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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0169.PDF
FLIGHT, 10 February 1956 No. 18 SQUADRON . . . This was part of one sortie out of eleven flown by the squadron that night. They were all able to find targets in plenty. At the end of January 1943 all the Bisleys and their equipment were handed over to No. 614 Squadron, R.Aux.A.F., and the crews were sent on rest pending re-equipment. February began with some news of crews who had been missing since the ill-fated attack on December 4th. W/C. Malcolm's air- craft was found 15 miles west of the target, and F/Sgts. Williams, McCombie and Brown were known to be prisoners of war. News came too, of the aircraft lost on the journey frc-n Portreath to Blida; it had landed in Spain, and the crew—P/O. Willis and Sgts. Rounding and Murphy—had succeeded in returning to England. Pilots kept their hand in with a few Bisleys "borrowed back" from No. 614; but re-equipment—with Douglas Bostons—soon began, and intensive training on the new type commenced. A quiet familiarization period was rudely interrupted by Rommel's Panzer divisions making a determined thrust for Gafsa. By borrowing some more Bisleys No. 18 temporarily became operational again for night attacks. In a short time, back to a strength of 12 Bisleys and keeping up 100 per cent serviceability, the squadron was again making all the familiar night attacks against H.Q. buildings and transport targets on the roads. S/L. Sandeman, one of the flight commanders, was promoted to the rank of wing commander and took over command. Two pilots, F/O. Holloway and P/O. Eckersley, were attached to No. 114 Sqn. in order to return to England to ferry out more Bostons; No. 18's first aircraft of this type had been borrowed locally from the Americans. At this juncture the squadron was taken over by the new Tactical Bomber Force and, with the other Bisley squadrons, Nos. 13 and 614, moved to Oulmene. Although there were few serious casualties at this period, the Bisleys were occasionally caught out. For instance, on the night of March 15th, 1943, S/L. McCurdy, with F/O. James and F/Sgt. Edwards as crew, was attacking the landing ground on the north side of Djebel Tebaga, near Gabes, when four or five guns opened up with very accurate fire. The air- craft was hit and Edwards wounded in the left elbow and thigh. McCurdy circled while James leaned through the well to help Edwards to bind up his wounds. This accomplished, another attack was made, in which more damage was sustained by the Bisley. Another Bisley, flown by P/O. Wilson in the same attack, ran into an electrical storm while over the target area and later into two more, which rendered the wireless useless. After 5^ hours' flying—with one hour's petrol left—the crew had been unable to locate the airfield by dead reckoning. With 30 minutes' fuel to go, the order was given to jettison the hatches. Then, on seeing lights below, Wilson displayed his navigation and downward identifica- tion lights, and the Bisley was directed by searchlights to Bone airfield, where a successful landing was made—with only seven gallons of fuel left in the tanks. The runway was 700 yards long and had swamps on both sides and at one end! An interesting note in the squadron diary refers to the detailing of three Bisleys on the night of March 23rd to act as a pathfinder force for a subsequent attack by Wellingtons against Djebel Tebaga airfield. The pathfinders each carried 2 x 250 lb H.E., 4 x 40 lb H.E. and 360 x 4 lb incendiaries. The Bisleys also shot up the airfield. At the end of the month the squadron again became temporarily non-operational. By this time six Bostons were on charge. S/L. A. W. Eller—who had for a short while commanded the squadron, and had been with it for over a year, completing 33 successful operations—left for duty in the operations room of H.Q. Tactical Bomber Force. All the Bisleys were transferred to R.S.U.; and No. 18, with its new Bostons, moved up to "Kings Cross" near Souk-el-Khemis—and were promptly bombed on arrival, luckily withodt serious damage. The first Boston operation was flown on April 21st, 1943, when a "box of six" was briefed to attack, with fighter escort, enemy Commanding Officer* from Mai. G.I. Carmichael, D.5 O. Maj. R.S. Maxwell. M.C Maj. G.R.M. Reid, M.C. Mai. G.R. Howard. D.S.O. . Maj. J.B. Elliott Maj. J.F. Gordon, D.F.C. ... -,..,.- to December 1919 S/L. I.C. Luke 20/10/31 S/L. G.S. Shaw 21/1/35 S/L. C.R. Steele 16/1/36 S/L. E.G.C. Stokes 12/4/37 S/L. H.E. Forrow S/L. K.W. Niblett W/C. W.A. Opie W/C. G. Bartholomew W/C. A.C.H. Sharp .. W/C. C.G. Hill, D.F.C. W/C. G.C.O. Key ... W/C. D.C. Smythe, G.M. 11/5/15 19/12/16 30/3/17 24/11/17 1/11/18 5/11/18 11/10/37 30/5/38 b/5/39-/5/40 14/10/4017/3/41 23/4/41 7/7/41 of No. 18 Squadron W/C. J.R. Cree, D.F.C. W/C. J.H. Newberry W/C. H.G. Malcolm, V.C. ... W/C. W.J.M. Tucker W/C. D.C. Sandeman, D.F.C. Lt Col. L.L. Gordon, D.F.C. (S.A.A.F.)W/C. A.K. Passmore, D.F.C. and Bar W/C. V. Rees to March 1946 W/C. B.E. Peck 1/9/46 to September 15, 1946 S/L. R.M. Burns 8/12/47 S/L. J.D. Kirwan, D.F.C. 18/5/48 to February 1950 S/L. R.A. Cooper. M.B.E. ... 1/8/53 S/L. A.M. Chamberlain ... 22/11/54 from 1/3/42 13/4/42 24/7/42 5/12/42 22/2/43 5/12/43 3/1/44 22/1/45 troops on a hillside near Medjez-el-Bab. Rodded 250 lb and 40 lb bombs were used. All the aircraft returned safely. The "box of six" technique became the standard manner of attack. Usually there were Spitfires to give protection, but during an attack by five Me 109s on April 25th Sgt. Baker, flying "D," was hit in the starboard engine. He could no longer keep pace with the formation so broke away and aimed his bombs at the primary target, which he hit. On course for home the starboard engine caught fire and, as the fire increased, Baker made a belly landing in a cornfield in no-man's land. After crawling on their hands and knees for a quarter mile the crew came to barbed-wire entanglements, which they surmounted, and then negotiated a mine-filled wadi, finally falling in with a British patrol who passed them on to Brigade H.Q. After being dined and wined they were driven back to base in a captured German car. It was not their day out, however, for on the way the car left the road and rolled 20 or 30 yards down an embankment; but it finally landed on its wheels, and nobody was seriously hurt. While a wagon was pulling the car back on to the '•oad the enemy dropped a stick of bombs 50 yards away. The crew eventually got back to base 15 hours 20 minutes after setting out, to find they had been the only crew to bomb the target; the remainder of the formation had been chivvied off by the 109s. On April 23rd came the news of the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross to W/C. Malcolm. The following message was received from the late Air Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham, then commanding the North-west Africa Tactical Air Force: "Please accept my personal congratulations on the signal honourbestowed on your squadron by the King's award of the Victoria Cross to your late commanding officer. The gallantry of W/C. Malcolm andhis aircrews have by this award given No. 18 Squadron a special position of distinction in the Royal Air Force. You deserve your pre-eminenceand I wish all officers and airmen of the squadron to know how proud we are of them." Two days later came more congratulations, this time for the awards of immediate D.F.C.s to S/L. Eller, F/L. Rothwell and F/O. Holloway. On May 3rd the squadron was stood down for two days and all the aircrews, together with as many ground crew members as could be spared, had a brief but welcome interlude by the seaside at Tabarka. The holiday over, a state of readiness was resumed from 0900 on May 5th and in the afternoon 12 Bostons in formation set out to attack the enemy at Djebel-bou-Aoukaz in close support of the First Army's final push to capture Tunis. By the 11th all was over, with only mopping up operations to be done by the Army. The squadron was stood down for the want of targets. An analysis of the unit's work in North Africa on two types of aircraft shows these figures:Bisley.—Sorties, 24S; successful, 189; abortive, 15. Missing, 11. Time flown, 798 hr 44 min. Bombs dropped, 245,580 lb.Boston.—Sorties, 233; successful, 223; abortive, 10. Missing, nil. Time flown, 242 hr 32 min. Bombs dropped, 302,950 1b. At this stage six crews were posted to No. 614 Sqn. and 11 crews from 614 to No. 18. This left the unit with only three of the original flying personnel who had started the North African campaign with the squadron seven months earlier. They were F/Sgt. R. H. Honeker and Sgts. J. J. Johnson and R. A. Coughlan. A move was now made to Grombalia, where No. 18 Sqn. was visited by Mr. (now Sir) Winston Churchill, Mr. (now Sir) Anthony Eden and a number of high-ranking officers. The Prime Minister spoke to a large gathering of the R.A.F. and U.S.A.A.F. At a later date Lord Trenchard visited Grombalia and in his address singled out No. 18 for special praise. By the middle of June operations were being flown once more, this time against the island of Pantellaria, which was on the flank of the projected attack against Sicily. One Boston was missing from the first attack and a number of others damaged after being jumped by four MelO9s. The island was occupied by June 11th and the attack switchd to Lampedusa, another island, which fell the next day. Again the squadron was without targets, but night flying train- ing fully occupied both air and ground crews. On June 19th, 1943, King George VI, accompanied by Sir Arthur (now Lord) Tedder visited Grombalia and inspected the squadron. The non-operational period lasted for only a short time. On July 3rd the squadron was ordered to stand by for night operations and that night eight Bostons took off to bomb Comiso airfield in Sicily. One was lost. This operation was typical of the attacks against the Sicilian airfields prior to the landing by the Army. As a prelude to the actual invasion, maximum effort was ordered and nine Bostons, out of a total of ten, were detailed to operate. In addition to dropping rodded bombs over the airfields in the Catania area, the attackers caused diversions by dropping 72 dummy parachutists and firing 20 Very cartridges fired at specified points. On July 27th the advanced echelon of the squadron moved to Sicily, crossing the Mediterranean in the landing ship L.S.T.4 from La Gaulette to Gela. Meanwhile the Bostons operated from Malta. (To be continued)
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