Interview with Robert Francis Thomas Doe

British officer served as pilot with 234 and 238 Sqdns, No 10 Group, Fighter Command, RAF in GB, 7/1940-1/1941 including Battle of Britain, 7/1940-10/1940; served with 66, 130 and 613 Sqdns and No 57 Operational Training Unit, RAF in GB, 5/1941-8/1943; commanded 10 Sqdn, Indian Air Force in Burma, 12/1943-4/1945; served as officer with Royal Air Force in India, Afghanistan, GB and Egypt, 1945-1960

REEL 1 Background in Reigate, GB, 1920-1939: family; education; employment; joining Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 1939. Recollections of operations as pilot with 234 and 238 Sqdns, No 10 Group, Fighter Command, RAF during Battle of Britain, 7/1940-10/1940: opinion of Supermarine Spitfire; German Air Force attack on RAF Middle Wallop, 8/1940; drawback of formatting; shooting down of Messerschmitt Bf 110, 15/8/1940; key to surviving in air warfare; transfer to 238 Sqdn at RAF Chilbolton, 27/9/1940; his shooting down in Hawker Hurricane (P3984), 10/10/1940; escape from stricken aircraft and parachute descent, 10/10/1940; landing on Brownsea Island; hospitalisation for wounds in Poole. Aspects of operations with 238 Sqdn, RAF in GB, 1940-1941: return to flying, 12/1940; start of night fighting, 3/1/1941; emergency landing at RAF Warmwell, 3/1/1941. Aspects of hospitalisation for wounds at Park Prewitt Hospital, Basingstoke, GB, 1/1941-5/1941: nature of wounds; treatment for wounds; psychological healing role of barmaid at Red Lion Public House in Basingstoke. REEL 2 Continues: Aspects of operations with 66, 130 and 613 Sqdns, RAF in GB, 5/1941-8/1943: return to flying; role escorting bomber raids; period as instructor with No 57 Operational Training Unit, RAF at RAF Hawarden; flying Lockheed P-38 Lightning; opinion of North American Mustang Mk.I with 613 Sqdn, RAF; reasons for volunteering for service in Burma. Recollections of operations commanding 10 Sqdn, Royal Indian Air Force in India and Burma, 12/1943-4/1945: voyage from GB to India; role forming squadron in India, 12/1943; advantages of having Indians in squadron; type of air support operations engaged in with Hawker Hurricane fighter bombers; creation of temporary landing strips; Imperial Japanese Army shelling of landing strips; move to Ramree Island, Burma; living conditions in Arakan, Burma; solving problem of shortage of bomb fuses; pattern bombing; withdrawal to India contrast in rations in Burma and India. Recollections of period as officer with Royal Air Force in India, Afghanistan, GB and Egypt, 1945-1960: attending Staff College at Quetta; staff job in Dehli, India. REEL 3 Continues: organising air display; occasion when British Government lost opportunity to secure oil rights in Oman; role in Kabul, Afghanistan; story of Afghan King's Rolls Royce, 1946; story of cricket match in GB; posting to Egypt; source of ill feeling between Israel and GB; taking over command of 32 Sqdn, RAF; anti-British feeling from Egyptian civilians; alarm at Egyptian plan to take over Sudan; opinion of British airmen; visit to Saigon, French Indochina, 1954 and flight back to GB; staff work at War Office, London. REEL 4 Continues: crisis over Kuwait during Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's premiership; 1958; how he got Kuwait operation underway; considerations concerning overflights to Kuwait.