November 1941
Sadly, during the first week of November a further six aircrew were killed.
On 1 November, Blenheim 6339 piloted by P/O Inglis collided with Blenheim T1946 piloted by F/S RF Leighton near Lerwick, Shetland Islands. "Inglis' aircraft chewed off the elevators on Leighton's aircraft which from about 200 feet dived on the rocks and exploded. " F/S Leighton and his two passengers, AC1 TA Gray and AC2 T Clapperton, died in the crash while P/O Inglis and his passengers survived with only minor injuries. This flight was being conducted as part of a three-plane formation in an Air Display over Lerwick in aid of War Weapons Week. Sgt Christison was the pilot of the third Blenheim with passengers Sgt Lewis and Cpl Barrett.
Accidents around the Station were a major concern, "Three accidents today. Waafr's (WAAF, Women's Auxiliary Air Force) van hit by fighter. Dispatch rider hit lorry, head on, Spitfire nosed over on roadway. "
On 5 November, the squadron suffered its first combat fatalities when an aircraft failed to return from a Norwegian patrol. The crew of Blenheim L9337, pilot Sgt JG MacKay, Observer Sgt TE Hedefine and WAG WJ Pearce were reported as missing. It was later learned that they were dead.
On 15 (14 according to Scrap Book) November, "Flin Flon Floosie crashed at 5:20 last night. Pilot and one A.C. dies since of injuries. Pilot Dunlop lived at Melfort, Sask. When pilot landed in field, it ran for about 200 yds then struck a stone fence and knocked the fence down. It being about 4 feet high this crushed the undercarriage and the plane dropped to the ground, pinning the A.C's legs under the plane. " The AC was trapped in the aircraft for four hours before being pulled free by airmen from Dyce. Though this tragic incident is not mentioned in the ORB, it is confirmed in the Scrap Book. Dunlop had gotten separated from his wingman during a transit, and was lost. He made the decision to attempt a landing in an open field near Udny with his wheels down in order to save the aircraft. This was a fatal decision, as the aircraft bounced its landing and carried on into a field wall, collapsing the undercarriage. One of the ground crew passengers, who had been in the turret, survived. Dunlop survived the accident, but died at 0430 hrs the next morning from his injuries. Dunlop was part of the Sumburgh detachment at the time of the accident. The identity of the AC is unknown. Dunlop's funeral was held on 18 November, and there are several photos of the service in the scrapbook. "At the time of the parade many fighter planes took to the air and circled overhead. Casket draped with huge Union Jack and encircled by many beautiful wreaths. P/O's cap was placed on casket." These are poignant words because as the war progressed, and the squadron's fatalities mounted, narratives describing the sorrow felt at a passing became very few.
On 19 November, S/L McHardy attacked and damaged the 699-ton Norwegian merchant vessel M/V Mars off of the Norge coast. S/L McHardy also claimed hits on a direction finding station at Stadtlandet. This was possibly the squadron's first operational success against enemy shipping.
The same day at the aerodrome, an allied pilot was killed in view of personnel of the squadron; "We had our pictures taken again today for the CO's scrap book as we are the basis of our squadron in the making. As we were waiting for the photographer, a Czech went over us in a dive at approximately 350 M.P.H. He then zoomed upwards and nosed over in a dive and came down in a spin. He partially righted his plane and it plunged to earth, the engine being buried six feet down and the remainder of the plane flying a hundred feet away. "
December 1941
Patrols continued to be flown out of Sumburgh and Dyce until 3 December when the main body of the Squadron joined the detachment in the Shetland Islands.
One sortie flown on 5 December from Sumburgh resulted in a bit of drama for the crew of Blenheim 'V' for Victor, pilot Sgt Schoales, Navigator Rogers and WAG Copeland:
"After completing the patrol, they turned and set course for home. It was at this time that the reduction gear and airscrew fell off! And the Shetlands 300 miles away! Schoales recovered flying position and managed to maintain height, but little did he know that his Irish gunner had run amok in the turret and was biting off belts of ammo, breech blocks, gun barrels and everything in sight in an effort to jettison everything.At one time "V" was making a ground speed of 50 mph. Base was reached after flying 3:40 on one engine." The duration of the flight was actually 6.0 hours.
Initially, Schoales, Rogers and Copeland were recommended for DFCs for saving the aircraft. Schoales and Rogers were Mentioned in Dispatches for their actions.
Gowler makes some interesting notes on the life of ground crew in the north of Scotland. On 8 December he notes that his kite, 'E' had a forced landing 'up at a northern drome at Sollum Vol (Shetlands). It had engine trouble over the sea when one of the motors caught on fire.' The regular crew for the plane, including Gowler, was to make the trip to the airfield to repair the Blenheim. The next day the long trip was made, arriving at the most northern tip of the island after dark. The next morning, the crew went to the plane to try to locate the trouble, "weather very dirty, raining all the time and blowing hard. "E" was located about two miles from the camp beside the runway and was held down by six oil barrels, one on each side of all three wheels. We found that a valve had dropped into a cylinder."
Later on in the month, Gowler wrote a summation of what it was like to finish changing the engine of the Blenheim in Sollum Vol, "The changing of the engines up north was a terrible job entailing a great many difficulties. We had no derrick or crane and had only a gangtree to handle these 995 H.P. engines. It rained practically all the time with terrible high winds. We had to wear complete outfits of oil-skins for protection. Very dangerous climbing about on account of the ladders and our boots being covered with grease, oil, water and mud...Hands terribly cold being wet and greasy and unable to wear gloves or mitts on account of much delicate work and the handling of small nuts, washers and bolts."
Description of the Shetlands
An interesting view of the Shetlands is provided by Gowler when he describes his sojourn back from "S.V." to Lerwick, "...rather nervous between Lerwick and here because the driver of the truck was green on the job and had a very heavy load of iron on. At times the road ran along edge of cliff and from the edge of road a sheet (sic) drop to the sea below sometimes hundreds of feet down. Not a tree to be seen on the whole island, just rock and bog. Also large peat bogs and huge piles of peat resembling piles of black bricks. Many sheep to be seen everywhere and a few Shetland ponies but very few. All buildings built of gray granite, also hundreds of small streams ranging from 6" wide up to ten or twelve feet wide. Our billet in "S.V" had a small stream running past the front of it of soft water and very clear and clean. "S.V." had only 3 Catalinas left in the bay as 4 of them sunk in the bay when the big blow came. Reported speed of 135 M.P.H. and a whale was reported to be blown up on the beach in one place. Whole of island is just a mass of hills and the roads are very winding a (sic) undulating. Length of island is approximately about 70 miles long."
The cleverness of the 'erks' and the esteem with which the aircrew held them was evident when F/L Hay-Roe asked Gowler to fabricate a lighter for him, if possible.
With Christmas not far away, F/L Johnston and members of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation arrived in Sumburgh for the purposes of recording greetings from the Canadian members of the squadron to their friends and relatives in Canada. It took a whole day of dedicated work by the CBC representatives to finish the job and soon they were off to another unit. With the thoughts of family uppermost in their minds, squadron members were looking forward to a rather bleak Christmas when W/C Woodruff presented them with an early present - the unit's first operational victory.
On 18 December, the CO, along with F/S Sims as Navigator and P/O Matthews as the WAG in Blenheim 'T' Z5753, took off to intercept the regular German weather monitoring aircraft, a Junkers 88 (Ju.88). The resulting intercept was duly written up in the squadron's scrapbook:
".took off on interception of Weather Willie. After about 15 minutes vectoring, the signal came through 'Jerry at 3 o'clock' Woody carefully counted 1,2,3 from the head of the aircraft and altered course accordingly. A few seconds afterwards, the Ju.88 was seen by Simmo low down on the drink, which information was conveyed to Woody without delay, the latter pulled everything and dived into a ¾ beam attack, getting in a long burst which upset the Ju and caused him to turn to starboard, giving Woody another chance for a tail attack with good results."
The crew returned to Sumburgh and it was not until the next day that they were told officially that the Ju.88 had in fact been shot down. It was the squadron's first 'kill'.
Vaagso Raids
On 24 December, W/C Woodruff led the squadron down to Wick in preparation for escorting a raid on Norway. The Vaagso raid was a commando assault on Vaagso Island, south of Stadtlandet, Norway. The Vaagso operation was actually a diversionary raid in support of the assault on the Lofoten Islands. The primary raid actually failed due to the commander of the operation not having air cover. The Vaagso raid, led by R/Admiral Burrough in HMS Kenya, was successful with the landing party achieving their objectives and 16,000 tons of enemy shipping sunk.
This large operation involved detachments of 404, 248 and 236 Squadrons. Two squadron aircraft flew as part of the event with P/O Pearce and Sgt McCutcheon, Cleaver and Cruickshanks, on fighter patrol for the convoy. 'The work of the fighters was directed by radio from the bridge of one of the naval vessels by S/L EH McHardy, DFC, a New Zealand officer commanding one of the flights ' of 404 Squadron. McCutcheon in 'B' Z6181 along with Cleaver and Cruickshanks were on a six-hour flight when they intercepted and engaged two enemy Me.109s. After they closed, the enemy aircraft broke off and fled. Smoke was observed coming from the engine of one, which was loosing height steadily as it drew away. A claim for one probable and one possible was made.
Gowler's diary entry for 25 December, "Band in attendance at dinner time. Had a very good dinner today including beer, cigarettes and four chocolate bars. Had different officers autograph the back of my menu card. After dinner we took some snaps of some of our lads from our hut and then went for a walk down along the seashore. We found a mine today on the beach." Such was Christmas during the war.
