clark’s share was two armoured cars. No Hurricanes were lost, although the flak barrage had been intense. The CO’s aircraft returned to base with its main spar almost shot through and two other aircraft were damaged but the squadron was rightly elated with its return to the fray. It should be added that there were other RAF units, including Hurri-bombers, involved in this rout of the enemy but the particularly close-quarter action by the ‘Flying Tin-Openers’ of No 6 came in for the most praise. Congratulations flowed in from recently promoted Air Marshal Coningham, General Montgomery and a much-relieved General Leclerc. Next day, a flight of six aircraft was sent to Bou Grara airstrip on the coast where they stood by for action in case the enemy had another go, but there was no more action for a while and the squadron moved westward once more, this time to Senem airfield, 10 miles west of Medenines – well inside Tunisia.
Preceded by several days of squally rain and high winds – Howard, writing on what he described as ‘captured Italian note paper’, said: ‘It is blowing like the very devil at the moment and my tent is due to go airborne at any moment’ – Mo
ntgomery began his offensive against the Mareth Line on 20 March and met with stiff resistance. The ferocity of the air to ground battle was already being felt, as first the losses of aircraft then pilots began to mount.
On the morning of the 24th Howard Clark, flying HW251, was back in action as one of twelve Hurricane IIDs that set about a formation of twenty enemy tanks and other assorted vehicles near El Hamma. It was not all one way this time. Two Hurricanes were shot down: one pilot, WO Mercer, was found safe by New Zealand soldiers, but the other, Flt Sgt Frank Harris, was killed, his grave being found later by the squadron. During that afternoon seven more Hurricanes went after the same target with some success, but lost two more aircraft, this time to Bf 109s from I./JG 27 that penetrated the top cover. In addition to the deadly light flak barrages encountered, Bf 109s and Macchi 202s of the German and Italian Air Forces were hotly contesting the intense Allied fighter and ground attack operations by Spitfires, Airacobras, Kittyhawks and Hurri-bombers against the Mareth Line and any movement in its vicinity.
They Spread Their Wings Page 4