The Times - UK (2020-09-15)

20 2GM Tuesday September 15 2020 | the times

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John “Paddy” Hemingway, the last of

“The Few”, has said that victory in the

Battle of Britain was down to the many,

as the country commemorates veter-

ans 80 years on.

Group Captain Hemingway, 101,

hailed the “true professionals” who

enabled the RAF to become the “most

sophisticated air force in the world”

when the battle was fought in 1940.

He told The Times: “As pilots, we

never forgot the hundreds of thousands

who worked together to give us safe,

state-of-the-art aircraft to confront the

enemy. It was this, above all, that gave

us victory during those few months.”

Mr Hemingway, from Dublin, is the

last surviving member of The Few: the

3,000 pilots of the RAF and the Fleet

Air Arm of the Royal Navy who took to

the skies to defend Britain against Luft-

waffe attacks intended to prepare the

way for a German invasion.

September 15, 1940, is considered to

have been the height of the battle, when

the RAF inflicted heavy losses on

formations of German bombers target-

ing London. It marked a turning point

in the battle which lasted from July 10 to

October 31.

RAF air crew were supported by their

comrades on the ground repairing and

refuelling their planes and others using

radar to detect and plot the enemy’s

movements. Mr Hemingway said it

Queen hopes

to be present

at Cenotaph

Charlie Parker, Valentine Low

A

bout 3,

pilots served

in the Battle

of Britain.

The contribution of

these dashing aviators

grabs the imagination

and has been the

subject of countless

films and books. As the

pilots themselves

acknowledged, they

could not have

achieved anything at

all if it was not for the

thousands who

supported them.

That included the

crews who repaired

and refuelled their

Spitfires and

Hurricanes and the

operations room staff

who “scrambled” them,

based on movements

of enemy aircraft as

plotted by WAAFs

using data from radar

stations and the

Observer Corps.

Some 312 RAF

personnel were killed

on the ground during

the battle, a significant

toll — 520 men died

serving with Fighter

Command in the same

period. The late Stan

Hartill worked as

ground crew. He said:

“The ground crew felt

we had a very

important part to play

in the Battle of Britain

because our job was to

keep the Spits flying

and without the Spits

the pilots were of

course useless.”

Unsung

heroes of

the battle

Mark Bridge

Comment

Last of The Few honours RAF’s many

Arthi Nachiappan

Mark Bridge History Correspondent

took air and ground crews between 10

and 15 minutes after first spotting Ger-

man aircraft to put together a “proper”

intercept at the point of attack. That

time was a “crucial factor”, he added.

“In reality, the system worked so well

that the time from a blip on the radar to

a squadron in the air to meet it was six

minutes, and the climb rates of the Hur-

ricanes and Spitfires put the fighters at

15,000 feet within six minutes of leav-

ing the ground,” he said.

The ability to get to fighting altitude

— usually 10,000 to 15,000 feet —

proved critical, and the aid of radar

early warning would prove to be a cru-

cial advantage in the battle.

Mr Hemingway flew Hurricanes in

the Battle of France, claiming a Heinkel

He 111 bomber and a shared kill of a

Dornier Do 17 bomber before he was

brought down by German fire. He was

also shot down twice during the Battle

of Britain, baling out each time and

soon returning to the air. In 1941, he

won the Distinguished Flying Cross. He

was flying a Spitfire in Italy when he

was shot down once more. He was

cared for by local people before return-

ing to Allied lines disguised as a peas-

ant. After the war he married and had

children, retiring from the RAF in 1969.

Terry Clark, another Battle of Britain

veteran, from Wheldrake, near York,

died on the eve of the 75th anniversary

of VE Day in May this year, aged 101.

Mr Hemingway is supporting the

RAF Benevolent Fund’s Join the

Search: Change a Life campaign,

which seeks to get more veterans

“back on the radar” so they can be

given support. He said: “I’m here

because I have had some stag-

gering luck and fought along-

side great pilots in magnificent

aircraft with ground crew in the

best air force in the world at that

time. This was a long time ago

and many are not here any more,

and I am sad about that. I believe it

is safe to say, the military and other

conditions that presented us in 1940

will never happen again. It was a unique

battle fought in the skies over the UK,

witnessed live by the nation.”

The Ministry of Defence has joined

the National Archives and the RAF

Museum to produce a special episode of

the On The Record podcast series,

called The Untold Battle of Britain. It

stresses the contribution of pilots from

around the world, including Polish and

Czechoslovak squadrons.

It also includes the stories of the

pilots Mahinder Singh Pujji from India

and Vincent Bunting from Jamaica

who did not serve in the Battle of Brit-

ain but were among the pilots from

overseas who helped to fill the RAF’s

depleted ranks afterwards and served

with distinction.

Letters, page 26

Squadron Leader Allan Scott,

Obituary, page 49

Battle of Britain experiences digital

special at thetimes.co.uk

The Queen hopes to return to public

duties by leading Remembrance

Sunday services.

She is understood to have made the

ceremony a priority after months of iso-

lation at Windsor Castle. The Queen,

94, has been forced to miss engage-

ments including Trooping the Colour

and Buckingham Palace garden parties.

A palace source said that she intend-

ed to be at the Cenotaph in Whitehall

on November 8, if appropriate social

distancing measures were in place.

“It will be one of the things she will

most want to do in the coming few

months,” the source told The Times. “It

is something she always attends.”

The Royal British Legion, which or-

ganises the event, is reviewing meas-

ures. Last year the Queen was photo-

graphed wiping away a tear as she

watched the ceremony from a balcony.

She has continued her weekly calls

with the prime minister during the

lockdown and has not stopped receiv-

ing government red boxes. In April she

gave a televised address to the nation

and has stepped out of isolation on rare

occasions. In July she awarded a

knighthood to Captain Sir Tom Moore

to celebrate his NHS fundraising and

attended the wedding of Princess Bea-

trice at Windsor.

Last month the Queen and the Duke

of Edinburgh, 99, flew to Balmoral and

tomorrow they are expected to travel to

Sandringham, Norfolk, to stay for two

weeks. Later this month the Queen will

head to Windsor Castle before return-

ing to her Buckingham Palace office.

This week the Queen said she had

been inspired to see how the National

Portrait Gallery’s Hold Still digital exhi-

bition “had captured the resilience of

the British people” in the pandemic.

Giles Coren’s Notebook, page 24

PA

A

former WAAF

has highlighted

the role of

women in the

wartime air

force, describing how

radar operators had “made

all the difference in the

world” to young pilots

(Arthi Nachiappan and

Mark Bridge write).

The RAF Benevolent

Fund is paying tribute to

“unsung heroes” of the

Second World War. Kath

McLeod, 97, served in the

Women’s Auxiliary Air

Force from 1942 to 1944,

plotting the movements of

enemy aircraft and, later,

V1 flying bombs and V

rockets. She was posted

around Britain as part of

her work, including to

Cornwall, Weymouth and

Essex, and met her

husband, who also worked

in radar, during her service.

She said: “The legacy

should be celebrated. The

pilots were only young lads,

18 or 19. The radar team

would have made all the

difference in the world. It

gave them time to get up

and get the height. It gave

them a good extra ten

minutes to get the height.

And that would have

made a terrific difference

— they would be there

waiting when the

aircraft were coming.

“The women were

just as good as the

men. It was a job

that women could

do quite easily, the radar

and plotting. There were

some men in radar and

they were mostly

mechanics.”

She said that she

ended up working on radar

“by chance”, adding: “I

wanted to be a plotter.

When we were at the

meeting I thought, ‘Oh

good, I’m a plotter’, and this

chap asked if any of us had

done science. I fell for it

because I thought I would

have lovely accommodation

in the countryside. We had

to go on a course first and

we were on this machine

and it had a line of light

along it and every time an

aircraft came it made an

indentation. We had to plot

it by various means and

then our information and

all the radar went up to HQ.

“The routes of the

aircraft were marked on the

plotting table. I gave them

the position, then it went to

someone in the operations

rooms. We had one person

plotting the route, the other

person was sending the

position to the operations

rooms and the operations

room was doing the maths.

There were about six

people on a watch and we

all changed positions.

“We only knew our own

part of the operation

because it was all secret.

“I didn’t have a science

background, I was 19 years

old — I just had a normal

school certificate.”

The vital role of WAAFs

has also been highlighted in

the Untold Battle of Britain

podcast from the Ministry

of Defence, the National

Archives and the RAF

Museum.

Mrs McLeod’s daughter,

Ann, and grandson, James,

followed in her footsteps by

serving in the RAF.

We made a

difference to

pilots, says

former WAAF

Kath McLeod, back right with

members of the Women’s

Auxiliary Air Force, says that

young pilots relied upon them

Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway, left, was shot

down twice in the Battle of Britain; he is now aged 101

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