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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0778.PDF
BEfOF STUKA STINGER: (Below) Theeight-gun Hurricane I bore nearly the whole brunt of the fighting in France.Despite its hitting power and the fortitude of the pilots, the defection ofthe French left no alternative but retirement across the Channel. MAIDS OF ALL WORK : (Above) WestlandLysanders, which can be used for message picking up, bombing, reconnaissance, or evenfighting at a pinch, were the flying equipment of Nos. 2, 26, 4 and 13 Squadrons. over doing it, too. Dropping bombs on Germany had been prohibited by the Cabinet, but in any case, bombing was not a primary function of the Air Component. It was for the A.A.S.F. to do that if there were any to be done, and at a later date it was the latter's Battles which bombed the Maastricht bridges and won two posthumous Victoria Crosses. When the active fighting started the Blenheims of Air Component did a great deal of highly effective bomb- ing. The leaflet raids were carried out by the heavy machines of the Bomber Command which started from aerodromes in England. During the severe cold in January and February, 1940, the reconnaissance work went on. The temperature was often 10 degrees below zero, and the machines stood out • in the open. The aircraftmen who looked after them did heroic work in nursing and cosseting their charges, and one may imagine the aching cold in their fingers as they worked. But airmen are a grand lot, men who are worthy of the gallant air crews who owe everything to the work done on the ground. Invasion of Low Countries Serious fighting started on May 10th, 1940, when the Germans invaded Holland and Belgium. The B.E.F. marched forward with the French in the effort to hold the invaders, and the Corps Squadrons of Lysanders went with it. The Blitz (a word which has been adopted in this war to mean what was meant by '' strafe '' in the last war) Qame at an awkward moment for the fighter squadrons of the Air Component. No. 87 Squadron had been temporarily attached to the A.A.S.F., but it came hurrying back to Lille The two A.A.F. squadrons were about to be re- equipped with Hurricanes, and the Surrey squadron had started the operation As a result some pilots were making their first flight in a Hurricane when they went into action against the enemy. Others went up in their Gladiators, and though those comparatively slow biplanes ought not to have stood a chance against the German fighters, they actually achieved some fantastic successes. But at the first German onset No. 85 Squadron had to hold the bridge alone, and it did marvellously. No. 87 Squadron came back about midday on May 10th and at once went to its help. The Durham squadron went into action for the first time with its Gladiators. On that day 49 enemy aircraft were shot down, and only one British pilot was missing, and he turned up safely two days later. Air Marshal Barratt, the A.O C.-in-C, sent up two more Hurricane squadrons to reinforce the Air Component, Nos. 3 and 79. They came over from England and were stationed at Mer- ville so familiar to soldiers of 1915. Six fighter squadrons were all too few to face the German hordes, and they were worked pretty well to death. Probably some of them were literally worked to death, for men who are completely tired out cannot bring a normally alert brain into the critical work of air fighting, and a moment's slowness of thought may mean that the Me 109 gets on your tail and shoots you down. The pilots were making six and seven sorties a day and, of course, they began to get losses. In addition to those shot down, not a few Hurricanes were shot about, and there was no time to make them serviceable again. One sergeant pilot went to sleep after landing his machine, and they decided to let him sleep on till the dawn patrol next day. But at dawn they could not wake him, so they put him in an ambulance and sent him off to hospital. It took about 30 hours before he reached the hospital, and he slept all the time. The Squadron Leader of No. 85 Squadron came home once slightly wounded, and at once went to sleep, but said that he would go up again on the dawn patrol. His squadron knew that it would be almost certain death for him to try
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