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.