No Place for Chivalry

by Alastair Goodrum

  Sqn Ldr Widdows got in one more night patrol with R2072 on the 19th before it was flown to St Athan next day to be fitted with AI Mk IV equipment. Imagine the disappointment (and no doubt the strong comments) when news reached 29 Squadron that not only would ‘their’ R2072 not be returned after the mod but it was being issued to rival 600 Squadron at Redhill.

  Throughout those September nights there was plenty of ‘trade’, but with their appetite whetted for the new Beaufighter, 29’s crews had no choice but to soldier on with Blenheims, whose AI Mk III sets were like the curate’s egg – only good in parts. Flt Sgt Wellesley Munn and his operator Sgt Jack Ashworth patrolled Skegness on the night of September 10/11 in good visibility conditions, but though Digby control vectored them onto the track of three ‘bogeys’ (term for target unconfirmed as enemy aircraft and could be friendly), nothing was picked up on the AI set.

  Four Blenheims were again detached to RAF Wittering on September 12 and it seemed as if Wittering returned the favour next day by releasing Beaufighter Mk I, R2077, to Digby. It had been under evaluation by 23 Squadron at Wittering but the squadron was in the process of relocating to RAF Ford in Sussex. After just three days with 29 Squadron it is recorded as being flown out to RAF Ford, presumably back to 23. That squadron however, having changed from a night fighter to an intruder role, did not re-equip with Beaufighters but instead, retained its Blenheim Mk 1F until March 1941 then re-equipped with the Douglas Havoc.

  No wonder the squadron diarist wrote wistfully, “It is to be hoped the Beaufighters will be received in the near future.”

  Detached to Wittering, Plt Off Donald Anderson with air gunner Plt Off Percy Byng-Hall almost pulled off an interception at 02.15 on September 20, while they were on a VHF air test. They set off in hot pursuit only to be recalled when it turned out to be a friendly. One of the Ternhill detachment crews, Plt Off Jack Buchanan with gunner Sgt Victor Wingfield and AI operator AC2 Arthur Jackson were ordered to patrol Hoylake at 10,000 feet in 9/10ths cloud cover. Take-off was at 19.15 but they, too, had no joy and when the R/T failed an hour later they beetled off back to Ternhill. Other Ternhill patrols had a similar outcome.

  Next night Plt Off Anderson with Plt Off Byng-Hall and Sgt Donald Isherwood were airborne again from Wittering at 00.40 hours on the 21st. Bomb explosions were seen but after only thirty minutes in the air the R/T transmitter packed up and the Blenheim was recalled.

  In the evening of the same day Sgt Skillen with air gunner Sgt Isherwood, on detachment to Ternhill, were ordered off at 19.05 hours to patrol Merseyside in a non-AI Blenheim. Although they, too, saw many incendiaries dropping on the city they reported that the patrol “was uneventful”. This was something of an understatement since, at the end of the allotted patrol time, not only was their Blenheim fired on by friendly AA guns but when landing back at Ternhill the aeroplane struck a floodlight and was rendered unserviceable with a damaged wing. Next night one of the Wittering aircraft, flown by Sgt Sydney Stokoe with Sgt Albert Wilsden, was ordered to patrol Skegness at 15,000 feet altitude to await possible ‘trade’. They were directed towards a ‘hostile’ raid and although searchlights had been ordered to light up the raid they were unable to illuminate the bandit.

  Probably the closest anyone got to a real interception occurred when an AI Blenheim, flown by Sgt Fraser with air gunner Sgt Thomas Menage and AI operator AC2 Harold Gilyeat, was ordered up to investigate a raid at 00.40 hours on September 23. Searchlights surpassed themselves and two enemy aircraft were seen. Sadly both bandits were flying in the opposite direction to and above the Blenheim, and by the time Sgt Fraser had turned to intercept both E/A were out of sight and never seen again. On top of this the AI set had become u/s, so they were recalled, landing back at Wittering at 03.00.

  Patrol reports all told the same miserable tale. Blenheims without AI couldn’t spot the enemy and those interceptions with AI – assuming the set actually worked – often turned out to be friendlies. Furthermore there were R/T failures; they were fired on by so-called friendly AA guns; had crash-landings; poor searchlight cooperation or – even when it was good – the Blenheims were simply not agile enough to catch up with their targets.

  Searchlight (non-?) cooperation and aircraft recognition issues can best be illustrated by two patrols flown by Flt Sgt Wellesley Munn and Sgt Victor Skillen on September 25. First up was the experienced, pre-war trained Flt Sgt Munn, with air gunner Sgt Geoffrey Everitt. They took off at 19.20 and when west of Digby were given a vector and told to follow any searchlight activity. Munn observed bombs exploding and incendiaries dropping in a line parallel to his track and a couple of miles to the north. Although searchlights were active to the south of the bombs he decided to head for the bombing area itself, but as he did so his Blenheim was coned by yet more searchlights. Flt Sgt Munn frantically switched on the downward recognition light and fired a Very cartridge for the colour of the day and much to his relief, that batch of searchlights released him. He was not out of the woods yet, though. In spite of leaving on the downward light, Munn’s Blenheim was coned again and he had to fire another recognition cartridge and take evasive action. By now his altitude was down to just 1,100 feet when he was lit up for a third time and because he thought he had run out of Very cartridges, he beat a hasty retreat from the searchlight’s glare. When he found he had one more cartridge left, commendably but perhaps rather unwisely, he returned to search for the enemy and was yet again picked up by searchlights so, firing his final cartridge, he called it a day and returned to base.

  At 20.10 that same night Sgt Skillen and his AI operator Sgt Donald Isherwood were ordered off from Wellingore to patrol RAF Bircham Newton. Twice their Blenheim was illuminated by searchlights and twice released when Skillen fired the colours of the day. Then they saw bombs dropping to the south and west of The Wash and Isherwood even picked up two contacts on his AI set, both of which were chased without success due entirely to the slowness of the Blenheim. They returned to base, landing at 22.20 after a fruitless patrol.

  Detachments were still the order of the day, but these were put on a more formal basis at the end of September when the whole of A Flight – about one hundred men all told – was packed off to Wittering. It was to remain there for one month, at which time it would return to Wellingore and be replaced by B Flight. While checking the squadron ORB for operations during September, Bob Braham’s name was noticeably absent and this seemed curious until the following entry dated September 27 provided the reason: “Plt Off Steele and Plt Off Braham discharged from RAF Hospital Rauceby (Sleaford) where they had been since September 6, as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident. They went on sick leave.”

  It must have been quite a ‘prang’ to keep them hospitalised for three weeks and it is to be wondered how close it came to curtailing a very promising career.

  Blenheims were still being detached to support air cover around both Birmingham and Liverpool and patrols were flown over the Point Of Aire on most nights during October. One Blenheim crew, returning to Wittering from an evening patrol over Birmingham on October 11, was advised of a bandit in their vicinity. Although the weather was cloudy it was bright moonlight above the cloud but despite a search, no contact was made.

  While it was usual for a crew to be ordered off on a specific patrol line, subsequent events might dictate a change of plan and a crew could find itself wandering far and wide. At 20.50 on October 12 one of 29 Squadron’s Blenheims was sent off to patrol 10,000 feet over Spalding but on reaching his line the pilot was ordered to fly south-west to intercept hostile raids in the Midlands. He saw considerable AA gunfire and the explosion of many bombs and incendiaries in the Coventry area, but the complete absence of searchlights made interceptions impossible. At one time control informed this pilot that he was surrounded by no less than twelve enemy aircraft – and yet still he saw nothing.

  On a more positive note, 19.05 the next night saw Sgts Arthur Roberts and Ronald Mallett on a searchlight cooperation sortie
when they observed bombs dropping in the Grantham area. Roberts spotted an enemy aircraft at 13,000 feet altitude and followed it down to 3,000 feet where he opened fire with his front guns at 500 yards range. The enemy returned fire but it was wide of the mark and Roberts continued to shoot at the bandit’s starboard engine using nearly all 2,400 rounds in the ventral gun-pack. That engine seemed to stop just as the enemy aircraft disappeared into a cloud layer so Sgt Roberts could only claim a damaged.

  Although there was plenty of trade and quite a large number of RAF fighters in the air looking for it, in the dark and in all kinds of weather there was always the possibility of mistaken identity. This was mainly due to too many aircraft milling around in a relatively small area under limited ground control and with few navigational aids. Earlier on the 13th the two Blenheims detached to Ternhill took off to patrol the Point Of Aire when they fell victim to another case of mistaken identity. Plt Off Jack Humphries flew L7135 with air gunner Sgt Douglas Parr and AI operator AC1 Joseph Fizel. L6637 was crewed by Sgt Robert Stevens, Sgt Oliver Sly and AC2 Arthur Jackson. At 18.20, when ten miles north-west of Liverpool, L7135 was attacked from above by a Hurricane of 312 Squadron. Humphries’ aircraft was hit but not seriously, none of his crew was injured and he managed to make it back to Ternhill. He fired off two Very lights and shouted a warning on the radio to Sgt Stevens but it was too late. The Hurricane had shot L6637 into the sea with the loss of all on board. Arthur Jackson’s body was recovered later but the other two were not found.

  November 13 would be remembered for a couple of other events of significance too. It was the day, for example, that Flt Lt Guy Penrose Gibson (later of Dambusters fame) arrived at Digby to take up a flight commander post with 29 Squadron. That same day Beaufighter R2140 was delivered to the station from RAF Shawbury, followed next day by R2141 from RAF St Athan. Things were looking up indeed! By the end of November Sqn Ldr Widdows had reorganised the squadron into A Flight with Beaufighters, four pilots and the squadron leader himself, and B Flight with Blenheims and nine pilots. At the same time six other pilots were undergoing conversion training for the Beaufighter.

  Sadly this reorganisation did not come soon enough for the squadron to have any beneficial impact on the biggest air raid on Coventry on the night of November 14/15. To a large extent the ineffectiveness of the RAF that night is a graphic endorsement of tactics adopted by the Luftwaffe bomber force, together with the inherent difficulty experienced by defenders looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Air historian Alfred Price points out that, guided by pathfinder target-marking aircraft using the new X-Geraet precision radio beam navigation system, the Luftwaffe bomber force “would cross the British coast singly, moving on parallel tracks confined to a narrow belt some fifteen miles in breadth.” He describes these tactics as:

  . . . ‘crocodiles’ that were quite different from the ‘stream’ tactics employed by the RAF later in the war. German crews made no attempt to concentrate in time and space. Instead they flew in at intervals of about four minutes, with an average spacing between the bombers of twelve miles. This made it very difficult for the ‘cat’s-eye’ fighters to intercept, for there was only one raider per 180 square miles. Taking into account the altitude dispersion of the bombers between 10,000 feet and 20,000 feet, there was an average of one aircraft per 345 cubic miles of airspace!

  It was evident that moonlight could be a two-edged sword also. As duty officer that night in the main Air Ministry Y-Service listening station, Aileen Clayton recalled:

  There was a brilliant moon and the evening had been crisp and clear with excellent visibility. Over 500 aircraft took part in the raid but only one bomber was destroyed over England that night. So clear was the sky that single searchlight beams were ineffective; the raiders had no difficulty in spotting any approaching night fighter and were easily able to take evasive action.

  Of three ‘crocodiles’ despatched against Coventry, one came in over The Wash, and Digby and Wittering sectors were desperate to get to grips with the enemy. Numerous patrols were flown by 29 Squadron all through the night of the 14th and morning of the 15th, with the last aircraft landing back at Digby at 06.10 hours. Most crews observed bombs bursting in and around Coventry and fires breaking out, but they had precious little to show for their efforts.

  Flt Lt Alex Campbell sighted one aircraft near Warwick but could not determine what it was before it disappeared. Only Fg Off Lionel Kells and air gunner Sgt Robert Lilley, who were detailed to patrol Leicester in a Blenheim, engaged the enemy just before midnight.

  With take-off at 22.33, after an hour Kells spotted a light in front of him in the vicinity of Grantham and taking this to be from an aircraft cockpit, he gave chase. It took him until he reached Swaffham in Norfolk to get close enough to his target to open fire. At 500 yards range he gave it a three-second burst from the front guns. Another three-second burst caused the enemy aircraft to swerve downwards and to the left. His third burst of fire missed the target entirely, the light he had been following disappeared or was turned off and Kells lost sight of the enemy. Both airmen were sure the enemy aircraft had been hit by the first two bursts, but as there was no subsequent report of any crashed enemy aircraft to support the claim, a ‘damaged’ was the best they could hope for.

  Later the same day, Flt Lt Charles Winn and Fg Off Braham went to St Athan to collect Beaufighter R2144 and this was followed next day by R2150. Beaufighter R2095 was also a recent delivery and very nearly ‘did for’ Sqn Ldr Widdows on October 17.

  On a late evening searchlight cooperation sortie the squadron commander took off with Plt Off Len Wilson in the back seat but shortly before midnight the Digby controller diverted him onto a bandit. Of the enemy nothing was seen but Widdows soon had his hands full when the port engine of the Beaufighter failed and the aircraft fell into a steep dive. When the starboard engine also lost power he realised that the Beaufighter was out of control and ordered Wilson to bale out. Widdows was about to jump himself when he saw Wilson trapped inside the stricken aircraft – later found to be because he could not open his escape hatch. With the aircraft in a spin – or at best, in a spiral dive – and with complete disregard for his own life, Sqn Ldr Widdows climbed back into the cockpit. With extreme skill he managed to get the fighter out of its dive and pull off a belly-landing at Walks Farm near Sleaford. It was fortunate the aircraft did not catch fire and except for superficial cuts, Widdows emerged unhurt to release Wilson, who was in some pain from a broken ankle. Extricating Wilson, he carried him to a safe distance until help arrived to take him to Rauceby hospital. The Beaufighter was severely damaged and in coming to earth had ripped up fencing and killed five sheep but undoubtedly the magnificent action of Sqn Ldr Widdows had saved Wilson from certain death.

  Widdows was not alone in having a prang. On the 16th Sgt Thomas French landed Blenheim L1508 downwind at Wellingore and ended up in a hedge, damaging the aircraft, but he and his gunner emerged unscathed. A couple of days after that, Sgt Sydney Stokoe and his gunner Sgt Willins, too, were lucky to escape without injury when Blenheim L1507 caught fire on landing.

  The cannon armament in the new Beaufighters was not without teething problems either and the perils of dealing with these are described as follows. Both crew members entered the aircraft via a ladder attached to a hatch that opened downwards from the belly and led up to a compartment in the fuselage centre section. Here a pair of armoured doors separated the pilot’s cockpit from the rest and the AI operator occupied a swivel seat under a bubble canopy about halfway down the fuselage. He faced rearwards to work the AI apparatus, enabling him to turn his seat and move forwards to attend the guns when required. In the centre section a catwalk allowed the crew to move into position and accessible in a well below this floor were the breech mechanisms of the four 20mm cannon; two on either side. A sixty-round drum of ammunition was loaded into position on each gun before take-off. Replacement drums – each weighing an unwieldy 60lbs – were secured on racks in the compart
ment and it was the AI operator’s job to change the drums during a combat or attempt to clear jams. Quite a challenge!

  Patrols were launched whenever a raid threatened but for the remainder of that year there was little to show for the effort. Bob Braham chased a couple of enemy aircraft – one south of Grantham and the other south-east of Leicester – in one of the new Beaufighters on the night of 20 November but was unable to catch either, while during the evening of December 10 Guy Gibson chased a ‘blip’ that Sgt Ken Taylor picked up on his AI set, until it turned out to be a friendly. Gibson and Taylor went up again at dawn next day in R2150 after departing raiders. They chased one Ju88 that was going like a bat out of hell over the Lincolnshire coast near Mablethorpe and eventually managed to get within 800 yards range about sixty miles out over the North Sea. Gibson fired two short bursts at the fleeing Junkers but without any visible effect before it was lost to view in cloud. Although he sent in an intelligence report of the incident, the Squadron ORB recorded that, as he did not claim to have inflicted any damage on the enemy, Gibson did not submit a combat report. Guy Gibson made several more sorties during the remainder of December but without bringing the enemy to battle.

  The weather turned sour during January 1941 and although it started to improve towards the end of the month there was little enemy activity on 29 Squadron’s patch. On January 3 three of its Beaufighters, with Sqn Ldr Widdows leading from the front as usual, with Bob Braham and Flt Sgt Munn, were detached to RAF Middle Wallop to reinforce that sector.

  At the end of January the squadron started to operate from Digby airfield itself rather than Wellingore as the latter was quite wet and although still flyable, it was pretty small to operate Beaufighters in those conditions. It was around this date, too, that Fighter Command changed the command structure of night fighter squadrons and 12 Group – into which 29 Squadron fell – promulgated new ranks. As a result of this Charles Widdows was promoted wing commander and one flight commander would step up to squadron leader in due course.