Air Classics - Where History Flies! - August 2022

74 AIR CLASSICS/August 2022

and as they neared the coast west of

Dieppe, Hills spotted four Luftwaffe

Fw 190As off his right at 1500-feet

and on a course that would take the

enemy fighters directly over the two

Mustangs.

Breaking radio silence, Hills called

Clarke but to no avail. As he was

doing this, Clarke turned left toward

the Amiens Road and this change

was ideal for the Germans to bounce

the fast-moving Mustangs. Hills

decided to take the lead and swung his

Mustang (AG470, coded RU*M) wide

to Clarke’s left. Hills recalled:

“At this point, this put me right

over the town — dusting the chimney

tops. I believe the 190s lost sight of

me as I had stayed under them. My

plan was to cut off the lead Focke-

Wulf before he could open fire on

Freddy. My timing all went to pot

was not going well. Strict radio silence

was to be observed and the Mustangs

were soon heading for Dieppe —

easily spotted by rising columns of

smoke. Clarke did not know that his

radio had failed shortly after takeoff

rejoined. On the ground, it was an
entirely different story. The Canadians
had managed to seize the port and
planned on attacking all nearby
German coastal emplacements as
well as military buildings and port
structures. They had brought along
plenty of explosives and a force of
tanks to aid in the mission. Hopefully,
this would help make up for the
stinging defeat at Dunkirk. Within
hours, Operation Jubilee would turn
into a disaster.
Back at Croydon, the film was
removed from the Mustangs’ cameras
and Hills and Clarke were surprised
to find they were being ordered out
on another mission at mid-morning, a
sign that the situation on the ground

This Mustang of 414 Squadron displays

a small maple leaf insignia on the cowl to

denote the unit’s Canadian roots.

Low and fast — the RAF Mustang pilots quickly learned their aircraft could avoid most

Luftwaffe fighters by flying extremely low with throttles full forward. The pilot of this Mk. I

is perhaps displaying a bit too much low-level enthusiasm.

Mustang Mk. I pilot marvels at the damage his Mustang received — it literally has holes

from the nose to the tail.