FLYERS: Enthralling WWII Aviator Tales: The exploits of many of the allied aircrews who fought in the Second World War in the skies of Britain and Europe

193 Pages·2014·2.19 MB·English

by  Walker

Flyers

A Collection of Enthralling WWII Aviator Tales

Compiled and Edited by Mike Walker
This Digital Edition Text © 2014 M.A.Walker
All Rights Reserved
Dedication…..
To all members, past and present, of The Royal Air Force and the Air Forces of
the British Commonwealth, Europe, USA and USSR with particular mention to
the air and ground crews who fought magnificently through two world wars to
ensure that those who came after them could live in a free world.
…..and, thanks
To The Royal Air Force Flying Review and its contributors, for supplying
essential weekly nourishment to aviation enthusiasts during the most exciting
period of aeronautical expansion and innovation.
Preface
The RAF Flying Review, sub-titled ‘The Journal of The RAF’, was in existence,
in various formats, for just over a quarter of a century, commencing publication
in 1944 and ceasing, much greater in size but a shadow of its former self, in
1970.

During the first 19 years of its life, this monthly magazine truly reflected the
public face of the Royal Air Force with a mix of information about foreign air
forces and assessments of their latest aircraft, detailed cutaway drawings of
aircraft, colour profiles, technical ‘gen’ and future developments in the world of
aviation, all alongside RAF Service News.

Its content was always interesting to those who were, in the parlance of the
1950s, ‘air-minded’; the most keenly anticipated articles of each issue being the
riveting first-hand accounts of the experiences and personal reminiscences of the
aviators, both Allied and Axis, who played their parts in the two world wars.

Now long out-of-print, a selection of these historic and exciting stories have
been unearthed, edited and compiled for the first time into this digital edition by
Mike Walker, an ‘air-minded’ ex-RAF airman whose aviation interest can be
traced back to sometime in 1952 when, as a 5 year-old, standing on the
perimeter-track of RAF Ismailia in Egypt, he watched the landing of a
detachment of Vampires from No.3 Squadron.
Table of Contents

Chapter One: “Achtung! Schpitfeur”
Chapter Two: Incredibly I Was Still Alive ….
Chapter Three: An Incredible Adventure
Chapter Four: 3 Miles Down without a Chute
Chapter Five: Escape in the Snow
Chapter Six: Tales of the Wooden Wonder
Chapter Seven: Skyjack over the Mediterranean
Chapter Eight: The Night 59 Lancasters Disappeared!
Chapter Nine: Transport Command at War
Chapter Ten: Warriors of the Hurricane
Chapter 11: Above and Beyond the Call of Duty
Chapter 12: Adrift in the North Sea
Chapter 13: The Scottish Ace of 605 Squadron
Chapter 14: Miraculous Escapes
Chapter 15: The Men who flew the Stirling
Chapter 16: The RAF Enters the Jet Age
Chapter 17: Pimpernels of the Air
Chapter One: “Achtung! Schpitfeur”

The Spitfire was the supreme fighter aircraft, and it struck terror into the heart of
the enemy – from the beginning of the war against Germany to the end of the
Japanese campaign. As Group captain A.G. “Sailor” Malan put it – the Spitfire
was “a killer”.
The Bader Incident
One day in July 1941, the leader of the Tangmere Spitfire Wing, Wing
Commander Douglas Bader, was returning from an offensive sweep over the
Continent when he chanced upon a lone Messerschmitt 109.

Bader started his attack run but as soon as the Messerschmitt pilot spotted the
RAF Spitfire, he dived in terror out of the way – then went into a steep climb.
Bader, in attempting to cut him off, pulled back on his control column so hard
that he pulled too much ‘g’ and momentarily blacked out. When Bader could see
again, the Messerschmitt had disappeared.

Back at RAF Tangmere, the two pilots who had been flying with Bader, Hugh
“Cocky” Dundas and “Johnny” Johnson (both of whom later became Group
Captains), congratulated him on his good shooting. Bader was astounded,
saying “But I didn’t fire a shot”, suspecting that his fellow pilots were probably
being sarcastic. Dundas and Johnson, however, assured him that the Hun pilot
had baled out as Bader’s Spitfire was fast approaching the Me.109 from about
400 yards behind. Bader and his colleagues, most puzzled over this, walked over
to the three Spitfires to examine their gun-ports. The gun-port patches were all
still in place; neither Bader nor the others had fired their guns.

Apparently the Messerschmitt pilot, rightly terrified at seeing Bader’s Spitfire on
his tail, had immediately baled out – without a single shot being fired!

Bader claimed one “frightened”.
Be Afraid

At one stage during the campaign of offensive sweeps carried out by the
Spitfires over the Continent in 1941, the Germans had been so badly beaten up
by Spits that they sometimes refused to come into the air to fight. The Hun
fighters simply stayed on their airfields, while the Spitfires, hungry for battle,
wheeled overhead. One Spitfire pilot was so disgusted with the German
disinclination to fight that, over St. Omer airfield, he split his flight into two
sections of three each, then, with flak bursting all around, he and his Spitfires
carried out a mock dog-fight for some six minutes! Having contemptuously
shown the Germans how air fighting should be done, the Spitfires re-formed and
flew home.

On one occasion during the Battle of London about 200 German bombers,
protected by fighters, were intercepted by Spitfires as they flew up the Thames
estuary. As soon as this mighty armada saw the mere two squadrons of Spitfires
approaching, the Hun pilots jettisoned their bombs, then turned tail and flew for
their lives!

So terrified were the Luftwaffe of the Spitfire that in Malta in 1942, two enemy
aircraft were shot down one day when none of the few British fighters were in
the air. Every defending RAF aircraft was grounded, for one reason or another,
when a heavy German raid developed. Determined not to let the Germans get
away with their merciless attack unmolested, two RAF types decided to talk to
each other over the radio, pretending that one was a controller directing Spitfires
to intercept the raiders and the other was a Spitfire pilot in the air. As the airmen
anticipated, their radio “messages” were picked up by the approaching Germans.
Immediately, they were delighted to hear cries of “Achtung! Schpitfeur!” filling
the German wavelengths. In the ensuing confusion, the Huns became so
panicked by this imaginary RAF Spitfire attack that two Messerschmitts shot
each other down in error with not a single Spitfire in the air!