During an action on the morning of August
31, Starr was shot down and killed. Sqn
Ldr Gleave resumed command but, after
destroying a Ju 88, his Hurricane, P3115, was
set on ire during combat with Bf 109s, forcing
him to bale out, badly burned. The squadron
had quickly been reduced to ten aircraft and
17 pilots, though replacements soon arrived,
including Flt Lt Myles Duke-Woolley as a
light commander.
Regularly scrambled over succeeding
days, the squadron took losses but also
made claims. On September 4, nine of its
Hurricanes intercepted a strong force of Bf
110s of ZG 26 heading for the Hawker factory
at Brooklands, Surrey. In a one-sided ight,
253 destroyed six enemy aircraft for no loss,
though later in the day Fg Off Alec Trueman
was shot down and killed.
On the 5th, Sqn Ldr Gerry Edge, a
successful pilot from 605 Sqn, arrived as CO,
relieving Flt Lt Cambridge who had been in
temporary charge after Gleave’s injury. Despite
a gallant showing, 253’s relative lack of
experience on being thrown into the cauldron
of 11 Group showed: in its irst week it had lost
13 aircraft and nine pilots, including two COs.
The Luftwaffe changed its tactics on
September 7, launching a massive raid
against London late in the afternoon. The
Hurricanes of 253 were among many
squadrons scrambled to defend the capital
and claimed three destroyed – two by the
OC. Two days later, the unit had another good
day when the OC led a head-on attack into a
massed bomber formation near Maidstone,
Kent, shooting down ive Ju 88s of KG 30.
The intense combat continued without
respite, with a number of claims being made
on the 11th – including a Bf 109E shot down
by Sgt Bill Higgins, his ifth aerial victory. He
sadly died in combat a few days later.
Towards midday on Sunday, September
15, a massive raid began forming and 253,
in company with 504 Sqn, hit the irst wave
of Dornier Do 17s of III/KG 76 – claiming
three, plus two Bf 109s later, as the Battle
of Britain reached its climax. Although its
‘score’ was mounting rapidly, so too were the
squadron’s casualties. The OC – now with
some 20 victories – baled out, burned, during
a combat with Bf 109s on the 26th, his Polish
wingman, Samolinski, being killed.Duke-Woolley assumed temporary
command and led 253 in almost daily
action through into October, though by then
the intensity of the raids was beginning to
decrease. The exhausted squadron continued
patrols and scrambles during the month,
increasingly tangling with the deadly Bf 109Es
on ‘freie Jagd’ (free hunting) sweeps.
Losses continued, and not only to enemy
action – Flt Sgt Harold Allgood was killed
after crashing due to oxygen failure on
October 10. But claims were regularly coming
253’s way too: for example, Fg Off Alan
Eckford destroyed ’109s on October 30 and
November 5 – and Duke-Woolley a Ju 88 on
November 9. Later in the month he passed
command to Sqn Ldr P R ‘Johnnie’ Walker
DFC of what, on November 8, had officially
become 253 (Hyderabad State) Squadron in
recognition of the generosity of the ruler of
that part of India.
Normal patrols and standbys continued,
though at last the squadron could ease off a
little and look back with some satisfaction on
its part during the epic battle – truly its inest
hour. At the end of the year both Duke-http://www.aviation-news.co.uk 81
Sqn Ldr David Atcherley became OC soon
after the Battle of France. A Brookes
An aircraft recognition session taking place at Kenley in 1940
with Hurricane Mk I, V7606/SW-F, in the background. It was
often lown by Czech ‘ace’ Sgt Vaclav Cukr. Z Hurt
At Kenley, the squadron gained several Polish pilots including Fg Off Tadeusz
Nowak (third from the left). D S YappOwing to heavy losses during the Battle of
Britain, Flt Lt Myles Duke-Wooley became the
temporary OC for a time and was awarded the
squadron’s irst DFC soon after. JSCSCPlt Off Wlodzimierz Samolinski was one of
several Polish pilots who served with 253
Sqn during the Battle of Britain. W Matusiak