The 80Th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain
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Supplement to The Aero Historian September 2020 The 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain There were more Hawker Hurricanes than Supermarine Spitfires in the Battle of Britain. Hurricane Mk I, P2923, VY-R, flown by Pilot Officer Albert G Lewis of No 85 Squadron, landing at Castle Camps, Debden's satellite airfield, July 1940 (Imperial War Museum). Compiled by Brian Lockstone © AHSNZ | SEPTEMBER 2020 “The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”1 Rt Hon W S Churchill MP, House of Commons, 20 August 1940 Today the Battle of Britain is no longer officially commemorated in New Zealand on 15 September. Fought between 10 July and 31 October 1940, it remains one of the most defining and significant events of the Second World War, saving Britain from the risk of invasion and providing a springboard to launch on occupied Europe the assault which brought the war to a bitter end in May 1945. At the time of writing there was but one surviving aircrew member left. Research by one of New Zealand’s best aviation historians affirms that of the 3000 pilots and air gunners who served during the battle, 135 were New Zealanders. In this special supplement, we acknowledge and salute all those who fought, in the fighter squadrons, on the airfields, in the radar stations, the repair depots, the Post Office which provided the essential links, the teams which repaired the damaged airfields, the anti-aircraft units, the hospitals and ambulance services, and the often overlooked Merchant Navy manning the petrol tankers transporting at great risk the vital fuel essential to sustain the fight. There was Rolls Royce, producer of the renowned Merlin aero engine and the aircraft manufacturers which built the principal fighters – Supermarine Spitfire, Hawker Hurricane, Boulton Paul Defiant and the Bristol Blenheim. Others contributed; for example, De Havillands rapidly developed a constant-speed propeller and provided around 700 to the RAF in short time. The company also set up a Merlin repair operation for Rolls Royce. To describe the battle, we reproduce the despatch on the battle by Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, Air Officer Commanding Fighter Command, and published as a supplement to the London Gazette on 11 September 1946. It is comprehensive and authoritative, an important and outstanding account. We neither analyze the battle, the way in which it was conducted, nor the various controversies that followed. There are scores of books available covering all elements. Perhaps the best include Battle over Britain by F K Mason, first published by the McWhirter Twins Limited in 1969 and again in a substantially revised edition by Aston Publications in 1990 and The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster, first published by Hutchison & Co (Publishers) Limited in 1961 and again in a substantially revised edition by Arrow in 1969. The late Vincent Orange’s magisterial Park, the biography of Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park has a necessarily limited coverage of the battle. There are three important New Zealand associations with the battle. First are the New Zealand airmen – pilots and air gunners – who flew in the squadrons, then Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park who, on 20 March 1940, as an air commodore took command of 11 Group of Fighter Command which provided the air defence of London and south-east England. Finally, there is the Governor-General of New Zealand, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Cyril Newall who held office between 1941 and 1946. Significantly he was Chief of the Air Staff, RAF, in those demanding years from 1937 until 1940. He oversaw the vast expansion plan which prepared the air force for war. Importantly, he resisted demands by the Prime Minister Rt Hon Winston Churchill to send more fighter squadrons to France after the German invasion in May 1940, realizing the French were collapsing and the real battle lay ahead. 1 He also said “we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power.” 2 Some New Zealanders serving during the Battle 41 Squadron pilots – Flg Off J N Mackenzie, second right back row, Plt Off E P Wells second right front (IWM). 501 Squadron – Flying Officer J A A Gibson second from right (IWM). 3 Returning to the first aspect, the New Zealanders who fought in the Battle of Britain. Errol Martyn QSM, a member of the Aviation Historical Society of New Zealand of longstanding, is a renowned researcher and author. Over several years he has assembled what is now regarded as the most authoritative roll of New Zealand Battle of Britain veterans. This entailed research across the archives, personnel records and elsewhere. It differs from accounts published in various books. His findings: nearly 3000 aircrew were awarded the Battle of Britain Clasp for having flown at least one authorised operational sortie with an eligible unit of RAF Fighter Command (including a number of attached Coastal Command units) during the period from 10 July to 31 October 1940. Of these, 135 came from New Zealand. They made up the third largest contribution after Great Britain and Poland. Of the 135, 45 percent lost their lives: 15 killed in action during the battle and five after accidents; 31 were killed in later air actions while 10 were killed or later died after air accidents; eight became prisoners of war. The list has specific details. Here are some of the New Zealanders who served. Several went on to have outstanding war records and many, such as Arthur Clouston, Al Deere and Frank Gill served in the postwar RAF or RNZAF. Colin Gray became New Zealand’s highest-scoring fighter pilot of the war. Two are listed among the top-10 scorers in the battle: Flying Officer B J G Carbury, 603 Squadron, was the highest with 15 aircraft destroyed, two possible and five damaged. He became an ‘ace’ (ie five kills) in one day; Pilot Officer C F Gray, 54 Squadron, with 14 and one-half victories. Hardly an ‘ace’, Flying Officer T F Gill was unusual for two reasons: he was a bomber pilot and he captured an enemy pilot. He joined the RNZAF in 1937 and the RAF two years later. At the outbreak of war, he was on 88 Squadron with the single-engine Fairey Battle light bomber. The squadron went to France with the RAF Advanced Air Striking Force and suffered appalling losses in personnel, aircraft and equipment during the Battle for France and left in June 1940 after the Dunkirk evacuation. Back in Britain he was rested between tours as a liaison officer with Fighter Command before moving to 75 (NZ) Squadron. In September 1940, at the height of the battle, he secured a temporary attachment to 43 Squadron and his logbook records flights in Hurricane P3465, P3466 and L1968. On 22 and 23 September he was airborne in Hurricane L1968 again while on 24 September he had two sorties in Hurricane P7303 and his logbook records “local, air combat, aerobatics and patrol.” These earned him his Battle of Britain clasp. On 30 September 1940 he captured a Luftwaffe pilot. While driving back to Fighter Command he came across a Messerschmidt Bf-109E-1 (4851) of 7/ JG27 on the ground in Windsor Great Park. Gill stopped, disarmed the pilot, Oberleutant Karl Fischer, drove him to the nearest RAF depot and handed him in to become a prisoner of war. Accounts of the circumstances vary, from the Bf-109E being damaged in aerial fighting to his stalling while attacking RAF Avro Ansons. Post-war he returned to the RNZAF, became deputy Chief of Air Staff, then Air Officer Commanding the then Air Operations Group. On retirement he entered politics and became a Minister of the Crown. He was appointed New Zealand Ambassador in Washington DC and returned to New Zealand where he died in 1982. One interesting airman was Sergeant C S Emeny who joined the RNZAF then transferred to the RAF and trained as an air gunner. He was posted to 264 Squadron and the Boulton Paul Defiant, a novel concept with no forward-firing guns but four .303 machine guns in a turret behind the cockpit. The idea was for the pilot to fly alongside, ahead of or beneath an enemy when the gunner would fire his weapons. After some success against bombers over France in May 1940, the Defiant was cut to ribbons by Luftwaffe fighters, was promptly withdrawn and switched to night-fighting duties. Emeny subsequently trained as a pilot, later serving with 45 Squadron over Burma where he was shot down and became a prisoner. According to the Order of Battle, 8 July 1940, there were 40 fighter squadrons across No’s 10, 11, 12 and 13 Groups. Of these, 19 were equipped with Hurricanes, 13 with Spitfires, and the remainder with Blenheims and Defiants. 4 New Zealanders awarded the Battle of Britain Clasp New Zealanders joined the various British air arms – the Royal Flying Corps, the Royal Naval Air Service then, from 1 April 1918 the Royal Air Force – from the beginning of military aviation in the United Kingdom.