airclassicsnow.com 73
By the time they reached Dieppe,
the enemy had been alerted and
searchlights and anti-aircraft fire
were probing the lightening sky.
As they headed down the various
roads looking for armor or troop
emplacements, the two Mustangs
became separated but
neither saw anything
of note and headed
back to Croydon
where theyfew hours on the
type and would be
flying as wingman
to his friend F/L
F.E. “Freddy”
Clarke. The ground
crew had already
warmed up the
Allisons and
Hills slipped his
lanky frame into
the cockpit and
strapped in before
starting on his
checklists.
Before dawn,
Clarke advanced the throttle on his
Mustang and Hills was soon following
him into the gray blackness as they
charged down the Croydon runway
and set course for the French port.
It was a murky morning and as soon
as they got to the Channel, the pair
dropped down to wave height and
began streaking towards the enemy
coast. It was their first
operational mission.this taught them how to
survive at low-level while
tangling with fighters that
had superior performance.
Actually, the training went
on much longer than the
pilots thought reasonable
and during these
activities, the squadron
experienced its first loss
when American P/O G.M.
Dunway flew into the
ground with Tomahawk
AH902 at Dorset during 21
November.
All that flying meant
that Holly had some
500-hours in his log by
July 1942 and this would
serve him well when the
squadron finally went
operational. During
this time, he was also
promoted to P/O from
F/O and that was a boost to his
morale. When 414 celebrated its
first birthday, the squadron had
accumulated 3000 hours with only
nine of those being on operational
missions.
Watching other squadrons
come and go as they headed out
over Occupied Europe caused some
grumbling among 414 pilots but
they would not have much longer to
complain. Operation Jubilee was
to see over 6000 mainly Canadian
infantry put ashore from a Royal Navy
flotilla that would be protected by
the RAF. The Black Knights had been
picked to be one of four Mustang
Army Cooperation squadrons that
would cross the Channel to come
in at very low altitude to inspect all
the roads and byways leading to the
French port. Any suspected activity
would be recorded on film and then
rushed back to England for processing
at the base.
Hills was satisfied that his
Mustang was as good as it was going
to get. He had accumulated only a
Frederick Edsall Clarke enjoying
a bit of sunshine at Croydon.Holly Hills giving his mother a tour of the Mustang ramp at
Inglewood.Mustang Mk. I AG470/RU*M piloted
by F/O Hollis Hills on 19 August
1942 over Dieppe.