A Very Unusual Air War (32 page)

1 June
: Manby was a localised area north of The Wash used initially for bombing trials. There were no facilities for marking the fall of bombs; results were judged by observers in the aircraft or on the ground.

4 June
: Flying straight and level or in a shallow dive right down to ground level was very exciting in a Tiffie, which had a fair turn of speed, but the result was very inaccurate bombing.

Apparently on some Spitfire XIIs with the new Griffon engine there had been one or two cases of the engine cutting out or missing a beat. We tried to reproduce the fault by flying at varying altitudes and making sudden throttle movements but our tests never showed up the trouble. The Griffon had a harsher beat than the Merlin so we deduced that pilots who were used to the latter were taking time to get used to the change.

Westcott was a Wellington OTU at the foot of Waddesdon Hill, Buckinghamshire, only a mile or so from the village itself and actually inside the boundaries of Westcott village. It was the nearest airfield to Poletrees Farm, the home of my sister Gwen and her husband Joe; my mother also lived at the farm. It was only 6 or 7 miles away, so very convenient for me to pay them a call. After scrounging a lift from the airfield to see them, Joe would take me back to the airfield, a real adventure for Joe, as I managed to fix a one hour visitor's pass so that he could take me right up to the little Tiger Moth. On future visits that I made in more advanced aircraft like a Spitfire or a Mustang, it was an even greater treat, as those types attracted a lot of attention and some envy from the staff at Westcott.

5 June
: There was one small blister hangar at Hockley Heath in which I parked the Tiger Moth overnight, properly picketed and tied down safely. As the Tiger had to be started by hand, I had to teach one of the temporary staff to swing the propeller. On the occasions when I stayed overnight, I had to do my own DI (Daily Inspection) and sign the form 700. It was all totally against procedure and regulations but, surprisingly, I was never caught or questioned. In arranging for Estelle and the baby to move on to Poletrees, I made myself most unpopular with her mother and sister; they obviously thought she would stay home for some time or possibly permanently. It was Estelle's own wish to move back to Chain Cottage as soon as possible but until she was fully recovered, to stay at Poletrees.

10 June
: One of the disadvantages of the Spitfire and Hurricane was that, with the ordinary carburettor, if positive G was applied by pushing the control column forward, the engine stopped. Various modifications helped but it was not until the Bendix-Stromberg carburettor was introduced that the problem was solved.

16 June
: I cannot remember what VP attacks were; perhaps VP was an earlier name. The Hurricane was possibly the first to try out the RPs. These flights were my first experience of what came to be known as Rocket Projectiles, or RPs. To carry and fire the RPs, the aircraft had four parallel rails under each wing and these were the forerunners of most modern systems.

The night flight was short and sweet; although I had so little experience of night flying, I quite enjoyed it.

17 June
: This flight marked my first duty as a test pilot in a complete programme for the testing of an aircraft. It was to go through the detailed trials of the Mustang III, powered by the British Rolls-Royce Merlin 60 Series engine. It was the full production version with .5mm Colt machine-gun armament instead of 20mm cannons. In addition, it had a sliding canopy after the style of Spitfires and Hurricanes.

19 June
: I cannot remember the reason for the ‘local flying', unless it was to see if the searchlight boys were awake and on the ball. At this time of the year, this would have been a 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning stunt in order to find real darkness.

20 June
: The first flight was presumably to pay a quick visit to my brother Leslie's wife and family. Their house was on the boundary of Lichfield airfield, a ‘Wimpie' OTU. I then went on to Castle Bromwich, where the majority of Spitfires were produced, and landed at the factory airstrip. It was a difficult landing right alongside one of the main factory buildings but was the nearest place for an overnight visit to Redditch. The visit was to make final arrangements for Estelle's return to Easton on the Hill after she and baby Gill had recuperated at Gwen's farm.

22 June
: As I said before, the Tiffie built up speed very quickly, in a steep dive often reaching a speed of 550 mph or more. Great care was needed in the recovery, in order to avoid a high speed stall which, if near the ground, could prove fatal.

25 June
: It has to be remembered that most cine camera gun exercises involved two aircraft; we took it in turns to act as target.

27 June
: At last I have recorded a registration number for the Phoenix; strange that it was not recorded earlier.

TOTAL FOR THE MONTH 27 hours 20 minutes

J.L. Hallowes
S/Ldr

O/C Flying AFDU

I was now given ten days' leave to travel to Poletrees Farm to collect Estelle and baby Gill. My sister, Gwen, whose only child was a boy, John, would have loved to keep the little girl. Her love for Gill showed throughout her life. Gill, and later our younger daughter Penny, spent many happy school holidays at Poletrees, revelling in farm life.