Fly Past

WORLD WAR TWOWORLD WAR TWO SUPERMARINE SPITFIRESUPERMARINE SPITFIRE

and cellophane over muzzles and on

machine guns. We then used canvas

over the front and fired through

it. This helped but didn’t solve the

problem. It just helped to keep the

guns from being ruined permanently

and our guns were inspected daily!”

By February 1943 Erwin Rommel’s

Afrika Korps was pushing through

the Kasserine Pass. Allied forces were

forced to pull back and the 31st’s

new base at Thelepte, in Tunisia,

looked as though it would be over-

run. Dean: “We were very successful

in getting out of our base even if

we didn’t have much warning. We

had from 2am until 9am; we had

everything packed and ready to go.

“I was one of the last flights to

take off from Thelepte. Shells were

landing all over the mess area and

in the ravine on the side of the hill.

All three squadrons in the group

had several bases to go to in the next

couple of weeks.”

On March 21 the tide began to

turn in favour of the Allies. The 31st

encountered a large formation of

Junkers Ju 87 dive-bombers with Bf

109 escorts. Four ‘Stukas’ were shot

down and four damaged, along with

a ’109 for the loss of one Spitfire. By

April, Axis units were fleeing north.

Major Frank Hill was escorting 18

North American B-25 Mitchells on

April 30: “Our squadron was close

cover and Colonel Dean was leading

the 308th as top cover. By this

time, I was in the 309th Squadron,

as commander.

“We flew from Le Sers to the coast,

then up toward Cape Bon. As we

neared the cape, we could see two

large vessels making large wakes

in the water. We were supposed to

go around the cape, and go into

the Gulf of Tunis to bomb some

shipping that was in the harbour,

but here were two very large ships.

So, the bomber commander decided

to lay their eggs there.

“Just as we were making our first

bomb run, we saw nine Me 109s

above us and to the right, and a fight

started between them and the 308th

Squadron with Col Dean. The boats

below were turning furiously and

sending up plenty of flak – the first

bombs did not land too close.

“The bombers made a slight turn

to the right and headed out to sea,

then swung around in a large left

turn and headed right back in again

towards the ships. At this time, the

enemy ’109s were really trying to

get at the bombers, but every time

they would come in close, we would

always be there shooting at them.

“The B-25s made a perfect strike

and the largest ship blew up – we

could see the inferno 20 miles away.

We flew back to home base with the

’109s pursuing us most of the way,

but they missed and we made it back

to the celebrations at our base.

“A few days later, we got into a

fight with ’109s and Macchi 202s.

When [it] was over we had two

more aces; Majors Hill and Thyng.

The 31st Group also set a record as

we had 11 ‘kills’ that day without a

single loss.”

ANOTHER DEBACLE

The invasion of the Italian

mainland began on December

3, 1943. The 31st flew support

at Salerno while operating out of

Milazzo, an airfield on the northern

coast of Sicily. They did not

encounter many enemy aircraft and

“I was diving down behind my element leader, trying to cover him

when everything went black. I don’t know how long I was out, but

when I came to, my plane was in a very steep dive...”

110 FLYPAST September 2018

Above

The 31st FG putting up

a mass formation over

Tunisia in late 1943.

FRANK HILL

Right

Captain Bill Skinner of the

308th FS pointing to the

damage created by an

88mm shell, December

1943. BILL SKINNER

Below right

Agrigento strip in Sicily,

home to the 31st in 1943.

FRANK HILL