They Spread Their Wings

by Alastair Goodrum

  When action finally came, sadly it was for all the wrong reasons. The first day of June dawned a fine clear summer’s day with wispy high cirrus cloud and good visibility. During the afternoon ‘A’ Flight despatched Plt Off Robert Deugo and Sgt Keith Stuart-Turner from Manston to intercept a raid off Dover. Two Spitfires from No 401 Squadron based at Gravesend were also vectored on to the same raid. Plt Off Deugo said later that he followed the vectors (courses) given by the controller, climbing as instructed to 17,000ft to orbit just off Dover. He identified two Spitfires approaching above his section, close enough to see their roundels very clearly. Thinking no more of it, he watched these Spitfires as they curved in towards the Typhoons. Likewise, the Spitfire pilots had spotted the Typhoons but mistook them for Fw 190s and opened fire simultaneously on both aircraft. Sgt Stuart-Turner’s aircraft was hit and he must have died instantly because his aircraft turned over on to its back and dived vertically into the sea in flames. Deugo’s aircraft was also severely hit but he was able to turn it upside down and bale out. Coming down in the sea he inflated his life raft and spent the next couple of hours bobbing around until picked up by an RAF rescue launch and taken to Dover, where he was admitted to hospital with burns and gunshot wounds. Sadly, this would not be the last case of mistaken identity for Typhoon squadrons.

  Patrols along the south coast by section pairs of aircraft continued every day until 7 June 1942, by which time the enemy had still not been brought to battle. Walter Dring, for example, was airborne with Wg Cdr Gillam during the evening of the 5th when they were vectored on to an incoming Ju 88, but returned to Manston without seeing a thing. When the No 56 Squadron detachments were brought to an end, both flights returned to Snailwell.

  In addition to carrying out readiness duties and standing patrols, activity was now generally directed at exercising the three-squadron Typhoon wing and although everyone was airborne to this end whenever there was suitable weather, there was much debate at all levels of command on just what type of operation the Typhoon was best suited to. This all came to a head in a meeting held at Duxford on 10 June, chaired by Air Marshal Sholto Douglas, at which Sqn Ldr Dundas presented his own ideas – persuasively – once again. His view was not to exclude the Typhoon from the current concept of offensive sweeps because of its altitude performance limitations, but rather to capitalise upon its particular strengths within those large-scale operations. Hugh Dundas wrote:

  Pilots of ‘A’ Flight, No 56 Squadron at Matlaske, December 1942. From left to right: Sgt E.A. Magee, Plt Off C.T. Stimpson, Fg Off G. Myall, Fg Off A.G.H. Rouse, Fg Off R. Poulter, Fg Off R. Deugo, Sgt F.A. Sullivan. (Ken Ellis Collection)

  I proposed, for instance, that an ideal way of using the [Typhoon] Wing would be to send it in for a high-speed sweep round the rear of the main formations as they were withdrawing. We could go in at about 21,000 feet, gradually losing height as we swept around, so that we would be at optimum altitude during the critical stages of our passage. We would attack anything we saw … not sticking around for dogfights … but taking advantage of our superior speed to pounce and get away.

  The first of these Typhoon wing operations came on 20 June 1942. Wg Cdr Denys Gillam led eleven aircraft from No 56, including Walter Dring, together with a similar number from No 266 Squadron, from Duxford at 15.12 to sweep along the enemy coast from Dunkirk to Boulogne. The wing’s third squadron, No 609, was not included in this particular operation. No 56 landed back at Snailwell at 16.20 without having seen any action. The wing continued with this type of operation along the coast of northern France and Belgium at intervals throughout June, July and August 1942, sometimes moving to a forward base on the south coast, but the results were always inconclusive. When any Fw 190s were spotted they always seemed to beat a hasty retreat. Visiting RAF Sutton Bridge for some air-firing practice on 12 July, Walter’s ebullience got the better of him when he ‘shot up place, by doing one upward roll – practically court-martialled!’ It was nearly ‘curtains’ though on 19 July. Flying R7854, Walter was returning from a wing sweep around Le Touquet when, over mid-Channel, he was attacked by Spitfires. He wrote: ‘Section of Spitfires did perfect attack on me. F/O Rouse saw cannons firing as I broke away. No hits.’ Walter had seen their intentions just in time.

  It was at 06.00 on 30 July that No 56 left Snailwell for RAF West Malling to undertake another of these offensive operations. At 12.20 the whole squadron left West Malling and flew to Gravelines, then along the coast to Cap Gris Nez and thence back to Snailwell. Walter wrote:

  We were at 20,000 feet over Calais when suddenly there was a terrific bang and a whoosh of air. I sat panic stricken for a brief moment and thought ‘I’m hit’ and waited for developments while losing height and turning. I was scared absolutely stiff until I realised my [cockpit] door had blown open, then I calmed down. Coming back over the Channel, one of the new boys, Norwegian Fg Off Erik Haabjørn, reported engine trouble and he slowed to 160mph. Struggling to keep airborne he was down to 2,000 feet, ten miles from the English coast when he was attacked by Spits and shot to hell. Fortunately Haabjørn was unhurt and baled out, spending just fifteen minutes in his life raft before being hauled out by an air-sea rescue launch. It has now developed into a war between 11 Group and 12 Group. As a Belgian in 609 said: ‘the Nazis don’t need to attack us, they leave it to the Spits!’

  Walter took some leave at this point but was back in time for the biggest ‘show’ so far for the Typhoons and indeed Walter himself (three one-hour sorties). This came on 19 August 1942 when the Typhoon wing was involved in Operation Jubilee: the Dieppe Raid. The RAF committed forty-nine fighter squadrons to this operation against which the Luftwaffe put up 115 fighters. The scheduled ‘dawn show’ was cancelled and the first sweep of the day was made from Duxford at 11.15 when No 56 Squadron Typhoons flew towards Ostend. Ten miles from the Belgian coast the squadron turned south and followed the coast down to Mardyck before heading back to West Malling without seeing any ‘trade’. ‘We had a quick beer and swallowed lunch almost whole and the call came to attack the bombers that were going for the returning convoy. What luck, just what our machines are suited for,’ wrote Walter later.

  Refuelled, the squadron took off from West Malling at 14.00, this time heading for Le Treport intending to make a sweep back towards Le Touquet. Flying at 20,000ft altitude, No 56 was acting as top cover for the Duxford Wing, with No 266 squadron a couple of thousand feet below and No 609 Squadron at 15,000ft.

  As the wing approached the coast the leader was advised of enemy bombers coming from Douai to attack British ships heading for home. Nos 266 and 609 Squadrons went for the three Dornier Do 217 bombers and a dozen Fw 190s escorting them. No 56 stayed at 17,000ft as top cover, holding off several diving attacks by more groups of Fw 190s coming out of the sun from about 5,000ft higher and keeping the sky clear until the lower squadrons withdrew. The wing landed back at West Malling satisfied that this first engagement had shown that the Typhoon could compete with the Fw 190 at medium altitudes, even though it might not be able to outmanoeuvre the enemy fighter. The squadron was airborne again at 17.00, making a sweep with No 266 Squadron from Le Touquet to Boulogne for an hour before returning to Snailwell. Next day No 56 was on top cover duty at 24,000ft as the wing swept from Dunkirk to Cap Gris Nez, again without drawing German fighters in the vicinity into battle. In the air battle over Dieppe, in addition to the bomber aircraft committed on both sides, the RAF lost eighty-eight fighter aircraft compared to the Luftwaffe’s twenty-three.

  The remainder of August was spent moving the squadron to Matlaske airfield in Norfolk, from where daily readiness and convoy patrols began on the 25th. Walter, in philosophical mood, recalled:

  The officers’ mess is in a delightful old watermill converted into a modern house. The stream flows underneath with lots of trout in it. It is miles from anywhere and on leaving the aerodrome there is complete peace and rusticity far away from the crowd. I have not known such peace of mind since I joined the RAF.
Life is doubly enhanced when there is a danger of losing the things we like, such as the other pilots’ comradeship and the happiness of squadron life. It seems now that life is rich and full.

  Back to reality, the next day saw the squadron airborne at 06.50 to fly over to Duxford for a wing briefing before the three squadrons, including Walter Dring, took off at 08.15 on a low-level sweep from Dunkirk to St Omer and Boulogne – still without provoking any enemy response. The enemy also refused the obvious invitation to come up and fight on 3 September when a Typhoon wing sweep, as top cover to Westland Whirlwinds acting as bombers, was mounted from Duxford. The Typhoons joined a Spitfire wing and swept from Nieuwpoort on a broad front down to Marck, but saw no German activity whatsoever. There was a slightly more aggressive response on the 6th when No 56 sent nine Typhoons to Thorney Island to join the wing on a sweep over Dieppe and Abbeville. Four Fw 190s dived on No 56 Squadron from above and up-sun but broke away without completing an attack. Later, off Boulogne, as the squadron was heading home, more Fw 190s approached but did not attack. The squadron landed at Snailwell to refuel then flew back to Matlaske. The enemy seemed particularly cagey about tangling with Typhoons.

  Among the usual patrols and inconclusive scrambles from Matlaske, Walter Dring and Fg Off Aldwyn Rouse had a late scramble at 19.50 on the 8th, becoming airborne in a record one and a half minutes from receiving the order! They chased a Hun out over the North Sea but darkness prevented them finding it, so they returned twenty-five minutes later. Sector Ops was not happy about this early return but night-landing a Typhoon on an unlit airfield was no easy task. A few days later Walter led the dawn patrol and was taxiing along the perimeter track followed by Plt Off Myall. Juggling throttle and brakes while weaving behind that enormous engine cowling, ‘Myall taxied right up my backside,’ said Walter, ‘and his prop completely severed the rear fuselage of what was the CO’s machine, badly damaging his own aircraft in the process.’ Two more Typhoons out of action!

  The squadron chalked up its first ‘kill’ with a Typhoon on 14 September 1942, when Green Section – Flt Lt Michael Ingle-Finch and Plt Off Wally Coombes – claimed a Ju 88 shot down in the sea off the north Norfolk coast. Interestingly, Wally Coombes was flying a Mk IA armed with twelve machine guns and Ingle-Finch was in a IB with four cannon.

  At 13.45 the following day Walter Dring and nine other Typhoons, including the CO’s, flew down to Exeter for a 17.00 take-off on a wing sweep at 15,000ft over the Cherbourg peninsula. Once again there was no air or ground opposition and the wing returned to Warmwell for refuelling and No 56 got back to Matlaske at 19.00.

  Ever since re-equipping with the Typhoon the squadron had suffered a litany of crashes in addition to the unserviceability caused by technical problems. Walter Dring added to the list on 16 September by severely damaging his aircraft during a bad landing: ‘the undercarriage collapsed and I slewed along the ground to a standstill. I sat in the cockpit wishing the earth would open up and swallow me up.’

  At that date his was the eighth such accident to ‘A’ Flight aircraft and it was becoming a touchy subject among all the pilots. The situation came to a head when Gp Capt George Harvey, Coltishall station commander (Matlaske came under Coltishall control), visited the squadron on 21 September. He gathered all pilots at ‘B’ Flight dispersal to give them a stern talking-to about the numerous ‘prangs’, and according to the squadron diary: ‘meted out justice to some of the more outstanding sinners.’ By general discussion he was also trying to find out the real reasons for the mishaps and to discover a cure for them, even by improving the airfield if necessary. Walter Dring spoke up, saying he thought the chief trouble lay in the fact that when they were coming in to land, subconsciously they were all thinking they must not overshoot and several pilots agreed with him. The flight commanders, on the other hand, said they thought the problem was ‘overconfidence’.

  They were now operating less as a wing. Officialdom seemed to have decided that the Typhoon was neither an effective sweeper nor fighter-vs-fighter aircraft so the Typhoon wing was in effect broken up, with squadrons such as No 56 now operating as individual units. It was around this point that the Typhoon began to be regarded as more suited to the ground attack role with an alternative role as a bomber interceptor. It was in the latter role, though, that the squadron was occupied for the most part.

  The weather turned rainy towards the end of the month but there were frequent inconclusive scrambles and on 27 September Walter Dring acted as number two in a section convoy patrol with his ‘A’ Flight commander, Norwegian Capt (Flt Lt) Gunnar Piltingsrud. It was mid-October before Jerry started to come over more often, with single raiders all over Coltishall sector during the morning of the 19th. Morale flagged somewhat now that the Typhoon wing was disbanded, even though during October the squadron had thirty-five scrambles, carried out thirty-seven shipping and ‘stooge’ patrols and had started night flying training. However, on 27 October the CO received orders to start flying offensive air-to-ground and low-level air-to-air operations, called ‘Rhubarb’, so things were looking like they might hot up.

  A Rhubarb was the smallest of the operations carried out by RAF fighters over France and the Low Countries. It usually required cloud cover over or near the target and could be authorised at squadron or flight level and flown by up to four aircraft, but generally these sorties were made by only two aircraft. Pilots involved could attack targets of opportunity, which meant they could pounce on just about anything that moved on land, sea or in the air, and on any building or structure that seemed to have some military importance. The first successful Rhubarb by the Typhoon pilots of No 56 Squadron was carried out on 17 November 1942.

  ‘The Flying Farmer’, Flt Lt Walter Dring, No 183 Squadron, 1943. (John & Susan Rowe, Dring Collection)

  Things were happening fast on the personnel front in November. First, on the 11th, Sqn Ldr Dundas was promoted to wing commander and posted to Duxford to command a (non-existent) wing of Typhoon bombers. Before the wing could be formed he found himself posted again, this time to a Spitfire wing in North Africa! On the 19th, Battle of Britain veteran Flt Lt Arthur (‘Gus’) Gowers DFC was promoted to squadron leader and posted away to become CO of No 183 Squadron, at that time in the process of forming as a new Typhoon bomber squadron at RAF Church Fenton. On 24 November, now with 516 hours in his logbook and once again assessed as an ‘above average’ fighter pilot, Fg Off Walter Dring started his rapid rise upwards with promotion to flight lieutenant and an appointment as a flight commander with No 183 Squadron. His promotion was duly celebrated in the mess and the next day, 25 November 1942, he prepared to take up his new responsibilities at Church Fenton and open a new chapter in his flying career.

  No 183 Squadron began its Second World War life on 1 November 1942, marked by the arrival of its first aircraft, a Typhoon Mk IA, R7649, transferred from No 181 Squadron. Flt Lt Dring arrived on 30 November and new pilots began arriving from No 59 OTU. They had to wait a month before more Typhoons were slowly allotted from various sources. Mk IA, R7631 was transferred from No 181 on 1 December and the next day three Mk IBs arrived from No 13 MU: DN273, DN275 and DN297. These were soon followed by Mk IA, R7869 from No 56 Squadron and a Hurricane I, R2680 was flown in from No 32 Squadron. There now followed an intense work-up period of formation, low-flying, aerobatics, cloud-flying, air-firing, bombing and some dogfighting practices. Walter Dring became ‘B’ Flight commander and worked his new pilots hard whenever the weather allowed.

  No 183 Squadron, Church Fenton, December 1942. Flt Lt Dring (middle row, third from the left), next to Act Sqn Ldr A.V. Gowers (centre). (John & Susan Rowe, Dring Collection)

  It was while he was at Church Fenton that Walter met the lady who would become his wife. Section Officer Sheila Coggins was in charge of the station cipher room and, having spotted this attractive young WAAF in the foyer of the cipher office one day, Walter decided he would like to get to know her better. Sheila described how it all began:

>   There was a tap on the cipher office door and the same pilot appeared in the doorway. My colleague asked him what he wanted and he replied he just wanted to talk to the other cipher officer. He was told no one was allowed into the office because of the secret nature of its contents but he laughed and came in anyway. He introduced himself as: ‘String, because I am a ropey type.’ We all had a cup of coffee and biscuits and he told me all about himself. He asked me out for a meal in York and turned up at the WAAF officers mess in an old sports car and we went out and talked about each other’s troubles.

  ‘String’ was the nickname by which he was known among his RAF contemporaries.

  * * *

  More Typhoons arrived in January and February 1943, including DN242, DN249, DN253, DN257, DN271, P8944, R8884, R8885, R8886 and R8933. The actual availability of Typhoons for the practice programme during these early months was constantly diminished by the need to send all of them, in small quantities, to No 13 MU at RAF Henlow for what was said to be ‘modification’, but what this actually meant was not detailed.