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usual rate.December 2018
Volume 80 No 12.
Founded in 1939 as Air Defence Cadet
Corps Gazette.
EDITOR: Dino Carrara
E-mail: [email protected]
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Martin Needham
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Paul Watson
GROUP EDITOR – AVIATION AND MILITARY
HISTORY: Stuart Qualtrough
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Aviation News incorporating Jets (ISSN: 2047-7198),
is published monthly by Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box
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OFFICES.Follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/aviationnewsmagazine or on Twitter @AvNewsMagWoolley and Eckford were awarded DFCs for
their service with 253.NORTHERN SOJOURN
Rest and recovery nally arrived for the
hard-pressed unit when, on January 3,
1941, it went to Lecon eld in the East
Riding of Yorkshire – exchanging with 303
(Polish) Sqn – and ew convoy escorts off
the east coast. Moving even further north,
253 arrived on February 10 at Skeabrae
on Orkney where it replaced 3 Sqn for
the defence of Scapa Flow, the strategic
British naval base. Sector patrols were
enlivened by occasional scrambles, 253’s rst combat coming on March 4 when a
section, comprising Fg Off Corkett leading
Plt Offs Crowther and Yapp, shot down Ju 88
w/nr 0683 A6+LH of 1(F)120 off the island
of Westray with the loss of Fw Johannes
Michke and his crew.
In another engagement on May 25,
Eckford stalked a Focke-Wulf Fw 200
Condor in the early hours of the morning.
Although he raked it with re, the intruder
escaped into cloud, highlighting the
Hurricane’s lack of ‘punch’ from its ri e-
calibre machine guns. The weather,
however, proved as troublesome as the
Luftwaffe and on May 31 Sgt Henry Cox waskilled when he crashed in V7235 at Birsay in
bad conditions during a convoy patrol.
In July, 253 began re-equipping with
Hurricane IIbs, which wore the new grey/
green day- ghter colours. A relatively
quiet routine continued through the
summer, though the squadron suffered
another fatality on August 29 when Sgt
Harris crashed Z5042 into a mist-covered
hill at Rendall.
The lengthy sojourn in the Northern
Isles nally ended in September when 331
(Norwegian) Sqn replaced 253 – which by
the 21st had established itself at Hibaldstow,
near Lincoln, as part of 12 Group.82 Aviation News incorporating Jets December 2018
Next month: Tom Spencer takes 253 Sqn’s
story with the Hurricane from battling the
Luftwaffe in the dark over British cities to the
Dieppe raid and then combat in North Africa.Pilots of 253 Sqn seen at Kenley just after the end of the Battle of Britain. They include: standing under the propeller Fg Off Eckford, fourth from
the right is the OC, Sqn Ldr P R ‘Johnnie’ Walker and on his right is Flt Lt Myles Duke-Wooley. On the wing on the far right is Plt Off Derek Yapp.
D S Yapp