A Very Unusual Air War (49 page)

During the last year I started to have difficulty in judging distances due to a developing cataract in my right eye. After two anything but smooth landings I decided very reluctantly to hang up my flying helmet. I remained an honorary member of Wellesbourne Aviation Flying Club and still looked in occasionally for a chat with Rick and other members of staff.

I flew nearly 70 different types and marks of aircraft, making over 2,000 flights. I made 1,400 Spitfire flights in approximately 150 individual machines, from the Mk 1 to the Mk 21. What a delight and privilege that was.

I read the book
Aces High
by Christopher Shores and Clive Williams and from it I extracted the names of some of those men I knew personally: they were heroes to me and many others. Originally, just for my own interest I called on my memory for comments about them and if I am able to give some further information as to what happened to them later, they are listed below.

David Atcherley
. I met David Atcherly but I did not know him well personally. However, I knew his twin brother R.A. (Richard), popularly known as ‘Batchy’, fairly well. I met him at Kenley, Duxford, and when he was Station Commander at Rednal OTU. It was there I met David during my visit there to demonstrate PM678, the FW190 A3 I was showing. They were great jokers. A story told is that when David paid a visit to Rednal, he passed out of the main gate and when Richard followed a few minutes later the sentries were taken to task for not seeing him return.

S/Ldr Ivor Badger
. From 1945 to the end of 1948 I was on Air Ministry staff attached to the Ministry of Supply at Millbank in RDQF, later RDQB, as a liaison officer to the aircraft manufacturing firms. S/Ldr Badger was also in RDQB and we often joined up for some visits. I remember him as having been a Halton apprentice and he had fitted various items to his car, in fact a journey in his motor was the first time I had experienced a car heater. One of our visits to AVRO at Chadderton was during the harsh winter of 1946/47 and we only made it as far as Potterspury near Towcester on the A1 and had to spend the night at a nearby pub, of which the landlord was a retired ex warrant officer. We drank steadily and at midnight mine host said, ‘I’m going to bed. Help yourselves to drink and put the money in the till. If there is a knock at the door, it will be the local copper. Let him in, give him a drink and send him on his way.’

G/Cpt. F.V. (Francis Victor) Beamish
. One of the four Beamish Brothers from Eire who fought with great distinction for the RAF. He was our station commander at Kenley in 1942, a keen sportsman and a real disciplinarian but with fairness and a sense of humour. He flew frequently on operations, either with the squadrons or independently with the wing or squadron commander. On one such trip he and his colleague spotted and reported the German ships
Scharnhorst
and
Gneisenau
on their Channel dash in the winter of 1942. On 28th March 1942 he led the wing on one of the dreaded trips to Lille. They were heavily engaged and the G/Cpt. was badly hit and disappeared into the Channel. I was on the fighter sweep from Hardelot, south to Le Tréport. We saw no enemy fighters but when we landed we found out that the G/Cpt. was missing. We were immediately ordered to fly a search so we patrolled the Channel until dusk and again the following morning in the hope of finding him. He was never seen again. On the same operation my friend right from training days, Sgt Desmond O’Connor, was also lost. Shortly before this sad day, ‘FV’ interviewed me for a commission; on his recommendation it was gazetted on May 1st after I had been presented to King George VI during a visit to Kenley.

W/Cdr Roland Beamont
. We met when he paid a visit to AFDU at Tangmere in 1945 and he later became CO of the unit. We also met later at English Electric.

W/Cdr Ronald (Razz) Berry
. He was also at Tangmere in 1945 and was the first CO of the newly formed Central Fighter Establishment, which combined various test and experimental units. Razz was largely responsible for welding the new set-up into one body. During the spring I had a break from flying and for two months became the range instructing officer at Selsey bombing and firing range. Razz and his family were some of the customers for the Selsey shellfish, crabs and lobsters newly caught and cooked I got hold of at that time.

W/Cdr Blackadder
(popularly known as ‘the Bladder’). We got off on the wrong foot when he was appointed to command AFDU in 1944. He ordered me to ‘show him the taps’ of the FW190 so that he could fly it. I gave him the complete run through, warning him to be particularly careful, when landing, to maintain the correct speed and not to hold off too high. He did just that and dropped like a brick and hit the ground tail first. Although the damage was repairable it still put the aircraft out of action for some days. He always held this against me and seemed to blame me for the mishap. In my opinion he was not universally popular in the Unit and did not stay very long.

Eric Bocock
. ‘B’ Flight commander in 602 Squadron at Kenley. Although I was the senior NCO pilot in ‘A’ Flight Eric signed my logbook a number of times.

W/Cdr Finlay Boyd
was wing leader at Kenley in 1942 but I do not remember him staying very long. He was flying with ‘Francis Victor’ (above) when they spotted the two German ships in their Channel dash. I have a vague memory that he brought with him a reputation for violent weaving when in enemy territory. This made life very difficult for his number two, not only to stay with him but also because it used too much fuel making those violent manoeuvres.

W/Cdr John Braham
. As mentioned earlier, in June 1942, when I had settled in at AFDU, Duxford, the CO encouraged me to take a living out pass and find accommodation so that my wife could join me. I said this might be difficult as she was of an age when she had to do war work. The Wingco said, ‘No problem. Take some leave, get her pregnant and get her released.’ It did not come to that. The Superintendent was a friend and he released her on condition that she did war work near Duxford. The first accommodation we had was at the Duxford vicarage, the vicar being the Reverend Dr Braham, the very proud father of John. John’s wife Joan and his baby son, Michael, also lived at the vicarage. Consequently we got to know them very well. Among my treasured memorabilia is a photo of them on their wedding day.

Harry Charnock.
He was always known as ‘Chas’. Perhaps he is the most interesting of all those on my list. Probably not known by many people but to me he was something special. It says in
Aces High
that he was court-martialled for a ‘flying offence’. I think the offence was to fly under Tower Bridge. His exploit was seen and reported. In the book it says that he re-joined the RAF on the outbreak of war. However, my memory tells me that at the time I heard he was actually called up into the army. When it was discovered that he was a qualified pilot he transferred to the RAF. He spent several months with us at AFDU, Wittering in the winter and spring of 1944, first still only a flying officer but later as a Flt. ‘Loot’. He was completely mad and proved a perfect foil for Wimpy (T.S.Wade) and I could tell many stories about their activities. For instance, on the north side of Wittering there is a smallish lake on which, at that time, was a small sailing dinghy. One cold cloudy day, when flying was cancelled, Wimpy and Chas (even more so) got well tanked up during lunchtime in the mess. Egged on by the rest of us they took to the water and were soon in trouble when they were raising the sail. The sheet came off the top pulley. Chas attempted to climb the mast and the boat capsized, flinging them into the lake. They struggled to the bank, sent someone to fetch blankets and towels then, cheered on by the unit WAAFs, stripped starkers amid much merriment.

I was able to live out at that time in the nearby village of Easton on the Hill and my wife and I loved to entertain the boys at home. Chas was always interested in the well-kept garden and liked to try the flowers as an addition to his diet: he said that he preferred the Wisteria. Before I left the RAF at the end of 1948, I threw a farewell party at the Old Queen’s Head just off the Victoria Road. Chas was one of my guests. He was then in civvy street, married and with small children. He was much subdued, not the Chas I remembered.

Air Commodore Al Deere
. My squadron commander at Kenley, with 602 AA Squadron from July ’41 to the end of that year. I was then a very ‘sprog’ Sgt Pilot with only a short experience in 41 Squadron. Al was my hero and, although I was only an NCO when I served with him, we kept in contact and were friends up to his death. He was an excellent leader, and helped us through our learning curve at what became a very difficult time with the advent of the Focke Wulf FW190. One episode stands out in my memory. At the end of December ’41 we were ordered to Martlesham Heath to cover a minesweeping operation in the North Sea; we were told that an important convoy was coming through. The weather was awful and our first and only patrol on December 30th showed no sign of ships. The following day it was worse and there was no possibility of flying.

Remember that 602 was a Scottish outfit and most of the lads had dates for the Hogmany festivities at Kenley, some had even arranged for wives and girlfriends to stay over. Permission to fly back and return early on New Year’s Day was refused and the Scots were royally teed off. We were finally released late in the afternoon and transport was laid on but only to take us into Ipswich. I remember that with the boys of 485, we drowned our sorrows in one of the town’s pubs and were still hard at it when the landlord called time. When we showed no sign of leaving he called for help from the local police. Two brave special constables tried to evict us and were shut into a revolving door, which was kept spinning until we were ready to leave. A strong complaint was made by the chief constable to the station commander, who demanded names.These were not forthcoming and before any other action could be taken we were back at Kenley. The station commander explained to the police that we were on operational service engaged with the enemy. It was eventually agreed that an apology should be made and Al and Hawkeye Billy Wells went back by road and did it personally.

Hugh Dundas
. I met (then) S/Ldr (Cocky) Dundas late in 1941 when I was at Duxford. I had gone to a mess party at Fowlmere, just the other side of Cambridge and he was another of the guests. There were also quite a number of American officers there. As the evening progressed many, including Hugh, got well oiled and things got a bit wild. The high point was to take a pair of scissors and cut off ties just below the knot. As I could not afford to buy a new tie (I was a newly commissioned P/O), I took mine off and put it in my pocket out of harm’s way. When it happened to one of the Yanks, he was very annoyed and caught ‘Cocky’ from behind, took hold of his tunic tails and ripped his beautifully tailored garment from bottom to top, straight up the seam.

Charles Dyson
. He was for three months our O/C flying at AFDU Wittering in 1943. He was a bit ‘toffee nosed’ having, I believe, come from the Indian Air Force. He was the CO when I took over the FW190 to take it around Fighter Command for demos. As I had no Pilot’s Notes I spent two or three days carefully studying the beast before taking to the air. As Air Ministry were rather anxious to get the tour under way, Charles tried to bully me into action. He got rather annoyed when I refused to be rushed.

W/Cdr Donald Finlay
. I first came into contact with Donald when he was 11 Group Engineer Officer. He paid regular visits to the Squadrons, including 602 at Kenley. It was his practice to take one of the aircraft for a test flip and have a few words with the pilot afterwards. I normally flew LOA and he selected this machine and talked to me on several occasions. After I had moved to AFDU he joined us for a short time as CO in place of Campbell-Orde, who was sent to the US. Donald was a fitness fanatic and turned us out for PT and cross-country runs at the crack of dawn. As it was winter when he was there, this was not exactly popular with the pilots. He also picked on me for flying duties and one morning he decided on a formation climb through 20,000 feet of cloud. By the time we came out at the top, I was seeing double but I was still tucked in behind his wing. On another occasion he took up the Mosquito, which we were testing, and made me his navigator through a series of turns and twists over mid-England. I bumped into him later when he was CO of an OTU which I visited with the FW190. Despite all this we got on very well.

Brendan Paul Finucane
. At the time of his death in July 1942, he was the top- scoring fighter pilot with 32 kills. He became CO of 602 Squadron just after Christmas 1941. I was tour expired in mid-May and he left soon after to become wing leader as stated earlier in the book. I only learned much later that doubts were cast on some of his claims but in my experience they were all true. By April I had been promoted to F/Sgt and became senior NCO pilot in ‘A’ Flight. As such I flew as a sub-section leader and on a number of operations I flew as Paddy’s number two. I was Blue 3 on 28th March 1942, but missed most of the action in which Red Section was involved. It was on this operation, in the afternoon, that Group Captain Francis Victor Beamish was lost. Immediately after landing Paddy had us back to search the Channel until it became too dark to see. We returned for night landings and were back again at dawn the next morning. Sadly FVB was not found.

16th April was a big show when Le Havre was attacked. It was almost a rehearsal for Dieppe. The action was intense, the Huns up in force, the book shows Paddy having a half share in an FW190 confirmed, I had the other half but Paddy very generously withdrew his claim to give me my second confirmed victory. The previous day we did a deep penetration to Lille. A visiting doctor from Farnborough, a pilot with some experience but too many years, persuaded Paddy to allow him to fly with us. Paddy placed him as my number two, saying, ‘Fly with Len Thorne, he is very experienced, you will be safe with him.’ Wrong. As we crossed the coast the doctor, G/Cpt. Hugh Corner, and I were dropped on by two 190s and despite my calls to break, he failed to do so and was shot down. Paddy called the squadron to close on us but they were too late to help. I had to face a court of enquiry, but was exonerated from blame on the say-so of Paddy. There was a censure for allowing GC Corner to fly on that operation. Although I was exonerated, I still blamed myself, then and ever since for his death.