If You Want Peace, Prepare for War
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If You Want Peace, Prepare for War A History of No.604 (County of Middlesex) Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force by Ian White Dedication This book is dedicated to those men and women who served and supported No.604 (County of Middlesex) Squadron, RAuxAF, throughout the twenty-seven years of its existence as an Auxiliary squadron, and in particular to those who laid down their lives on the Squadron’s behalf during peace and war. Acknowledgements The basis of this history is taken from the two volumes of the Operational Record Book (the much quoted ORB) held in the PRO (now the National Archive) at Kew, and the memories, accounts, papers and photographs of the Squadron Association’s members and their families. In particular: Mike Allen, Margaret Budd, Norman Burton, Derek Dempster, Bingham Dore, Fred Grisley, Jill Howard Williams for permission to quote from Jeremy Howard-Williams book, Night Intruder, Keith Pearson for permission to quote from his memoirs, An Erk’s Eye View, and Valerie Wigfall for permission to quote from her father, George Evans, book, Bless ‘Em All. Others outside the Association’s membership also lent their support, particularly: Maureen Bridge, Paul Cruco, John Harrison who turned the final product into the electronic format understandable to our printers, the Photographic Departments of the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth, and the RAF Museum, Hendon, Jeff Jefford and Tony Freeman of the RAF Historical Society, Judith Last who turned my sketches into decent maps, Paul Litherland of Antony Rowe, Bill Morris for helping us to locate the whereabouts of Heath Brow, Mary Gunn, the Librarian of the RAF College, Cranwell, and Charles Ross of the RAF Heraldry Trust who provided a good copy of the Squadron badge for use on the cover and, finally, to Chris Lewis Associates for their assistance in designing the graphics for the cover. My thanks are also extended to the editorial team of Jack Meadows, Alan Jackman and John Annals, who kept me on the straight and narrow throughout the writing of the book and to Al & Eileen Hanley-Brown who read the final draft from beginning to end and found more mistakes than I could have thought imaginable. A special thank you goes to the Association’s secretary, Mike Allen, and his wonderful ‘committee of one’ who helped me maintain a sense of proportion throughout the project and undertook most of the work in assembling and scanning the photographs. And last, but by no means least, to my wife Carol, for putting up with me disappearing into my study each afternoon throughout the ten months it took to complete the story and for undertaking some of the initial proof reading. To them all I offer my sincere thanks, and, as with the best authors, any mistakes herein are entirely of my own making. Ian White Martlesham Heath December 2004 Introduction Throughout the twenty-seven years of its existence as an Auxiliary unit, No.604 (County of Middlesex) Squadron, RAuxAF, maintained itself at the forefront of RAF efficiency by winning the Esher Trophy three times, and was instrumental in the development of the night-fighter role using airborne radar. Its record of 132 enemy aircraft destroyed at night during World War Two, is second to none, as are the number of its officers and NCOs who reached senior ranks within the service, and the decorations they were awarded (four DSOs and one bar, thirty-seven DFCs, or bars, nine DFMs, four BEMs, three Norwegian War Medals, numerous Mentioned in Despatches and one posthumous George Cross). Sadly, much of the documentation available to historians, in particular that of the Squadron’s operational record book, concentrates on the service lives and actions of the aircrew, with little reference to the ground staff (fitters, mechanics, clerks, storekeepers, the medical branch, drivers, ground defence personnel, cooks and so on). It should not be forgotten that an RAF fighter squadron represented the very tip of an air defence system, that relied on the teamwork of those supporting its branches: the airfields from which it flew, the ground radar stations and their fighter controllers, the training organisation that took ab initio aircrews and turned them into operational pilots and radar operators, and finally, the UK aircraft industry and the civilians in large and small (sometimes very small) companies, who designed, built, produced and repaired aircraft in their thousands. It should, nevertheless, be born in mind that without the wholehearted support of these men and women, who invariably never left the ground and received little official recognition for their efforts, the Squadron would not have achieved the results it did. This book therefore seeks to make some attempt at redressing the balance of over emphasis on officers and aircrews, by drawing, wherever possible, on the written accounts and published documents of the non- commissioned ranks and civilians. I will leave you the reader to decide to what extent we have achieved that objective in recording the history of our Squadron. Ian Ponsford President 604 Squadron Association Contents page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE Formation and the Early Years, 1 1930 - 1934 CHAPTER TWO The Lead-in to War, 1934 - 1939 23 CHAPTER THREE The Phoney War and the Battle for 45 France, September 1939 - June 1940 CHAPTER FOUR The Night Blitz, September 1940 - 67 May 1941 CHAPTER FIVE Stiffening the Defences, June 1941 - 99 April 1942 CHAPTER SIX The Empire Strikes Back, Enemy 121 Raiding, April 1942 - April 1943 CHAPTER SEVEN Scorton & OVERLORD, May 1943 - 143 August 1944 CHAPTER EIGHT The End of the Line, August 1944 - 174 April 1945 CHAPTER NINE The Cold War & Rebirth, 192 1946 - 1949 CHAPTER TEN The Final Years, 1950 - 1957 219 APPENDIX ONE 604 Squadron Key Appointments 258 APPENDIX TWO Aircraft & Airfields of 604 Squadron 260 APPENDIX THREE Enemy Aircraft Claimed as 264 Destroyed by 604 Squadron in World War Two APPENDIX FOUR Officers & Pilots of 604 Squadron at 268 December 1951 GLOSSARY 269 BIBLIOGRAPHY 275 INDEX 279 CHAPTER ONE Formation and the Early Years, 1930 - 1934 At the close of the First World War in November 1918, Britain‟s exchequer was very nearly exhausted and its people wearied and disillusioned after four years of hard fighting. The natural wave of anti-war feeling amongst those fortunate enough to have survived, coupled with severe financial restraint on the part of the Government, precipitated the need to demobilise the three armed services at the earliest opportunity. At the end of 1919, the Royal Air Force (RAF) comprised 193 squadrons, containing some 22,000 aircraft, and a manpower strength of 30,000 officers and 263,000 airmen. The Secretary of State for Air, Sir William Weir, proposed a reduction in the RAF‟s front line strength to sixty-two squadrons, commensurate with its contribution to national defence and the protection of the Empire in the post-War world. Weir‟s plan envisaged the majority of the squadrons being based overseas, supported by a smaller number in the UK for general defence purposes. In addition to these responsibilities, the efforts of the Secretary of State were directed towards the need to retain the RAF as a separate arm, independent of the Army and the Royal Navy, and equal in standing. Weir‟s ideas for the future of the RAF were not shared by the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, who viewed the creation of the Air Force as a wartime expedient. In Lloyd George‟s Cabinet reshuffle of December 1918, he removed Weir and appointed Winston Churchill to oversee a combined War & Air Ministry that would begin the dissolution of the RAF. Fortunately for the Country and the RAF, Churchill was one of the most air-minded politicians of his day. During his tenure at the Admiralty, prior to the outbreak of war, Churchill had learned to fly with the Royal Naval Air Service and thereafter maintained a close personal interest in aviation. He sought out Weir who persuaded him to remove Sir Frederick Sykes as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) and replace him with Hugh Trenchard, whom Weir thought better suited to leading the peacetime RAF. Trenchard was duly appointed CAS in March 1919. In one notable respect Churchill differed from Weir with regard to the numbers of operational squadrons needed during peacetime. Aware of the need to significantly reduce the national budget, Churchill favoured deep cuts in the strength of the RAF and the Army, and an acceleration toward full demobilisation. By April 1919, RAF strength had been reduced to fifty- five squadrons. The Treaty of Versailles, with its clauses forbidding 1 Germany from maintaining and operating military aircraft, was signed on the 28th June 1919 and left Great Britain in the unique position of having no natural enemy on the Continent of Europe, other than her erstwhile ally France. Like Great Britain, France was also turning towards general demobilisation and the need to maintain large military forces on either side of the Channel diminished accordingly. In the light of European demobilisation and the effective, if temporary, military neutralisation of Germany, the Government postulated a policy that foresaw no war on the European mainland for the next ten years, the infamous Ten Year Rule. Accordingly, at a Cabinet meeting on the 15th August 1919, proposed further reductions in defence spending. The Cabinet subsequently endorsed the Treasury‟s proposals that the defence budget be dramatically reduced from the £502 million set aside for 1919/1920, to £100 million for the financial year 1920/1921, just over one fifth of the original sum, of which the RAF‟s allocation was £75 million. The worst was yet to come. In August 1921, the Government commissioned a committee under the chairmanship of Sir Eric Geddes to seek further economies in national spending.