They Spread Their Wings (17 page)

Ramrod and Circus operations were being mounted almost daily by the RAF over occupied territory and No 183 Squadron was called upon from time to time to provide high cover to the participating bombers. On 8 October Walter Dring led eight Typhoons as high cover to Boston bombers and their close escort. Take-off from Perranporth was at 14.50 and, setting course from the Lizard, they joined the formation ten minutes later as it crossed the French coast at 18,000ft, east of Ushant. They were over the target of Poulmic at 15.33 and after completion of that action the wing followed the bombers out, crossing the coast at Plouescat, near Roscoff, at 13,000ft. No enemy air activity was seen and everyone returned safely to Perranporth by 16.15. A similar operation was mounted next day as high cover to Mitchells from No 10 Group for Ramrod 92. Walter was flying his usual JP402, one of eight Typhoons from No 183 Squadron. They met up with eight more Typhoons from No 257 Squadron and set course from Start Point to the French coast at Lesneven, west of Morlaix. After cruising around the target area of Brest/Guipavas airfield, for about eight minutes without sighting either the bombers or the enemy, the Typhoons withdrew and flew back to Perranporth.

By 14 October the squadron had moved again, this time to RAF Predannack on the Lizard in Cornwall. The first operation from the new base was an early morning shipping strike mounted that day to the Goulet estuary at Brest. Led by Flt Lt McAdam, three fighters, including Walter in JP402, and four Bombphoons took off from Predannack at 07.23 and flew in formation to the target area. Two small ships were found off Pointe de St Mathieu in the Iroise and Walter and the other two fighters immediately attacked these, raking them with cannon fire. As the fighters broke away, one pair of bombers dived on each ship and scored several near misses with their 250lb bombs. Two Typhoons were slightly damaged by light flak but no one was hurt and all the aircraft were safely back at Predannack by 08.35.

Enemy light flak was by far the biggest menace for a fighter-bomber pilot and it was inevitable that the more sorties one did, the greater the risk was of being hit. Walter Dring’s flying career took another major turn on 24 October as the result of an attack on the blockade runner
Munsterland
, laden with tungsten ore, in Cherbourg harbour. During this one-hour operation No 183 Squadron suffered its most serious losses to date. The CO, Sqn Ldr Arthur Gowers DFC, flying JP396, was seen to go down in flames just outside the mole of the harbour, while Fg Off Gerry Rawson and Fg Off P.W.B. Timms did not return either. One of the latter was seen to bale out but Gowers was posted as missing in action. ‘Gus’ Gowers had been with the squadron since its formation and the high morale prevailing was due to his excellent leadership and example. Gerald ‘Gerry’ Rawson was later posted as missing in action, while ‘Timmy’ Timms was the one who baled out. He was picked up by the Germans and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Stalag Luft I. Fg Off Munrowd’s aircraft also took a bad flak hit in the tail and he had to nurse the Typhoon back to England where he made a perfect belly landing at RAF Warmwell. The heavy flak encountered, together with the general melee, had split up the squadron and aircraft landed back at various airfields: Warmwell, Ibsley and Tarrant Rushton. It took the whole of the next day to get them all back to Predannack.

Walter Dring had come a long way in a short time and on 25 October he found himself promoted to acting squadron leader and placed in charge of No 183 – the best choice according to all the pilots.

After the recent losses it was vital that Walter should get the squadron focused squarely on the job in hand so, on 26 October, he scheduled a full squadron formation practice during the morning and a dive-bombing attack on Poulmic/Lanveoc seaplane base, on the south side of the Brest estuary, that afternoon. With Walter leading, take-off was at 13.45 and course was set from the Lizard. The formation of eight Bombphoons skimmed the waves for twenty minutes, then climbed to 13,000ft to cross the French coast at Cameret-sur-Mer, west of Crozon, a few miles from the target. Flying across the target in echelon, they each peeled off and dived to 5,000ft, released their bombs and zoomed back up to 8,000ft to reform. Thirteen bombs were seen to explode around the hangars, mess buildings and workshops, with dust and debris rising to 1,000ft. Flak was heavy and pretty accurate for the height but fortunately no one was hit. Walter led the squadron away from the Brest defences and on the way out, swept the area Sizun-Landerneau-Landivisiau searching for enemy aircraft. None was seen and all aircraft returned to Predannack at 15.15.

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Typhoon squadron commanders were constantly reviewing their techniques for carrying out these ground attack sorties. Some months earlier, the optimum size for a Typhoon formation was found to be eight aircraft. Current practice for dive-bombing attacks, such as the one mentioned above, was to do a maximum-rate ‘battle-climb’ – at around 185mph – from ‘the deck’ to the planned attack altitude of around 12–13,000ft. Sqn Ldr Dring would then order his aircraft into echelon – he preferred port echelon but it depended on circumstances – and with each pilot knowing his position in the line it was imperative – and expected – that this manoeuvre would be carried out slickly and quickly while the CO kept his eye on the target. As the formation changed to echelon the order was also given to arm the bombs. Walter would watch the target position change until it passed beneath his starboard wing, then call: ‘Target 3 o’clock below, diving now!’ Moving the control column firmly to the right and back, right rudder on, with about 130° bank his Typhoon went down in an almost vertical attack dive, nose pointing at the target – and everyone followed him at one-second intervals. Those with the hardest job were the pilots in the positions furthest from the formation leader, as the target went well past them by the time it was the last one’s turn to wing-over – and any flak gunners had had good practice on those going down before him! The 7-ton Typhoon built up speed rapidly and could exceed 400mph by the time the bomb release altitude, at say 4,000ft, was reached. Bringing the nose of the aircraft on to the aiming point, the pilot pressed the bomb release button on the end of the throttle lever and pulled back on the control column to get out of the dive and climb back up to rejoin the formation at the designated altitude. It was at this point that, depending on the severity of the pull-out, the G-force exerted enormous pressure on the pilot. On these operations it was quite normal for the more experienced pilots to pull as much ‘G’ as they could stand, often holding their breath and pulling in their stomach muscles tightly to keep the blood in their upper half, teetering on the edge of or just losing their vision, but not their consciousness, in order to regain height and get out of the worst of the flak as quickly as possible. The Typhoon was tough enough to take more G-force than its pilots could handle.

Always concerned for his pilots’ welfare and ensuring they were rested and did not do every ‘show’, Walter Dring pushed himself hard, personally leading most of the difficult operations carried out by No 183 Squadron. On 28 October, eight aircraft led by Walter flew to RAF Warmwell to mount another attack on Nos 5 and 6 dry docks at Cherbourg, where the 6,000-ton ship, attacked previously, was reported to be berthed. This operation was to coincide with attacks by Whirlwind and Boston bombers, and the Typhoons, armed with two 500lb GP bombs, were to bomb five minutes after the Whirlwinds. Take-off from Warmwell was at 14.30. Standard dive-bombing procedure was carried out from 12,000ft, with bomb release at 7,000ft, but with heavy flak coming up, no direct hits on the ship were observed. On the next day, the 29th, Dring led eight Bombphoons across the Channel, this time to hit Brest/Guipavas aerodrome with two 500lb bombs each.

A big operation was mounted on 2 November with Walter leading a formation of ten aircraft – six Bombphoons and four fighters for flak suppression – on a shipping strike to Ushant. Here, flying at about 250ft between the island and the mainland, and 5 miles west of Camaret, they sighted two merchant vessels of 2,000 tons and 800 tons, steaming westwards in line astern. Walter ordered the anti-flak fighters to attack the larger vessel, while he split up the bombers into two groups to make runs on both ships simultaneously. The bombing runs were made at wave-top height, aiming the aircraft directly at the ship’s side, and all aircraft were met with a hail of 20mm flak fired at them from both ships. With tracer zipping almost like a funnel towards each attacker, the judgement of when to hit the release button or pull up to clear the masts and superstructure was far from easy. Walter led the way in and then circled while the rest made their runs. Someone must have judged it right because the larger ship was seen on fire and possibly sinking, while the smaller one was enveloped in smoke. However, JP184 flown by Fg Off Allan Palmer was hit by flak. Palmer’s wingman saw the aircraft pull up to about 200ft, then the port wing dropped and it crashed into the sea. Palmer’s body was not recovered.

Photo portrait of Sqn Ldr Walter Dring DFC when CO of No 183 Squadron, 1944. (John & Susan Rowe, Dring Collection)

On 5 November Walter Dring was in JP136 leading a dive-bombing attack on Poulmic airfield near Brest. Armed with two 500lb bombs each, his eight aircraft flew at low level towards the French coast but when they were about to climb to altitude they entered 10/10ths cloud at 2,000ft with the top at 4,500ft. Walter decided it was impossible to bomb at that level and aborted the show. Bomb-arming switches were turned off and the bombs released into the sea but Plt Off Arthur Napier, flying as No 3 in the leading flight, nearly went the same way as the bombs. He was flying so close to the surface of the sea that his prop blades hit the water and he was engulfed by a cloud of spray. He managed to stay airborne and landed at Predannack with bent prop-tips, damaged bomb racks and loads of vibration.

Having been flying almost constantly up to this point Walter decided it was time to let someone else lead some operations for a change. In Flt Lt Allan McAdam AFC, Walter had a worthy deputy who could be relied upon to lead the squadron in an equally aggressive way. Walter returned to the fray on 21 November in JP128, leading eight Bombphoons and two anti-flak fighters on an unproductive armed shipping recco to the Ushant area.

It seems likely during the short period Walter was not flying ops that he was away getting the latest information about the use of rocket-powered projectiles (RPs) for the Typhoon. The standard RP eventually used by Typhoons consisted of a metal warhead, 6in in diameter, filled with high explosive weighing 60lb, fitted to one end of a 3in metal tube packed with cordite propellant that was fired by an electrical circuit. Around the rear or exhaust end of the tube were four small stabilising fins. When ignited electrically, the cordite burned to produce a jet of rapidly expanding gas that forced the projectile to slide off its rail at ever-increasing speed through the air, until all the propellant was burned up. The Typhoon was fitted with four rails under each wing to carry the RPs, one per rail. Being propelled by a rocket, the force of impact was greater than that achieved by a conventional bomb. The rocket principle also caused no recoil effect on the aeroplane and together with its four 20mm cannon, an RP-equipped Typhoon represented a highly manoeuvrable and potent aerial artillery platform. It took some skill to aim the projectiles properly. The cockpit reflector sight had two settings, one of which allowed for the RPs to be positioned lower than the guns, but the pilot also had to make allowance for trajectory drop after firing.

No 183 Squadron had its first opportunity to try out this new weapon on 22 November 1943 when Walter Dring, flying RP-armed JP136, led ten aircraft on an armed shipping recco sortie to the area of Pointe du Raz. Plt Off Harbutt was in the only other RP-armed Typhoon, JP213, while the remaining eight acted as fighter cover. The crossing to Ushant was made down on the deck and the formation turned east, soon coming across a juicy target. One mile west of Cap de la Chevre, a 4,000-ton vessel was sighted sailing south-south-west escorted by no fewer than seven minesweepers. With visibility deteriorating, 7/10ths cloud at 1,000ft lowering to 600ft and with frequent heavy rain, Walter ordered the fighters to circle out of range while he and Harbutt each dived at the merchant ship firing all their RPs in a single pass. During the dives, flak of all calibres came up at them from every vessel, but probably because the Typhoons had come upon the convoy so rapidly, its gunners were out of luck and the two Typhoons escaped unscathed. Equally, no RP hits were seen either and the Typhoons disappeared into the murk heading for home.

Keen to get the hang of the RPs, Sqn Ldr Dring went out at 08.15 the next morning to the same area off Ushant, leading eight Typhoons in JP209. Two Typhoons were armed with RPs – one of which was Walter’s – while the rest acted as anti-flak cover. Turning towards the French coast, two ships of about 4,000 tons each were sighted. These looked like flak-ships and when intense gunfire started to come up, this was quickly confirmed. Everything from multiple pom-poms, 20mm and even 3.7in shells made the attack a dangerous enterprise, but flanked by fighters making cannon-strafe passes, the two RP aircraft fired their projectiles and everyone emerged unharmed. Neither was any damage done to the flak-ships. An attempt was made to repeat this scenario during the afternoon of the next day, with Walter leading a formation of four Bombphoons and six anti-flak fighters into the Goulet. However, the weather was poor, the sea very rough and there was nothing doing this time, so the formation returned, minus bombs, to base.