A Very Unusual Air War (41 page)

There is an interesting follow-up to this story: My friend Peter Arnold, the Spitfire historian, let me know that two of the Spits that I had flown during the war had survived. The Mk IX, MH415, which I went to see in America, and Mk XIV, RM689, which was used by Rolls-Royce as their showpiece. On June 27 1992 it was being flown at a display at RAF/BAe Woodford in Cheshire by David Moore, a pilot with Rolls-Royce; he apparently left it too late pulling out of a loop. The aircraft went into a high-speed stall and crashed into the runway and burst into flames, killing the pilot. The aircraft was a complete write-off. Some years later I was amazed to learn that Rolls-Royce had preserved the wreckage and that it was to be sent to Filton, Bristol, to be restored, hopefully to flying condition. [The rebuild was still ongoing in 2012.]

17 August
: The Corsair flights were used in the making of a propaganda film.

29 August
: My 1937 Vauxhall 14, as I mentioned earlier, was, without doubt, the worst car I ever owned, trouble almost from the word go. It was the first model to be fitted with independent front suspension, two large cylinders filled with oil and ‘splash’ lubricated bearings. When the units leaked the needle roller bearings dried out and broke.

LAC Hunt was our unit driver, a skilled mechanic trained by Rolls-Royce car division. He located and offered to fit two new units, which we had to collect from a breaker’s yard in Doncaster, LAC Hunt’s home town. We flew there in the Anson but, by the time we had obtained the units, it was too late to return to Wittering so we stayed the night at his house. All against regulations but after all, I was the Flight Commander! Some time later these units again failed and Estelle’s uncle, George White, replaced the needle bearings with externally lubricated phosphor bronze bushes, manufactured in his engineering factory, Edward White & Son in Redditch; this cured the trouble.

During July our Wing Commander had strongly recommended me for the award of an AFC (Air Force Cross) but, as I said in the note at the end of June, I did not get on very well with W/Co Blackadder (disrespectfully known as The Bladder) who, I always wondered, might have switched the award to another pilot.

3 September
: This was an attempt to adapt the gyroscopic gunsight for bomb aiming.

5 September
: I took over to fly the Boston solo back to Wittering. No passengers; they all ran away when I took over.

10 September
: A passenger at last, brave fellow he must have been; anyway he flew with me twice!

13 September
: Bob Henderson was another youngster who spent a few weeks at AFDU as a rest from operations.

15 September
: I cannot remember what the piece of equipment on the Typhoon was but it did not take long to test it, so I guess it was a landing aid.

29 September
: Bill (W.A.) Waterton had joined AFDU some months earlier. Another Canadian, an excellent and ‘exact’ pilot, he specialised in flying the Typhoon and Tempest. After many bombing trips he did a great deal of work in developing the RP (Rocket Projectile) as a war-winning weapon. By reason of his large ‘Kaiser Bill’ moustache, he was known by all as Otto. We, too, became very good friends. Bill was a frequent visitor at Chain Cottage.

After the war he remained in England for some years and he married his WREN officer. In the early 1950s he joined Gloster Aircraft Co., succeeding Bill Greenwood as Chief Test Pilot. He was responsible for the test programme on the Javelin all-weather aircraft. Following a partial break-up on a high-speed run, he deliberately chose to crash-land, at great risk to himself, rather than bale out, so that the aircraft would be available for examination. The aircraft caught fire but, in spite of the risk, Bill returned to the fuselage to retrieve the flight records. He was awarded the George Medal.

Due to his outspoken comments in a book that he wrote about the aircraft industry, he was not popular with the company and returned to Canada. Following our final meeting at Gloster Aircraft in 1954, we remained in contact by letter. W.A. Waterton, GM, AFC & bar, died in 2006.