Description
Object description
British officer served as pilot with 87 Sqdn, Air Component British Expeditionary Force, RAF in France, 5/1940-6/1940; served with 213 Sqdn, No 11 Group, Fighter Command, RAF in GB during Battle of Britain, 1940; served as Aide-de-Camp, (ADC) to Lord Trenchard in GB, 1954-1956; served as Air Attache in Budapest, Hungarian People's Republic, 1956-1958
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of operations as pilot with 87 Sqdn, Air Component British Expeditionary Force, RAF in France, 5/1940-6/1940: posting to Senones; news of German attack, 10/5/1940; comparison between Hawker Hurricane and Messerschmitt Bf 109; opinion of Messerschmitt Bf 110; learning from German tactics; degree of knowledge of French Air Force; occasion when he attacked Messerschmitt Bf 109 without ammunition; contact with French troops at Merville, 20/5/1940; passing on lessons of aerial combat learnt during Battle of France; lack of suitable maps of France; attacking Junkers Ju 87 Stuka; difficulty of verifying kills; effects of lack of sleep; sleeping in pigsty; reforming of squadron on return from France.
REEL 2 Continues: training inexperienced pilots in squadron. Recollections of operations as pilot with 213 Sqdn, No 11 Group, Fighter Command, RAF in GB during Battle of Britain, 1940 posting as flight commander to squadron at RAF Tangmere, 8/1940; German tactics; German attacks on airfields; attitude of captured German pilots; question of shooting of pilots in parachutes; degree of warning of German attacks; opinion of Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane; attack on Junkers Ju 88, 19/10/1940; tactics in attacking German formations; reasons for British success in Battle of Britain; how battle suddenly ended; characteristics of different nationalities serving with Royal Air Force; treatment of Air Marshal Hugh Dowding and Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park at end of battle; personal morale and smell of cordite during aerial combat.
REEL 3 Continues: clothing worn and abandonment of tight collars; opinion of film 'Battle of Britain' (1969); question of kills during battle. Memories of period as Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to Lord Trenchard in GB, 1954-1956. Aspects of period as Air Attache with British Embassy in Budapest, Hungarian People's Republic, 1956-1958: memories of Soviet Ambassador Yuri Andropov; Hungarian Uprising, 1956; living standards prior to uprising.