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20th January 1943
A red letter day for 609
From the Operational Records Book: Jan
20th. F/Lt de Selys' special Rhubarb plus the Germans biggest daylight raid
since the Battle of Britain combine to make this the squadron's most successful
day since the Battle of the Dinghy on May 8th 1941. It also sees the dawning of
a new star in the shape of F/O Baldwin, who emulates the famous Sergeant Rigler
D.F.M. in getting 3 destroyed in one sortie. Here is the day's score :-
Enemy Casualties: 1 Loco.
Cat. B. (F/Lt de Selys - Belgian)
Gestapo H.Q. (Brussels) shot up
"
"
Flags
dropped (Brussels and villages) "
"
2 Locos. Cat. B. (F/Sgt Blanco - Belgian)
1 Fw 190 destroyed (F/O Lallemand - Belgian)
3 Me 109G destroyed (F/O Baldwin)
1 Fw 190 destroyed (F/Lt Atkinson)
1
Fw 190 damaged (F/O Raw)
1 Fw 190 destroyed (F/O Van Lierde - Belgian)
Our Casualties:
1 Typhoon Cat. A (F/O Baldwin unhurt) At
0832 the Rhubarb takes off for Belgium. De Selys, after shooting up a train S.E.
of Bruges, leaves Blanco to continue the train busting, and deciding the weather
is now suitable for his visit to the capital, steers over Ghent at Oft and
arrives. After photographing the Palais de Justice (unfortunately his camera was
not working) he flies over the Cinquantenaire Memorial and the Cavalry Barracks,
then climbs to 2000ft and dives on the Gestapo H.Q. in the Avenue Louise, raking
it from top to bottom and no doubt breaking many windows. Then he climbs again
and drops first the Union Jack, then the flag of Belgium over a populated square
(one damages his tail plane slightly). There is no opposition whatsoever, and
after some more photography he flies back to the coast, dropping about 1000
miniature Belgian flags at various villages. North of St. Omer two German
soldiers on a horse-drawn vehicle jump for cover. He is back by 0944. Meanwhile
F/Sgt Blanco, after making a dummy attack on a passenger train near Aeltre, sees
the passengers disembark. He attacks a goods train travelling in the opposite
direction, and this stops so near the passenger train that he is able to make 6
attacks on both engines, seeing strikes and steam. Two
minutes after the departure of the Rhubarb F/Os Lallemand and Raw take off on
standing patrol. They are flying west towards Dungeness when 'totter' rockets
are seen at Dymchurch, then 2 Fw 190's below, flying east inshore of a convoy.
Lallemand had begun to dive when both E/A made a climbing turn towards him. He
finds he can out-turn them, and getting behind the leader fires 3 bursts from
about 10 degrees. He sees strikes on both wings, then flames from the cockpit.
Then he sees blue smoke on both sides of his own cockpit, and thinks erroneously
that he has been hit by E/A No. 2. It is known from other sources that the first
E/A went into the sea. Meanwhile Raw has pursued E/A No. 2 towards France, but
loses sight of it owing to oil on his windscreen. Finally he sees it return
towards Dover, and being shot at by the convoy. At
about 1245 the I.O., hearing A.A. in action, looks out of the window of the
Intell. Office and sees wreaths of smoke trails overhead such as he has not seen
since the Battle of Britain, except that now they are against cloud instead of
clear blue sky. He goes out and is nearly run down by the C.O. driving furiously
towards his A/C. A squadron of spits flies over, then a Typhoon makes a homing
dive on the aerodrome. Immediately a Spit detaches itself and fires (they have
been told, it is learnt later, that 30 Fw 190s are attacking Manston). He
misses, and other Spits put themselves menacingly on the Typhoon's tail, which,
to the I.O.'s relief, lowers its undercarriage just in time. Other observers are
watching a parachute going down near Ramsgate, which turns out to be a German.
The Typhoon pilot is F/Lt de Selys. He reports having seen smoke trails and 8-12
E/A at 20,000ft near Deal. Controller however told him of others at 14000 ft
near base. He dived to this height, but failed to see any, and had to land to
refuel. There are however 2 other sections up, one on standing patrol, the other
scrambled. The latter, off at 1229, also try to intercept the bandits reported
at 14000ft, but actually find them at 20000ft - 8 Me 109s. They attack the
formation, which breaks up, and then attack 3 which detach themselves and head
for Dover. In firing at one of these F/O Creteur gets into a spin which puts him
out of the fight. F/O Baldwin, however, fires in quick succession at the other 2
from about 100 yds astern. The first sheds its cockpit hood and smoke; the
second disintegrates completely, and as it explodes the starboard wing of the
first drops off. Meanwhile the third is on his tail. He makes it overshoot by
skidding, and attacks it as it dives for cloud at 10000ft, seeing strikes. Below
cloud he sees a parachute, which he circles and fixes. His own damage is a tyre,
flap and petrol tank damaged. Meanwhile F/Os Wells and Van Lierde have climbed
to 14000ft on hearing bandits reported at this height, but before reaching it
Van Lierde sees 12 a/c at this height h4eaded for Dover. He loses them in cloud,
however, and is told to patrol below cloud base at 27000ft. Two bogeys are then
reported at 6000ft, and he is just going down when 2 Me 109s pop out of cloud in
front of him. He fires a short burst at the second, but they pull up into cloud
again, very sharply. Ten minutes later he sees another pair of 190s, dipping in
and out of cloud base, headed south. By this time he is thoroughly aroused, so
he takes a parallel course S. of Dover at 26000ft, and finds them again, quite
close. He attacks in a dive from astern at 350 yds and this E/A at once catches
fire below the wings. After 4 - 5 seconds firing, its dive steepens, and it
becomes a 'ball of fire'. Not satisfied even yet, Van Lierde continues shooting
till suddenly his own cockpit fills with smoke, and he jettisons his hood all
ready to bale out. The smoke then abates, and he lands, very excited, but
without damage. "I really got one Ziegly,"! he tells the I.O., who by
this time is finding it difficult to cope. F/O Wells has only had time for a
shot at an Me 109 before this dives into cloud at 10000ft. (F/O Van Lierde's
combats are well above the height any Typhoon has yet fought, or even been
expected to fight). The C.O., who scrambles himself at 1301, loses2 Fw 190s in
cloud before he can get a shot in, and uses a bad word on the R/T. He is then
attacked (and fired at) first by clipped-wing Spitfire (which he out-turns) then
by another believed Mark VI. The
total strength of the raid staged by the enemy is estimated at about 90. Of
these some 30 were the 'business' wing, destined for London (some 12 got there),
the rest consisted of 2 diversionary sweeps, and it was probably one of these
that 609 sqdn intercepted. Fighter Command's defensive effort was some 214
sorties, and the total destroyed was 12 or 13. Of these 609 obtained 4 (one
third) for 7 sorties. There were only 7 or 8 serviceable aircraft. Baldwin only
got his third confirmed about 10 days later, when he helped to interview one of
the two prisoners he accounted for (and who was only picked up 2 days after the
event). This P.O.W., after previously telling a completely false story, (such as
saying he was shot down on Jan. 19th during a practice flight) eventually
described the circumstances of his combat, which agreed in all essentials with
Baldwin's third Me 109. Though he expressed surprise that he and his pal had
both been shot down by 'a worm like Baldwin' (he evidently expected someone 7
ft. high) he gave his opponent his handsome clasp knife as a souvenir, Baldwin
also getting the Mae West of the other prisoner. At
1425 F/Lt Atkinson, who has spent the day watching pilots come down with victory
after victory, philosophically takes off on a stooge patrol with F/O Raw. He
returns in 23 minutes, having himself shot down a Fw 190, with a damaged for
Raw. And very peculiar 190s they
were. They saw them turning in front of them 5 miles E. of Dover, and Swingate
said they were friendly. And friendly they looked and behaved: they rocked their
wings and their crosses, on a grey background, were enclosed by most misleading
yellow roundels. On Atkinson's first attack, however, they turned and headed
quickly for France, using the usual jinking and crossing-over tactics. This
enabled the Typhoons to gain slightly, and both fired at each alternately,
seeing strikes on both. When Raw finished his ammo, he continued shooting with
his camera. Atkinson, after several bursts from 300 closing to 250 yds, saw a
flash on the wing and the 190 dived into the sea 15 miles SE of Dover.
Atkinson's victory was quite the most popular of the day, representing a
reversal of his usual luck. NB
The German POW's respectively dubbed the Typhoon a 'Vultee Vanguard' and a
'Mustang'! Evening
sees a justified celebration at the Old Charles, attended by all pilots not on
leave or sick. Total present: 18. On emerging, the driver of one of the taxis
cannot at once be located, so F/Lt de Selys takes off without him, accompanied
by F/O Wells and F/O Nankivell. It is not long before Doone House is invaded by
police, and the culprits are marched off to the police station. F/O Evans, who
protests against this, somehow gets rounded up too, but only remembers he is not
one of the guilty ones half way through the proceedings (then volubly). The
attempts of the inspector to come the heavy father fail dismally to extract the
slightest filial sorrow from the accused, and in the small hours the police give
it up, and after a day or two they are taken by the Station Commander to see the
chief constable.
From Bob Wallings Diary: Jan
20th. A very bright, fine morning, which started off well by
‘Cheval’ shooting down an FW190 in the Channel. Then Blanco and De Selys
went out on rhubarbs. Blanco shot up two trains and De Selys shot up one. De
Selys also shot up the Gestapo headquarters at Brussels and dropped a Union Jack
and Belgian Flag over the main street. About 12:30, all our serviceable a/c were
scrambled, and the sirens went and we were warned over the phone that ‘30+
bandits were over base at 15,000’. This shook us considerably, and as we
looked out of the window we could see many vapour trails, and then black specks
milling around just below the cloud base. We saw two of the kites go down in
flames, and then one bloke baled out over the sea. The De Selys in ‘M’ dived
down low over the deck and a Spitfire roared down after him and fired a short
burst at him – obviously mistaking him for a Focke-Wulf. De Selys took evasive
action and put his wheels down and came into land. He taxied straight up to the
petrol bowser and was refuelled, and took off again immediately. That Spit pilot
was a rotten shot because he never touched him. Then the other pilots landed,
and they had all been in action. Baldwin in ‘A’ got two ME109’s Confirmed
and one Damaged (later Confirmed). Van Lierde in ‘N’ got one FW190 Confirmed
and one Damaged, and Johnnie Wells got one FW190 Probable which was later
Confirmed. On a patrol later in the day, Joe Atkinson shot down a FW190, which
was confirmed.
TO :- H.Q. 11 GROUP= REPEAT= HORNCHURCH FROM :- MANSTON MI / 13 20 / 1 FORM " G " (A) MANSTON GMI / 2 (B) DAY PHASE 20 / 1 / 43 (C) TO (L) NIL (L) PART. ALL CLAIMS BY 609 (WEST RIDING) SQUADRON 0834 - 0930 1 F.W. 190 DEST (F/O LALLEMAND - BELGIAN) 1229 - 1315 2 M.E. 109F'S DEST. (F/O BALDWIN) 1229 - 1315 1 M.E. 109F DAM (F/O BALDWIN) (n.b. later confirmed destroyed) 1227 - 1321 1 F.W. 190 DEST. (F/LT VAN LIERDE - BELGIAN) 1425 - 1448 1 F.W. 190 DEST. F/LT ATKINSON) 1425 - 1448 1 F.W. 190 DAM. (F/O RAW) 0832 - 0944 1 ENGINE CAT "B" AND GESTAPO H.Q. ATTACKED BY F/LT DE SELYS - BELGIAN. 0832 - 0944 2 ENGINES CAT "B" (F/SGT BLANCO - BELGIAN) (L) PART 11 . ALL THE EFFORT MADE BY 609 SQUADRON WAS DONE WITH ONLY 8 SERVICEABLE A / C
NO. 609 SQUADRON MANSTON FROM A.O.C - IN - C HQ FIGHTER COMMAND C . 34 21 JAN . MY HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS ON THE MAGNIFICENT SHOW YESTERDAY . WELL DONE . KEEP IT UP . LEIGH - MALLORY = 1110 A
TO OFFICER COMMANDING, 609 SQDN. = (R) = HORNCHURCH FROM H Q NO 11 GROUP A70 20/1 PLEASE CONGRATULATE ALL CONCERNED ON THEIR VERY FINE SHOW TODAY. H.W.L. SAUNDERS . ==== 1830A PJW VA+
FROM
HQ AIR DEFENCE GREAT BRITAIN. TO MANSTON AO12 31 JAN PLEASE CONVEY TO BALDWIN AND WELLS MY ADMIRATION OF THE MAGNIFICENT SHOW THEIR SQUADRONS HAVE PUT UP. IT DEMONSTRATES WHAT THE TYPHOONS CAN DO WHEN HANDLED WITH SUPERB SKILL AND RESOLUTION BEST WISHES FOR FURTHER SUCCESSES. RODERIC HILL
The Victories Johnny Baldwin: 3x Messerschmitt BF109 G-4's of 6./JagdGeschwader 26 off Dover. Werk Nummer 16141, Brown 11 - Leutnant Wenzel Missing. Werk Nummer 16102, Brown 7 - Uffz Budde Captured Werk Nummer 16113, Brown 12 - Uffz Marquardt Captured Joe Atkinson: 1x Focke - Wulf FW190 5 miles East of Dover.
Raymond Lallemand: 1x Focke - Wulf FW190 A-4 of 8./JagdGeschwader 26 Off Dungeness Werk Nummer 7037, Black 8. Crashed 3kms West of Cap Gris Nez. Leutnant Kummerling Killed. Remy Van Lierde: 1x Fw190
SUCCESSES
OF TYPHOONS TOLL
OF ENEMY DAY RAIDERS FASTEST
FIGHTER Five of the 14 enemy aircraft shot down on Wednesday were destroyed by Typhoons, Britain’s new high – speed fighters, states the Air Ministry News Service. The
pilots concerned in Wednesday’s successes belong to the West Riding of
Yorkshire Squadron. The
day began for the squadron when a Belgian flight lieutenant and a flight
sergeant took off at 8.30 a.m. for an offensive patrol over Belgium, during
which they shot up three railway engines (n.b. Jean De Selys Longchamps and
Andre Blanco) Another
pair who took off about the same time intercepted two F.W.90s over the Channel.
One of the pilots (a Belgian Flying Officer) dived from 800ft. and fired several
bursts at the leading F.W. Flames shot out from in front of the cockpit, then it
crashed into the sea. (n.b. Raymond Lallemand) The
next two successes were scored by Flying Officer Baldwin, who, with a companion,
intercepted eight or more Me109s on their way towards London. Baldwin attacked
three of the enemy aircraft which were flying apart from the others. The first
lost a wing at the root and spiralled down out of control. The second
disintegrated completely. The third Me was now behind Baldwin, “but I reversed
the position,” he said afterwards, “and attacked in a dive. I saw strikes
but I can only claim him as damaged.” “A WALL OF FIRE” The squadrons fourth victory was an F.W.190 destroyed by another Belgian flying officer near Dover. In the pilots own words, “It became a wall of fire.” (n.b. Remy Van Lierde) The
fifth, another F.W.190, was shot down later in the afternoon by a flight
Lieutenant, who saw it dive into the sea off the south – east coast. (n.b. Joe
Atkinson) The
West Riding Squadron is commanded by Squadron Leader R. T. Beaumont, D.F.C., who
has successfully attacked a number of goods trains in occupied country in recent
weeks. On one occasion he made five separate attacks on a train near Hazebrouck,
raking it from end to end. Squadrons
equipped with Typhoons between them destroyed 11 sneak raiders in nine days
between December 15 and 24 last. The first Typhoon wing was formed and led by
Wing Commander Gillam, D.S.O., D.F.C. and Bar, A.F.C. Under him at Dieppe the
wing destroyed a Do.217 and damaged several other enemy aircraft. The
West Riding Squadron had a further success yesterday. While on patrol off the
south – ewast coast in the morning two Typhoons saw a formation of 15 or more
F.W.190s flying in line abreast. Our fighters attacked, and a Flying Officer of
the squadron shot down one of the F.W.190s into the sea. (n.b. Nankivell) Times. 22nd January 1943.
Typhoon
is in Action, Score 35 – 0 So Far 5
in Day Raid By
COLIN BEDNALL, Daily
Mail Air Correspondent NEARLY two years after the first mention of its existence, Britain’s latest fighter, the Hawker Typhoon, was announced for the first tije yesterday to have been in action against the enemy. Five
of 14 enemy aircraft shot down on Wednesday were destroyed by Typhoons without
loss. Yesterday they shot down an F.W.190 into the sea off the south – east
coast. The
first Typhoon wing was formed and led by Wing Commander Gillam, D.S.O., D.F.C.
and Bar, A.F.C. Under him at Dieppe the wing destroyed a Do.217 and damaged
other enemy aircraft. The
Typhoon is in full production. Experts have described it as “a great aircraft
of the future,” which “climbs like a rocket, going almost straight up into
the air with its full war load.” 35 DownI believe that Typhoons have already shot down a total of at least 35 enemy aircraft without a single loss to themselves in aerial combat. A
number of fully – operational fighter squadrons have been equipped with the
new fighter for many months, and, although it has never been revealed before,
they have figured in most of the outstanding air battles for some time. The
announcement of the Typhoon “blooding” has probably been held up largely for
the reason that, because none had been lost, the enemy had only a vague idea of
what had been hitting him with such increased ferocity. The
two years of almost complete silence about the Typhoon, now broken, brought only
one other official mention of its development. That
was made in the House of Commons last year, when it was stated that the Typhoon
was driven by a Napier – Halford “Sabre” engine, developing “more power
than the great Royal Scot railway locomotive.” Early TroublesThe
Sabre has been estimated unofficially to develop 2,400 horse – power, compared
with the 1,600 to 2,000 horse – power of the Luftwaffe’s crack F.W. 190
fighter. The Sabre is also known to have 24 cylinders. It is liquid cooled, like
the Spitfire’s Merlin engine. Like
almost every new, high – performance aeroplane, the Typhoon and its Napier
engine have survived many critical “teething troubles.” The
snags had to be overcome one by one, always by great effort and often at the
cost of lives. While
the Typhoon is generally reputed to be the heaviest – armed and fastest
fighter in action anywhere in the world at the moment, it would not be woise to
assume that it represents a complete answer to all enemy fighter opposition. Daily
Mail. 22nd January 1943.
He shot down three school raid planes Flying Officer John Robert Baldwin, fighter pilot from Baedeker-blitzed Bath, who shot down three of the 14 planes the Germans lost on the day they bombed the Lewisham S.E. school last month, has won the D.F.C. With a companion he intercepted eight Me 109s on their way towards London and attacked three which were flying apart from the others Daily Express. 15th February 1943
Flyer Shot-up Gestapo H.Q. A Belgian pilot , flying an R.A.F. plane over the Avenue Louise, Brussels, where the Gestapo has its Belgian headquarters, caused his plane to jerk as though falling. Members of the Gestapo staff, expecting the plane to crash, rushed to the windows to watch it. The pilot opened fire with his machine-guns and five of the Germans were killed and 30 wounded, says the Belgian News Agency, which says the incident occurred last January. Daily Sketch. 5th March 1943. |
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