A Very Unusual Air War (19 page)

14 May
: It was usual in non-operational units, such as this and training schools, to refer to aircraft permanently on strength by letters rather than the registration numbers. Strictly speaking this only applied, in AFDU, to the machines used for fighter affiliation, transport or ferrying, as all other aircraft would normally have flown fully armed, ready to go into action if called upon. This will be apparent as these notes go on and later Marks of Spitfire, Mustangs, Hurricanes, etc. appear. In 1945 the situation was clarified when AFDU was given full Squadron status and became AFDS.

15 May
: The first flight that day was my ‘conversion course’ on to a different single-engined aircraft, just a quick explanation of the controls, one landing demonstration by F/Lt Denis Clive, one circuit and landing for me without breaking anything and I was passed as qualified. Later, it was a look through the pilot’s notes and perhaps
a few words about any peculiarities and off I went. How different to today’s requirements for Health and Safety!

The second flight was my first solo, with a passenger, on type. Tadeux ‘Teddy’ Kulczyk was a Polish junior officer, one of many Poles who had escaped from the Germans or the Russians when Poland was occupied. After his arrival in this country he, although a fully qualified pilot, was given retraining on Spitfires and joined AFDU while he awaited the formation of Polish fighter squadrons. During this period he met and married a very pretty English girl, Monica, from Somerset.

He and Monica had a room at the Duxford vicarage and, after I was given a ‘sleeping out’ pass and Estelle was permitted to join me, we came to know the Kulczyks very well and became good friends. Many years later we spent weekends with them at Sampford Peverell in Somerset. After the war ended Teddy returned briefly to Poland but, finding things difficult under Russian Communist dictatorship, he made a second escape and returned to England and joined Monica on the family farm in Somerset.

In the winter of 1942/43 Wing Commander Donald Finlay, an athlete of note, a pre-war member of the British Olympic team, was our commanding officer. A fanatic about physical fitness, he turned us out in the mornings for PT on the tarmac and sometimes, on cold and frosty mornings, for a 6-mile country run. This was not exactly popular with most of the pilots and on one such occasion, Teddy went sick but, sadly for him, appeared from behind a haystack armed with a 12 bore shotgun and carrying one or two dead rabbits. Donald carried on, pretending not to notice, but a week later Teddy was posted to one of the newly formed Polish Squadrons, I believe at Northolt.

My trip in the Defiant was with a very trusting rear gunner as this was my first solo flight in a ‘Daffy’. It felt big, underpowered and heavy, but was easy to fly, handled rather like a Hurricane. It was intended for use as a night fighter but was not particularly successful. It was used in the Battle of Britain and for one day caught the Germans by surprise and had some success. It was short-lived; the Luftwaffe boys quickly realised that it had only rearward-firing guns in a powered gun turret. The next time it was used, the Squadron suffered horrific losses. It was, as far as I know, never used in daylight again.

I am a bit puzzled by this entry in my logbook about the Fairey Fulmar, a two-seater, pilot and observer/gunner; if we really were carried in a Fulmar one of the rear passengers would have been obliged to sit on the other’s lap! I am inclined to think that my logbook, in this instance, was at fault and the aircraft was actually a Fairey Battle. The Fulmar was a Fleet Air Arm aircraft, a smaller and faster version of the Fairey Battle and used throughout the war as a fighter, whereas the Battle was a light bomber with a crew of three. At a casual glance they looked similar although, as I say, the Fulmar was much smaller.

I assume that Spitfire Y became unserviceable during our stay at Seyerston and Sgt Brazendale, our ground staff NCO, and I were ferried home by a pilot of our sister unit, NAFDU (Naval Air Fighting Development Unit).

18 May
: P/O Poole had completed his spell at AFDU and shortly after the flight returned to his squadron. Three months later he was shot down and killed in the Dieppe raid, leaving behind his lovely young wife expecting their first baby, another of the war’s tragedies.

27 May
: These were my first flights as an experimental test pilot. Inertia weights were fixed to the control surfaces, elevators, ailerons and rudder, to make movement lighter or easier for the pilots. IFF was a small transmitter in the tail unit, the initials standing for ‘Identification, Friend or Foe’ that had to be switched on by the pilot immediately after take-off on every flight. As a check by the controller he, the pilot, would be asked to confirm ‘my cock is crowing’. I never quite understood why this reply caused so much amusement. I believe that a similar device is still used today called a ‘Transponder’, which enables controllers worldwide to identify and locate every aircraft in the air in their sector.

29 May
: The Avro Manchester was a twin-engine bomber to augment the heavy bomber force and replace the obsolete Whitley. It proved to be a failure, under-powered and unable to reach its planned operating ceiling with a full bomb load. It was redesigned with four of those magnificent Rolls-Royce Merlin engines and became the most successful bomber of the war – the Lancaster.

30 May
: This was the night of the first 1000-bomber raid, the target, Cologne. Every unit in Bomber Command, including many OTUs, was involved. Likewise, to make up the number, even trainee aircrew members were roped in.

In our flight affiliation part of AFDU our Flight Commander, F/Lt (later Squadron Leader) Jock Murray, an intrepid pilot who had already completed two tours of bombing operations, volunteered to go, if an aircraft could be found for him. The Wing Commander at Waddington said they would see what could be done but it might be difficult to find a spare crew, particularly air gunners. Jock said, ‘No problem, my three fighter pilots would love to join in and could be given a quick lesson in operating the gun turrets!’

A little later Jock was informed that the only possibility was a Halifax bomber that was undergoing routine servicing at nearby Scampton and, if the work could be finished in time, he could have it. To our great relief it was not ready in time for take-off, otherwise we might have been the only Spitfire pilots to have been on that raid. However, as willing(?) volunteers we were invited to attend the briefing and join the returned crews for their bacon and egg breakfast.

31 May
: The AFDU operated a sub flight of three Spitfires to carry out co-operation/fighter affiliation, with Bomber Command units. They were usually flown by those pilots who were on short breaks at AFDU from operational duties, usually under the command of an experienced Squadron leader initially, during
my stay F/Lt Murray DFC,DFM, soon to be promoted to S/Ldr. We were often detached for a week or more and took our own ground crews for servicing the Spitfires. These chaps were ferried, together with their tools and equipment with us, in a twin-engine aircraft, at this time a twin-engine Airspeed Oxford. As I had to take my turn flying the ferrying aircraft and had never flown a multi-engine machine, I had to be given a conversion ‘course’. My conversion flight on to twins took a little longer than the previous one. Jock gave me a quick run through ‘vital actions’ before take-off, then demonstrated starting up procedure. This was interesting and took me back to the early days of motorcars, using a starting handle. To start each Oxford engine a starting handle was inserted in a hole in the side of each cowling then turned vigorously until the required revs were reached. The pilot then ‘threw’ in the starter and switched on the ignition; hopefully the engine started. If not, the whole procedure was re-run. Jock then took me through a take-off and landing and just told me what to do in case of one engine failure. That was it; he handed over to me for a couple of circuits and, being satisfied that I could do it without breaking anything, said, ‘OK, you are passed out proficient on twins.’ That was my only instruction on flying multi-engine machines. Later I flew the old Avro Anson, the powerful Douglas Boston, Percival Q6 and even handled a Lancaster. I reckon today’s instructors would have a fit. As can be seen from my flight later that day, my colleagues had every confidence in my ability by allowing me to fly them, first to Duxford, then on to Waddington.

My posting to Duxford was expected to last six months, after which I would return to either my old Squadron or as a replacement in another. I had already recorded 105 hours of operational flying with about 70 flights over enemy-held territory. During that first six months I was mainly regarded as a ‘hack’ pilot, first to do any odd flying called for, such as ferrying personnel or doing fighter affiliation with the bomber boys.