Fly Past

WORLD WAR TWOWORLD WAR TWO SUPERMARINE SPITFIRESUPERMARINE SPITFIRE

in flights of two. As soon as we

broke... a quick snap turn, up and

into them, firing quick bursts. Our

formation quickly became a two-

ship; pilot and wing-man.

“Turning hard into them as

they came down from above, and

maintaining a tight target, made it

harder for them to get a good bead

on us. They would attack from

above, and with their excess speed,

quickly return to a high position

for the next attack... all the time

maintaining high speed.

“It was our first real engagement,

and we were fighting defensively as

British pilots had told us, but after

constantly breaking hard into their

attacks I finally got a good bead

on an Fw 190, as he came down

and past me. Being at full throttle

and high speed, I was able to arc in

behind him as he started to climb

and I got in a good burst of cannon

and machine guns, firing into his

left side at about 45° till about 250ft

on his rear.

“His engine burst out in dense

black smoke as he rolled over to

the left and then straight down. I

was able to follow him down past

4,000ft where I had to break off...

He was headed for the ground the

last I saw of him.

“I quickly got my flight back to

our assigned altitude of 8,000ft

where it was quiet for a few seconds

before more Fw 190s engaged us

and kept us very busy. They would

usually break off their runs into us as

we broke to meet them head-on.

“On one of the last attacks, firing

head-on to an Fw, I ran out of

cannon and only had my machine

guns firing. I’m sure he was hit

but, it probably wasn’t enough to

do some real damage. Before our

planned 30 minutes time in the

area was up, I had run out of ammo

and was greatly relieved when

Mickey Control reported that

our replacements had arrived in

the area.

“With a quick signal to the

remains of my flight, we made a

rapid dive and hit the deck to get

away from the battle area. After a

few minutes on the deck crossing

the Channel we made it back to

Kenley... It was a rough day in and

around Dieppe...”

The 31st staged 123 sorties that

day. One pilot was killed in action,

one listed as missing and three

became prisoners of war; eight

Spitfires were lost with another

seven badly damaged (the remaining

pilots crash-landed in friendly

territory and returned to duty).

OPERATION TORCH

The group was taken off ‘ops’ and

the crews had no idea why. Instead

they were told to practise low-level

navigation. Little did they know

but the 31st and 52nd FGs were

to be transferred to the Twelfth Air

Force ready for the Allied invasion

of North Africa, Operation Torch,

in November 1942. Spitfires were

shipped to Gibraltar from where the

groups were ready to fly to Algeria.

Lt Claude McRaven recalled

events: “After we got our billets, we

went to the flightline and learned

that our Spitfires awaited us. Early

on November 8, we were herded

into a briefing room and told we

were going to Oran [northwest

Algeria] and that paratroopers had

jumped on a nearby aerodrome

named Tafraoui and they had met

with a lot of resistance. We were

told to land at this base if there was

a large white cross at the end of the

landing runway.

“The white cross was there so

we started to land and the 308th

was first. As I landed, in came four

Dewoitine D.520 Vichy French

fighters and they strafed all around

me. I immediately told Major

Thyng – he and Red Flight swarmed

all over them and shot three of

them down.

“The French caught one of our

pilots just as he touched down,

causing him to crash and burn.

There is no way a Dewoitine could

ever shoot down a Spitfire unless

they caught him while landing.

“Our order of business was to gas

up and be ready for any emergency,

which was not long in coming. A

recce reported that a column of

Foreign Legion was on the move

toward Tafraoui.

“When our flight got to the

scene, it was a comical sight. There

were old coal-burning trucks with

some pulling the others, there were

Frenchmen on bicycles and we saw a

few motorcycles. There were French

World War One-type tanks and

some 75mm artillery pieces... and,

glory be, no anti-aircraft fire.

“It was a turkey shoot. I flew three

missions that day. If we should hit

a tank in the rear, it just blew up. I

flew [on] Charlie Wilson’s wing and

he found a gasoline truck hiding in

the hedgerow. It made quite a fire.

Right

Maintenance crews

working on the engine

of a Spitfi re, in austere

conditions. FLOYD RODMYRE

Below right

Sgt Nemet cleans the

guns of ‘Helen III’.

FRANK HILL

108 FLYPAST September 2018