Description
Object description
British NCO served as pilot with 66 Sqdn, No 11 Group and 610 Sqdn, No 13 Group, Fighter Command, RAF in GB, 8/1940-9/1941 including Battle of Britain; officer served as pilot with 72 Sqdn, No 324 Wing, Eastern Air Command, RAF in North Africa, 11/1942-6/1943
Content description
Background in Maidstone, GB, 1917-1939: family; education; early interest in aviation. Aspects of enlistment and training with Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) in GB, 1939: joining Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR); spinning aircraft; relations with officers; familiarisation flight at Rochester Airport; memories of declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Aspects of flying training with RAF in GB, 1939-1940: problems during cross-country flight from No 16 Elementary Flying Training School, RAF at RAF Burnaston; low-level flying; opinion of North American Harvard; training flying hours; initial impressions of Supermarine Spitfire; background to posting to Fighter Command, 8/1940; first flight in Supermarine Spitfire. Recollections of operations as pilot with 66 Sqdn, No 11 Group and 610 Sqdn, No 13 Group, Fighter Command, RAF in GB, 8/1940-9/1941: joining 66 Sqdn, RAF at RAF Coltishall and lack of operational training, 29/8/1940; move of squadron to RAF Kenley, 7/9/1940; reasons for posting to 610 Sqdn, RAF at RAF Acklington, 10/9/1940.
REEL 2 Continues: shooting down of German Heinkel He 115 over North Sea, 9/1940; return to 66 Sqdn, RAF, 24/10/1940; in aerial combat with German fighters; comparison between Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Supermarine Spitfire; shooting down of Heinkel He 111 over English Channel; fighter sweeps over France, 1941; anti-aircraft fire hit on aircraft over Calais, France; opinion of treatment of Lack of Moral Fibre (LMF) cases; participation in book 'Ten Fighter Boys'; posting as instructor at end of tour to No 53 Operational Training Unit, RAF at RAF Llandow, 21/9/1941. Aspects of operations as pilot with 72 Sqdn, No 324 Wing, Eastern Air Command, RAF in North Africa, 11/1942-6/1943: flight from GB to Algeria, 11/1942.
REEL 3 Continues: opinion of French; move to Maison Blanche, Algeria, 16/11/1942; operating cannon armed Supermarine Spitfire Mk VB; attack on German motor boat; German attacks on airfield at Maison Blanche, Algeria; encounters with German fighters; reasons for leaving squadron; return to duties in GB, 6/1943; wartime marriage; attitude to having served with RAF in Second World War