They Spread Their Wings (13 page)

According to his brother Harold, Walter went to live with another family on the Pinchbeck farm in 1937 because he was such a go-ahead person; this caused arguments with his father who – while being a brilliant businessman – was more for taking his time over things. Walter would not be tied down to conventional ways of doing things, and out on his own he soon proved himself to be both a good farmer and a popular employer.

Throughout 1939, well aware of the world situation, Walter did not like what he saw as aggressive bullying by the Nazi regime. His spirit of fair play and adventure was stirred and he decided he would leave what could have been a secure reserved occupation and volunteer for the RAF. He put in his application and was called – actually the day before his twenty-fourth birthday – to attend No 3 Recruit Centre at RAF Padgate, where he was inducted as an aircraftman in the RAF Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) for training as potential aircrew. Walter wrote later:

It was in the memorable heat of 1940 when the RAF finally decided they could use my body. I had fought hard for a long time to get my release from farming but the Ministry of Labour saw fit to keep me, as food became more problematic. So, while the Spitfire squadrons moved up and down the country, usually flying over my farm, I stood and waved – but my determination to fly increased.

I remember on 4 September 1939, I had rung up my nearest recruiting centre and had been told ‘nothing doing!’ However, after continually arguing, I was called for my medical. During the cold winter of 1939/40 I had skated on the flooded fields of Cowbit Wash. I had danced and played rugger and all the time I was getting restless with people who did not bother about the war. I lost interest in my farm, which would carry on alright and I spent my time brushing up my geometry and getting really fit to pass the required tests when they should arrive.

It was in July 1940 – I remember the men were hoeing sugar beet and the women were weeding – when eventually I received the blue envelope. I was told to report to Padgate on the 13th. I remember going back to the work in hand and telling my men – who seemed dubious of my capabilities of flying! I always had a touch of drama about myself and now saw myself as a young farmer going off to war. It went down fairly well.

Having made this commitment, he was placed on the reserve pool, returning home to await the call to arms. This duly arrived and, leaving his farm in the capable hands of brother Harold, LAC Walter Dring reported for duty at the RAF Receiving Unit in Torquay on 27 September 1940. After two weeks of induction he was posted to No 6 Initial Training Wing (ITW) in Aberystwyth. Here, for the next three months, aspiring pilots and observers were taught the necessities of service life and the basics of, in Walter’s case, pilot ground school training. His first posting was to No 18 Course at No 22 Elementary Flying Training School (22 EFTS), a unit operated by Marshalls Ltd at Cambridge airfield, where his aptitude for pilot training was first assessed, then – being considered suitable – continued in the DH Tiger Moth. It was on 29 December that he made his first flight in T5634 under the watchful eye of Sgt Smullian who remained his instructor for most of his flying at the school. In quite rapid time, Walter ‘went solo’ in T5634 on 12 January 1941 after just seven hours fifty minutes dual instruction. More intensive training followed until, having accumulated twenty-one hours dual and thirty-two hours solo, and assessed as ‘above average’ as a pupil pilot, he set out by ship on 24 February to Canada for further pilot training. Walter was posted to No 31 Service Flying Training School (SFTS) located at Collins Bay, near Kingston, Ontario, from 11 March 1941. This unit was part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) and while Walter was there, he operated the Fairey Battle as a trainer. Walter went solo in Battle (T) R7471 on 25 April, recalling: ‘Forgot the undercart until I was on final approach!’ Five months later, now with 140 hours in his logbook, having scored top marks both in dive-bombing (a portent of his future?) and in his final exam, he was awarded his ‘Wings’ as a ‘single-engine’ pilot. Walter was posted back to England, arriving at No 3 Personnel Reception Centre, Bournemouth, on 21 August to await his next duty.

LAC Walter Dring on the ice-encrusted deck of the ship taking him to Canada, February 1941. (John & Susan Rowe, Dring Collection)

LAC Dring climbs into the cockpit of a Fairey Battle Trainer at No 31 SFTS Collins Bay, Canada, April 1941. (John & Susan Rowe, Dring Collection)

By July 1941, having successfully completed his pilot training and been promoted to temporary sergeant, in August Walter was commissioned as a pilot officer and selected for operational service on single-engine fighters. On 27 August this saw him reporting to No 11 Course at No 58 Operational Training Unit (58 OTU), a day-fighter training unit equipped with the Supermarine Spitfire based at Grangemouth, near Falkirk in Scotland. Following a few hours dual in a Miles Master, he was allowed to go solo in a Spitfire for the first time, taking up P9543 for an hour, after which he wrote in his logbook: ‘absolutely the cat’s whiskers.’ Over the next six weeks Walter practised hard in the Spitfire, carrying out circuits and landings, navigation and formation exercises, air gunnery, aerobatics and instrument flying until, on 6 October 1941, assessed as ‘above average’, he was posted to his first operational squadron, No 56 (Punjab) Squadron at RAF Duxford.

When he joined the squadron it was commanded by ace Battle of France veteran Sqn Ldr Peter ‘Prosser’ Hanks DFC and currently using the Hawker Hurricane IIB, but it was in the process of re-equipping with the Hawker Typhoon IA. It was on 27 October that Walter Dring made his first flight with the squadron, a sector recco (reconnaissance) in Hurricane II, Z3082 – ‘bags of panic!’ After that it was mostly a daily routine of familiarisation with the new Typhoon and – when there were enough serviceable aircraft – flying practice interceptions. Failing that, the pilots fell back on the trusty Hurricane to keep their hand in and Walter, a member of ‘A’ Flight, only made his first flight in a Typhoon (R7597) on 10 December 1941.

No 11 Course, No 58 OTU, RAF Grangemouth; Plt Off Dring is seated third from the left on the front row, September 1941. (John & Susan Rowe, Dring Collection)

The Hawker Typhoon was being rushed into service in an effort to counter a new German fighter: the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. In September 1941, No 56 was the first squadron to receive Typhoons, but such were the problems encountered that the squadron was not declared fully operational until 30 May 1942, nine months after receiving its first aircraft. It was with the Typhoon, though, that Walter Dring would remain associated for the whole of his operational RAF career and indeed would emerge as one of the leading exponents of Typhoon tactics during the next three years. Initially, No 56 was equipped with the Typhoon IA, such as R7586, R7589, R7591 and R7641, the version fitted with twelve. 303in Browning machine guns, but this model was soon superseded by the Typhoon IB, which was armed with four 20mm cannon. For a time the squadron operated a mixture of Typhoons and Hurricanes because low serviceability caused by problems with the former meant the latter were needed to fulfil the squadron’s readiness commitments.

Conceived as a medium- to high-level interceptor to replace the Hurricane, when it was found that the Typhoon’s Napier Sabre engine and its thick wing section produced a disappointing rate of climb and poor manoeuvring performance at altitudes above 18,000ft – coupled with the catalogue of teething problems – there was some talk about withdrawing it from service altogether. Even though more and more squadrons were being re-equipped with this aircraft, its real salvation came when experienced squadron commanders, such as No 609’s Roland Beamont, recognised its potential for ground attack and close support fighter-bomber operations. Like Hugh Dundas, of whom we shall hear more later, Beamont was given an opportunity to present his views on the aircraft at a key meeting – where scrapping was indeed a serious item on the agenda. He was tenacious and persuasive in his defence of the Typhoon as a ground attack fighter; indeed to the extent that it was not scrapped. The interceptor role would have to be addressed by the RAF in a different way because from 1943 onwards, the name Typhoon became synonymous with ground attack, a role in which it was supreme and to which, in no small way, Walter Dring contributed in due course.

In December 1941 Prosser Hanks was promoted to wing commander, remaining at Duxford to command the embryonic Duxford Typhoon wing, while command of No 56 Squadron passed to another Battle of Britain ace, Sqn Ldr Hugh ‘Cocky’ Dundas DFC. His job was not only to ensure that the many technical issues were resolved and to bring the squadron to a state of operational readiness, but also to lift the morale of the squadron by raising its pilots’ belief in their aircraft. After his first flight in a Typhoon, Dundas had no hesitation in addressing immediately the poor rear view which, from his combat experience, he saw as a potential pilot killer. In his autobiography
Flying Start
(Stanley Paul, 1988), he wrote:

When I was called upon to give my views I stated simply that if I had been asked to go to war in 1940 and 1941 in an aircraft with similarly restricted rear view I should have been dead long ago. I said that I did not believe that any experienced fighter pilot would disagree with me in stating that the matter must be put right before we were made operational.

His vociferous representations to higher authority were acted upon and the rear end of the ‘car-door’ cockpit was rapidly redesigned and retrofitted by the manufacturers, who subsequently went further by developing a bubble canopy for this aircraft.

Meanwhile, throughout the winter of 1942, the pilots of No 56, including Walter Dring, worked hard with whatever serviceable aircraft they had, but on 20 January the last of their Hurricanes was flown out to RAF High Ercall and the squadron was declared non-operational. It would remain so until they had ironed out all the issues with their Typhoons, something which everyone was keen to do as quickly as possible. In the meantime, it relieved the pilots of the bind of readiness duty.

Severe overnight frost made the airfield surface serviceable on 14 February, allowing a lot of flying practice to be put in. A practice sweep to Hull by eight Typhoons, including that flown by Plt Off Walter Dring, was led by Sqn Ldr Dundas. During February, four of No 56 Squadron’s pilots flew to Brockworth to ferry new Typhoons from the factory to Duxford for eventual use by No 266 Squadron. When the second and third squadrons to be equipped with the Typhoon, Nos 266 and 609, actually moved into Duxford, No 56 moved out to Snailwell on 30 March 1942, from where ‘A’ Flight operated, while ‘B’ Flight used RAF Ludham. No 56 shared Snailwell with No 137 Squadron (Westland Whirlwind) and No 268 (AC) Squadron (NA Mustang I). By the middle of April, with the squadron now entirely equipped at Snailwell with ‘modified’ Mk IB aircraft, the squadron diarist was moved to write: ‘Everyone in a very cheerful mood. The squadron has already done 240 hours of practice flying in Typhoons this month. Serviceability is improving and there are hopes that the squadron will be operational soon.’