From Air Training to the Defence of Britain: One Pilot's View From Tiger Moths to Mosquitoes
Stanley G. Reynolds
Reprinted with permission of the author and publisher of For King and Country: Alberta in the Second World War;)
During a pass I went to London and spent the night at a servicemen's hostel at Earls Court. That night the air raid sirens began wailing and the German planes dropped their bombs. Instead of going to an air raid shelter as most cautious people would do, I stayed in my room which was on an upper floor. I could not quite muster the urge to leave the hostel bed and traverse four flights of stairs for a sojourn in a bomb shelter. Next morning I looked out the window and noticed that the street was barricaded. A large bomb had dropped in the street in front of the building but had failed to explode. Being a born collector I picked up from the streets of London about twenty pieces of shrapnel which I still have.
On 29 February I was posted to No. 51 Operational Training Unit at Cranfield, Buckinghamshire. Here we had to learn to fly twin-engine Bristol Beaufighters, an airplane which had a gross weight of over twelve tons, and a top speed of over 300 mph. This was a plane on which we could not receive dual instruction because it had only one front seat and no provision for a second pilot. I was in Course #3 I which had 25 pilots and 24 radio navigators. Six of the pilots held the rank of Flight Lieutenant or higher. One of the pilots was a Technical Sergeant in the United States Army Air Corps.
An RAF Sergeant, who was not a member of aircrew, gave each pilot instruction while he was sitting in the pilot's seat of a Beaufighter cockpit section called a "dummy fuselage." We had to learn the readings and all the operations of the instruments, gauges, switches, controls, and radio. We had to be proficient in going through the sequences of operations needed by a pilot during takeoff, climb, flight, gliding, and landing. This would include adjustment of the propellers, engine coolers, retracting the landing gear, operation of the flaps, and radio operation. When the ground instructor was satisfied that the pilot knew what to do in the cockpit, he would approve the pilot to fly the Beaufighter. I received nine hours and 40 minutes dual day-and-night flying, and instrument flying in a Bristol Beaufort. On 19 March I made my first solo flight in a Beaufighter. After 5 1/2 hours of solo flying I was assigned a radio¬ navigator, Sergeant Donald MacNicol from Winnipeg. The call sign allocated to me was "Jungle three niner," used mostly during radio communications. During time off we often chummed around with another crew in the same course, Sergeant Robert S. Walker, a pilot, and Sergeant George R. Fawcett, his radio navigator. During a landing on 23 April the port tire blew out and the drag was too great to keep the Beaufighter on the runway. The wheel tore a deep groove in the sod, although the plane was undamaged. There was another pilot coming in to land behind me, and after I got stopped I heard his voice on the radio saying "good show three niner!"
During a night flight in April, I was flying near London when several flights of German aircraft began dropping bombs. I could see the German planes coned in the searchlights with numerous anti-aircraft shells exploding around them. There was nothing I could do because on training flights we carried no ammunition for the guns. During night flights we were directed by ground control which gave us messages by radio. The Germans had jammed our radio frequencies during the raid so I could not be vectored back to base. Also the lights were shut off at the air fields to prevent them from becoming a target, so I was unable to land during the raid. After the raid was over and the radio jamming was lifted I was directed back to my base. On 30 April, after 32 hours and 55 minutes day-and-night flying training in a Mark I Beaufighter plus numerous hours in ground classes I finished my course at No. 51 OTU.
On 1 May Don MacNicol and I were posted to RAF Station Winfield on the east coast of Scotland. We were the only RCAF crew in "A" Flight. All the rest of the fifteen crews were RAP. Robert Walker and George Fawcett also were posted to Winfield and were one of sixteen crews in "B" Flight. From this base most of our flights were over the North Sea in Mark VI Beaufighters, with two Bristol Hercules 1650 horsepower engines, four 20 mm cannons, six .303 machine guns and radar in the nose. We flew Mark II Beaufighters with Rolls Royce Merlin engines during air-to-ground firing, and when firing at target drogues being pulled by Fairey Battles. One of the first things we noticed was the number of WAAF [Women's Auxiliary Air Force] working on airplane engines. With my folding camera, which I could carry in my pocket, I took some photographs of these women at work. On 6 June 1944 [D-Day], the supercharger in the starboard engine was unserviceable so we flew back to base after a short flight. We were not informed about the invasion until the next day. On 11 June we flew back to base after a short flight for the reason "weapons bent," meaning our guns wouldn't fire.
Quite often the night flying aircrew received carrots with their meals as the vitamins in carrots were said to be of benefit to our night vision. Everyone had brussel sprouts with most meals, and periodically a chicken egg was allocated to each flyer. We had to stand in a single-file queue, and when we got to the front of the line we signed our name on a dotted line to receive our single egg. Each airman took his own egg to the mess kitchen and told the cook how he wanted it cooked; we would then eat the egg with the rest of the meal that was dished out to us. Don MacNicol received comfort parcels from home which contained cans of Spork, Spam, jam, peanut butter, and margarine. He would take a can of jam or peanut butter to the mess hall and put it on the table in front of us. After a few minutes RAP ground crew would come over to our table with a slice of bread in their hand and meekly ask if they could have a little bit of the jam or peanut butter. Don never refused anyone, and soon the can was empty. My twenty-first birthday was on 17 May, and on this day I spent an hour and ten minutes flying a Mark II Beaufighter, firing 20 mm cannons at a target drogue being pulled by a Fairey Battle.
Don became quite friendly with Robert Walker, and asked if I would mind if he crewed up with Walker, in which event George Fawcett would become my RI N [radio navigator]. George and I had no objection, so MacNicol became Walker's R/N and Fawcett became my R/N. Late at night on 19 June George and I were "scrambled" [took off] and vectored to intercept two "bogies" [enemy aircraft] flying high over the North Sea towards Edinburgh. We had climbed to 16,000 feet when the bogies had completed their reconnaissance mission and were heading back towards Norway. During their flight they descended, at the same time giving them a greater speed. Because we were on an interception course we were able to get fairly close to one of the bogies, but not close enough to be able to see the plane visually, which would enable us to fire our guns. When our height was down to about 100 feet above the North Sea waves, we had to level out and the German planes, being faster than our Beaufighter, pulled away from us. Later we were told that they were probably Messerschmitt 21Os based in Norway. On 21 June, after 31 day-and-night flights in Beaufighters, I was posted with my R/N to 410 Cougar Squadron RCAF based at Zeals, Wiltshire. At this time 410 Squadron was assigned to the Defence of Britain. It was a night fighter squadron equipped with Mark XIII and Mark XXX DeHavilland Mosquitoes fitted with four Hispano Suiza 20 mm cannons in the belly and radar equipment in the nose. They had two Rolls Royce Merlin 1650¬horsepower engines, and a top speed of 420 miles per hour. There were instruments, gauges and controls on both sides as well as in the front of the cockpit, and the radio had 32 channels. There also was one Mark III Mosquito that had dual controls. On 23 June, with F/O Edwards at the controls and me in the other seat, he flew one circuit, then told me to fly a circuit. After I landed he told me to continue flying circuits and left me alone in the plane. I took off on my first solo flight in a Mosquito, and practiced takeoffs and landings for an hour and 25 minutes. I thought to myself at the time how much nicer and easier it was to fly the Mosquito than the Beaufighter.