Harder than it seemed!

Gp Capt Peter Townsend (L 1928) knew there were lots!

Well, I thought it would be easy and it has not been. I thought I could do better and I have not. My plan, during the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, was to put the published list of the "Few" against the Haileybury Register and come up with a definitive list of the "Few OHs". I thought I could beat RL Ashcroft who, being a Housemaster of Lawrence published the list of those from that House. I thought I could do better than Andrew Hambling who, in his Haileybury in Two World Wars simply repeats RLA's list and adds in a few anecdotes. But it has turned out to be a harder task than it seems. There are just so many - even the few were actually quite a lot and there are masses of OHs. I have got to "D" and found five or six to add to the list. I still hope to get finished, but not even I can claim it is still summer, and reluctantly I have turned on the heating in church and admit I have not got the task done.

Battle of Britain 2

On July 26 1930 JWC More (Th 24) passed out of Cranwell with, among others, Douglas Bader.  He died in 1944 as a Japanese Prisoner of War on a transport and is commemorated on column 431 of the Singapore Memorial. Fighting in France in 1940 he shared in shooting down a Heinkel 111. During the Battle of Britain he was in Leigh Mallory's 12 Group, Commanding 73 Squadron engaged in night fighting.

In Random Recollections RL Ashcroft states that More made the "pioneer deck landing (on the Courageous)." This cannot mean the first ever landing by an aircraft onto a ship. It may mean that More was involved in the trials in 1939 in which Spitfires without arrestor hooks were landed on HMS Courageous. This proved that it would be possible for the Fleet Air Arm to be equipped with better aircraft. The narrow undercarriage of the Spitfire made landing and take off especially difficult unless perfectly executed (operationally there were problems as they could not be lowered to the hangars of many of the carriers because of the wingspan). Nevertheless the experiments led to the development of the Seafire, the naval variant of the Spitfire.

The courage involved in landing a Spitfire with its narrow undercarriage and with no arrestor hook onto a moving ship is not to be underestimated.

The Few and the Many

There is talk this 70th summer since the Battle of Britain of a memorial to the Spitfire. The Hurricane, more numerous and chalking up more victories never caught the public's imagination in the same way. The last Hurricane built is flown by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and is known as "The last of the Many."

One of the Few - the fighter pilots who fought above Southern England in the Summer of 1940 - was Sqn Leader Peter Townsend, (L 1928.1) officer commanding 85 Squadron. He later became very well known through his association with Princess Margaret. Here he is seen clambering into his Hurricane during the Battle.

The picture is from the site of the Cambridge Bomber and Fighter Society which collects a number of memories of Peter Townsend which is well worth a visit.

The following text is from this site:

Peter Townsend was posted from 43 Squadron to 85 Squadron in May 1940 to take command at Debden and to proceed with the task of reforming the squadron and bringing it up to operational efficiency. Townsend did many operational sorties and one timely escape from a canon shell which went through glycol tank and exploded in the cockpit, injuring his left foot. He survived the Battle of Britain and was doing operational duties as a night fighter. Later on, 17 July 1941, he married Rosemary and the reception was held at the Lordship's Pub in Much Hadham, Bishops Stortford. He is well-known for his post-war life when he became equiry to King George VI in 1944 and spent eight years in the royal household. His name became synonymous with the association of Princess Margaret.

Battle of Britain

A vivid memory of school days is of a warm summer term afternoon playing House Thirds cricket on a rough pitch on the edge of Terrace when a sound familiar from films rent the peaceful afternoon air. The Battle of Britain flight came low over the school, turning overhead and heading off. A little while later they came back and a third time! I suppose there must have been an air show at Stanstead or Duxford and were using Haileybury as a land-mark.

The 10th of July was afterwards arbitrarily chosen by Sir Hugh Dowding as the opening day of what became known as the Battle of Britain, so the seventieth anniversary of that long, hot, desperate Summer is marked now. Duxford was the HQ of 12 Group, commanded by Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory (M 1906), covering the area North of London. Sir Hugh Park's 11 Group covering London and the South East bore the brunt of the Battle, and relations between Leigh-Mallory and Park were soured by the former's advocacy with Douglas Bader of the tactic known as the 'Big Wing', massing fighters in large numbers. The Big Wing seemed to reduce casualties, but Park complained that the formations were often late to arrive and in the wrong place when they did.

Leigh-Mallory won the arguments at the time, but the verdict of history has been less swift to agree with him. Although the centre of a feud with other senior air commanders, Leigh-Mallory was noted for his knowledge of the army and specialism in co-ordinating ground and air forces, a skill which was instrumental in winning him appointment as Air Officer Commanding the Allied Expeditionary Air Force, the most senior air officer for D Day and the Battle of Normandy.

Leigh-Mallory was killed when his plane crashed in late 1944, one of the most senior British officers to be killed in the war.

Meeting in February 1944 of the commanders of the Allied Expeditionary Force, London, February 1944. Front row, left to right: Arthur Tedder (deputy commander), Dwight D. Eisenhower (supreme commander), Bernard Montgomery (Twenty-first Army Group). Back row, left to right: Omar Bradley (U.S. First Army), Bertram Ramsay (Allied Naval Expeditionary Force), Trafford Leigh-Mallory (Allied Expeditionary Air Forces), and Walter Bedell Smith (chief of staff).