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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0926.PDF
•290 MARCH 28, 1940 A section of Spitfires " beating up " their aerodrome for the benefit of pressmen. This practice is normally discouraged except after a victorious action. FIGHTER STATION With the Spitfires in Scotland By H. F. KING Illustrated by " Flight " photographs A T Crecy we had long bows ; on the Somme the tanks ; l\ and in this war we have the eight-gun fighters. JL JL Our Spitfires and Hurricanes may not be of such a revolutionary character (though their success is attribut- able to certain unique qualities), but their designers have given our defences that '' extra little something '' which is lacking in the Luftwaffe: tractable fighters which can be used with impunity by day or night and which have a superiority in armament over any single-seater fighters yet in service. These machines are as popular with their pilots and the public as they are dreaded by the Germans. In six months their names have become everywhere familiar, and their qualities and accomplishments are known to errand boys, kitchen maids, fishermen and bankers. The Air Ministry is well satisfied, and we suspect that it was not without a certain pride that Flight was invited to visit a typical fighter squadron in Scotland. We say typical, though actually it belongs to a sector which can claim the biggest bag of enemy aircraft since the war began: nine Heinkels and Dorniers out of sixteen inter- ceptions. Two pilots have been awarded the D.F.C. Units from the station tackled the raids on the Firth of Forth, and it was from the same aerodrome that a Spitfire squadron took off and brought down an He 111K off St. Abb's Head. Another of the Spitfire squadrons housed there shot down the first German bomber to fall on British soil; this was the Heinkel which made a crash landing on the Lammermuir hills near Dalkeith. Before the war the unit was a squadron of the Aux- iliary Air Force, manned by young Glasgow men. Such stations as this are administered by the Fighter Command, R.A.F. (Air Officer Com- manding-in-Chief, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding) and are responsible for close defence at Home from air attack. Up to the moment, although forty German bomber or reconnais- sance machines have been destroyed by the Fighter Command, not one of our fighters has been brought down. The modern fighter pilot is the first to admit that air defence to-day is essentially a matter of team work. Particularly does he praise the Scale models of German aircraft are used forinstruction in zones of fire. Gun positions are represented by small illuminated bulbs. patient, watchful enthusiasts of the Observer Corps who report his every movement. Here we may interpose the story of the Ogle Pogle. Before this inelegant sobriquet was conferred on a particular Spitfire its pilot, patrolling at a great height over point A, had been directed, on information from the Corps, to investigate a machine over B. Arriving there he was redirected to A for the investigation (unbeknown at that time to himself or the Corps) of his own aircraft. By the time he had reached A he had again been signalled to B, where his presence had been duly reported. And so round he went in circles like the fabulous Ogle Pogle bird which, history tells us, flew in ever-decreasing circles, finally performing an astounding feat of contortion. Students of Service jargon may wish to note that to be " ogle-pogled" is to become involved in one of these roundabout patrols. Other machines were inscribed Harpo, Groucho, Chico (probably one of the flight leaders is a student of Marx), Sheepdipper (was this inspired by The Lion Has Wings?) Bogus and Duck. As for the station itself we could not, even if permitted, give a very vivid picture as it is purposely made as feature- less as possible. Despite the architectural drabness, the place is pervaded with an air of alertness. The Officer Commanding, Group Captain Kearey, received us in the ante-room of the mess and led us out on a personally conducted tour. On the way to the Link
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