Dogfight (31 page)

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Authors: Adam Claasen

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[4] Orange,
Dowding,
pp.105–9, 116–21.
[5] Bungay, p.61.
[6]
Ibid.,
p.68.
[7]
Ibid.,
pp.68–69.
[8] RAF Narrative (First Draft) Copy No.25, ‘The Air Defence of Great Britain, Volume II, The Battle of Britain'. Air Historical Branch (1) Air Ministry [hereafter AHB Narrative], p.113, AFMNZ.
[9] Olive and Newton, pp.119–20; J. Quill,
Spitfire: A Test Pilot's Story,
University of Washington, Seattle, 1983, pp.168–69; Pilot Officer Charles Gordon Chaloner Olive, Combat Report, 12 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/25/108.
[10] Pilot Officer Brendan Eamonn Fergus Finucane, Combat Report, 12 August, 1940, NA, AIR 50/25/87.
[11] Olive and Newton, p.121.
[12] R. Hough and D. Richards,
The Battle of Britain: The Greatest Air Battle of World War II,
Norton, London, 2005, p.146.
[13] Squadron Leader Hector Douglas McGregor, Combat Report, 12 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/83/94.
[14] Pilot Officer Wycliff Stuart Williams, Combat Report, 12 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/501/391; Wynn,
A Clasp for the Few,
pp.438–39.
[15] Fight Lieutenant John Albert Axel Gibson, Combat Report, 12 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/142/21.
[16] Hough and Richards, p.153.
[17] James Chilton Francis Hayter, audio recording, 14 October 2004, AFMZN.
[18] Pilot Officer Howard Clive Mayers, Combat Report, 8 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/165/35.
[19] Pilot Officer Howard Clive Mayers, Combat Report, 13 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/165/35.
[20]
Ibid.
[21] Newton,
A Few of the Few,
pp.94, 97; Beamont, p.53.
[22] Deighton, p.207.
[23] Pilot Officer Colin Falkland Gray, Combat Report, 18 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/21/37.
[24] Gray, p.50.
[25] Bishop,
Fighter Boys,
p.277.
[26] A. Claasen,
Hitler's Northern War: The Luftwaffe's Ill-fated Campaign, 1940–1945,
University of Kansas, Lawrence, 2001, p.166.
[27] B. Norman,
Luftwaffe over the North: Episodes in an Air War, 1939–1943,
Leo Cooper, London, 1997, pp.66–67.
[28] Deighton, p.212.
[29] Flying Officer Desmond Frederick Bert Sheen, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/30/211.
[30] Norman, pp.66–67.
[31] Wynn,
A Clasp for the Few,
pp.391–392; Newton,
A Few of the Few,
p.104.
[32] Wynn,
A Clasp for the Few,
pp.220, 263.
[33] Franks, pp.150–151; Pilot Officer John Noble Mackenzie, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/18/163.
Chapter 6: Shot Down
[1] T. Clayton and P. Craig,
Finest Hour,
Coronet, London, 2001, pp.229–32.
[2] N.W. Faircloth,
New Zealanders in the Battle of Britain,
War History Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1950, p.10; Wynn,
A Clasp for the Few,
pp.169–70; Shores and Williams, pp.281–82.
[3] Wynn,
A Clasp for the Few,
p.255.
[4]
Ibid.,
p.257.
[5]
Ibid.,
p.383.
[6] Beamont, p.54.
[7] Flight Lieutenant Derek Harland Ward, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/37/494.
[8] Flying Officer Kenneth William Tait, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/37/490; Kenneth William Tait, Logbook, 15 August 1940, AFMNZ.
[9] There is some discrepancy over where Hight crashed. Wynn records that it was on ‘Walsford Road, Meyrick Park, Bournemouth',
A Clasp for the Few,
p.204. J. Willis,
Churchill's Few: The Battle of Britain Remembered,
p.107, states that it was at the end of the Middle Wallop runway. See also M. Pudney, ‘Last Moments of a Kiwi Fighter Pilot',
New Zealand Memories,
vol.3, pp.434–36. Most likely the New Zealander was killed in Bournemouth where he is remembered with a road named after him.
[10] Pilot Officer George Maurice Lawrence Baird and Sergeant Douglas Burton were part of 248 Squadron and their Blenheim was shot down on a reconnaissance mission near Norway. Both men were captured and remained prisoners of war until 1945.
[11] C. Burgess,
‘Bush' Parker: An Australian Battle of Britain Pilot in Colditz,
Loftus, Australia: Australian Military History, 2007, pp.12–15.
[12] J.E.R. Wood,
Detour: The Story of Oflag IVC,
Falcon, London, 1946, pp.49–50.
[13] J. Champ and C. Burgess,
The Diggers of Colditz,
Kangaroo Press, 1997, p.126.
[14] Burgess, p.45; W. Morison,
Flak and Ferrets: One way to Colditz,
Sentinel, London, 1995, pp.162, 168.
[15] Burgess, pp.52–53.
[16] Newton,
A Few of the Few,
pp.73, 106–7.
[17] Flight Lieutenant John Francis Pain, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/18/32.
[18] John Francis Pain, Logbook, 15 August 1940, RAFM, B3329; Newspaper Clipping,
Brisbane Courier Mail,
n.d., RAFM, B3329.
[19] Deere, p.113.
[20] Adapted from Deighton, pp.119–20.
[21] Pilot Officer Irving Stanley Smith, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/63/458; Wynn,
A Clasp for the Few,
pp.353–54.
[22] Flight Lieutenant Alan Christopher Deere, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/21/104; Deere, p.113.
[23] Flight Lieutenant Alan Christopher Deere, Combat Report, 15 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/21/104.
[24] Faircloth, p.12.
[25] Adapted from Bungay, pp.177–78.
[26] Burgess, p.25.
[27] Olive and Newton, p.102.
[28]
London Gazette,
no.34935, p.5289, 30 August 1940.
[29] M. Parker,
The Battle of Britain, July–October 1940: An Oral History of Britain's Finest Hour,
Headline, London, 2001, p.215.
[30] Bungay, p.374.
[31] Parker, pp.256–57.
[32] Wynn,
A Clasp for the Few,
p.257.
[33] Deighton, p.215.
[34] Faircloth, p.12.
[35] John Mackenzie, ‘The Battle of Britain', p.3, AFMNZ, Battle of Britain Box.
[36] Deere, p.126.
Chapter 7: Sector Airfields
[1] T.C.G. James,
The Battle of Britain,
Frank Cass, London, 2000, p.135.
[2] Hough and Richards, p.222; Operations Record Book, Station H.Q., RAF Tangmere, 16 August 1940, NA, AIR 28/815.
[3] Hough and Richards, p.222.
[4] Deere, pp.126–27.
[5] T. Woods,
Three Wings: The Cliff Emeny Story,
Zenith, New Plymouth, 2004, pp.23–25.
[6] Brew, p.70.
[7] Pilot Officer Harold Goodall, Combat Report, 24 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/104/857.
[8] Pilot Officer Colin Falkland Gray, Combat Report, 24 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/21/105.
[9] Pilot Officer Charles Gordon Chaloner Olive, Combat Report, 24 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/25/108.
[10] Hough and Richards, p.227.
[11] F. Ziegler,
The Story of 609 Squadron: Under the White Rose,
Crecy, Manchester, 1993, pp.131–32.
[12] Pilot Officer Keith Ashley Lawrence, Combat Report, 24 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/89/326.
[13] In spite of his British birth certificate, John Hewson was included in Newton's work on the Battle of Britain because Hewson's father, an Englishman, had emigrated to Australia. He married an Australian woman who bore him two children in Australia as well as their English-born son John. Newton,
A Few of the Few,
p.78.
[14] Pilot Officer Harold Goodall, Combat Report, 26 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/104/859.
[15] Pilot Officer Charles Gordon Chaloner Olive, Combat Report, 26 August 1940, AIR 50/25/108.
[16] Pilot Officer Harold Leslie North, Combat Report, 26 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/19/42; cf. Mason, p.244.
[17] H. Bolitho,
Combat Report: The Story of a Fighter Pilot,
Batsford, London, 1943, pp.102–3.
[18] Pilot Officer Patrick Wilmot Horton, Combat Report, 26 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/89/348.
[19] P. Bishop,
Battle of Britain, A Day by Day Chronicle, 10 July 1940 to 31 October 1940,
Quercus, London, 2009, p.244.
[20]
New Zealand Herald,
9 September 1952; P. Addison and J. Crang,
The Burning Blue: A New History of the Battle of Britain,
Pimlico, London, 2000, p.64.
[21] Woods, pp.30–31.
[22] Deere, p.133.
[23] Pilot Officer William Henry Hodgson, Combat Report, 28 August 1940, AIR 50/36/71; Wynn,
A Clasp for the Few,
p.212.
[24] Bungay, p.252; Bishop,
Fighter Boys,
p.304.
[25] Pilot Officer William Henry Hodgson, Combat Report, 30 & 31 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/36/69.
[26] Shores and Williams, p.331.
[27] Bishop,
Battle of Britain, Day by Day,
p.267.
[28] Wynn,
A Clasp for the Few,
p.392. Wynn suggests that this action by Tracey occurred on 28 August, but it does appear more likely that it was 30 August since Biggin Hill was not bombed on the earlier date.
[29] Parker, p.249; Newton,
A Few of the Few,
p.158.
Chapter 8: Hard Pressed
[1] Hillary, p.142; R. Smith,
Hornchurch Scramble: The Definitive Account of the RAF Fighter Airfield, Its Pilots, Groundcrew and Staff, vol 1: 1915 to the End of the Battle of Britain,
Grubb Street, London, 2000, p.119.
[2] Smith,
Hornchurch,
p.143.
[3]
Ibid,
p.117.
[4] Flying Officer Brian John George Carbury, Combat Report, 31 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/167/464.
[5] Hillary, p.144.
[6]
Ibid,
pp.144–45.
[7] D. Ross,
Stapme, The Biography of Squadron Leader B.G. Stapleton, DFC, DFC (Dutch),
Grub Street, London, 2002, p.52; The other ‘ace in a day' was Polish pilot Antoni Glowacki who had achieved this milestone flying a Hurricane with 501 Squadron on 24 August 1940. Glowacki in the post-war era joined the RNZAF and emigrated to New Zealand in 1958.
[8]
London Gazette:
no.34978, pp.6192–3, 25 October 1940.
[9] Hillary, p.174.
[10] Pilot Officer Richard Hope Hillary, Combat Report, 31 August 1940, NA, AIR 50/167/486.
[11] Newton,
A Few of the Few,
p.141.
[12] Wynn,
A Clasp for the Few,
pp.31–32, 81–82.
[13] Parker, pp.259–60.
[14]
Ibid.,
p.253; Bishop,
Battle of Britain: Day by Day,
p.273.
[15] T. Holmes,
Hurricane Aces, 1939–40,
Osprey, London, 1998, p.86.
[16] Hough and Richards, p.238.
[17] Deere, pp.130–31.
[18] Charles Stewart, Logbook, 24 August 1940, AFMNZ; Wynn,
A Clasp for the Few,
p.373.
[19] Irving Smith,
www.151squadron.ord.uk
retrieved 28 January 2010.
[20] Bungay, p.293.
[21]
Ibid.,
p.298.
[22] Keith Park, Logbook, AFMNZ, 2009/140.
[23] Gray, pp.62–63.
[24] Deere, p.135.
[25] Hough and Richards, pp.237–38.
[26] Parker, p.262.
[27] Deere, p.108.
[28]
Ibid.,
pp.132–33, 140.
[29]
Ibid.,
p.149.
[30] Shores and Williams, p.217.
[31] Deere, p.149.
[32] Willis, p.30.
[33] Flight Lieutenant Patrick Hughes, Combat Report, 4 September 1940, NA, AIR 50/89/349; Shores and Williams, p.343.
[34] Newton,
A Few of the Few,
pp.156–57. Other possible claimants included Stapleton and Flight Lieutenant John Terrence Webster, of 41 Squadron, see J. Leasor and K. Burt,
The One that Got Away,
Readers Book Club, London, 1958, p.15.
[35] Leasor and Burt, pp.208–9.
[36] Pilot Officer Keith Ashley Lawrence, Combat Report, 7 September 1940, NA, AIR 50/89/293; J. Foreman,
Fighter Command: War Diaries, vol.2, September 1940 to December 1941,
Air Research, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, 1998, p.16.
[37] Willis, p.136.
[38]
Ibid.,
p.135.
[39]
Ibid.,
p.86.
[40] Bishop,
Fighter Boys,
p.339.
[41] John Rushton Gard'ner, interview with author, 9 January 2011.
[42] Spurdle, p.46, Francis, pp.69–70.
[43] Woods, pp.33–34.
[44] Olive and Newton, p.91.
[45]
Ibid.,
pp.146–47.
[46] A. Calder,
The People's War: Britain 1939–45,
Jonathan Cape, London, 1969, p.153.
[47] AHB Narrative, p.382.
[48] N. Moss,
Nineteen Weeks: America, Britain, and the Fateful Summer of 1940,
Houghton Mifflin, New York, 2003, p.294; Bishop,
Battle of Britain: Day by Day,
p.298.
Chapter 9: London Burning
[1] M. Domarus,
Hitler: Speeches and Proclamations, 1932–1945, vol.3, The Years 1939–1940,
Bolchazy-Carducci, Wauconda, Il, 1997, p.2084.
[2] S. Johnstone,
Spitfire into War,
William Kimber, London, 1986, p.134.
[3] Pilot Officer Kenneth Victor Wendel, Combat Report, 7 September 1940, NA, AIR 50/163/41.
[4] Parker, p.270.
[5] G. McLean and I. McGibbon (eds),
The Penguin Book of New Zealanders in War,
Penguin, Auckland, 2009, p.308.
[6] Flight Lieutenant Dick Reynell, Combat Report, 7 September 1940, NA, AIR 50/177/30.
[7] Pilot Officer Charles Roy Bush, Combat Report, 7 September 1940, NA, AIR 50/92/99.
[8]
www.battleofbritain1940.net/0037
retrieved 30 November 2011.

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