First published in Great Britain in 2005 by Pen & Sword Aviation an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd 47 Church Street Barnsley South Yorkshire S70 2AS Copyright © Richard Cummins Haine 2005 9781783034826 The right of Richard Cummins Haine to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing. Typeset in 10/12pt Palatino by Phoenix Typesetting, Auldgirth, Dumfriesshire Printed and bound in England by CPI UK Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military, Wharncliffe Local History, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics and Leo Cooper. For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page CHAPTER ONE - My Family CHAPTER TWO - First Solo CHAPTER THREE - Fury First CHAPTER FOUR - Nearly Fatal CHAPTER FIVE - Furies to Demons CHAPTER SIX - Demons to Gladiators CHAPTER SEVEN - Gladiators to Blenheims CHAPTER EIGHT - First Operational Patrol CHAPTER NINE - Commissioned and Shot Down CHAPTER TEN - Beaufighters at Last CHAPTER ELEVEN - Resting in Scotland CHAPTER TWELVE - First Command – Defiants and Hurricanes CHAPTER THIRTEEN - North Africa CHAPTER FOURTEEN - No. 9 Group Headquarters CHAPTER FIFTEEN - New Zealand Squadron Mosquitos CHAPTER SIXTEEN - The Destruction of Two Junkers Bombers CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - West Through Panama to Hong Kong CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - Kai Tak CHAPTER NINETEEN - Air Testing Jet Fighters CHAPTER TWENTY - A Demonstration for Royalty CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - Air Ministry Staff London CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - Jet Refresher CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - RAF Habbaniyah, Iraq CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - Three Squadrons of Venoms CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - Six Venoms Down in the Desert CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - Handing Over to Iraq CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - A Visit from King Faisal CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - The End of my Tour in Iraq CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - Home by Sea CHAPTER THIRTY - Officer Commanding RAF Turnhouse CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE - Flying the Phantom CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - Helicopters and Edwards US Air Force Base CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - TSR 2 and Hastings Conversion CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - Bomber Command Bombing School CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - Bomber, Strike and Training Commands APPENDIX ONE - Aircraft Types Flown APPENDIX TWO - Units and Appointments Index CHAPTER ONE My Family 1916 to 1934 I was born in the midst of that other dreadful war. In 1917 the news of the horrors of Ypres and the Somme were being received at home with incredulity and despair. The frightening casualties suffered during the taking of Paschendaele Ridge brought home the horrors of the war in the trenches in France, and now, at home, rumours were rife that the German airships had dropped bombs on British soil. Indeed, it was revealed that for months the Zeppelins had freely roamed the night skies of England unchallenged, and on one night alone as many as fourteen had been reported over the home counties. The physical damage and casualties they inflicted were comparatively slight, but there was something uniquely horrible about these great dark menacing craft cruising almost silently above the English countryside. I was spared that feeling of terror, for I was only one year old at the time, but in later years any mention of Zeppelins encouraged me to tell an amusing family story in which I jokingly used to claim that I was a casualty of the First World War. Old Eckits, the loyal and willing family retainer, although getting on and a bit slow, was only too glad to do anything that was asked of her. One Sunday morning, my parents had gone to church, asking Eckits to put the Sunday roast in the oven at noon, and at the same time keep an eye on the two baby boys. On returning home, as they approached the gate they heard a loud explosion, and to their horror were met by the sight of Eckits, her face blackened, her hair singed and in disarray, rushing out of the back door with a screaming child, equally be- sooted, clutched under each arm. ‘The Zeppelins have come, the Zeppelins have come!’, her hysterical shouts setting the dogs off barking. While Mother tried to calm the victims and settle the dogs, Father rushed into the house to turn off the gas oven before there was another explosion. I was the baby of the family, and as well as the other casualty, my young I was the baby of the family, and as well as the other casualty, my young brother, there was an older son and three girls in the family. Father had founded, and now ran, a small builders’ merchant firm in Gloucester. It was a hard struggle in the Depression following the war, but through considerable personal efforts he managed to keep the Firm alive, and in later years he was able to hand over to his eldest son a thriving company with excellent prospects. My second brother Mike was the brainy one, and understandably was favoured by my parents to go to university. Even in his schooldays he showed considerable interest and ability in electronics and physics, and he graduated later with a doctorate in electronic engineering. He became Director of the AEI Research Laboratory at Harlow and was Director of their Laboratory at Aldermaston, from where he visited the United States of America during the Second World War in connection with the current experimentation with nuclear physics. Back at Harlow he worked with a colleague in his laboratory and became the co-inventor of the electron microscope, an example of which can now be seen in the London Science Museum. His outstanding abilities were clearly a hard act to follow, but fortunately I, his younger brother, had no aspirations in the field of either business or electronics, and my preordained course was clearly defined in my mind. I was going to fly, and this ambition transcended all else. In those early days I must admit I would not have believed, even in my wildest dreams, that one day I would be one of the Few in the Battle of Britain, would be shot down in Holland and would return to England with a Queen, and at the end of my flying career would have flown more than a hundred different types of aircraft. The three girls in the family were kind and considerate sisters to me, being the baby of the family. My mother spoilt me madly and my father was a most kind and generous man who never failed to support me in my ambitions. I suffered the inevitable mild bullying and ribbing of my elder brothers and their friends, but survived to relatively happy days of youth. To fly was my obsession, and all my efforts and energy were directed along this well-defined course. I spent many hours at home in my shed making aircraft models, and Christmas and birthdays brought more model aeroplanes, which I would fly with great enthusiasm, on their elastic power, around the tennis court. But there were also school exams to get through, the growing pains of early adulthood and the agony of first love affairs to suffer. There were several girls whom we shared among ourselves and our friends, and it was seldom that a weekend passed without an expedition into Wales or touring the Cotswolds. We had learned to drive at an early age, and Father was always generous in letting us have the use of his large Buick or one of the firm’s cars. The girls were usually enthusiastic spectators on the touchline for our rugby matches, and all