No Place for Chivalry

by Alastair Goodrum

  Those pieces found capable of being preserved were painstakingly cleaned and placed on display, alongside the results of similar digs, in the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre on the former wartime airfield at East Kirkby. The final episode of this tale unfolded when LARG members had the opportunity to meet Herbert Thomas at the museum in 1987. There they presented him with some pieces of his rare Dornier, including one of the ignition keys, as a tangible reminder of his brush with death one moonlit night in 1941. Also present at the meeting was Herbert’s old adversary Dennis Britain. Dennis is the former chairman of the UK’s oldest toy manufacturing company that bears his family name. He actually became chairman in 1936 and when he joined the RAF in WW2, was officially too old for operations. However, he managed to bend the regulations and between March 1941 and September 1942 he flew more than eighty night patrols as a radar operator with 25 Squadron, for which he was awarded the DFC. Dennis died in 1996 at the age of ninety-three. David Thompson, on the other hand, despite his flying and combat experience, survived only a couple more months after the above combat.

  Since February 1941 over 120 attacks had been made on bomber and fighter airfields across the country. Over a longer period, RAF Sutton Bridge, near The Wash, was hit five times and its decoy Q-site at Terrington St Clement was attacked eight times during the war. RAF Wittering, 25 Squadron’s base, was bombed several times, too, including four consecutive nights in a row up to May 9/10. One of those attacks destroyed 25 Squadron’s office and the loss of squadron documents accounts for the scarcity of archive information for the early part of the war.

  On the civilian side, Spalding, a small market town in south Lincolnshire, received the attention of a single raider in the early hours of Friday, May 10. Four HE bombs damaged houses in King’s Road, Pinchbeck Road and West Elloe Avenue, alongside the railway line to the north of the station. At first sight Spalding seems an unlikely target but a closer look at the combination of railway lines, junctions, embankments and road and river bridges carrying the railway through the town, shows it to play a strategic role in the east coast railway network. Fortunately there were no casualties on this occasion nor was the railway itself damaged.

  An aeroplane linked to an intriguing mystery may well have been responsible for this attack. Night fighter pilot Plt Off Alan Picknett of 25 Squadron submitted the following combat report of an engagement with what he claimed was a Focke-Wulf FW200 Condor, also in the early hours of May 10 1941, very close to the time of the Spalding raid.

  At 02.10 I took off with Plt Off G F Sellick as AI operator from Wittering in a Beaufighter and landed at 04.00, controlled by Langtoft GCI. After patrolling for about an hour I was vectored NE and after a series of vectors I obtained a visual at 250-300 yards of a large four-engine aircraft flying east at 13,500 feet altitude. I closed and identified the aircraft as an FW200 Condor. I immediately opened fire from astern and to starboard at 100-150 yards range with four cannon guns. The E/A almost instantaneously went into a steep dive to port. I followed it down to 8,000 feet, getting in another very short burst, causing green sparks to be emitted from the E/A’s fuselage. As the E/A pulled out of its dive I managed to get in another very short burst before I passed over its top. Although I continued to search I could get no further contact, either visual or on AI. I have since been informed that Lincoln Observer Corps have reported that, at 03.30, the precise time of the combat, cannon fire was heard about three miles south of Fosdyke and that this was followed by the sound of an aircraft crashing, which was confirmed by the Fosdyke police and searchlight post WT045. At low tide in the afternoon of 10 May 1941 Plt Off Herrick and Plt Off Sellick made a reconnaissance of The Wash in a Magister and a patch of oil was observed in the vicinity of the combat, one inch to one mile map ref sheet 56: F970670; the area of Gat Sand.

  The weather and visibility was excellent with nearly full moon and both I and Plt Off Sellick clearly identified the E/A as an FW200 Condor, which I claim as destroyed. No return fire was experienced.

  It is clear the crew had fired at something, as Plt Off Picknett used a total of thirty-five cannon shells in three very short bursts. What seems unclear is whether they did in fact shoot down an aircraft. An oil slick is not conclusive evidence as it could have come from a ship. The Wash is shallow in the vicinity of Gat Sand and it seems odd that no wreckage was found nor any more detailed surface search initiated, particularly in view of the comment: “the sound of an aircraft crashing”. Or was that sound really the noise of aero-engines slammed to full throttle, such as might happen when an aeroplane is diving hard – as it would do to evade its attacker? According to German archive sources, MOD (Air Historical Branch), and several reputable air historians both in the UK and Germany – such as the late Heinz Nowarra – no FW200 loss record exists to support the claim, or at least not one that matches the Spalding raid date. Enquiries about RAF four-engine aircraft (notably Stirlings that had just entered service) and aircrew losses on that date also drew a blank, thus allaying the fearful alternative possibility. Furthermore, despite the discovery in 25 Squadron archives of a photograph purporting to be of the mystery Condor, no evidence can be gleaned from that picture to make it in any way connected with this incident. Only four bombs were dropped in Spalding on this occasion and the local newspaper described them as “of small calibre” so that is not particularly helpful either. However, on the vexed question of aircraft identification in the darkness, it is also interesting to note that an RAF intruder crew from 23 Squadron claimed an FW200 over France on the night of April 21/22 1941, but it was subsequently found that they were mistaken and the aircraft they actually attacked and shot down was in fact a Junkers Ju88.

  The mystery, therefore, still remains, but perhaps the simple explanation that this was a sortie by one bandit – ‘wounded’ or not – that got away under cover of darkness, may be closest to the truth. Who knows?

  The night of May 10/11 1941 saw the Luftwaffe launch its last major attack of the Blitz, when London and many other towns were severely raided. Among the many single-seater Fighter Night sorties drawn to the London area were several by Hurricane fighters from 151 Squadron at RAF Wittering, as outlined earlier. Just twenty-four hours later the biggest attack on a civilian target in The Wash locality during this period occurred when twenty-four HE bombs were dropped in and around the market town of Spalding again. This time the centre of town itself was devastated by what was described at the time as hundreds of incendiaries, dropped by one of an estimated three enemy raiders in the early hours of Sunday, May 12 1941. This seems to have been part of a concerted series of attacks on communications and airfield targets across eastern England that night. What follows is a description of the devastation that could be caused by a small number of enemy bombers on an undefended civilian target.

  Air raid sirens wailed at 23.57 on the 11th and soon the noise and vibration of exploding bombs was heard and felt with trepidation. This was the result of one aircraft unloading a stick of twelve bombs along Cuckoo Road, close to the railway line from Spalding to Bourne, on the western outskirts of the town. At 01.00 on the 12th another single bomber caused the greatest havoc by dropping shoals of incendiary bombs across business premises and homes in and around the old market place. An eyewitness said it sounded like “pebbles clattering as the bombs hit the roof tiles.” Many were extinguished by fire watchers, Civil Defence and police but large numbers penetrated top floors of high buildings, locked and vacated for the weekend, where they soon caused major fires. Subsequent official reports made it clear that the devastation in the town centre was the result of incendiary bombs and not high explosives. These are thought to have been released by the same aircraft that dropped two HE bombs recorded as falling just to the north of the town centre; one exploding between the Lincoln and Boston railway lines where they converge, and the other just missing these lines as they approached the station itself – about a quarter of a mile from where the carpet of incendiaries began to fall.

 
Spalding Urban District Fire Brigade and Auxiliary Fire Service units were soon at work but fires were so extensive that these services were in danger of becoming overwhelmed. A call went out to neighbouring towns for assistance and fire brigades from Peterborough, Boston and Bourne promptly answered the plea, together with fire-fighting parties from soldiers of the 18th Battalion of the Welch Regiment stationed locally. The latter also provided parties to control spectators, remove furniture from burning buildings and act as runners. Then, at 02.45, while fires raged and the sky was lit up for miles around, another hammer blow fell as an enemy bomber swept in from the south-east, laying a stick of twelve bombs across residential areas. These fell in a mile-long swathe from Matmore Gate to St Thomas’s Road, missing many properties but killing people in houses that took direct or near-hits.

  This writer’s father was one of many AFS firemen fighting the conflagration in the town centre that night. George Goodrum recalled how they were pumping water from the Welland river onto the Woolworths store and adjacent properties when that last bomber was heard. He said: “We all dropped to the ground in shop doorways as the explosions came nearer, thinking they would be aiming their bombs to stoke up the fires we were tackling.” But this bomber was after another section of the railway and left the fires to wreak their own havoc while it went for the railway bridges.

  The town post office had to be evacuated at 02.30 owing to the danger of it being engulfed by fire and the only telephones working were a private police line and the council’s private system. It reopened at 04.00 when the danger passed. All off-duty policemen, special constables, civilian clerks and the staff of the United Services canteen were soon back on duty as the town got to grips with the disaster. It was a most serious blow to it though, as it suffered five people killed, twenty-five injured and all told, more than 300 properties damaged. Certain roads in the town were closed to all vehicles except essential services but by 06.00 an extended system of control was in operation, with the assistance of two sergeants and twenty-four men of the 80th Traffic Control Company.

  In the cold light of a smoke-filled dawn the town counted the cost but by then the fires were out and temporary repairs and rehousing of businesses under mutual assistance arrangements were well in hand. Although business premises in the centre of the town had been hit hard, miraculously two-thirds of the HE bombs fell in open spaces such as bulb fields, allotments and playing fields so, despite 250 houses being slightly damaged, only one had to be demolished and eight were badly damaged. The relatively few people who were rendered homeless were billeted with friends so the council decided it was not necessary to open up official rest centres.

  Speculation continues to this day over why this small market town was singled out by the Luftwaffe. Popular local theory is that a navigational error caused it to be mistaken for either Boston, fifteen miles to the north, where the docks might have been the target or Peterborough, an engineering and railway centre some fifteen miles further south. A glance at these three places on a map of the region is enough to show how such an error might well have been made from the air at night. Although smaller, Spalding, like both Boston and Peterborough, sits astride a river and that river flows into The Wash.

  Another much more plausible theory however is because no less than six railway routes converged at Spalding station, these lines and not the town centre may have been intentional targets. This major junction straddled important north-south routes (Peterborough and Ely to Lincoln, Boston and Grimsby) and the west-east route linking Leicester to King’s Lynn, Norwich and Great Yarmouth. If, for example, the east coast main line and other important lines in the region became congested or closed due to bombing then the railway lines converging on Spalding would become vital diversionary routes. It would certainly have caused disruption by disabling the lines or more importantly, the bridges and complex junction system through the town, and strong support for this idea comes from an analysis of the bombing patterns. The validity of this theory becomes much more apparent by consulting older, pre-Beeching, maps, showing lines and junctions that are no longer evident today. Bombs from both the Friday morning and Sunday morning attacks only just missed the station and the north and north-west railway junction. One of the Sunday attackers narrowly missed the line to the south and the west/east line junction. while another laid his stick close to and parallel with the east/west railway just missing a rail/river bridge, a rail/rail bridge and a junction. This pattern therefore seems quite deliberately directed at the railway targets. Whatever the reason though, the raid became a clear indication to the ordinary citizen of what ‘total war’ really meant.

  There was much enemy air activity over the length and breadth of the region that same night, with Ju88 and He111 bombers attacking RAF Sutton Bridge and other airfields all round the periphery of the Fens. Between 01.00 and 02.00 – around the time Spalding was hit – separate attacks by three enemy aeroplanes were made on the airfield. Sixteen bombs fell among the parked Hurricanes, setting two on fire, seriously damaging seven others and peppering many more with shrapnel. A new intake of pilot trainees at 56 OTU arriving at Sutton Bridge during the morning after the raid were greeted with the sobering sight of smouldering craters and burned out Hurricanes.

  25 Squadron at Wittering put up several Beaufighter aircraft to counter these raids and the Luftwaffe did not get off entirely scot-free. Two crews had some success when Sqn Ldr Harold Pleasance (pilot) with Sgt Bennie Bent (RO) damaged a Heinkel He111 near Wells-next-the-sea while Plt Off David Thompson (pilot), with Plt Off Dennis Britain (RO) claimed another Heinkel He111 damaged west of Skegness.

  Both Beaufighters thundered down the runway within minutes of each other at 01.00 on the 12th with Pleasance in T4634 taking a patrol line to the south of The Wash under Orby GCI, and Thompson in R2181 to the north under Digby sector control. Bandits came in about an hour later and the two crews joined combat almost simultaneously. Dennis Britain picked out his own contact just inland from Skegness and brought Thompson into visual range of a Heinkel He111 at 6,000 feet altitude. It was down-moon of the Beaufighter, putting the fighter in an exposed position so, cool as a cucumber, Thompson slid the Beau underneath the E/A, came up the other side and opened fire at 300 yards range. But he was spotted and the E/A crew returned fire as the bomber dropped into a series of diving turns. Whenever he could get the elusive Heinkel in his gunsight Thompson fired a burst – five times in all. He saw hits but the fight had dropped to sea level and the bomber managed to wriggle free and escaped out to sea.

  About the same time, Orby GCI put Bennie Bent onto the track of a bandit and he brought Sqn Ldr Pleasance into visual range of another He111, flying about ten miles off Wells-next-the-sea. Once again the Beaufighter was seen and the bomber crew fired first as it closed in. Pleasance, too, scored hits on the fuselage as the Heinkel went down in diving twists and turns but it was lost to view at 5,000 feet, eight miles east of RAF West Raynham. Harold Pleasance complained bitterly that it was “aimless searchlights” that deprived him of his kill.

  On balance, the Luftwaffe seems to have had by far the best of the encounters, particularly when one takes into consideration the damage done to Spalding and RAF Sutton Bridge that night. ‘Big week’ was over but after a short lull the bombers came back.

  Sgts Ken Hollowell (pilot) and Dick Crossman (RO) had flown together regularly in 25 Squadron since November 1940 and had become an effective team with several successful interceptions to their credit. Airborne on May 16/17 they were patrolling The Wash in Beaufighter R2156 when Sgt Crossman picked out a contact on his AI set and directed Ken Hollowell onto a course to intercept. As they closed on the target both agreed it was a Heinkel 111 and Ken Hollowell moved in for the kill. He put his gunsight ring onto the dark shape – it was a ‘sitter’. The four 20mm cannon thumped out but after just a few rounds they stopped, jammed. Immediately Dick Crossman wriggled from his radar position into the centre section where he could get at the ammunition drums and breechblocks a
nd feverishly set about clearing the blockage. With Crossman away from his radar it was vital that Hollowell kept in visual contact with the bandit. By now though that wasn’t too difficult since, having spotted the Beaufighter, enemy gunners were blazing away at it from every position. Now Crossman yelled to his pilot that the guns were clear and Hollowell fired again – and again the guns fell silent after a few rounds. With Hollowell desperately hanging on to his target, in all Dick Crossman had to clear the cannon three times before the Heinkel could be hit hard enough to force it down near Cromer. But by keeping so close to the bomber the enemy gunners were themselves able to score good hits on the Beaufighter. With one engine stopped and some controls damaged Hollowell could not maintain height so he gave the order to bale out. Down to 1,000 feet altitude Crossman just made it out safely over Langham but Hollowell decided he was too low so he took a chance, stayed with the aircraft and pulled off a masterful crash-landing on marshland near Stiffkey, north Norfolk. Ken Hollowell was no stranger to forced landings as he had experienced his first back in January when he was unscathed after engine failure brought down R2129 near Wisbech.

  After nearly three weeks with little by way of action for the squadron, Birmingham came under attack on June 4/5 1941, from Heinkels of III/KG4, based at Leeuwarden in Holland and at 02.00 hours on the 5th an He111 H-5 fell to the guns of 25 Squadron Beaufighter R2157 flown by Sgt Horace Gigney, with radar operator Sgt Gerard Charnock. They were instructed to orbit the northern side of The Wash at 12,000 feet altitude under the control of Orby GCI station. Shortly after being vectored onto an inbound bandit Charnock picked up a contact flying west, brought Gigney neatly in from astern and he got visual contact at 200 yards range. Throttling back so as not to overshoot, Gigney had time to fire one brief burst of forty-four cannon shells just as the target seemed to take evasive action. There was no return gunfire from the Heinkel and it transpired that Gigney’s short burst was sufficient to bring down He111, wk wr 3793, coded 5J+FS.