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Valentines Day 1943
Roy Payne Recalls His Part In The Battle In November 2002.
Roy Payne and Jean De Selys Longchamps were scrambled to help out the previous pilots - it probably took about ten minutes to reach the MTBs, flying to mid-Channel at about 300 mph. He said:- "Just as we flew overhead the MTB's, we couldn't believe our luck; just about two miles ahead we spotted a very old Junkers 52 three-engined transport plane heading North, just inside the French coastline. We headed towards it, but fantastic flak came up at us from the coastal defences. As we were concentrating so hard on the JU 52 we made the classic mistake; we stopped scanning the sky for enemy aircraft. In those few seconds, I saw tracer flash over my wings from behind. We both broke away suddenly. I turned steeply then saw them (the FW190's) go up into cloud. I followed them in, and on re-emerging saw two planes. I thought the one in front of the other was Jean, so I called out to him on the radio. Then I opened fire on the closest of the two and saw my shells rip into his wing and lots of white smoke emerge from the fuselage. I thought I couldn't claim it as destroyed because I hadn't seen it hit the water, however on returning to Manston the Intelligence boys gave it to me. I think they wanted to keep the numbers up. Afterwards, de Selys and I wondered whether the JU52 was there as a decoy, but quickly realised that logistically it would have been impossible. It turned out that Jean's was not one of the pair of aircraft that I saw emerging from the cloud, as he had corkscrewed away."
Roy says that after that day he insisted that no tracer rounds were ever loaded on his aircraft, because it really takes away the element of surprise. In response to a query about the markings of the Fw-190's in the Combat Report, Roy says that as he came up right behind the FW190 he personally couldn't have seen any markings, and none of the Typhoons had arrowheads on their fuselages.
His Logbook Records The Following:
Feb 14, Typhoon PR-H, Escorting MT Boats, 50mins duration, 1FW 190 destroyed over Calais. Plus a swastika of course...
There is also a pull-out page headed 'Fighter Pilot's Gunnery Record'. It shows that on Feb 14th 1943, Roy Payne fired 120 rounds (cannon) and used 1.5 feet of film when attacking the FW190.
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Copyright © 2002 609 (West Riding)
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