They Spread Their Wings (16 page)

Meanwhile, back at Gatwick, there were no more ‘war games’. On 17 April No 183 Squadron’s war began for real. Ten Typhoons were bombed up and detached to RAF Ford on the Sussex coast for the first operation against a German target across the Channel, but bad weather delayed the operation until the 19th. Take-off was 07.50 and the target was the power station at Yainville, on a prominent bend in the River Seine west of Rouen. Eight Typhoons would make the attack, four armed with 250lb general-purpose (GP) bombs – these aircraft were now being referred to as ‘Bombphoons’ – and four Typhoons would act as close cover with their cannon only. The No 183 Squadron formation was escorted to and from the target by No IX (Spitfire) Wing from Kenley, led by the illustrious Wg Cdr J.E. ‘Johnnie’ Johnson. The attack went reasonably well, with the bombers diving at the target from the direction of the nearby town of Duclair and scoring near misses. They made their escape at low level. Two of the escorting Typhoons had a crack with their cannon at a train, while Walter Dring, during his one-hour sortie in DN273, attacked and damaged an army truck. No more offensive operations were mounted during the rest of April and most of the time was spent on more training sorties.

One of the last events the squadron undertook at Gatwick was to join in the celebrations on 1 May to mark the marriage of Flt Lt Walter Dring to Section Officer Sheila Coggins in Christ Church, Banbury. Most of the squadron were able to get to the ceremony and the subsequent party, the squadron diarist noted: ‘Judging by their appearance next morning, was a bit of a whizzer!’ While Walter and his new bride were on leave, the squadron moved to RAF Lasham, 6 miles south of Basingstoke in Hampshire, on 3 May.

Walter was back with No 183 Squadron on 14 May, just in time to take part in the squadron’s second operational sortie. Led by Sqn Ldr Gowers, the target for eight Bombphoons was Triqueville aerodrome, south-east of the Seine estuary, and Walter Dring flew DN408 on this operation. The weather clamped in on the target and it could not be located, so the pilots dumped their bombs and returned to base. Plt Off Berrisford failed to return from this sortie and became the squadron’s first operational loss. The squadron moved back to Colerne on 30 May but was there less than a week before it was moved to RAF Harrowbeer, 6 miles south of Tavistock in Devon, on 5 June. It was certainly learning about mobility!

A page from Walter Dring’s logbook with a photo of him, his bride Sheila and their wedding party on 1 May 1943 pasted in between bombing sorties. (John & Susan Rowe, Dring Collection)

Four aircraft were bombed up on 15 June and at 05.30 were escorted by eight others for an armed shipping recco. They all returned due to bad weather but had another go at 09.30; this was also aborted. The weather improved so they were airborne again at 17.00, but since no target was kind enough to present itself they brought the bombs back to base. It was much the same result when four Bombphoons went looking for shipping the following day, but they dumped their bombs before returning to base.

Walter Dring scheduled a Bombphoon Rhubarb sortie for himself and Polish Fg Off Eugeniusz ‘Gott’ Gottowt on the morning of 17 June, but they had to abandon it when they reached the Sept-Îles off the north coast of Brittany because of insufficient cloud cover. Gottowt had to make a wheels-up landing back at Harrowbeer but he was uninjured. Walter and Gott tried again on the 19th with a bit more success. Making landfall on the Brest peninsula, they skirted the Brest balloon barrage and found two merchant ships anchored in the Goulet. They attacked both vessels in turn at mast-top height, scoring very near misses, believing one bomb to have actually struck one of the ships. One of Gott’s bombs failed to release and he was very annoyed that he had to bring it home.

July 1943 saw the Typhoon IBs of No 183 Squadron going out regularly from Harrowbeer on armed shipping recco sorties. These operations involved varying numbers of aircraft but Walter Dring flew always in JP402, which appears to have become ‘his’ aircraft. For example, on 2 July four Bombphoons, each carrying two 250lb GP bombs, set out for the Brittany coast looking for enemy shipping. Two more of the squadron’s Typhoons flew with six from No 193 Squadron which acted as their escort. They flew at sea level to Bréhat, turned west and along the coast to the Sept-Îles, flying at about 3,500ft, 3 miles offshore. Nothing was seen so they all returned to base an hour and a half later. This process was repeated on the 4th, 6th and 8th along the same stretch of the French coast but with the same result – nothing seen to attack.

Yet another movement order was received and on 2 August the squadron was busy packing up to move to RAF Tangmere on the Sussex coast. Walter Dring was given a spot of leave at this point and spent a precious few days with his new wife. He returned to Tangmere on the 8th, when fighter readiness was the pattern for the next couple of weeks, with just a few scrambles to lighten the constant routine of practice flying.

Things hotted up on 16 August, when No 183 Squadron took ten Typhoons, including Walter Dring in JP402, to RAF West Malling in Kent to take part in a Ramrod operation with Nos 197 and 486 Squadrons. Led by Sqn Ldr Gowers, take-off was at 17.10 and No 183 acted as top cover, but this wing operation to the St Pol area was led by Sqn Ldr Desmond Scott of 486 (NZ) Squadron. A number of Fw 190s were seen but were not engaged by No 183 because of the commitment to closely escort the bombers. All of the RAF aircraft returned safely at 18.35.

Next day, in fine weather, the squadron, with Flt Lt Walter Dring in JP368, sent eight aircraft to bomb Poix aerodrome, west of Amiens. Along with Caen-Carpiquet, Poix aerodrome was just about the hottest spot on the Continent for flak at this time. No 183’s aircraft were armed with bombs and were covered by twelve fighters from No 486 Squadron. Take-off was at 12.05 and over the aerodrome they encountered considerable flak. Three aircraft sustained hits during the dive-bombing attacks, but two bombs fell on the runway, while the rest fell among the fuel dumps and parked aircraft. All aircraft returned safely.

The Typhoon wing made a fighter sweep under the command of Sqn Ldr Desmond Scott on the 19th and Walter Dring was flying JP368 with seven other aircraft from No 183. The wing made landfall near Trouville at 6,000ft but ran into 10/10ths cloud, so the wing flew back out to sea, then re-crossed the coast near Caen where the weather was clearer. The Typhoons made a wide orbit around Caen and flew down to Bayeux before re-crossing the coast outbound at 4,500ft near Ouistreham. No enemy aircraft were seen, nor was there any sign of flak during the whole of the sortie.

Walter’s next sortie came on the evening of 31 August when, flying JP402, he was one of eight Bombphoons that set out to attack Monchy-Breton aerodrome. The bombers were escorted by no fewer than eighteen Typhoons from Nos 197 and 486 Squadrons, but the formation ran into 10/10ths cloud at 4,000–6,000ft mid-Channel and as it stretched well inland, the operation was abandoned.

By way of a change, Walter Dring, in JP402, was one of eight Typhoons from 183 and two from 197 that flew a shipping protection sortie over the English Channel on 2 September 1943. The aircraft took off at 15.00 and flew at 1,500ft on a course of 100° until they reached the patrol line some 10 miles off Dungeness. They patrolled from there on a line taking them to 12 miles off Boulogne, with No 197 Squadron’s Typhoons ‘on the deck’ and the 183 boys at 3,000ft. No enemy aircraft appeared and the patrol was back at Tangmere at 17.00.

At 18.00 two days later, Walter, in JP402 again, and nine others of No 183 flew an escort operation to a force of eighteen NA B–25 Mitchell light bombers attacking Boulogne harbour. They made a perfect rendezvous with the bombers and despite encountering heavy, accurate flak the attack went according to plan and everyone returned safely an hour later. No 486 Squadron was also part of the same escorting force and Sqn Ldr Scott recalled: ‘The flak was murderous. When you can hear flak, then you know it is getting close!’

It was back to Bombphoon duty for Walter again on 6 September when he and seven other aircraft, escorted by Typhoons from Nos 197 and 486 Squadrons, dive-bombed the railway marshalling yard at Serquex, near Dieppe. They reckoned 80 per cent of the bombs hit rail tracks and locomotive sheds, at a cost of only one aircraft slightly damaged by light flak. Some aircraft from the other squadrons involved were shot down.

This was the last of the action for Walter in September, but there was always lots of non-op flying going on in the form of air tests, formation, dogfighting and bombing practice; there was no let-up in the quest to keep pilots sharp. The squadron was on the move again, this time to RAF Perranporth, a cliff-top airfield on the north coast of Cornwall. One of the more interesting aspects of this airfield was that if one landed towards the sea and ran out of runway there was no run-off area – just an 80ft sheer drop on to the beach below! With the onset of autumn the weather turned sour and curtailed flying activities.

On 3 October 1943, Flt Lt Walter Dring shot down his own and No 183’s first enemy aircraft. The weather had picked up and Walter, flying his trusty JP402 ‘S’ (now with ‘Sheila’ painted on the cowling), was leading eight Typhoons from No 183 as fighter escort to some Mosquito bombers that were attacking a target at Guerlédan, near Pontivy in central Brittany. Take-off was at 13.05 and No 183 Squadron was to act as forward cover to the Mosquitoes as they left France. While the attack was taking place, the Typhoons swept around the exit route then found the Mosquitoes, which were approaching the coast at 1,000ft. The Typhoons were on the port side and about 1,000ft above the bombers when they were engaged by six enemy aircraft (E/A). Walter’s combat report describes what happened next:

Flt Lt Walter Dring of No 183 Squadron standing on the wing of his Hawker Typhoon, R8884, RAF Gatwick, April 1943. (John & Susan Rowe, Dring Collection)

I was leading Jungle Green section on Ramrod 90 as forward cover to Mosquitoes. We had completed our sweep and were re-crossing the French coast at 6,000 feet, flying above cloud and diving gently to locate the returning bombers. On breaking cloud, I saw the Mosquitoes going west. As we were about to turn in order to form up on them, I saw Blue section being attacked head-on by six E/A, five Fw 190s and one Me 109. They made a zoom attack from the cloud base and climbed back into the cloud base again. Blue section positioned themselves on the port side of the bombers and about 1,000 feet above. I stayed on the starboard side and slightly above. After flying about a mile on a northerly course I saw Blue section being attacked by an E/A. I called Blue section to break and turned port into the attack. I saw an aircraft coming towards and above me. It then pulled into a climb and, in plain view, I clearly recognised it as an Fw 190. I opened fire with a one-second burst from 350 yards range with full deflection. The Fw 190 continued his climbing turn to starboard, enabling me to close in to line astern at about 500 feet altitude. I gave him 3 one-second bursts, closing from 300 to 150 yards as I did so. The final burst was a no-deflection burst in dead line astern. I saw what looked like black oil pouring from the aircraft. I then broke off my attack, as I knew there were more enemy aircraft behind. Suddenly I saw the Fw 190 dive steeply towards the sea and as it was about to hit the water I saw the hood fly off. It hit the sea and disappeared immediately. There was no sign of the pilot and I heard ‘Moocher’ Leader (Sqn Ldr Fokes of 257 Sqn) say that he had seen the E/A go in. I found myself alone and joined up with another Typhoon which proved to be Blue 4 and we returned to base as a section.

Walter Dring’s victory was confirmed as a Fw 190 destroyed for the expenditure of 120 rounds of 20mm cannon ammunition. Post-war research by aviation historian Chris Goss revealed the Luftwaffe aircraft to be Fw 190 A–5, Wk Nr 7288, from II./JG 2, based at Cormeilles airfield and flown by Lt Johann-Heinrich Achenbach.

Fg Off J.E. Mitchell of ‘A’ Flight also claimed a Fw 190 as destroyed and although that was confirmed at the time, post-war research shows it did not actually crash. All in all, it had been a good day for the squadron and a grand celebration was held at The Stork pub that evening where the CO split a prize of £5 – promised for the first E/A destroyed – between Dring and Mitchell.