FlyPast – August 2018

(John Hannent) #1

34 FLYPAST August 2018


THREE


DOWNDOWNDOWNDOWN


THREE HURRICANES OF 615 SQUADRON WERE BROUGHT DOWN IN A MATTER


OF MINUTES ON FEBRUARY 26, 1941. TONY MOOR DESCRIBES A DARK DAY FOR


‘CHURCHILL’S OWN’.


Below
Personnel of 615
Squadron walking
past their Hurricanes,
probably in October
1940 at Northolt.
WW2IMAGES

1918 2018

W


alking home from school,
local farmer’s son Ron
Marsh was used to seeing
dogfights raging in the skies over
Kent. It was late afternoon on
February 26, 1941 and Ron was
close to his home at Hastingleigh,
on the downs overlooking Ashford.
Hearing gunfire, he gazed up at
the sky and saw several Hurricanes
being attacked from above and
behind by Messerschmitt Bf 109s.
Within a few minutes of each
other, three Hurricanes had been
shot down. One pilot was in real
trouble, as his parachute seemed to
be on fire.

That afternoon, pilots of 1 Staffel
of Jagdgeschwader 51 (1/JG 51) had
taken off from their base at Mardyk
in France. Reaching a height of
32,000ft (9,753m) over the Dover
area, they saw Hurricanes flying in
‘vic’ formation and dived on their
unsuspecting prey.
Stationed at Northolt, Middlesex,
from October 1940, the Hurricanes
of 615 (County of Surrey) Squadron
returned to their previous base at
Kenley, Surrey, on December 16.
The Royal Auxiliary Air Force unit,
nicknamed ‘Churchill’s Own’, had
been commanded by Sqn Ldr J R
Kayll. With the change of base,

Kayll departed on promotion and
was succeeded by Australian-born
Wg Cdr R A Holmwood.
It was Holmwood that Ron Marsh
had seen desperately struggling
with his burning parachute:
he fell to his death at Window
Blow, an escarpment on the Kent
Downs – the 40th victim of
Hauptmann Hermann-Friedrich
Joppien, recently promoted to
Gruppenkommandeur of 1/JG 51.
Ron Marsh later thought
Holmwood had been hit by gunfire,
but this has never been confirmed.
His Hurricane, Mk.II Z2354 coded
‘KW-I’, dived steeply and crashed.
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