....
Alan Smith 486& 197 Squadrons 2nd Tactical Airforce - RAF 1942-45
Allan Smith was one of many New Zealanders who like the other British Commonwealth nations felt a kinship to England and wished to help defend her in her hour of need. The New Zealanders provided an important addition to both Fighter and Bomber Commands during the war, suffering a high percentage of casualties in porportion to her population. Allan survived the early attempts at night fighting over the England and low level fighter bomber missions over France long before the Americans came on the scene. Later, he was shot down in the last 5 months of the war becoming a POW as he helped force back the last German offensive in the Ardennes.
Work In progress.2/21/03

Allan was born in Aukland New Zealand. His father was an accountant and WWI ANZAC veteran who was badly wounded but survived.

Allan: "All I can tell you is that in one of the rushes out of the trenches my father was hit in the arm by machine gun fire. He was taken to a field hospital and his arm was tagged for amputation. While he was waiting on the Galipoli beach for shipment out he decided he didn't agree with the doctors and tore the notice off. Back in England they managed to save what was left of his arm. I have seen an x-ray of his arm and from the shoulder to his elbow there was not one piece of connected bone. How they put it together and made it functional I don't know. It wasn't much use as arms go but it was better than not having one at all.

. I was always interested in flying and used to read the stories of the first war pilots and the manager of the Company I worked for had been in the Royal Flying Corp.

One day the Southern Cross piloted by Kingsford-Smith landed at the beach where we went for our summer holidays and I was able to stand beside these great aviators. On another occasion a student pilot landed a biplane on the same beach. He was petrified - he had got into cloud and when he came out he was flying straight at Rangitoto Island one of the volcanos in the harbour. He got out of the plane and wouldn't go near it again. They flew in another plane with two pilots and he went home by road.

Allan: When I arrived at the Elementary Training School to start my flying training I was very pleased to see that my instructor was Keith Paterson who used to work in the same office as my father and it was good to see a friendly face. However I was very unhappy when I found he was instructing in a DH 60 instead of a DH 82.

The next few weeks are critical to a budding pilot - if you have not gone solo in 10 to 12 hours you are taken off the course and that is the end to your dreams of becoming a pilot. I felt disadvantaged flyiny the DH 60 because it is a lighter and less powerful aircraft and more difficult to land particularly in gusty winds. The most difficult part when you first start flying is the landing and this never changes. The important factors are to keep your flying speed above the stall on the approach and when you level out to keep the aircraft close to the ground until it stalls on to the grass or the runway. The most common error is to let the plane balloon away from the ground as it starts to stall..In this event the only options are to get full power on and go round again or use this power to bring the aircraft back to the ground in a stalled position. The latter option is not recommended for a novice pilot.

The problem with the DH 60 was that it was more liable to balloon than the DH 82 because of its lighter weight. As with everything in the Air Force I did what I was told and flew the DH 60 until I went solo - in spite of my misgivings the DH 60 and I got on well together and with the help of a good instructor I was the first on the course to go solo at 6 hours 25 minutes.

I flew 50 hours on Tiger Moths in 1941 when training for the RNZAF and we also had a Tiger Moth on 486 Squadron in England.

Allan: "When we finished at No56 OTU at Sutton Bridge the New Zealanders on the course (4 of us ) were posted to Kirton Lindsey to be foundation members of 486(NZ) Squadron where we were to fly Long Range Hurricanes on convoy patrols. We spent a little time getting used to our aircraft and then got to work.We did not have much luck because most of the E-Boat attacks on the convoys were carried out at night and we were only day operational at that stage. The long range tanks oon the Hurricanes caused a few problems at first because they had no baffles inside them and when they were half empty the petrol surged backwards and forwards giving the aircraft flying characteristics never dreamt of by the designer. High speed manoeuvres and aerobatics with half empty tanks left you with the feeling that the aeroplane was flying the pilot. Eventually they put in the baffles and things went back to normal.

I listened to any advice (on flying and tactics) that was offered but far prefer to do my own thinking. My theory was that the most important thing was to survive so I concentrated on eliminating errors and once I was satisfied that nobody could shoot me down I went on the attack. Have always done my own thinking and developed my own theories in sport , flying and business and so far they have worked. I seldom took unnecessary risks - I developed my own anti flak tactics and I always kept a good lookout for enemy fighters. I was never bounced but most of the pilots shot down on both sides never saw what hit them. I am not very superstitious and didn't rely on any lucky charms. Just gave my total concentration to carrying out the mission and not letting my fellow pilots down.

NAGS HEAD PUB - CHICHESTER
I have never been a great drinker so didn't spend much time in the pubs. Have always been very fit and felt it important to keep on top line. When CO of 197 Squadron I felt it was my duty to protect the other pilots so the last thing I needed was a hangover. When 486 Squadron were based at Tangmere they often used to congregate at the Nag's Head in Chichester.

On the question about LMF (Lacking Moral Fiber and its application in WWII especially to British Aircrew )
Allan: "I only ran into one case of what was probably LMF. A pilot posted to 197 Squadron kept turning back from missions for a variety of reasons and in addition was not a very good pilot. I told Group I wanted him posted but they refused to do this so I told them he was going to sit on the ground until they did and about 2 weeks later he was posted. I don't think I agree with the principle of branding people LMF. Everybody is different and if anybody doesn't want to fly on operations you are better off without them.

The convoy work led to an unusual experience. To develop our liaison with the Navy some of the pilots sailed on the convoys. I had the good fortune to be one of those selected and joined a destroyer at London Docks to escort a convoy through E-Boat alley up to Rosyth in Scotland. I slept in the Captain's cabin because when they were at sea the Captain used a small sea cabin near the bridge. Daytime was fairly peaceful while the destroyer moved amongst the ships making sure they kept station. At night everything changed when the E-Boats came in to attack. The destroyer would fire star shells and move through the convoy at high speed to attack and beat off the E-Boats.
Tracer shells at night are most spectacular but what amazed me was the noise. In an aircraft most of the noise is muffled by the engine and the padded helmet. I ran into a little trouble with the Captain because when the shells were flying I was leaning over the side of the bridge watching the action whereas he wanted me flat on my face on the deck.

Eventually we reached Rosyth without losing any ships but instead of reporting back to my Squadron as planned I did a deal with the Captain to allow me to sail with him on the return voyage back to London. Watching them in action I finished up with the utmost respect for the Navy.

All the boys on 486 Squadron were very anxious to get on to serious operational flying and were getting impatient with the amount of training we were doing. We did not know it at the time but this intensive training in formation flying, cloud flying, instrument flying, bad weather flying and night flying was giving us an experience that the average pilot did not get before going on operations.

I managed to play some cricket while we were on night fighters at Wittering. In mid summer it was only dark from 11pm to 3am so I had the day off and only had to turn up for a night flying test at 10pm. Frank Smailes the Yorkshire and England all-rounder was a member of the station team and together with a couple of county players we had a useful side and took on a couple of depleted County sides. I used to keep wickets but one day I took the gloves off and they let me have a bowl. I went off Frank Smailes when he dropped a sharp chance in slips off my bowling.

Probably the cricket I enjoyed most was when I linked up with a team called the Public School Wanderers and we went round playing against various Public Schools all of which had beautiful grounds. I also played in a mini test against Australia in which each side had several current test players. I have only found over recent years that the fast bowler who gave me a lot of trouble was Keith Miller who was then in England flying Mosquitos. Keith Miller was to form a lethal fast bowling combination with Ray Lindwall for Australia after the war.

At the beginning of April we moved to Wittering and on May 21 I found what a tough aircraft the Hurricane was. I was sent up to do some cloud flying and not far from the aerodrome was the tallest and blackest cloud I have ever seen. I thought "why not' and sailed into the middle of it. I wasn't far in when the cloud took control of the aircraft. First we went vertically upwards and then without any help from me carried out a series of violent manoeuvres that I had never done before and have never done since. After what seemed an age the cloud finally spat the Hurricane out and I started to assess the damage. Happily the engine was still going but I had lost both gun panels and they had hit the tailplane and elevators and I had also lost quite a bit of fuselage fabric on the starboard side. While I had plenty of height I put the undercart and flaps down and throttled back to get an idea of the new stalling speed. I then came in to land and did a wheel landing at approx 140 mph which was made easier by the fact that Wittering had a 3 mile landing strip.

During May we were painted black and told we were going to become night fighters as part of the Turbinlite programme which was a Churchill backed scheme. This started a period of intensive night flying, hours on the Link Trainer and a blind flying course where we did circuits and bumps while flying in a Master under the hood while an instructor in the other cockpit kept an eye on what was going on.

The theory of the Turbinlite programme was that we would fly at night in formation with a Boston Havoc which carried radar and a searchlight but no guns and the Hurricane was to be the gun platform. The theory was that the Havoc would be vectored on to a target by the ground controller until it could pick it up on it's own radar. Once they were locked in on a target the Havoc crew would send the Hurricane ahead and position it behind the target aircraft - at which point they would turn the searchlight on and illuminate the target and the Hurricane would move in and shoot it down. It worked out reasonably well in practice but was never effective operationally and was eventually abandoned.

These Turbinlite exercises led to some interesting flying. At first we used to line up on the runway beside the Havoc and takoff in formation. A formation takeoff at night between two different types of aircraft, one with a tricycle undercart and the other with a tailwheel has to be unusual. The Hurricane used to get airborne well before the Havoc and once we got our wheels up we were formating with an aircraft that was still on the ground. We finally decided that we had had enough of this and used to take off first and then dive into formation on the Havoc as it climbed away from the runway.

Tight formation on a black aircraft in cloud at night was quite an experience. I used to hang on like grim death and never did lose contact with the Havoc but it took all my powers of concentraction and was quite wearing on the nerves. They painted a white strip on the trailing edge of the Havoc's wing and put a small light at the wing root to shine on it but I found the light dazzling and always asked them to turn it off.

On May 25th I had an experience that almost terminated my career on 486 Squadron. The Hurricane pilot after he had been formating on the Havoc for a while had no idea where he was and was reliant on the Havoc pilot to bring him back to base for landing. This particular night the Havoc pilot brought me back to base and released me for landing. I looked down saw the grass aerodrome with a lake at the end and called up control for landing instructions. The method was to give you a height to orbit the drome and then drop this orbiting height 500ft every time the plane at the bottom landed until it was your turn to land. I went right through this procedure and finally made my landing.

I thought the aerodrome was a little smoother than usual and started to grope my way round in the dark to find the dispersal. By this time I had a feeling something was amiss and stopped at the first dispersal I could find. I had been taking landing instructions from Wittering but was in fact landing at Cottesmore about 20 miles away. When the Havoc released me at the wrong aerodrome I had made the fatal mistake of not checking the aerodrome identification beacon.

When I went into the Flying Control at Cottesmore I met a very irate Wing Commander who told me I had landed in the middle of 12 bombers and I could easily have collided with one of them. When I flew back to Wittering I was met by an equally irate CO who didn't hesitate to tell me what he thought of me.

The Typhoon


Alan: "We had just been advised by Fighter Command that we were no longer night fighters and that we were going to re-equip with Typhoons and go back to day fighting. This was good news in that much as we liked flying Hurricanes they just didn't go fast enough and while they were marginally useful for ground attack they just couldn't cope with the 109's and the 190's. We were also a little apprehensive because we had heard a lot of disturbing stories about the Typhoon.

The Typhoons started to arrive late August 1942 and when it came my turn to go solo I spent what I thought would be my last flight in a Hurricane practicing forced landings before flying the new "monster".However there was to be another flight in a Hurricane. On December 13th 1943 Vaughan Fittall who was then a Flight Commander on 198 Squadron invited me down to Manston to attend a station party. There wasa spare Hurricane at Tangmere at the time and I borrowed this to fly to Manston. Once again I realised what a delighful aircraft the Hurricane was to fly - but how slow compared to the Typhoon.

I don't know whether the other pilots had the same experience but I loved flying right from the start and the feeling of anticipation and excitement when I walked out to fly an aircraft has never left me. There is a challenge to each flight. The smell of the aircraft, the feeling of becoming part of it as you strap yourself firmly into the cockpit, the taxying out to the end of the runway where you go through the cockpit drill and check the wind direction. The feeling of power as you open the throttle for take off, a rapid climb to get enough height for a forced landing if the engine should cut out was exhilerating. Once in the air the excitement continued. I used to love getting up above 10/10ths cloud and then submerging the aircraft in the cloud layer with just my head up in the sunshine, like the conning tower of a submarine. Every time I walked away from a plane after a successful flight I walked a little taller. I have done some private flying since the war and the same feelings persisted.

A first time solo in a single seater presents some problems. All you have to go on are the Pilot's Manual for that aircraft, your own flying ability and advice from other pilots who have flown that type of aircraft. I had a good study of the Pilot's Manual and then sat in the cockpit for some time to check out all the controls and instruments and then started up and taxyied out for takeoff. Once I had lined up I took a deep breath and opened the throttle. I had never experienced power like it and the "brute" took off without too much help from me. I flew round for a while to get the feel of the aircraft and then came back for a series of circuits. Landing was not too difficult as long as you had enough room - the hardest part was to get your speed down to 200mph so that you could put the undercarriage down. The easiest way to do this was to put the radiator flap down and increase the drag through the big air scoop. The wide undercarriage was a big help. It was not too long before I decided that I was going to like this aircraft.

The Typhoon cruised at 300mph carrying two 1000lb bombs so you were going at that speed when you started the dive and with the heavy aircraft and no dive brakes the speed was close to 500mph at the point of pull out.There were white streamers from the wing tips and you had to ease the stick forward a little as you started to black out.

When production testing Typhoons at Gloster Aircraft Co we had to dive each aircraft using full throttle and full revs up to an indicated airspeed of 525mph. I used to take mine up to 550mph indicated and they handled beautifully at this speed.


Enter the Gremlins

[ Authors notes: Gremlins were alleged to be mischievous, elf-like beings that were the "real" cause of engine trouble and other mechanical difficulties. Certainly a British manifestation, a 1943 Looney Tunes Cartoon introduced Americans to the Gremlin. Bugs Bunny's "Falling Hare" cartoon stars Bugs and a Gremlin in an epic struggle to prevent the sabotaging of Bug's aircraft. ]

Allan:"Unfortunately most of the rumours we had heard about the Typhoon turned out to be true:"

1 It was not easy to start even though we had help from the Napier engine representatives. I wrote a previous article on starting Typhoons and for the benefit of anyone who missed that will attach a copy with this email.

2. There had been a number of engine failures mostly caused by sleeve valve wear and these were to continue.

3. There were a lot of fumes in the cockpit and this had caused the death of several pilots. To counter this we had to have the oxygen on full strength from the time we started the engine until we shut down.

4. The cockpit was very hot with temperatures well in excess of 100 degrees. When we complained the RAF installed heaters. I used to fly with a football jersey under my battledress and when I landed could take the football jersey off and wring it out. This heat factor was corrected at a later date.

5. There was a lot of vibration in the cockpit and the rumour went round that anyone who flew a Typhoon for any length of time would be sterile. Happily this was only a rumour as a number of us have proved since the war.

6. Probably the most serious problem was the tails started to come off in flight and a number of pilots were lost this way. A friend of mine, Jimmy Jones who I used to play cricket with back in Auckland was flying a Typhoon with 56 Squadron when his tail came off and he was killed. At this point they grounded all the Typhoons for inspection and I was told when they inspected my aircraft SA-L that my tail was the next one to go. They then riveted metal patches all round the fuselage just forward of the tailplane and we had no further trouble.

The only person to my knowledge who survived after having a tailplane come off was a very interesting pilot by the name of "Killy" Kilpatrick. He told me that the negative "G" burst his webbing cockpit straps fired him upwards through the cockpit roof, forced his eyeballs out of their sockets and without any help from him opened his parachute. After they patched him up Killy returned to operations and I was to meet him when we were flying from the beachhead airfields after the Normandy invasion.

I might as well tell you the rest of the story about Killy because it is rather remarkable. When he was flying from the beachhead he was shot down and forced landed in the Falaise Gap and was not captured immediately. For some time he hid under a Panzer tank that was balanced between two higher points of ground and there was a little space underneath but eventually they found him. After about a week he managed to escape from the Panzer unit during an Allied dive bombing attack and while sheltering ran into some German soldiers. Using his persuasive Irish tongue he talked them into surrendering and providing some transport - the numbers built up as they worked their way towards the Allied lines and he eventually arrived with 27 prisoners. For this exploit he received the DSO.

Back on operations again he finished up as one of my Flight Commanders on 197 Squadron and the last I saw of him before I was shot down he was at a Xmas party with a beautiful Belgian girl. However I was to meet Killy once more. After the war in Europe was over and I came back to UK from the POW camp in Germany I went to Tangmere to get some petrol vouchers and went in to the Dining Room at lunchtime to see if there was anybody there that I knew. Suddenly Killy jumped to his feet at the far side of the room and called out at the top of his voice; "It's the CO!". He then ran across the room, threw his arms round my neck and kissed me in front of a very amused Mess.

Ther is a strange sequel to this. Killy seemed to disappear after the war and nobody heard from him. A couple of years ago I was contacted by his nephew who was writing a book about his uncle's exploits to see if I could help him. In one of his letters he gave a phone number which I used to ring Killy. He just about fell off the the phone when he realised who he was talking to and we had a good old chat. Unfortunately Killy died not too long afterwards and I don't know whether or not the nephew proceeded with his book.

After we re-equipped with Typhoons we spent most of September training in formation flying, air firing, instrument flying and dog-fighting. Early October we transferred to North Weald and while we were there did one fighter sweep over the Le Havre area. I was not on that operation but we lost a pilot "Iggy" Phillips but nobody knew whether he had engine trouble or was shot down by flak. I always remember North Weald because there was a lot of fog and there was a notice in all the dispersals that there must be no refusal to take off because of fog.

This is a group of the 486 pilots. From left to right; Standing;
Fitzgibbon
Faircloth
Waddy
Thomas(IO)
Scott
Smith
Murphy
Gall
Cullen
Appleton
Jones(MO)
Preston.
Kneeling; Dall And Sames. If you can spot it that is a Commando knife attached to the bottom of the left hand side of my Mae West.


We had hardly settled in to North Weald when we were shifted on October 10th to West Malling and as soon as we reached there we started mid channel patrols to combat the "hit and run" raiders that were attacking the South Coast towns. While based at West Malling our patrol line ranged between North Foreland and Beachy Head. For most of the distance the French coast was very close and it was very difficult to make an interception unless you were right above the target area where the German aircraft made their "hit and run" attack.Initially we flew at 500 feet. This gave us a chance to speed up an interception by increasing our speed in a shallow dive We had no luck while stationed at West Malling but I am sure our presence acted as a deterrent and the sight of us flying above them must have improved the morale of the people in the south coast towns.

During October several sections were detached to Tangmere where they patrolled the area from Beachy Head to Selsey Bill and on 30th October 486 Squadron moved to Tangmere where we were to stay until January 1944.

Log Book - 7 shows the offensive pattern continuing with a mixture of roadsteads fighter sweeps and escorting fighter bombers. At that stage we felt a little sorry for the fighter bombers as they dived down into the heavy flak and we had no idea that we were going to start dive bombing ourselves in the not too distant future.

Log book - 8 shows that we had more luck on our anti-shipping patrols. The attack on August 3 was rather interesting. The weather was very bad and we finished flying early and had changed into our uniforms and were drinking in the bar when somebody made a remark to Scotty that suggested that we were only good weather flyers. Scotty stood up and ordered us down to the dispersals and not too long later we were in the air flying towards the French coast. We headed for Le Treport and then worked our way down towards Le havre and hit the jackpot. A naval auxiliary and 12 R-Boats were just heading out of port no doubt working on the assumption that no planes would be coming over when the weather was so bad.


Three 486 pilots from left to right: Jim McCaw Allan Smith Andy Brown.
Andy was the pilot shot down by the R boats. Our theory is that after we had gone the R boats killed Andy.

They were just at the harbour mouth and still under the cover of the shore batteries and as we moved in to give them the treatment we came under intense flak from both the shore batteries and the ships and in the dusk the tracers were quite spectacular. The few beers we had had helped us disregard the flak and we pressed home our attacks with some success. The boys started to sober up on the way home and some who had had too much to drink had to pee in the cockpit.When we landed in the dark this started to drip from the bottom of the fuselage and we saw the ground crew getting some on their fingers so they could check the taste and identify the fluid . They were mortified when they found out what it was.

I was hit in the oil cooler and the tailplane and there were also a lot of flak fragments flying about. When I checked the planes the following morning the least number of holes in any one plane was 12.

Log book 9 shows me flying Spitfires while attending No 10 Fighter Leaders Course at Aston Down. The Spitfire was a delightful aircraft to fly - it just fitted you like a glove and was an ideal aircraft for air to air fighting. I enjoyed the course and learnt a lot but I missed the sheer power of the Typhoon and would not have liked to do any ground attack work in a Spitfire.

There was a lot of rivalry between the Spitfire 12 and the Typhoon Wings at Tangmere. The only time we ever flew together as a combined Wing led to an incident that caused a bit of friction. As the four squadrons flew on the deck towards the French coast Scotty decided the Spits were flying too high above the water so he took the Typhoon squadrons underneath the Spitfires and came out the other side. When they had settled down at a lower level he took us back underneath them again and they dropped another notch.

On another occasion the four squadrons were scrambled at the same time. We were on opposite sides of the aerodrome and we all ignored the runways and took off on the grass in the direction we were pointing. We all met at full throttle in the middle and nobody was going to give way. Somehow or other we threaded our way through each other and how there wasn't a major collision I'll never know.

This rivalry came to a head when at the end of their tours Scotty was awarded a DSO and Harries was awarded a second Bar to his DFC.


This photo goes back to 486 Squadron days. When Des Scott heard that 609 Squadron had a Squadron goat he decided that 486 had to have a goat as well and this is what turned up.
In the photo from L to R: "Spike" Umbers My wife Irene Flight Sergeant Wiseman (in charge of the A Flight Maintenance Echelon) The one on the right I can't put a name to.
One pay day they wheeled the goat up to Irene and let it go and she had to grab it's horns to stop it charging and then they walked away and left her on her own hanging on to the goat and she couldn't attend pay parade.


Irene was a transport driver in the WAAF and we met at Tangmere late 1943 when her unit was attached to 486(NZ) Typhoon Squadron. Her duties consisted of ferrying pilots , towing aircraft and towing the petrol bowser and the bomb trollies. I finished my first tour of operations late January 1944 and was posted on rest as a Test Pilot at the Gloster Aircraft Co flight testing the Typhoons as they came off the production line prior to their going into service with the RAF Squadrons. We were married on April 29th 1944 and were unable to live together - Irene was then stationed at Culmhead and I was busy at the Aircraft factory but we did manage to spend a few days together from time to time.
..
This is the group of Transport Drivers that Irene was with - they did a great job. Irene is on the right in the front row. The girl next to her is Joan Nicholson - she is married to Don Nicholson who was a Spitfire pilot. We are still in regular contact with them.
With clothing coupons it was not easy for a bride to get married in white during the war but Irene managed it OK with a little help from her friends.

A few weeks later the invasion took place and in July I was recalled to operations as Commanding Officer of 197 Squadron, an RAF Typhoon Squadron then operating from the B-3 Airfield in the invasion beachhead. On several occasions I was able to fly from France to wherever Irene was stationed so that we could spent a few days together.

When I crash landed in Holland my No 2 - an Australian by the name of "Cobber" James flew down through the flak, saw me land successfully and run away from the aircraft and this information was relayed to Irene who was then stationed at Biggin Hill.

From left to right:
1. Tommy the Spy - Neville Thomas was the Wing Intelligence Officer. He was an old friend because he was the Intelligence Officer on 486 Squadron all the time I was there.

2. Eric Necklen - the only other New Zealander on 197 Squadron. He was killed in a mid air collision near Antwerp.

3. "Cobber" James - the Australian pilot who gave the SASO the "fingers.



Patrols continued through November until March 1943 with each pilot flying one or two patrols a day. The normal procedure was for two aircraft to take off and stay on the deck right from takeoff. No R/T was used unless there was an emergency. We flew about 50 feet above the water and moved about ten to twenty miles out to sea where we would be picked up on the radar by "Blackgang" on the Isle of Wight. We flew as low as we could so that we would not be picked up by the German radar which was much further away, with the No2 flying line abreast so that we could cover each other's tail. We tended to keep the same pilots flying together and most of my patrols were with Frank Murphy as my No2. With the constant flying together we reached a stage where we were almost able to read each other's thoughts.

We flew backwards and forwards on the patrol line using lean mixture and low revs to conserve fuel so that we would have maximum reserves in the event of combat We developed skills at flying low above the water, bad weather flying and an uncanny ability to hit the right landfall when returning to base. Each section leader developed leadership qualities and learnt to make decisions in emergencies. These skills were all to stand us in good stead at a later date.

Apart from keeping a watch out for enemy aircraft we had to keep a close watch out for British aircraft returning from missions over France. In bad visibility we could easily be mistaken for FW 190's. We were shot at from time to time by anti-aircraft batteries stationed on the south coast.

We flew in all kinds of weather . Those pilots who had been with 486 Squadron since its formation had operated as night fighters on Hurricanes and could handle very marginal conditions. The "hit and run" raiders were most likely to come across in bad weather and the basic rule was that we would take off if we could see the other side of the aerodrome.

On one occasion - January 19th 1943 Tangmere was closed by fog and every other aerodrome on the south coast was also closed. Enemy aircraft were plotted in the Channel and my section was the one due on patrol as soon as the weather cleared. I was watching conditions closely so that we could get into the air as soon as possible. At that stage we could see about half way across the drome but from time to time it clamped right down. Eventually it lifted a little and we decided to take off.

We took off in formation but when we got half way down the runway instead of being able to see the far boundary we ran into a solid wall of fog and I had to convert to visual to instruments right at the point of takeoff. With my night flying experience this should not have been a problem. I was flying on instruments and starting what I thought was a steady climb away from the runway and increasing speed as our undercarts came up. Some instinct made me do something which is normally fatal under these conditions - I took my eyes off the instruments and looked ahead - a fraction of a second later we would have hit some trees. I pulled the stick back hard and went straight upwards bursting out of cloud and fog at 700 feet and to his everlasting credit my No2 stayed in formation with me. We gained control of our aircraft before we stalled and headed out to sea after the bandits but they turned and ran before we could make an interception.
Taking it easy in the dispersal: Front four from L to R: Frank Murphy Allan Smith Gordon Thomas "Spike" Umbers
Back three from L to R: Keith Taylor-Cannon "Woe" Wilson "Humph" Humphries



The next problem was how to get down again. By this time all aerodromes within range were closed with very little prospect of their opening. The fog and cloud stopped a couple of miles south of the coast and the best advice Ground Control could give me was to conserve our fuel by getting on to the most economical mixture and rev setting and just hope the fog would lift somewhere. When we ran out of fuel we were to bale out over the sea. I made a couple of attempts to fly in to Tangmere by coming in at sea level, crossing the coast at roof top level with the gasometer at Bognor Regis about 50 feet above me. We probed into the murk towards Tangmere but had to give up for fear of flying into the South Downs behind the aerodrome.

Back we went out to sea and waited. Somebody must have been looking after us because as we flew backwards and forwards I saw the fog start to roll back from the coast near Ford aerodrome. I called my No2 and we made a shallow dive towards where Ford should be, dropping our undercart on the way down. For a matter of seconds the end of the runway became visible and we dropped onto it in formation. We had barely settled on the runway and were still rolling when the fog closed in again and stayed that way for the rest of the day. The flight had lasted one hour 25 minutes and we could not have stayed up much longer.

The strategy behind the patrols was that Blackgang control would plot the enemy aircraft approaching the south coast and would give us vectors to position us between the enemy aircraft and France and would then give us further vectors to close the gap and make the interception. They were outstanding controllers at Blackgang and 486 Squadron had reasonable success shooting down 25 aircraft during this period. Personally I did not have too much luck on these patrols only encountering enemy aircraft on three occasions.

On 18th February 1943 Frank Murphy and I were on patrol on a line between Selsey and St Catherines. There was a thick murky haze low on the water and visibility was particularly bad especially when looking into the sun. Blackgang picked up some enemy aircraft and vectored us south west towards Cherbourg. We had covered about two thirds of the distance and we were starting to get close to the French Coast when we saw two Me109's coming at us on the deck at 10 o'clock. Visibility was still bad and they were almost on top of us before we saw them. We turned hard port to get at them and they also turned port presumably to return to France. It was a bad interception particularly in the bad weather conditions.

In my port turn I pulled back hard enough to black out which is not the smartest thing to do when flying close to the water. When I had completed the turn I peered round in the haze and saw two aircraft heading south into the sun for France and went after them. I thought it was the two 109s but in fact it was one of the 109s followed by Frank Murphy. Frank saw me coming up behind him and thought it was the second 109. He turned port to defend himself and it took one circuit for us to identify each other. Meantime the 109 Frank had been following disappeared into the haze and where the second 109 went after the initial encounter we will never know. We returned home very disappointed.

We were mostly up against Me109's and FW190's but we came off best every time there was a combat. If the planes are reasonably equal the most important factor is the mental attitude of the pilot. The Typhoon was faster than either the Me109 or the FW190, had greater firepower and could absorb more punishment. We were happy to take on anybody up to 10000 feet. Above that height the Typhoon became very sloppy on the controls. This was corrected when they fitted a Spitfire type wing on the Tempest.



I was scrambled from Tangmere on 29th April with Frank Murphy. We headed straight out to sea keeping low on the water and awaiting instuctions from Blackgang. They had plotted bandits approaching from the south and their first vector was to position us between the bandits and the French coast. The bandits kept on coming and the trap was set. We were given further vectors which positioned us behind the bandits and we were then given the message "Buster" which meant open the throttle and increase speed so that we could close the gap.

Shortly afterwards I saw two aircraft low on the water and called "Tally Ho" to Blackgang. At about the same time the bandits either saw us or received a message from their base that they were being intercepted and decided to handle the situation by making a run for France at full throttle. Their turn towards France gave us the chance to close the gap further and I identified them as Me109's. We tucked in behind them and it must have been very difficult for them to know just where we were because they were not flying far enough apart to cover each other's tail effectively.

We were flying very close to the water and as we moved into firing range I told Frank to attack the second aircraft which was lagging a bit behind while I kept an eye on the leader. I did not know it at the time but Frank was having trouble with his reflector sight and had to use the splashes of the cannon shells on the water to direct his guns on to the target aircraft. There were a number of strikes on the wings and the fuselage and the 109 started to move to port and eventually flew between my plane and the 109 I was following. As it came into my sights I gave it a couple of short bursts getting strikes on the fuselage and tail and shortly afterwards it crashed into the sea.


An artists rendering fo Allans victory over an ME109.

I then closed in on the leader and gave him several bursts from dead astern. There were strikes all over the aircraft, pieces started to come off and it burst into flames. I moved off to port to avoid the debris and as the 109 lost airspeed I finished up in close formation about 20 feet to the left of it. At this stage the pilot turned and looked at me - it was my first "face to face" meeting with a German and I will remember that face until the day I die.

I suddenly realised that if I were in his position I would have turned hard port and rammed the Typhoon - he took no such action and perhaps his controls were damaged. I pulled away and shortly afterwards he hit the sea. I called Blackgang to advise them that the bandits were destroyed and we headed for home. I felt no elation - rather a fear that God would strike me from the sky for taking a human life or perhaps that some of the German's fellow pilots were on their way from France (we were very close to the French coast by this time) to exact revenge. We were very pleased to see the English coast but could not get into Tangmere and had to land at Ford where we stayed overnight.

Leaving the normal sections of 486 Squadron on readiness at Tangmere our new CO Des Scott the A Flight Commander Spike Umbers and myself flew along to Friston aerodrome on May 25th to see if it would be suitable to detach a section there. Friston was a small grass 'drome right on the top of Beachy Head and it was quite difficult to land a Typhoon there particularly when there was no wind. Takeoff was interesting - you simply opened the throttle and ran straight for the edge of the cliff with a drop of hundreds of feet to the sea.

We had just checked out the 'drome and decided it would be suitable for experienced Typhoon pilots when the operations people at Friston told us that Brighton which was right next door was being bombed. We jumped into our cockpits and took off over the cliff edge. We could see the bomb smoke and fires at Brighton and heading out to sea were about 12 Focke Wulf 190's.

We dived down to sea level and started to pull in behind them. One of the 190's was lagging behind and Scottie pulled in behind it and shot it down. While he was doing this I noticed some Typhoons coming behind us at about 4 o'clock and starting to cross behind. I figured correctly that these were the readiness sections of 486 Squadron who had been scrambled from Tangmere.

Looking back down sun they were quite easy for us to see and identify but they were looking straight into the sun and they must have decided that we were the last three stragglers of the 190's. The next thing I knew was that cannon shells hit the water all round me and I pulled hard port and a Typhoon followed me round in a tight turn on the deck. Luckily I was the more experienced pilot and every time he looked ready to fire I pulled the circle a little tighter. This went on until he had fired all his ammunition. I then escorted him back to Tangmere and told him what I thought of him with a few well chosen words (he was killed shortly afterwards on a shipping attack). It was a tragic mistake for we should have shot down at least half the 190's.

[many pilots in the war never even saw an enemy plane in action. Timing could be everything and then only the good shots had a real chance. ]

Allan: "It was mostly a case of being in the right place at the right time. When we were flying patrols against the hit and run raiders it was a bit of a lottery as to who were the lucky pair on patrol when the raiders struck. Some people especially my good friend Frank Murphy had a flair for getting into the middle of the action. On fighter sweeps and bomber escorts the 190's never seemed keen on mixing it with the Typhoons below 12000 feet - probably because every time they tried it against the Tangmere wing they came off second best. What they did most of the time was sit just above 12000 feet and make diving attacks trying to break up the formation and pick off the stragglers. Not much we could do about it because the Typhoon above 12000 feet was very sloppy. This was cured when they fitted a Spitfire type wing to the Tempest 1.

I only flew a Tempest once and would have liked to have had more time on them. The thinner wing turned the Typhoon into a first class fighter which did well against the Flying Bombs and against the German fighters when they shifted over to Europe. They didn't work out so well on ground attack and lost a lot of pilots when they were operating in the light flak.
..
The latter part of my time on 486 Squadron and all my time on 197 Squadron was on ground attack where our enemy was flak not aircraft. From the time we went into the beachhead I can't remember a Typhoon shooting down an enemy aircraft which were taken care of by the Spitfires and the Tempests

Routine patrols continued through April into May and there were some in June but patrols were eventually replaced by a pattern which had pilots moving through three stages.

1. 15 minutes readiness for one hour.

2.Dispersal readiness with parachute in the cockpit for one hour.

3. Cockpit readiness.

Under conditions of cockpit readiness the pilots were strapped in the cockpit , the engine was kept warm and everything was switched on ready for immediate start up and take off. When the Tannoy loudspeaker system called for that section to scramble the pilots simply pressed the buttons to activate the Coffman starter and opened up the throttle., taking off across the grass and runways in the direction the aircraft was pointing. At the same time red Verey lights were fired from the dispersal hut and the control tower to warn other aircraft that a section was scrambling. It was a matter of Squadron pride to be airborne within seconds and there were some dramatic take offs. One of the most interesting I saw was a pilot who had unknowingly selected "flaps down". His flaps were coming down as he raced across the 'drome and he finally took off with full flap. He worked out what had happened shortly afterwards, pulled the flaps up too quickly and almost squashed into the ground. The readiness programme was carried out between offensive operations later on by all pilots and when the Squadron was away on a mission by the pilots who were not on that particular mission.

Alans Mention in Dispatches certificate.


486 Squadron were part of the Tempest Wing under Roly Beamont during 1944/45 when they were chasing "doodle bugs" and later went over to Europe but I left 486 at the end of January 1944 so I never had the pleasure of flying with him.

Bill Mawson or "Sarge" as we used to call him was flying as my No2 when he was shot down on March 24th 1943.

We flew out together from Tangmere to carry out a "rhubarb" in Northern France and planned to make landfall near Fecamp. For anyone that doesn't know what a "rhubarb" was these were carried out from England when the cloud was 10/10ths and the cloud base was 1200 to 1500 feet. The theory was that you would cross over the channel at sea level to avoid the radar and once you had crossed the coast you could then attack any targets such as transport, trains, airfields, barges etc that became available. If the flak became too hot or you were attacked by a number of enemy aircraft then you could use the cloud cover to escape their attention and come down somewhere else to continue your attacks. The light flak was very intense in places and finally it became apparent that the casualty rate was out of proportion to the damage done and "rhubarbs" were largely abandoned.

"Sarge" and I flew on the deck from Tangmere using a compass course and as we neared the French coast I was anxious to check my navigation and make sure that we made the right landfall. We were spot on and as we crossed the coast the flak opened up and gave us the treatment. I looked over to see how "Sarge was getting on and couldn't find him anywhere. I flew round the area for some time calling him on the radio but could get no response. Finally gave it up, attacked a railway train and decided that I had better go home because it was not too healthy flying on my own without a No2. I didn't feel too good telling the CO that I had lost my No2 and didn't know what had happened to him and was very relieved when we heard later that "Sarge" was a POW.

Never did know what had happened until about 40 years later when I met "Sarge" at a 486 Squadron Reunion in Christchurch and we sat down to discuss the trip over a beer. "Sarge" said that just as we crossed the coast he decided to cross underneath me and take up station on the port side. When he was right underneath me he was hit by flak which knocked out his engine and his radio. He had no height to bale out but had enough momentum to clear the coast and make a belly landing straight ahead. He must have done a good one because he walked away from it and the plane was in good enough shape for the Germans to use it for experimental purposes. Actually "Sarge" was supposed to set his plane on fire when he landed and had a fire bomb with a spike on it to stab into the petrol tank for this purpose. His action in crossing under me as we crossed the coast was not too wise because we were both on same flight path as we hit the flak instead of splitting it if he had held station. Chris Thomas told me some years after the war that "Sarge"'s plane had been used by the Germans. [ a note supplied by Gianmaria via Kev Darling. Photo above courtesy of Mike Murphy web site
.....Sarge's Typhoon MKIB EJ956 constructed to contract Acft/943/c.23(a) for delivery between Feb-March 1943. Builder Gloster Aircraft Company, Hucclecote. Delivered to 486 Sqdn as SA-I, hit by flak and crashlanded near Barville 24 March 1943. Sarge's aircraft was later repainted and remarked as T9+MK This captured Typhoon was displayed at Rechlin with its original British markings. (via Jet & Prop 6/00)]
>
These rhubarbs were very similar to the armed recce's that we carried out to support the Army in France but we did not bother about any cloud cover. Johnny Baldwin figured out how to effectively exploit the rhubarb theory when he was CO of 198 Squadron based at Manston. When the cloud conditions were right he would take long range Typhoons and fly in cloud until he was well inside France and clear of the main flak areas and fighter dromes. When he came out of cloud he was in the training areas and they had a field day. When they had done enough damage they would get in the cloud again and fly back to England.

I should tell you that "Sarge " was the first of 13 No2's that I had shot down beside me by flak. Happily a number of them turned up as POWS. I seemed to attract flak wherever I went but they kept shooting down my No2 until they finally caught up with me.




This is a small Memorial at the B-3 Airstrip at St Croix-sur-Mer where 197 Squadron flew from as part of the 146 Typhoon Wing. Some of the surviving 197 pilots in their advanced years are shown with the Maire of St Croix-sur-Mer. The pilots are standing on some of the original mesh that was used on that airstrip.

D-day -To the Continent with 197 Squadron / V-1 AND V-2 ATTACKS ON ANTWERP.
...


Alans and the squadrons involvement in the fighting in France was intense. Here is his log for those days.

Detail of Log Book -20A

Aug 4 - Ramrod 2 - 500lbs Strong Point - St Germain Le Vasson - Plenty of flak-160 rounds cannon
Aug 5 - Armed Recce 2 - 500lbs Bombed & Strafed 6 Barges on Seine - Strikes & Explosions - Light flak! Plum hit & forced landed - 240 rounds cannon.
Aug 6 Ramrod 2 - 500lbs - Lisieux-Falaise-Melidon. Weather U/S Bombed wood-120 rounds cannon.
Aug 7 - Ramrod 2 - 500lbs Le Nuisemont - 200 rounds cannon.
Aug 7 - Armed Recce 2 - 500lbs Bombed wood - Strafed 4 Met-1 flamer 3 smokers-240 rounds cannon.
Aug 8 - Ramrod 2 - 500lbs - Chateau Bretteville area - Chateau destroyed-80 rounds cannon.
Aug 8 - Ramrod 2 - 500lbs - Cintreaux - Good bombing - 20 rounds cannon.
Aug 8 - Ramrod 2 - 500lbs - Le Theil - Strong Point - Army pleased - 120 rounds cannon.
Aug 8 - Ramrod 2 - 500lbs - Poussez - Strong Point - 200 rounds cannon.
Aug 9 - B-3 to Culmhead.
Aug 11 - Culmhead to Odiham.
Aug 11 - Odiham to Tangmere.
Aug 11 - Tangmere to B-3.
Aug 11 - Ramrod 2 - 500lbs - 4 Squadrons on Strong Point at dusk - Good Prang - 120 rounds cannon.
Aug 12 - Armed Recce 2 - 500lbs - 4 Met bombed - Lots of flak - 140 rounds cannon.
Aug 12 - Ramrod 2 - 1000lbs - Bombed wrong bridge - intense flak -F/Lt Backhouse missing - Weather duff.
Aug 12 - Ramrod 2 - 500lbs - Close support - Blendon - Good bombing - 200 rounds cannon
Aug 12 - Ramrod 2 - 500lbs - Repeat on Bridge - Bridge damaged.
Aug 13 - Ramrod 2 - 500lbs - HQ in Chateau & wood - Good bombing - intense flak - 220 rounds cannon.
Aug 14 - Ramrod - 2 - 500lbs - Guns & Strong Point in wood - 2 large fires - 160 rounds cannon.
Aug 14 - Ramrod - 2 - 500lbs - Store Huts in wood east of Falaise - 100 rounds cannon.
Aug 15 - Ramrod - 2 - 500lbs - Bombed & Strafed 30 Barges on Seine South of Rouen - 3 sunk & rest damaged - 200 rounds cannon.
Aug 15 - Ramrod - 2 - 500lbs - 150 tanks in wood East of Falaise - Army pleased - 120 rounds cannon.


While we were at Antwerp the Germans started their Ardennes offensive and on the short term they were remarkably successful. Their main objective was to capture the Port of Antwerp and shut off the supplies that were flooding in through that port to the Allied Armies.

Part of that offensive was a concentrated V-1 and V-2 attack on Antwerp. The Antwerp /Deurne airport on which we were stationed was not only part of the target area but was also on the flight path to the City Centre and the Docks.

I have never seen so many V-1's in my life. They were mostly fired at night and it was quite common to have 3 or 4 crossing the airfield at the same time. We learnt to live with it - though the general opinion was that we were safer in the air on operations than we were on the ground. One of the worst disasters was a direct hit on a crowed cinema in Antwerp killing a substantial number of people including a number of personnel from the airfield.

Apart from getting a direct hit there was a real danger from flying glass. We had shifted from our tents into houses near the airfield because of the colder weather. I had one of the few remaining windows and to protect myself at night used to sleep with my head inside my sleeping bag. Although it made the nights colder I was very relieved when the window was finally blown out by a blast wave.

We had a bomb shelter right by the operations caravan and I remember I was walking towards the "ops" van one night with several other people when a couple of V-1 engines cut out over the airfield. I was 4th in line when we started to run but was first into the shelter - it is great what a little incentive will do.


The V-2's were another matter. There was no warning - just a massive explosion and a deep crater in the ground.

One of the pilots on 197 Squadron was the first person to actually see a V-2 in flight. I was leading a four coming in to land at Antwerp at dusk and we had our own way of landing. We would slip into line astern and fly down the runway at about 500 feet.The leader would then do a 360 degree climbing turn to port dropping his undercart and landing well down the runway. Each pilot would carry out a similar manoeuvre but would land nearer the start of the runway - this way we could have the four aircraft rolling down the runway at the same time without any danger. It was a well practised manoeuvre but this time a V-2 fell through the air between my No 2 and my No 3 and blew up underneath us. The No 3 Paddy Burne obtained a good sighting of the V-2 and was able to give a very good description and an accurate sketch - a number of boffins came over from the UK to see him and he was the centre of attraction for a couple of days.


A number of V-1's and V-2's fell inside the perimeter track damaging the airfield and at times the runway was pitted with craters. The greatest damage to aircraft was done when a V-2 landed in the maintenance area. Flying at dusk you could see V-2's being launched in Holland and exploding in the Antwerp area shortly afterwards.Hitler launched about 10000 V-1's and 1750 V-2's at Antwerp killing 3740 civilians and 900 Allied personnel. 197 SQUADRON.

197 Squadron flew under Denys Gillam as part of the Tangmere Wing and then stayed with him as part of 146 Wing through the lead up to the Invasion and then through France, Belgium, Holland and into Germany.

When I arrived at B-3 in the Invasion beachhead to take command of the Squadron they had a hard core of very experienced pilots. Some of the foundation members of the Squadron - Ted Jolleys, Jimmy Kyle, Len Richardson and Gubby Allen were reaching the end of their first Tour of operations. The bulk of the others had learnt operatiponal flying under two very skilful Wing Leaders - Des Scott and Denys Gillam - as part of the Tangmere Typhoon Wing and had then participated in the 6 month build up to the Invasion where they daily attacked heavily defended targets in France - particularly radar stations - and had then given active support to the D-DAY landings.

The end result was a highly professional group of ground attack pilots who were a pleasure to fly with.

I had previously only flown with New Zealand pilots and thought they were something special but my experience with 197 Squadron soon convinced me that high calibre pilots are internayional. 197 Squadron was comprised of CANADIANS - Plamondon, Wakeman, Hall, Reid, Smiley, Jones. AUSTRALIANS - James, Welsh. ENGLISH - Gilbert, Jolleys, Allen, Vance, Rook, Richardson, Lovell, Curwen, Harding, Rumbold, James, Matthews, Oury, Farmiloe. SCOTSMEN - Byrne, Kylie, Ellis. IRISHMEN - Kilpatrick, Mahaffey. WELSHMEN - Price. NEW ZEALANDERS - Necklen, Smith.

When I became better acquainted with them and their flying ability it amazed me that so many of these high class pilots were NCO's so after a short conference with "Adj" Whitear I put 10 of them up for commissions. Everybody told me I couldn't do this and would have to dribble them through 2 or 3 at a time but my argument was that they had earned their commissions a long time ago and I was going to fight to the death to get them approved . I must have convinced somebody because they were all approved. By the end of the war seventeen 197 Squadron pilots were decorated.

Allans DFC Cetificate


In the air they just went about their job without any fuss or bother. The targets allocated to us were studied carefully, flak maps assessed, then we worked out our method of attack and went out and demolished the target. Afterwards we would discuss the attack and fine tune our tactics. Targets of any consequence were photographed by the PR Mustangs before and after the attack and confirmed the pilot's reports of the success of the mission.

All the time I was there 197 Squadron remained a bomber Squadron carrying out both dive and low level attacks. Our preference was for low level using 11-second delay bombs and on these missions we had a 100% success rate because we worked out a technique that made it almost impossible to miss the target. Using stereo pair photographs of the target we would work out an approach route that took us in below the height of the target building and would release our bombs at the last possible moment that would enable the aircraft to clear the building. Using this method the bombs had nowhere else to go but into the side of the building.

On free ranging operations such as Armed Recces the pilots would select their own targets and attacked them with an enthusiasm and determination that earned them the respect of the Wing. Flak - sometimes very intense - was always a problem but I never saw it deter them from pressing home their attacks.

They were a supportive group of pilots. Anyone in trouble was sheilded and protected - if any of the section leaders were shot down somebody stepped in to take his place and the operation proceeded according to plan. New pilots on the Squadron (some with very few flying hours and no operational experience) were made welcome and nursed along on their early operations. If they survived the first week their chances improved dramatically.

We had our share of "mavericks" and "wild ones" and while some of these caused problems on the ground in the air they all got on with the job and some of the "problem children" were the best people to have alongside you when the going got tough on a difficult mission.

[ An example ] I knew "Jacko" Holmes well because he was CO of 197 Squadron at Tangmere and was quite a character. One particular memory is a Xmas party when the boys had quite a bit to drink and decided to have a race around the perimeter track in their cars. They filled the radiators up with beer and away they went. What they didn't know until later was that Jacko was down at the 197 dispersal firing at each car with his revolver as they went past. Luckily he had also had been drinking and his aim was not too good.

When the Wing started bombing Jacko was the only pilot that had any previous experience of bombing and he gave us the gen on how to go about it. Jacko was killed shortly after Des Scott left Tangmere. If I remember correctly he blew up in midair - it was a trip that I was not on.

Once flying was over for the the day they all went their different ways - some had a quiet drink and discussed the day's flying - some wrote letters home. If we were near civilisation others hit town and really lived it up. Whatever course they chose they had my support - each pilot had done a mighty job during the day and by the end of the week some of them would be dead.

My Jeep was always available to them and featured in a few incidents. On one occasion they got the gears tangled up and reversed the jeep clean through the wall of a house. Another time they were following the tram lines home and finished up in the tram depot at Antwerp. When they decided to move some of the trams they cut the power off from a large part of Antwerp.

I didn't mind what they did at night as long as they were ready and fit for flying the next morning.


Allans & Irene at his side at the investiture from the hands of the Governor General of New Zealand after being away from home for 5 years.


Behind these pilots were two people who played a major part in their lives. The Adjutant - Victor Whitear and the Doctor - Ken Horn. "Adj" Whitear was a very straight-laced conservative person and at first he was horrified by the way the boys conducted themselves when they let off steam and by some of the language they used. As he got to know them better and saw the job they were doing day after day in the air he came to love them as though they were his own sons and mothered them like a clucky hen. He has since died but I saw him after the war and his affection for the pilots was undiminished and he told me his time with 197 Squadron was the greatest experience of his life.

Doc Horn had been with 197 Squadron since its foundation. I knew him from Tangmere days and was very pleased to see him still on the Squadron. The Doctor on a front line ground attack Squadron has a key role to play. The pilots are flying up to four missions a day, always in a hail of flak and on many occasions they see their best friends shot down. The enemies are fatigue and stress. Ken Horn was deeply involved in the Squadron and played his role to perfection. Quiet, unobstusive, always available and ready to listen he kept an eye on each pilot without them ever knowing they were under observation. The pilot who used to worry us most was the one who could not relax at the end of the day but stayed under tension worrying about the next day's missions.

The way to beat stress was to live one day at a time, worry about things when they happened and then unwind at the end of the day.

"Adj" Whitear and "Doc" Horn were pure gold and the 197 piolts were very fortunate indeed to have two such concerned and competent people running interference for them.

Back of any Squadron and making everything possible are the ground crew and 197 Squadron was no exception. Under "Chiefy" Adcock we were blessed with highly competent and dedicated personnel who "bust their gut" to keep the planes serviceable, often in atrocious conditions and they refuelled and rearmed us in record times. They received very little public recognition and on many occasions at B-3 and Antwerp came under shellfire and attack from the air.

....
Both the ME-163 and the Me-262 used to sit up high above us while we were going about our business of dive and low level bombing and every now and then would make a dive down to attack us. They were no problem as long as you knew they were there and saw them coming. All you had to do was wait until they were committed to their attack and just as they were ready to fire turn hard into their attack and they had so much speed that they couldn't turn with you and they would abandon the attack and rocket up again and wait for another potential victim.

One of my friends Warren Shrader who was on my course in Canada was made CO of 616 Squadron (the first Meteor Squadron) in the last few weeks of the war in an attempt to get the Squadron to shoot down an enemy aircraft before the war ended but they were unsuccessful. After the war Warren was on a German aerodrome which had a number of 262s and he persuaded a German pilot to show him how to fly it. Everything went well until it came to landing and something went wrong and he damaged the 262.



197 Squadron have a very proud record of achievment and I feel very privileged to have flown with them.

This a rather poor photograph of a painting done for me by Maurice Conly the offcial artist for the RNZAF showing me leading the attack on the German 15th Army HQ in OV - I for Irene.
The painting hangs in my study and the caption on the photo reads:
October 24th 1944 - 10.10am. Squadron Leader Allan Smith, DFC RNZAF leading the low level attack by 197 Squadron which started a five Squadron assault by 146 Typhoon Wing on the German 15th Army Headquarters at Dordrecht, Holland. The Headquarters building was reduced to rubble.


SHOT DOWN - POW December 31st 1944 to May 9th 1945.
Allan: "Several years ago the then President of the NZ Fighter Pilots Assn asked me to write a paper about my experiences as a POW. His idea was that the pilots who had never been shot down would like to know what would have happened if they had have been shot down and captured. I was a bit reluctant as I was only a POW for a short time but finally agreed.

Ground attack work on a Typhoon Squadron was not a very healthy occupation and as I was being hit regularly by flak, I felt it inevitable that sooner or later I would be shot down but had never seriously considered the possibility of being a prisoner of war

Luckily we had a talk at Antwerp (where 197 Squadron was stationed as part of 146 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force from October 1944 to March 1945) during December by the British Officer whose job it was to interrogate the German pilots and whose advice was very simple. The moment you say anything when being interogated you are finished - the only way was to be polite and answer every question with your name rank and number. I followed this advice and it proved to be difficult but effective.

Commenting on Log Book - 27. Dec 6 to Dec 11 I was flying from Fairwood Common as part of the bombing course that we had been sent on. Also see I made a brief visit to the Gloster Aircraft Co at Brockworth to see my friends there.

December 11th we made our way back to Antwerp stopping on the way to refuel at Manston and once again we were back in the middle of the action.

My log book shows an interdiction trip on December 13th and I made no more entries prior to my being shot down on December 31st - guess I must have been busy. Somebody else wrote in the rest of the entries but they seem to have missed out the week from December 14th to December 21st.

December 23rd I was leading a 5 Squadron long range fighter sweep over the Ruhr which turned out to be a very cumbersome formation.

December 31st turned out to be my last flight with 197 Squadron. I was just coming to the end of my second tour of operations having flown over 400 missions and was feeling a little tired. On December 31st I got out of bed and went down to the Operations Caravan to see what was scheduled for the day and found the target - a bridge at Culemborg, south-east of Utrecht. This was too good for me to resist.

This is a larger scale map which shows the target area and the crash site in more detail.
Bridges were a favourite target for 197 Squadron and we had built up a good success record. We had developed a technique of attacking them with 11-second delay 1000 pounders, going in low level in a shallow dive of approximately 30 degrees and trying to dig the bombs in from the four angles where the bridge joins the river bank. The other half of the Squadron would then dive bomb and this usually finished the bridge off.

This particular attack was to be made by 193 Squadron led by Wing Commander Johnny Wells with 197 Squadron led by myself doing the low level attack. If my memory is correct I think Group Captain Gillam also came along for the ride.

The weather was terrible - very cold - about 9/10ths cloud at 8000feet with the ground covered in snow. I was doing the navigation which was difficult because we were flying above the cloud to keep out of the light flak and the odd glimpses I could get of the ground were not very helpful because any landmarks were blotted out by snow.


Myself having a rest in the operations caravan at Antwerp. I didn't know my legs were so long until I had a look at this photo.

[ Flying from Antwerp on 31st December Alan was hit in the radiator by heavy flak (88mm) while crossing the river Maas on the way to make a low level attack on a bridge at Culemborg which was south east of Utrecht. ]

Alan: "I flew on a compass course but knew the area very well by then and was able to get a pinpoint as we crossed the River Maas. At this stage the heavy flak started to work us over and we started to weave and change height to make it harder for them. I felt a crack (88MM Flak) and then saw white puffs of smoke coming from my exhausts. I figured I had been hit in the glycol and called up on the R/T to say I had been hit and would be forced landing soon. I was determined to lead the formation to the target and attack the bridge. The Army had assigned this target as a "destroy at all costs"so I knew it to be important.

Shortly afterwards we went down through the cloud and although the flak became more intense I was able to pinpoint myself and navigate accurately right up to the bribge. I knew I was running out of time so my No2 "Cobber" James, an Australian and I went right into the attack and put our bombs right on target. I had pulled up to about 600 feet when my motor cut. With not enough height to bale out I was faced with a crash landing so told "Cobber" that I was going down then looked round for a suitable place to land.



Once you are hit critically the first decision is whether to bale out or crash land. In my case I did not have enough height to bale out but was able to crash land successfully.
Herwin Philippi the young Dutchman ( he was 28 when he first contacted me in 1988) who located the crash site of my Typhoon in Holland using information contained in his grandfather's diary.

Bridges were a favourite target for 197 Squadron and we had built up a good success record. We had developed a technique of attacking them with 11-second delay 1000 pounders, going in low level in a shallow dive of approximately 30 degrees and trying to dig the bombs in from the four angles where the bridge joins the river bank. The other half of the Squadron would then dive bomb and this usually finished the bridge off. This particular attack was to be made by 193 Squadron led by Wing Commander Johnny Wells with 197 Squadron led by myself doing the low level attack. If my memory is correct I think Group Captain Gillam also came along for the ride. The weather was terrible - very cold - about 9/10ths cloud at 8000feet with the ground covered in snow. I was doing the navigation which was difficult because we were flying above the cloud to keep out of the light flak and the odd glimpses I could get of the ground were not very helpful because any landmarks were blotted out by snow. I flew on a compass course but knew the area very well by then and was able to get a pinpoint as we crossed the River Maas. At this stage the heavy flak started to work us over and we started to weave and change height to make it harder for them. I felt a crack and then saw white puffs of smoke coming from my exhausts. I figured I had been hit in the glycol and called up on the R/T to say I had been hit and would be forced landing soon. I was determined to lead the formation to the target and attack the bridge. The Army had assigned this target as a "destroy at all costs"so I knew it to be important. Shortly afterwards we went down through the cloud and although the flak became more intense I was able to pinpoint myself and navigate accurately right up to the bribge. I knew I was running out of time so my No2 "Cobber" James, an Australian and I went right into the attack and put our bombs right on target. I had pulled up to about 600 feet when my motor cut. With not enough height to bale out I was faced with a crash landing so told "Cobber" that I was going down then looked round for a suitable place to land. It was difficult to make a decision because the ground was all white and beneath the snow would be canals and irrigation ditches. I didn't have too much time to discuss it with myself because the Typhoon had a fairly steep glide path without an engine. I decided to land parallel to the irrigation ditches - found a suitable paddock clear of trees and came over the fence at about 150mph, levelled off (wheels up) about five feet above the ground and then dug the nose in. It couldn't have been better and I was skidding along the surface starting to undo my straps so that I could get out in a hurry when I realised that I wasn't slowing up - the ground was frozen solid and I was going along like a toboggan ! I saw I was going to hit the far fence so did my straps up again and waited for the impact. The Typhoon hit the fence, went up a bank, knocked down a couple of telegraph poles, skidded across a road, down the far bank and then set off across the next field which turned out to be a frozen lake. It broke the ice and then started to sink. I scrambled out onto the wing and dived onto the ice before the Typhoon sank and took off at high speed towards the nearest shelter hiding my maps in a frozen potato mound on the way. I will always be grateful to my No2 "Cobber" James who dived down through the flak to see how I was getting on. He saw me get out of the plane and run away so was able to relay this information to my wife. I was well on the way to some friendly looking woods when bullets started going past my ears and shortly afterwards I was taken prisoner by some Luftwaffe anti-aircraft personnel. The episode ended on a humorous note. We had to walk through a small Dutch village and I was having difficulty walking on the ice in my flying boots. The German guards were helping me keep upright but when I saw the villagers I pushed the guards away, held my head up high and pushed out my chest to let the Dutch know that the Allies would be along soon. I had only taken a few steps when I slipped on the ice and fell on my backside to be helped to my feet by the smiling Germans. Truly, pride comes before a fall ! My aircraft finally stopped on a small frozen lake, broke the ice and started to sink so I didn't have to worry about destroying my aircraft. My next problem was to avoid capture. I set off at great speed for a small wood, slipping and sliding on the ice but was only 2/3rds of the way there when I heard the sound of bullets going past my ears and was captured by personnel from a flak unit not far from the bridge we had attacked.

I can still remember the feeling of relief that I was still alive and undamaged and now had a reasonable chance of surviving the war. I was also very interested to meet the enemy in person for the first time.

My first stop was the Officer's Mess of the flak battery. They still had their Christmas tree up, offered me drinks and cigarettes and were very friendly. However officialdom arrived during the afternoon and I was placed in a cell and introduced to sauerkraut (pickled cabbage) for the first time.

The next move was to a civil prison in Utrecht where I was assigned two World War 1 soldiers as my escort and we started the rail journey to Germany.The first leg from Utrecht to Zwolle was along a line well known to Typhoon pilots but as the weather was bad there was no attack on our train.

I stayed overnight in a civil prison in Zwolle and made friends with a little mouse who shared my palliasse on the floor with me. I remember thinking that he was about the only friend I had at that stage. Next we worked our way down through the Ruhr by rail to the interrogation centre at Frankfurt.

On the way down there were a couple of incidents at a small town called Bad Homberg. Firstly I had a battle with a German Major and his wife as to who was going to occupy the last available table in the station restaurant and just as we were getting that sorted out there was a bombing raid on the town. Next thing my guards told me was that the Hitler Youth (nasty looking characters in khaki uniforms with red swastika armbands) were organising a lynching party with me as the central figure ! Happily the guards were able to hide me in the ladie's toilet until the panic was over.

At the interrogation centre we were booked in, photographed and an identity card established (see separate photograph). The individual cells were small and bare containing a wooden bunk but no toilet facilities. To use the toilet you had to activate a lever system which nobody answered for about 4 hours so you learnt to signal well in advance. The food was ersatz bread and thin watery soup.

No medical attention was available for wounded POWs. The interrogator would use this by saying that medical attention would be immediately available as soon as the wounded prisoner established his identity by giving the all the information they required. There was an American in the next cell from me for a while who had been shot down on his first mission and badly wounded.They would not give him any medical help and gave him a hard time. He tracked me down many years after the war through a POW magazine to thank me for the moral support I gave him to help him through this difficult period.

The interrogation period started on a friendly basis with coffee, drinks and cigarettes offered. When that didn't work they started to tell you information they already knew to try and sell you the idea that there was no point in withholding information because they knew it all already

If no progress was made the nature of the interrogation changed and they started to threaten. The usual line was that even though you were in uniform you could easily be a spy. They argued that you had to give them all the information they required to establish your identity or they would hand you over to the Gestapo. They kept peddling the line that until they advised the Red Cross you were not officially a POW and at this stage they could do what they liked with you and you could disappear without trace.

I could not afford to talk as for some time we had been working with the Dutch underground movement attacking German HQ's On these raids I had led the low level attacks and my aircraft would have been clearly identified. Luckily my usual aircraft OV-I had been hit by flak and when I was shot down I was flying a replacement aircraft which had just arrived and had no squadron markings.

I followed the advice of the British interrogator and answered all questions politely with my name rank and number. This went on for several days with the interrogator becoming increasingly excitable and aggressive. All the pressure was mental and there was no suggestion of torture. The only physical part was being rifle butted to the interrogation room and back.I just dug my toes in and refused to yield to pressure.

Right through the period I was at Frankfurt I was subjected to the hot and cold treatment in my cell. This amounted to the heat being turned up to an almost unbelievable level then after a period the heat was turned off and the wooden window shutters opened to let in the freezing cold (it was a bad winter). When you were almost blue with cold the procedure was repeated.

I was then placed in solitary confinement for 14 days and when a further interrogation made no progress they finally gave up and sent me off to my first POW camp at Nuremburg. Rather to my surprise valuables including my gold wedding ring were returned to me as we left the interrogation centre. I will never forget the German got my cell number - ein und zwanzig ! (21).

A few Red Cross parcels were issued for the train journey and I finished up with some milk powder which I decided to mix with some snow in the hope of making some form of ice cream - a decision that was going to start a lengthy period of dysentry which would come close to costing me my life. On arrival at Nuremberg we were marched through the centre of the town and stoned by the local populace. It was hard to blame them because they were being bombed night and day.

As my back and knee improved Tom Wilson and I were able to make better progress and without realising it we bypassed and got ahead of the main march finally arriving at the river Danube which was anything but blue ! The bridge across was guarded by some very nasty looking Hungarian SS so rather than risk being shot and thrown into the river we decided to wait on the northern bank for the march to catch up with us and cross the river with them.

Once we rejoined the march I resumed my position in charge of the English block and the march continued until we reached our new camp at Moosberg just north of Munich. We finally arrived at Moosberg just after dark one evening and they sat us down in a large compound to await proceesiing the following morning. I was very tired and went to sleep on the hard ground for a while. Later as my night vision improved I saw some figures sitting nearby and spoke to one of them. Much to my amazement he turned out to be Trevor Harvey who before the war lived about six houses away from me in Marsden Avenue, Auckland.

Next day we were processed into barracks and were back on our POW ration of soup and 1/7th of a loaf of bread.Later there spasmodic rations of Red Cross parcels. Tom Wilson and I received a Scottish parcel between us. We studied it for a while and finally decided to have a meal of porridge and condensed milk. I can still remember lying on my back in the sun with my first full belly for some months.

The ex-Sagan POWs kept in touch with the UK by radio and there was a bad moment when Hitler announced that he was going to kill all the RAF pilots. We were advised that arrangements were being made to drop Commandos to release the POWs when Hitler changed his mind.

As both the Eastern and Western fronts advanced into Germany more and more POWs were squeezed into the middle and the population of the Moosberg camp continued to build up including some Army personnel that I used to play cricket with back in Auckland. As the American Army approached Moosberg it seemed likely that the frontline would roll right over the camp. However there was a local ceasefire and following a meeting between the German Army, the Camp Commandant and the U.S.Army a decision was made to declare the POW camp neutral ground.

On April 29th - (my first Wedding Anniversary) - General Patton burst through the perimeter wire sitting on top of a tank, a pearl handled revolver on each hip. He greeted us in his high pitched voice and promised to have us out of the camp in 48 hours. This was followed by visits by U.S. politicians and the Army set up field kitchens and supplied us with white bread which tasted to us like cake.

On May 8th (VE-Day) everything was organised and we were transported to Landshut aerodrome, north of Munich to be flown back to the UK. It was a beautifully fine day and we sat around the perimeter of the airfield while the transport planes flew in during the day. After lunch the landings started to get disrupted by German pilots flying in in light aircraft who had decided they would rather surrender to the Americans than the Russians.

As dusk approached these German aircraft started to block off the transport planes from landing and the Americans fired warning flares but the German aircraft took no notice and continued landing. Finally the Americans decided to shoot them down and we were treated to a spectacular anti-aircraft display with light aircraft falling from the sky in all directions.

We slept overnight on the airfield and the next day started the long flight back to the UK. The first part of the journey was by Dakota from Landshut to Rheims where we were greeted by Air Vice Marshal Tedder. The next leg was by Lancaster from Rheims to Westcott in England. The Lancaster was very noisy and uncomfortable but we were happy because we were heading in the right direction.

At Westcott we received an unexpected reception. As we came off the aircraft we were bundled into a corner of a large hangar and deloused by the simple process of covering us with a white powder which was pumped all over us - in our hair - down our necks.This took us by surprise and was rather different to the welcome we expected but it made sense. I had been in the same clothes for four and a half months, my hair had not been cut for 6 months and I had shaved off a full beard shortly after being released by the Americans. We must have smelt to high heaven and looked an odd bunch to the reception committee but we had grown used to each other and didn't notice ourselves.

Eventually we were cleaned up, medically examined, fed, re-kitted and released on leave. I had a very happy reunion with my wife.

It was very hard for me to re-adjust after my short period as a POW. How the people who had been POWs for a lengthy periods re-adjusted I will never know. I learnt a lot about myself and about other people both of which proved invaluable in my subsequent business career.


Allans award of a Bar to his DFC..the equivalent of a second award.


I never did see it (the flying / war )as a game. To me it was a serious professional business and I gave it my best shot. I am very determined and once I lock onto a target I am very difficult to stop. I only failed to destroy two targets - both bridges but got them both on the second attempt. I don't think anybody really appreciates the freedom they enjoy until they lose it.

That's the end of the saga covering a five year period and hope it has been of interest


This photo was taken at one of the many functions we attended when the Typhoon pilots were invited to Normandy by the French Government in 1987. 120 pilots were there together with members of the Resistance, Government representatives and the local Mayors and their wives.

Events started with a champagne party at Ouisteram where we landed and never stopped for the next three days. We moved from village to village and all the flags and the local bands were out. Some of the luncheons had 17 courses and lasted for ever and the local wines and calvados flowed freely.There were special functions at the Caen Museum and also at the Bayeux Museum where a full size model of a Typhoon is suspended from the ceiling.

As soon as they knew you were a Typhoon pilot the town was yours.

..
This is a photo of Irene and I in London after my return from POW camp.
You can see we were not too happy with each other. Irene had taken a long time to get ready and we had missed the Portsmouth - London train by about a minute and had to wait an hour at the station for the next train. Still she was holding on to my arm which was a good sign.

This photo shows myself (on the left) and Irene's brother Ken relaxing in the sun at Portsmouth after I returned from Germany.

You will notice the Anderson bomb shelter behind Ken. Ken slept every night in this shelter during the early part of the war when Portsmouth was being blitzed and as a result of the damp concrete when the shelter was first built he contracted TB. He spent some time in the sanitorium on the Isle of Wight and died not too long after the end of the war.

POST WAR

Allan: "I flew 418 missions. I was hit by flak on many occasions but never wounded. I returned to New Zealand by ship and no doubt would have been posted to operational flying in the Pacific but the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan during that voyage.

After the war I went back to work with the Company that employed me prior to the war. I started with them in 1937 and attended the Auckland University at night finally graduating as a Bachelor of Commerce in 1940. The Company was the New Zealand subsidiary of the American Meat Packer - Wilson & Co. I was made General Manager of the New Zealand operations in 1955 and retained this position until I retired in 1987.

I stared flying again in 1968 and obtained my Private Pilot's Licence flying Cessnas but gave it up in 1969 after realising that civil flying was very different to wartime flying.

Allan and Irene


If I had not gone to the war my career path would have been similar but I doubt if it would have been so successful. The war service taught me a lot about myself and other people and gave me a chance to measure myself against other people while under pressure. I finished up with a quiet confidence in my own ability.

I see from my records that another 400 Typhoons and their pilots were to "bite the dust" between that date and the end of the war on May 8th. We had a number of Canadian pilots on 197 Squadron and unfortunately lost the lot although thankfully some turned up as POWs.

Most of the losses were by flak which was lethal in the area between zero and 6000 feet particularly when you were in the target area. I told you in a previous posting that one of my pilots Derek Lovell flew 100 missions with 197 Sqadron without once being hit by flak which is almost unbelievable. By the way Derek's family gave him his own website for his 80th birthday which you can find under 197 Squadron and this is best sourced through google On this website Derek gives a detailed description of an operation in which we both participated titled "Just another Op" which is very interesting and well worth a read.

I wish that I had had Derek's lucky charm because I was hit on the average every 7th mission. Once you hear an explosion or a dull clunk the next thing is where and how badly. If you are still in the middle of the attack you have to finish that before you can assess the damage. Once away from the target area you can get to work. The wings and the area forward of the cockpit you can see - if you are streaming smoke your No2 will tell you - if the controls are damaged the plane will tell you and the instruments also have a story to tell. Of course if you are on fire you will soon know about it and if the engine stops you don't need anybody to tell you anything.

The six months I had as a Test Pilot at Gloster Aircroft Co was a big help nursing damaged aircraft safely back to base and I was able to use this knowledge to give guidance to other members of the Squadron when they had been damaged by flak and were having problems. In some cases I took them to the first available airfield. With regrets I have to report that Alan and his Irene have both passed on. Two people who enjoyed a long and extrordinary life and experience together.

E-Mail Me @ worldwar2mem@yahoo.com


Copyright © Ken Arnold 1999. All rights reserved. A Few Links & Credits

This profile is a compilation of answers to questions posed by many people on the Yahoo group Royal Wings during 2001 & 2002 and Alans responses to questions posed by the author in JAnuary and February 2003. Mr. Smith gratiously provided many period photos and examples of his citations to me as well to the group. The majority of these were kindly provided to me by Gianmaria Spagnoletti who has a web site on the Ghedi Aerodrome.

Excerpts from the POW story were also published in the story of 486 squadron under the title The Wild Wings" which was the history of 486(NZ) Squadron.
Ross McNeill'S EXTENSIVE RAF COMMANDS WEB SITE

Welcome to the New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum

Malcolm Barrass site - Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organisation source of colour plates



BACK TO THE MAIN INDEX WWII MEMORIES PAGE


The 486 Squadron's motto was Hiwa Hau Maka which is the Maori for Beware of the Wild Winds. The motto is explained by the fact that the planes the Squadron flew were Hurricanes Typhoons and Tempests. expnanation courtesy Alan Smith.

---

This page hosted by
Get your own Free Home Page